Authors: Gary K. Waite
ISBN-13: 9780333754344, ISBN-10: 0333754344
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Date Published: September 2003
Edition: 1st Edition
Gary K. Waite is Professor of History, University of New Brunswick.
Bringing together the fields of Reformation and witchcraft studies, Gary K. Waite reveals how the early-modern period's religious conflicts led to widespread confusion and uncertainty, against which alleged diabolical conspiracies served to reaffirm orthodoxy. As with the vicious persecution of Anabaptists, witch-hunting was a means of restoring belief in the veracity of official teachings about the supernatural realm. Waite argues that it was only when the authorities came to terms with religious pluralism that there was a corresponding decline in witch panics.
Acknowledgements | ||
Introduction | 1 | |
1 | The Devil, Heresy, and Magic in the Later Middle Ages | 11 |
2 | The Reformation and the End of the World | 52 |
3 | Heresy, Doubt, and Demonizing the "Other" | 87 |
4 | The Reformation, Magic, and Witchcraft, 1520-1600 | 118 |
5 | Religious Conflict and the Rise of Witch-Hunting, 1562-1630 | 151 |
6 | Religious Pluralism and the End of the Witch-Hunts | 192 |
7 | Conclusion | 229 |
Notes | 235 | |
Annotated Bibliography | 253 | |
Index | 267 |