Why did witchcraft prosecutions decline in the later seventeenth century?

Résumé du document

I have remained in the shape of a horse until the witch removed the bridle from me, and then I saw thirteen women and a tall black man whom the women called their Protector. The others danced in the shapes of hares, cats and mice, and I sang and was then bridled again and ridden home' could be an ordinary testimony about witchcraft in the sixteenth-century England. However reactions to such kinds of statements and to witchcraft has changed. After centuries of prosecutions of alleged witches supported for instance by the 1542 Statute, the prosecutions declined in the later seventeenth century. What was the cause of such a decline? First, was the alteration of the relations between the judicial system and witchcraft, with the growth of judicial scepticism; then an intellectual and scientific revolution occurred during the seventeenth century, thus people, namely the élite, saw witchcraft in a new light. All Christian countries whatsoever have consented in the belief of them and provided capital laws against them: in consequence of which, many hundreds of both sexes have suffered cruel death, and now, the belief in witches is now utterly extinct, and buried. Was this statement true at the level of the common people or did they continue to view witchcraft as the explanation for their day-to-day problems?

Extraits

[...] Sharpe, Instruments of Darkness: Witchcraft in Early Modern England, London p.260 Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan: or, the Matter, Forme and Power of a Commonwealth ecclesiasticall and civill, Oxford Alan Macfarlane, Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England, London p Alan Macfarlane, Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England, London p.205 Richard Mead, Media Sacra: or, a Commentary on the most remarkable Diseases mentioned in the Holy Scriptures, London pp. xi-xv A Tryal of Witches at the Assizes held at Bury St Edmunds for the County of Suffolk on the tenth day of March 1664 before Sir Matthew Hale Kt then Lord Chief Baron of his Majesties Court of Exchequer. Taken by a Person then attending the Court, London pp.55-6 J. A. [...]

[...] One of the main reasons for the decline of witchcraft prosecutions in the later seventeenth century was the change in the legal treatment of witchcraft, i.e. the laws - like the repeal of the Witchcraft Act in 1736 - and the court procedure. From that period, insufficiency of evidences prevented a judge from sentencing an alleged witch to death. By the Reformation, less and less witches were convicted because of the growth of judicial scepticism as the Western Circuit assize records showed, as early as the 1670s, even if indictments for witchcraft were still being brought to court, few suspected witches were executed. [...]

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[...] Sharpe, Instruments of Darkness: Witchcraft in Early Modern England, London p.282 H. E. [...]

[...] Sharpe, Instruments of Darkness: Witchcraft in Early Modern England, London p.233 J. A. Sharpe, Instruments of Darkness: Witchcraft in Early Modern England, London p.275 J. A. Sharpe, Instruments of Darkness: Witchcraft in Early Modern England, London p.240 J. A. Sharpe, Instruments of Darkness: Witchcraft in Early Modern England, London p.247 Alan Macfarlane The Diary of Ralph Josselin 1616-1683, British Academy Records of Social end Economic History, New Series pp John Gaule, Select Cases of Conscience touching Witches and Witchcrafts, London pp J. [...]