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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

History of North America --- History of Europe --- Esoteric sciences --- Christian dogmatics --- anno 1500-1799 --- Witch hunting --- Trials (Witchcraft) --- Witchcraft --- Chasse aux sorcières --- Procès (Sorcellerie) --- Sorcellerie --- History --- History. --- Histoire --- Expositions --- Procès --- Ouvrages de référence --- 248.222 --- 291.33 --- -Trials (Witchcraft) --- -Witchcraft --- -Black art (Witchcraft) --- Sorcery --- Occultism --- Wicca --- Burning witches --- Hunting witches --- Witch burning --- Witches --- Witchburning --- Witchhunting --- Persecution --- Vrijwillige relaties met de duivel. Satanisme. Hekserij. Toverij --- Directe invloed op de goddelijke wil: hekserij; bezweringen; magie, toverij --- Persecutions --- Violence against --- -Vrijwillige relaties met de duivel. Satanisme. Hekserij. Toverij --- 291.33 Directe invloed op de goddelijke wil: hekserij; bezweringen; magie, toverij --- 248.222 Vrijwillige relaties met de duivel. Satanisme. Hekserij. Toverij --- -291.33 Directe invloed op de goddelijke wil: hekserij; bezweringen; magie, toverij --- Black art (Witchcraft) --- Chasse aux sorcières --- Procès (Sorcellerie) --- Ouvrages de référence. --- witch beliefs --- magic --- the Late Medieval West --- magical practices --- demonologies --- Sabbath --- witches' assemblies --- scepticism --- witchcraft in early modern literature --- Early Modern Europe --- witchcraft prosecutions --- trials for diabolical witchcraft --- the German witch trials --- the Rhine-Moselle region --- witchcraft trials in France --- witchcraft and wealth --- the Netherlands --- witchcraft prosecutions in Italy --- witchcraft in Iberia --- witchcraft trials in England --- witchcraft in Scotland --- witchcraft in Poland --- witch-hunting in early modern Hungary --- witchcraft trials in Russia --- witchcraft criminality --- witchcraft research in the Nordic countries --- witchcraft in British America --- magical traditions --- witchcraft and gender --- witchcraft and the law --- sixteenth century religious reform --- neuropsychology --- politics --- state-building --- science and witchcraft --- demonic possession --- exorcism --- medicine and witchcraft

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Esoteric sciences --- World history --- Witchcraft --- History. --- Witchcraft - History.

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Witchcraft --- History --- Esoteric sciences --- History of Europe --- anno 1500-1799 --- anno 1400-1499 --- Witchcraft - Europe - History

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133.4 --- 248.222 --- 940.20 --- Witchcraft --- -Black art (Witchcraft) --- Sorcery --- Occultism --- Wicca --- 940.20 Geschiedenis van Europa: Nieuwe Tijd--(16de-18de eeuw) --- Geschiedenis van Europa: Nieuwe Tijd--(16de-18de eeuw) --- 248.222 Vrijwillige relaties met de duivel. Satanisme. Hekserij. Toverij --- Vrijwillige relaties met de duivel. Satanisme. Hekserij. Toverij --- 133.4 Occulte werking. Magie. Toverij --- Occulte werking. Magie. Toverij --- History --- -248.222 Vrijwillige relaties met de duivel. Satanisme. Hekserij. Toverij --- Black art (Witchcraft) --- History of the law --- Christian church history --- anno 1600-1699 --- anno 1500-1599 --- Europe --- History. --- Witchcraft - Europe - History.

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In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the era of the Reformation, thousands of Europeans were thought to be possessed by demons. In response to their horrifying symptoms-violent convulsions, displays of preternatural strength, vomiting of foreign objects, displaying contempt for sacred objects, and others-exorcists were summoned to expel the evil spirits from victims' bodies. This compelling book focuses on possession and exorcism in the Reformation period, but also reaches back to the fifteenth century and forward to our own times. Entire convents of nuns in French, Italian, and Spanish towns, 30 boys in an Amsterdam orphanage, a small group of young girls in Salem, Massachusetts-these are among the instances of demon possession in the United States and throughout Europe that Brian Levack closely examines, taking into account the diverse interpretations of generations of theologians, biblical scholars, pastors, physicians, anthropologists, psychiatrists, and historians. Challenging the commonly held belief that possession signals physical or mental illness, the author argues that demoniacs and exorcists-consciously or not-are following their various religious cultures, and their performances can only be understood in those contexts.

Exorcism --- Demoniac possession --- Demonic possession --- Possession, Demoniac --- Demonology --- Spirit possession --- Evil spirits, Expulsion of --- Expulsion of evil spirits --- Rites and ceremonies --- History. --- Exorcism - Europe - History --- Demoniac possession - Europe - History --- Exorcismes --- Possédés