A model of a nineteenth-century<unk>  woman in her house, at the Museum of Witchcraft, Boscastle in England. The<unk>  were professional or semi-professional practitioners of magic in<unk> , active from the Medieval period through the early twentieth century. As<unk> <unk> , they practised<unk>  magic – also known as "low magic" – although often combined with elements of "high" or ceremonial magic, which they learned through the study of grimoires. Primarily using spells and charms as a part of their profession, they were most commonly employed to use their magic in order to combat malevolent witchcraft, to locate criminals, missing persons or stolen property, for fortune telling, for healing, for treasure hunting and to influence people to fall in love. Belonging "to the world of popular belief and custom", the<unk> <unk> 's magic has been defined as being "concerned not with the mysteries of the universe and the empowerment of the magus as ceremonial magic usually is, so much as with practical remedies for specific problems." However, other historians have noted that in some cases, there was apparently an "experimental or 'spiritual' dimension" to their magical practices, something which was possibly shamanic in nature. Although the British<unk> <unk>  were in almost all cases Christian themselves, certain Christian theologians and Church authorities believed that, being practitioners of magic, the<unk> <unk>  were in league with the Devil and as such were akin to the more overtly Satanic and malevolent witches. Partly because of this, laws were enacted across England, Scotland and Wales that often condemned<unk> <unk>  and their magical practices, but there was no widespread persecution of them akin to the witch hunt, largely because most common people firmly distinguished between the two: witches were seen as being harmful and<unk> <unk>  as useful. The British<unk> <unk>  were known by a variety of names in different regions of the country, including wise men and wise women, pellars, wizards, dyn hysbys, and sometimes white witches. Comparable figures were found in other parts of Western Europe: in France, such terms as devins-guérisseurs and leveurs de sorts were used for them, whilst in the Netherlands they were known as toverdokters or duivelbanners, in Germany as Hexenmeisters and in Denmark as kloge<unk> . In Spain they were curanderos whilst in Portugal they were known as saludadores. It is widely agreed by historians and<unk> lorists, such as Willem de Blécourt, Robin Briggs and Owen Davies, that the term<unk> <unk> " could be applied to all of these figures as well to reflect a pan-European tradition.
Cunning folk in Britain
Blind man of Bethsaida
Learned intermediary
Rape in English law
Beauty Mark
Caduceus as a symbol of medicine
Standard person
Women in pharmacy