5 Books for Intermediates Jenny jennyg@compuserve.com Thu Apr 1 11:10:38 1999 Here are five books for intermediate students of historical witchcraft. They're a little more focused than the beginner books, assume a little more knowledge on your part. But they're not as dull and in-bred as the trial record studies (which I'll recommend for experts in a little bit).*p*The best way to learn NOTHING about early modern witches is to read books on witchcraft! Books on witchcraft only give you half the story -- what life was like for witches who were accused of being Satanists, or who were convicted of magickal crimes. They tell you *nothing* about the average wise-woman, cunning-man, or "white" witch. So several books in this intermediate section are intended to solve that problem: they cover folk magick as well as witchcraft. Christians had confused, contradictory views of the propriety of magick -- it wasn't simply condemned, as you might expect! *p***********************p*1) _The Devil's Dominion: Magic and Religion in Early New England_ by Richard Godbeer. A lovely, short book on Puritan attitudes towards magick. Covers magickal healing, counter-magick, and astrology. There's also a good chapter on the Salem Witch Trials, and on the differences between the popular and intellectual attitudes towards magick. As an added bonus, an appendix lists all of the people charged with witchcraft in New England (including the hundreds who survived their trials).*p*2) _Religion and the Decline of Magic_ by Keith Thomas. Maybe this book belongs in the "expert" category. It's enormous (700+ pages). It's detailed. It's dense. Trying to read it in one sitting is an invitation to despair. But I include it here because it contains an invaluable wealth of material on English popular magick. Everything you could conceivably want to know is here: ancient prophecies, astrology, religious magick, ghosts, fairies, portents and omens, witchcraft, magickal healing, etc., etc. No other book will give you a better understanding of just how "irrational" the "Age of Reason" was! And RatDoM doesn't require any specialized knowledge (just patience and perserverence!). So I recommend picking it up and then reading, say, a chapter a week. For the next year... <g>*p*3) _The Witches' Advocate: Basque Witchcraft and the Spanish Inquisition_ by Gustav Henningsen. Another study of a witch craze, the Basque Dream Epidemic that swept NE Spain in the early 17th century. This craze is particularly illuminating, for several reasons. It was probably the largest craze in all of the Burning Times (thousands of people were suspected). Yet it was one of the *least* lethal, killing only a dozen or so people. The Spanish Inquisition deserves the credit for this, and if you're used to thinking of the trials as the Church's pogrom against witches, this book will shock your pants off! Inquisitor Alonso Salazar de Frias came to realize that he was dealing with a rumor panic, not a Satanic conspiracy of witches. Using some draconian methods, he actually managed to shut a craze down -- in mid-panic. Something I've never heard of anyone else even trying. By doing so he saved countless lives, and earned himself the mocking nickname, "The Witches' Advocate".*p*4) _European Witch Trials: Their Foundations in Popular and Learned Culture, 1300-1500_ by Richard Kieckhefer. Another slim text with a wealth of information. Three aspects of the book stand out: a) Kieckhefer gives an unparalled study of the earliest trials, offering a clear and concise picture of how Europe slowly edged towards the mass panics of the 16th century. b) It contains an appendix listing all the known trials from the first two centuries of the Burning Times, and where you can find more information on them. c) It addresses the differences between "popular" and "learned" views of witchcraft. Generally speaking, most people considered magick a power, one that could be misused but was not inherantly evil. Therefore most witches were accused of maleficia, of "black magick". Intellectuals, on the other hand, defined witchcraft as heresy, therefore they saw witches primarily as Satanists. This leads to an odd situation in many trials: the witch is accused of using baneful magick, yet ends up convicted of Devil-worship. Kieckhefer was one of the first scholars to point out that there were "levels" to witchcraft beliefs, that not everyone agreed on what witches were.*p*5) _Witchcraft in Europe, 1100-1700: A Documentary History_ by Alan Kors and Edward Peters. A very good selection of excerpts from various witch-hunting manuals. One of the best and easiest ways to familiarize yourself with witch-hunting literature. One caveat: I'm not sure about current editions of the book, but early ones contained some of Etienne Leon de Lamothe Langon's forged witch trials. So if your copy has selections called "William, Cardinal of Santa Sabina: Magic and the Inquisition" and "The Inquisition of Toulouse", ignore them -- they're fake!*br*