Witchcraft has recently been undergoing a huge popular revival, but
does modern pagan witchcraft really bear any resemblance to its
historical antecedents? The witch in history was a very different
creature from her modern counterpart, and this book sets out to
explore the historical background to the European witchcraft
phenomenon. It examines in detail the growth of the ideological,
cultural and legal concepts that eventually led to the carnage of
the Witch Craze in the 16th and 17th centuries, which, it is
estimated, may have claimed the lives of around 40,000 people. For
both Medieval and Reformation scholars alike the Devil and all his
works were a very real threat. Their conviction that witches were
the servants of Satan led to the formation of perhaps one of the
greatest conspiracy theories of all time: a belief that witches
were working in league with the Devil in a diabolical plot against
all Christendom. Witches were transformed from poor deluded old
women who rode out at night with the pagan goddess Diana into
devil-worshipping heretics who became the focus of a
centuries-long, Europe-wide campaign determined to seek out and
destroy this evil wherever it was to be found, regardless of
whether any of its victims were actually guilty or not.
General
Imprint: |
Pocket Essentials
|
Country of origin: |
United Kingdom |
Release date: |
December 2016 |
Authors: |
Lois Martin
|
Dimensions: |
198 x 129 x 11mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback
|
Pages: |
144 |
Edition: |
Uk Ed. |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-85730-115-4 |
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
0-85730-115-2 |
Barcode: |
9780857301154 |
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