Based on perhaps the richest surviving archive of witchcraft trials
to be found in Europe, The Witches of Lorraine reveals the
extraordinary stories held within those documents. They paint a
vivid picture of life amongst the ordinary people of a small duchy
on the borders of France and the Holy Roman Empire, and allow a
very close analysis of the beliefs, social tensions, and behavior
patterns underlying popular attitudes to witchcraft.
Intense persecution occurred in the period 1570-1630, but the
focus of this book is more on how suspects interacted with their
neighbors over the years preceding their trials. One of the
mysteries is why people were so slow to use the law to eliminate
these supposedly vicious and dangerous figures. Perhaps the most
striking and unexpected conclusion is that witchcraft was actually
perceived as having strong therapeutic possibilities; once a person
was identified as the cause of a sickness, they could be induced to
take it off again. Other aspects studied include the more fantastic
beliefs in sabbats, shapeshifting, and werewolves, the role of the
devins or cunning-folk, and the characteristics attributed to the
significant proportion of male witches. This regional study makes a
vital contribution to historical understanding of one of the most
dramatic phenomena in early modern Europe, and to witchcraft
studies as a whole, as well as illuminating related topics in
social and religious history.
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