The suppression of witchcraft was renewed after the reformation. The puritan fervour
of the establishment at the time of James I saw superstition and the 'old religion'
everywhere and wanted it rooted out. Folk customs / herbal remedies were all seen
as part of the old religion and hence a threat to the new order, so this was all labelled
sorcery and evil along with Popery/Catholicism.
The concentration of witch trials in Lancashire is interesting as this is the most catholic
part of England today. Being to the west, then it was similarly a 'wild' region as notably
the puritan stronghold was in the east and the south. This is because the west then, as now,
has the influx of the Irish.
These great persecutions had their high points under James I and Oliver Cromwell, both
raised Calvinists. Of course Cromwell famously took his fight against the irrational
into Ireland and is remembered evermore at Drogheda.
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