Russian philologist, historian, teacher N.V. Speransky (1861-1921) explored the origins of the education system, which was one of the important factors that shaped European civilization, going back to the Middle Ages. He published a number of works on the history of the European school; the main ones are: “Essays on the history of public schools in Western Europe” (1898), “Essay on the history of secondary schools in Germany” (1898), but the book “Witches and Witchcraft” (1906) became widely known. He managed to attract a huge amount of factual material based on oral traditions, demonological writings, treatises on magic and the occult, documents of the Inquisition, and legislation. It shows how popular and church ideas about witches and their “master” Satan were formed and developed during the church’s struggle against the heretical movements of medieval Europe. The book examines the search for and persecution of witches by European society and the church in the 15th-17th centuries, which took the form of mass social hysteria. Based on oral traditions, writings on magic, demonology and the occult, and documents from the Inquisition, the author comes to the conclusion that only the efforts of secular authorities to reduce witchcraft processes and the spread of education were able to turn the tide and overcome the fear of otherworldly forces.