Laws that made witchcraft
90 minTrace how statutes and courts turned disputed beliefs into punishable offences.
Trials, Testimony and Power
Reconstruct how witchcraft cases were built, circulated, challenged and eventually prosecuted less often.
Study requirement: complete Foundations of Witchcraft and Folk Magic before this level opens. You may purchase it in advance or choose the complete pathway.
The syllabus.
Six 90-minute guided modules account for approximately nine hours. Source work, the field notebook capstone, revision and final assessment add approximately three hours.
Neighbourhood accusation
90 minReconstruct the disputes, obligations and reputations behind many local cases.
Confession, coercion and the script of demonology
90 minUnderstand how interrogation could produce elaborate stories that matched learned expectations.
Gender, age and vulnerable lives
90 minAnalyse patterns of accusation without turning them into a universal formula.
Print, rumour and the travelling witch
90 minFollow motifs as pamphlets, sermons and oral report moved cases beyond their locality.
Decline, scepticism and legal change
90 minExplain falling prosecutions through evidence rules, institutions and changing plausibility.
Timed project route
Three-hour capstone studio
Turn the six notebook checkpoints into a coherent intermediate-level inquiry. The result should demonstrate how to compare methods, variants and institutions while making uncertainty explicit, not merely repeat lesson summaries.
- 01Frame and plan20 min
Rewrite the capstone as one bounded research question. List the six notebook components you will reuse, identify the intended audience and state what the finished work will not claim.
- 02Audit the evidence40 min
Select at least four authoritative public resources and build a citation ledger. For every source, record the item or page, institution, date, access date, direct evidence, interpretive use and one limitation.
- 03Build the synthesis55 min
Draft the required exhibition, dossier, protocol, atlas or case study. Connect each claim to a source or notebook observation, preserve local terminology and keep observation separate from interpretation.
- 04Challenge the argument30 min
Write the strongest reasonable rival interpretation. Test it against the same evidence, retain one unresolved disagreement and revise any sentence that carries more certainty than its source.
- 05Edit and document25 min
Finish the 200-word evidence-limit statement, standardise citations, add useful headings and check that a reader can distinguish fact, historical claim, interpretation and reflection without assistance.
- 06Revise for assessment10 min
Review the six module explanations and your corrected knowledge checks. Note three reasoning rules you will apply in the final assessment and one area that requires another source check.
Completion checklist
- A bounded question and clearly identified audience
- Evidence from all six notebook checkpoints
- At least four complete public-source citations
- A rival interpretation and unresolved disagreement
- A 200-word evidence-limit statement
- A conclusion that respects this pathway boundary: a confession or indictment proves that words entered a legal process; it does not transparently report an event or private belief
Research foundations.
Lessons are independently written and source-led. These starting collections support the pathway; individual modules explain interpretation limits.
Charms in the Wellcome Collection
British Library collections relating to magic and witchcraft
One-off access
Trials, Testimony and Power
No subscription. Unlimited revision-led assessment retakes.