What year and century did spells and witch craft begin?
Depends on what you are calling ‘spells’ and ‘witch craft’. The use of magick in the form of rites and ceremonies to call the herds for the hunters, to help heal the sick, to bring prosperity to the tribe, to ask for good crops, etc. is as old as human kind. When we first began to realize there were Powers greater than us in this world, we began to figure out ways to ask those forces for help or to appease them if they seemed angry. It is from those ancient rites, rituals, ceremonies, etc. that the more modern spell craft (which includes witch craft – witchcraft simply meaning craft of the wise or knowledge of the wise) originates. This includes everything from simple kitchen witchery to high ceremonial magick spells and incantations, etc. No one has a true date for this, but think back thousands upon thousands of years.
Early man used a form of magic/magick for attracting animals for hunting. These drawings are still visible in caves. I doubt they called it witchcraft. In 420, St. Augustine argued that witchcraft was an impossibility. In 1208 Satan became sinister following Pope Innocent III’s attack on Cathar heretics. In 1273, Thomas Aquinas argues that demons exist that try to lead people into temptation. In the mid-1400s Witchcraft trials erupt in Europe. 1484 saw the rise of hysteria courtesy of Pope Innocent VIII and Malleus Maleficarum. In the early to mid-1500s the Reformation sends kill rates up. Then came 1591 and King James authorized the torture of suspected witches in Scotland. In 1640s Witch-hunting, after a major outbreak in France, begins to decrease. Finally in 1682, England executed its last witch, which leads into the 1692 Salem Witch Hunts in the US.
