The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America

The essays in this Handbook, written by leading scholars working in the rapidly developing field of witchcraft studies, explore the historical literature regarding witch beliefs and witch trials in Europe and colonial America between the early fifteenth and early eighteenth centuries. During these years witches were thought to be evil people who used magical power to inflict physical harm or misfortune on their neighbours. Witches were also believed to have made pacts with the devil and sometimes to have worshipped him at nocturnal assemblies known as sabbaths. These beliefs provided the basis for defining witchcraft as a secular and ecclesiastical crime and prosecuting tens of thousands of women and men for this offence. The trials resulted in as many as fifty thousand executions. These essays study the rise and fall of witchcraft prosecutions in the various kingdoms and territories of Europe and in English, Spanish, and Portuguese colonies in the Americas. They also relate these prosecutions to the Catholic and Protestant reformations, the introduction of new forms of criminal procedure, medical and scientific thought, the process of state-building, profound social and economic change, early modern patterns of gender relations, and the wave of demonic possessions that occurred in Europe at the same time. The essays survey the current state of knowledge in the field, explore the academic controversies that have arisen regarding witch beliefs and witch trials, propose new ways of studying the subject, and identify areas for future research.Introduction ; PART I: WITCH BELIEFS ; 1. Magic and its Hazards in the Late Medieval West ; 2. Fifteenth-Century Witch Beliefs ; 3. Popular Witch Beliefs and Magical Practices ; 4. Demonologies ; 5. Sabbath Stories: Towards a New History of Witches' Assemblies ; 6. The Sceptical Tradition ; 7. Witchcraft in Early Modern Literature ; 8. Images of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe ; PART II: WITCHCRAFT PROSECUTIONS ; 9. The First Wave of Trials for Diabolical Witchcraft ; 10. The German Witch Trials ; 11. Witchcraft and the Local Communities: The Rhine-Moselle Region ; 12. Witchcraft Trials in France ; 13. Witchcraft and Wealth: The Case of the Netherlands ; 14. Witchcraft Prosecutions in Italy ; 15. Witchcraft in Iberia ; 16. Witchcraft Trials in England ; 17. Witchcraft in Scotland ; 18. Witchcraft in Poland: Milk and Malefice ; 19. Witch-Hunting in Early Modern Hungary ; 20. Witchcraft Trials in Russia: History and Historiography ; 21. Witchcraft Criminality and Witchcraft Research in the Nordic Countries ; 22. Witchcraft in British America ; 23. Merging Magical Traditions: Sorcery and Witchcraft in Spanish and Portuguese America ; 24. The Decline and End of Witchcraft Prosecutions ; PART III: THEMES OF WITCHCRAFT RESEARCH ; 25. Witchcraft and Gender in Early Modern Europe ; 26. Witchcraft and the Law ; 27. Sixteenth-Century Religious Reform and the Witch-Hunts ; 28. On the Neuropsychological Origins of Witchcraft Cognition: the Geographic and Economic Variable ; 29. Politics, Sate Building, and Witch-Hunting ; 30. Science and Witchcraft ; 31. Medicine and Witchcraft ; 32. Demonic Possession, Exorcism, and Witchcraft