Witchcraft Act 1604
E347701
The Witchcraft Act 1604 was an English law under King James I that strengthened penalties for witchcraft and reflected contemporary fears of sorcery and demonic practices.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Witchcraft Act 1604 canonical | 3 |
| An Act against Conjuration, Witchcraft and dealing with evil and wicked spirits | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T3304199 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Witchcraft Act 1604 Context triple: [Daemonologie, influenced, Witchcraft Act 1604]
-
A.
Pendle witch trials
The Pendle witch trials were a series of notorious early 17th-century English witchcraft prosecutions in Lancashire that led to multiple executions and became some of the most famous witch trials in British history.
-
B.
Statute of Treasons 1351
The Statute of Treasons 1351 is a foundational English law that formally defined and limited the crime of treason, shaping the legal understanding of treason in England and later common law jurisdictions for centuries.
-
C.
Trial of the Sixteen
The Trial of the Sixteen was a 1936 Soviet show trial in Moscow in which prominent Old Bolsheviks were accused of treason and summarily condemned, marking a key early stage of Stalin’s Great Purge.
-
D.
Statute of Mortmain
The Statute of Mortmain was a medieval English law aimed at restricting the transfer of land into the perpetual ownership of the Church and other religious corporations, thereby protecting feudal lords’ rights and revenues.
-
E.
Act in Restraint of Appeals 1533
The Act in Restraint of Appeals 1533 was a key English Reformation statute that ended legal appeals to the Pope in Rome, asserting the king’s supremacy over the Church in England.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Witchcraft Act 1604 Target entity description: The Witchcraft Act 1604 was an English law under King James I that strengthened penalties for witchcraft and reflected contemporary fears of sorcery and demonic practices.
-
A.
Pendle witch trials
The Pendle witch trials were a series of notorious early 17th-century English witchcraft prosecutions in Lancashire that led to multiple executions and became some of the most famous witch trials in British history.
-
B.
Statute of Treasons 1351
The Statute of Treasons 1351 is a foundational English law that formally defined and limited the crime of treason, shaping the legal understanding of treason in England and later common law jurisdictions for centuries.
-
C.
Trial of the Sixteen
The Trial of the Sixteen was a 1936 Soviet show trial in Moscow in which prominent Old Bolsheviks were accused of treason and summarily condemned, marking a key early stage of Stalin’s Great Purge.
-
D.
Statute of Mortmain
The Statute of Mortmain was a medieval English law aimed at restricting the transfer of land into the perpetual ownership of the Church and other religious corporations, thereby protecting feudal lords’ rights and revenues.
-
E.
Act in Restraint of Appeals 1533
The Act in Restraint of Appeals 1533 was a key English Reformation statute that ended legal appeals to the Pope in Rome, asserting the king’s supremacy over the Church in England.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (40)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Act of Parliament of England
ⓘ
witchcraft law ⓘ |
| aimedAt | punishing alleged witches more severely ⓘ |
| appliesTo | subjects of the English crown ⓘ |
| associatedWith | James VI and I’s interest in demonology ⓘ |
| country | Kingdom of England ⓘ |
| era | early 17th century ⓘ |
| followedBy | Witchcraft Act 1735 ⓘ |
| hasCategory |
1604 in law
ⓘ
James VI and I ⓘ
surface form:
James I of England
Witch trials in England ⓘ |
| hasEffectOn | English criminal law on witchcraft ⓘ |
| historicalContext | early modern witch hunts in England ⓘ |
| inspiredBy | contemporary fears of sorcery and demonic practices ⓘ |
| jurisdiction |
England
ⓘ
Wales ⓘ |
| languageOfWork | Early Modern English ⓘ |
| legalArea | criminal law ⓘ |
| legalPenalty |
death penalty for certain offences
ⓘ
imprisonment for lesser offences ⓘ |
| legalStatus | repealed ⓘ |
| legislativeBody | Parliament of England ⓘ |
| monarchAtEnactment |
James VI and I
ⓘ
surface form:
James I of England
|
| partOf | English witchcraft legislation ⓘ |
| placeOfOrigin | England ⓘ |
| repealedBy | Witchcraft Act 1735 ⓘ |
| repealReason | changing attitudes toward witchcraft ⓘ |
| replaced | Witchcraft Act 1563 ⓘ |
| shortName | Witchcraft Act 1604 self-link ⓘ |
| startTime | 1604 ⓘ |
| strengthened | penalties for witchcraft compared to 1563 Act ⓘ |
| subjectMatter |
conjuration
ⓘ
dealing with evil spirits ⓘ sorcery ⓘ witchcraft ⓘ |
| timePeriod | Stuart England ⓘ |
| title |
Witchcraft Act 1604
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
An Act against Conjuration, Witchcraft and dealing with evil and wicked spirits
|
| typeOfCrimeDefined |
capital felony for invoking evil spirits causing death
ⓘ
felony for covenanting with evil spirits ⓘ |
| yearEnacted | 1604 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Witchcraft Act 1604 Description of subject: The Witchcraft Act 1604 was an English law under King James I that strengthened penalties for witchcraft and reflected contemporary fears of sorcery and demonic practices.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
An Act against Conjuration, Witchcraft and dealing with evil and wicked spirits