Pagans

30,000-10,000 BC
Upper Palaeolithic

Earliest evidence of burials and ritual activity

Small items of portable art appear, possibly relating to early religious practice

3,500-2,000 BC
Neolithic
2,000–600 BC
Bronze Age

Monuments built for burial, boundary marking and measuring time

A plethora of gods, beliefs and rituals. Recorded for history by Julius Caesar in his Conquest of Gaul 58-50 BC, where he also writes about the Druids

Many native practices and beliefs become Romanised and incorporated into Roman religion. Christianity also becomes popular around the late 3rd century

Resurgence of pagan beliefs, including Norse gods, described in traditional tales or sagas

Christianity becomes the dominant religion in Britain

The recording of the Canon Episcopi documenting occurrences of witchcraft

Joan of Arc burned at the stake for heresy amid other accusations that she is a sorceress and witch

Pope Innocent VIII unleashes the Inquisition against heresy and witchcraft

German monks, Jacob Sprenger and Heinrich Cramer, publish the Malleus Maleficarum, which provides detailed instructions for the prosecution of witches

Henry VIII’s Parliament passes laws against the practice of witchcraft

Under the reign of Elizabeth I, the death penalty is introduced for following the ancient religion

Birth of John Toland who later becomes the first Chosen Chief of the Ancient Druid Order and coins the term ‘pantheism’ for worshiping multiple gods

The infamous witch trials take place in Salem, Massachusetts, USA. Nineteen men and women are hanged for witchcraft, one is crushed and a further 17 die in prison

Druid Circle of the Universal Bond founded by John Toland

Madame Helena Blavatsky establishes the Theosophical Society, heralding the New Age way of thinking

Birth of Gerald Brosseau Gardner, who is to develop the Wicca religion

New interest in a romanticised version of paganism

Anti-witchcraft laws are repealed in the UK

Gerald Brosseau Gardner publishes Witchcraft Today and sparks the new religion of Wicca