Witchcraft in Early Modern England (Paperback)

Provides an overview of the current arguments regarding the period and gives flavor of the era through use of contemporary portrayals of witchcraft.

Why were witches legally persecuted and what was their place in the popular imagination? James Sharpe examines the historical debate about witches and witch hunts in early modern England, and looks at contemporary views of witchcraft as put forward by judges, theological writers and the medical profession. It includes the important gender dimensions of the witch persecution,and the role of witchcraft in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama and the book is supported by a range of compelling documents. The book concludes with an exploration of why witch panics declined in the seventeenth and early eighteenth century.