The Witchcraft Reader

The Witchcraft Reader offers a wide range of historical perspectives on the subject of witchcraft in a single, accessible volume, exploring the enduring hold that it has on human imagination. The witch trials of the late Middle Ages and the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries have inspired a huge and expanding scholarly literature, as well as an outpouring of popular representations. This fully revised and enlarged third edition brings together many of the best and most important works in the field. It explores the origins of witchcraft prosecutions in learned and popular culture, fears of an imaginary witch cult, the role of religious division and ideas about the Devil, the gendering of suspects, the making of confessions and the decline of witch beliefs. An expanded final section explores the various "revivals" and images of witchcraft that continue to flourish in contemporary Western culture. Equipped with an extensive introduction that foregrounds significant debates and themes in the study of witchcraft, providing the extracts with a critical context, The Witchcraft Reader is essential reading for anyone with an interest in this fascinating subject.

General introduction PART ONE Medieval origins 1 Richard Kieckhefer WITCH TRIALS IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE (1976) 2 Norman Cohn THE DEMONISATION OF MEDIEVAL HERETICS (1975) 3 Michael D. Bailey WITCHCRAFT AND REFORM IN THE LATE MIDDLE AGES (2003) 4 Hans Peter Broedel THE MALLEUS MALEFICARUM AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF WITCHCRAFT (2003) 5 Charles Zika ULRICH MOLITOR AND THE IMAGERY OF WITCHCRAFT (2007) PART TWO Witchcraft, magic and fear 6 Robin Briggs THE EXPERIENCE OF BEWITCHMENT (2002) 7 Euan Cameron SPIRITS IN POPULAR BELIEF (2010) 8 Joyce Miller WITCHES AND CHARMERS IN SCOTLAND (2002) 9 Edward Bever THE MEDICAL EFFECTS OF WITCHCRAFT IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE (2000) 10 Wolfgang Behringer WEATHER, HUNGER AND FEAR: ORIGINS OF THE EUROPEAN WITCH- HUNTS IN CLIMATE, SOCIETY AND MENTALITY (1995) PART THREE The idea of a witch cult 11 Jacqueline Simpson MARGARET MURRAY’S WITCH CULT (1994) 12 H. C. Erik Midelfort HEARTLAND OF THE WITCHCRAZE (1981) 13 Gustav Henningsen FROM DREAM CULT TO WITCHES’ SABBATH (1993) 14 É va P ó cs THE ALTERNATIVE WORLD OF THE WITCHES’ SABBAT (1993) 15 Stuart Clark INVERSION, MISRULE AND THE MEANING OF WITCHCRAFT (1980) PART FOUR Witchcraft and the Reformation 16 Stuart Clark PROTESTANT WITCHCRAFT, CATHOLIC WITCHCRAFT (1997) 17 Alison Rowlands A LUTHERAN RESPONSE TO WITCHCRAFT AND MAGIC (1996) 18 Gary K. Waite ANABAPTISTS AND THE DEVIL (1999) PART FIVE Witchcraft and authority 19 Gerhild Scholz Williams PIERRE DE LANCRE AND THE BASQUE WITCH- HUNT (1999) 20 Brian P. Levack STATE- BUILDING AND WITCH HUNTING IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE (1996) 21 William Monter WITCHCRAFT, CONFESSIONALISM AND AUTHORITY (2002) PART SIX Witchcraft, possession and the Devil 22 H. C. Erik Midelfort THE DEVIL AND THE GERMAN PEOPLE (1989) 23 Charlotte- Rose Millar THE DEVIL AND FAMILIAR SPIRITS IN ENGLISH WITCHCRAFT (2017) 24 Kathleen Sands THE SOCIAL MEANINGS OF DEMONIC POSSESSION (2004) 25 Sarah Ferber ECSTASY, POSSESSION, WITCHCRAFT (2004) 26 Elisa Slattery JOHANN WEYER AND THE DEVIL (1994) PART SEVEN Witchcraft and gender 27 Karen Jones and Michael Zell WOMEN AND WITCHCRAFT BEFORE THE “GREAT WITCH- HUNT” (2005) 28 Jane P. Davidson THE MYTH OF THE PERSECUTED FEMALE HEALER (1993) 29 Elizabeth Reis DAMNED WOMEN IN PURITAN NEW ENGLAND (1997) 30 Clive Holmes WOMEN, WITNESSES AND WITCHES (1993) 31 E. J. Kent MASCULINITY AND MALE WITCHES IN OLD AND NEW ENGLAND (2005) PART EIGHT Reading confessions 32 Virginia Krause WITCHCRAFT CONFESSIONS AND DEMONOLOGY (2005) 33 Louise Jackson WITCHES, WIVES AND MOTHERS (1995) 34 Lyndal Roper OEDIPUS AND THE DEVIL (1994) PART NINE The decline of witchcraft 375 35 Brian P. Levack THE DECLINE OF WITCHCRAFT PROSECUTIONS (1999) 36 Marion Gibson THE DECLINE OF THE WITCHCRAFT PAMPHLET (1999) 37 Owen Davies URBANIZATION AND THE DECLINE OF WITCHCRAFT: AN EXAMINATION OF LONDON (1997) 38 Marijke Gijswijt- Hofsra WITCHCRAFT AFTER THE WITCH TRIALS (1999) PART TEN Witchcraft today 39 Diane Purkiss MODERN WITCHES AND THEIR PAST (1996) 40 Ethan Doyle White WICCA AS WITCHCRAFT (2016) 41 Jean La Fontaine WITCHCRAFT AND SATANIC ABUSE (1998) 42 Marion Gibson HARRY POTTER IN AMERICA (2007) 43 Julian Goodare MODERN WESTERN IMAGES OF WITCHES (2016) Index

Darren Oldridge is Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Worcester. He has written extensively on religion and belief in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. His most recent publications include The Supernatural in Tudor and Stuart England (2016) and Strange Histories: The Trial of the Pig, the Walking Dead, andOther Matters of Fact from the Medieval and Renaissance Worlds(2nd edn, 2018).