This is a work of fundamental importance for our understanding of the intellectual and cultural history of early modern Europe. Stuart Clark offers a new interpretation of the witchcraft beliefs of European intellectuals based on their publications in the field of demonology, and shows how these beliefs fitted rationally with many other views current in Europe between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries.
Professor Clark is the first to explore the appeal of demonology to early modern intellectuals by looking at the books they published on the subject during this period. After examining the linguistic foundations of their writings, the author shows how the writers' ideas about witchcraft (and about magic) complemented their other intellectual commitments--in particular, their conceptions of nature, history, religion, and politics. The result is much more than a history of demonology. It is a survey of wider intellectual and ideological purposes, and underlines just how far the nature of rationality is dependent on its historical context.
PART I : LANGUAGE 1. WITCHCRAFT AND LANGUAGE 2. FESTIVALS AND SABBATHS 3. DUAL CLASSIFICATION 4. CONTRARIETY 5. INVERSION ; 6. THE DEVIL, GOD'S APE 7. WITCHCRAFT AND WIT-CRAFT 8. WOMEN AND WITCHCRAFT 9. UNSTABLE MEANINGS ; PART II : SCIENCE 10. WITCHCRAFT AND SCIENCE 11. THE DEVIL IN NATURE 12. THE CAUSES OF WITCHCRAFT 13. BELIEVERS AND SCEPTICS 14. NATURAL MAGIC 15. DEMONIC MAGIC 16. PREROGATIVE INSTANCES (1) 17. PREROGATIVE INSTANCES (2) 18. THE MAGICAL POWER OF SIGNS 19. WITCHCRAFT AND THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION ; PART III: HISTORY 20. WITCHCRAFT AND HISTORY 21. POSTREMUS FUROR SATANAE 22. ESCHATOLOGY 23. THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE ANTICHRIST 24. THE WITCH AS PORTENT 25. WITCH-CLEANSING 26. UNDERSTANDING POSSESSION 27. POSSESSION, EXORCISM, AND HISTORY ; 28. BEFORE LOUDUN ; PART IV: RELIGION 29. WITCHCRAFT AND RELIGION 30. CASES OF CONSCIENCE 31. POPULAR MAGIC 32. SUPERSTITION 33. REFORMATION ; 34. ACCULTURATION BY TEXT 35. PROTESTANT WITCHCRAFT, CATHOLIC WITCHCRAFT ; PART V: POLITICS 36. POLITICS AND WITCHCRAFT 37. MAGISTRATES AND WITCHES 38. INVIOLABILITY 39. THE CHARISMA OF OFFICE 40. MYSTICAL POLITICS 41. MARVELLOUS MONARCHY 42. SPECTACLES OF DISENCHANTMENT 43. KINGCRAFT AND WITCHCRAFT 44. BODIN'S POLITICAL DEMONOLOGY ; POSTSCRIPT BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX
