Witchcraft persecutions in Bavaria : popular magic, religious zealotry and reason of state in early modern Europe
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Witchcraft persecutions in Bavaria : popular magic, religious zealotry and reason of state in early modern Europe
(Past and present publications)
Cambridge University Press, 2002
- : pbk
- Other Title
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Hexenverfolgung in Bayern
- Uniform Title
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Lederer, David
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Note
Originally published: 1997
Includes bibliographical references (p. [416]-456) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
This is a major study by a leading scholar in the field of continental witchcraft studies. Based on an intensive search through central and local legal records for south-eastern Germany, an area extending well beyond but including present-day Bavaria, the author has compiled a thorough overview of all known prosecutions for witchcraft in the period 1300-1800. He shows conclusively that witch-hunting was not a constant or uniform phenomenon, and that three-quarters of all known executions for witchcraft were concentrated in the years 1586-1630, years of particular dearth and famine. The book investigates the social and political implications of witchcraft, and how the mechanisms of persecution served as a rallying cry for partisan factionalism at court. The author also explores the mentalities behind witch-hunting, emphasizing the complex religious debates between believers and sceptics, and Catholics and Protestants.
Table of Contents
- Foreword
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Moving toward a social history of witchcraft
- 3. The wave of persecutions around 1590
- 4. The struggle for restraint, 1600-30
- 5. Perpetuation through domestication, 1630-1775
- 6. The final Catholic debate
- 7. Conclusions
- 8. Sources and literature.
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