Witch Quiz
Questions: 16 · 10 minutes
1. In many modern Wiccan and Pagan traditions, the Wheel of the Year is commonly organized around how many seasonal festivals, or sabbats?
Four
Six
Eight
Twelve
2. A researcher compares witchcraft accusations from two towns and finds different patterns. What is the best next step?
Assume one town’s records are false because genuine witch trials followed a single pattern.
Combine both sets of records and ignore differences in place and date.
Examine each town’s legal system, religious tensions, local conflicts, and record-keeping practices.
Use later fictional accounts to decide which town’s pattern was typical.
3. What was the main historical purpose of the “Malleus Maleficarum,” first published in the late 15th century?
To argue for methods of identifying and prosecuting alleged witchcraft
To record village remedies and agricultural customs
To defend accused people against the use of torture
To establish the festivals of modern Wicca
4. A pendant shows a five-pointed star enclosed by a circle. Which term most precisely describes the complete symbol?
Solar cross
Triskelion
Ankh
Pentacle
5. In many early modern European sources, what did the Latin term “maleficium” mean?
A seasonal religious festival
A protective charm worn on the body
Harmful magic or sorcery
A formal agreement between healers
6. A historian finds a sensational pamphlet and an official court record describing the same witchcraft case differently. How should the sources be handled?
Accept the court record as perfectly neutral because it is official.
Compare their authorship, purpose, audience, timing, and claims with other available evidence.
Discard both because disagreement makes historical study impossible.
Accept the pamphlet because a public audience would have corrected errors.
7. An archaeologist finds an old shoe deliberately concealed inside the wall of a historic house. Which interpretation is most consistent with a common scholarly explanation for such finds?
It may have been placed there as protective, or apotropaic, magic.
It proved that a shoemaker had owned the building.
It marked the home as a meeting place for a formal coven.
It was a standard legal notice that the property had been confiscated.
8. A social media post recommends drinking a plant mixture because it appears in old magical folklore. What is the soundest conclusion?
A remedy recorded before modern medicine is generally safe at traditional doses.
Historical use does not establish safety or effectiveness, so reliable health guidance is still needed.
Calling a mixture magical means its ingredients cannot have physical effects.
Folklore is sufficient evidence if several online sources repeat the same claim.
9. A historical account describes local “cunning folk.” What services were these practitioners commonly associated with in Britain and parts of Europe?
Offering services such as healing, divination, protection, or finding lost property
Writing theological arguments against all folk customs
Serving exclusively as midwives appointed by the state
Leading official witch-trial courts
10. Which statement best distinguishes Wicca from witchcraft?
Wicca refers only to ceremonial magic, while witchcraft refers only to folk healing.
Wicca is the historical legal term for witchcraft used during European trials.
Witchcraft is a branch of Wicca, so every person who practices it is Wiccan.
Wicca is a modern Pagan religion, while witchcraft is a broader category of practices found in varied cultures and traditions.
11. Someone claims that only women were accused in historical European and colonial witch trials. Which response best fits the surviving evidence?
The claim is correct because laws formally excluded men from accusation.
The sex of accused people was almost never recorded in trial documents.
Men formed the majority everywhere, although later fiction reversed the pattern.
Women formed the majority in many regions, but men were also accused and executed.
12. A museum label describes a human-shaped poppet found among ritual objects. Which conclusion is the most historically responsible?
Every poppet was created to cause illness to a named victim.
Poppets were toys and never had a ritual purpose.
Its meaning depends on context because such figures could be connected with healing, protection, influence, or harm.
The object must come from modern Wicca rather than an earlier tradition.
13. The events commonly called the Salem witch trials took place in which region?
Colonial Virginia
The French colony of Louisiana
The Dutch colony of New Netherland
Colonial Massachusetts
14. During a trial, a witness claims that the accused person’s spirit appeared and attacked them, although no one else saw it. What kind of evidence is this?
Material evidence
Spectral evidence
Character evidence
Alchemical evidence
15. In Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” what collective name is used for the three prophetic witches?
The Fates of Birnam
The Weird Sisters
The Daughters of Hecate
The Sisters of Inverness
16. In European witch-trial folklore, what was a “familiar”?
A spirit believed to assist a witch, sometimes appearing as an animal
A book containing a practitioner’s rituals
A relative believed to have inherited magical skill
A judge who had handled several witchcraft cases