ABSTRACT

Though it is clearly an exceptionally important part of popular culture, witchcraft has generated a variety of often contradictory interpretations, starting from widely differing premises about the nature of witchcraft, its social role and the importance of higher theology as well as more popular beliefs. This work offers a conspectus of historical work on witchcraft in Europe, and shows how many trends converged to form the figure of the witch, and varied from one part of Europe to another.

chapter |4 pages

Introduction

chapter |14 pages

Fact and Fantasy

An Overview

chapter |13 pages

Shaping the Image

The Malleus Tradition and its Critics

chapter |15 pages

Magic and Maleficium

chapter |17 pages

Gender, Sex and Misogyny: I

chapter |17 pages

Ideology and Authority

The Establishment and Witch Hunting

chapter |15 pages

The Law, Torture and Trial