Chapter five, “The Social Context,” shows how economic and social concerns caused citizens to persecute witches. Chapter four, “The Impact of the Reformation,” explains how both the shift in religious attitudes during the Reformation and the conflict between Protestants and Catholics contributed to the witch-hunt phenomenon. Similarly, cases tried in local courts also had different processes and acquittal rates from those tried in higher courts. Accusations brought forth by community members were charged and tried differently than those brought by the Church. Chapter three, “The Legal Foundations,” explains the process for the prosecution of witch-hunting. Chapter two carefully examines the “Intellectual Foundations” on which these beliefs in witches were based, measuring the importance of literature and the printing press in promulgating ideas about witches. Each chapter has a clear and concise chapter title, making the book easy to navigate. This book’s success rests on the construction of this intricate and nuanced vocabulary.Īfter Levack carefully creates the terms in which to discuss witchcraft in his “Introduction,” he uses this same format to flesh out the various causes and results of witch-hunts in subsequent chapters. Such specificity is then teased out to assist the undergraduate, hobby historian, researcher, and educator alike to understand how approximately 90,000 individuals were prosecuted for witchcraft and half of these later were executed. A carefully defined working vocabulary helps the reader to understand differentiations between witches and warlocks, maleficia and magic, and devil worship and demonic possession. By examining the dynamic social, religious, and economic conditions at play, Levack demonstrates that such understanding does not come easily.
Levack’s ongoing research aims to illuminate the causes of the “great European witch-hunt” (2). Levack’s extensive research and attention to detail are unquestionably why these books have endured through multiple editions and printings. This 2016 edition was released with a comprehensive source book, now in its second edition, and access to a companion website as well. Levack released his first book on this topic in 1987-thirty years ago and that book, The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe (Routledge), is now in its fourth edition. A complex set of circumstances and often hard to understand social conventions led to the phenomenon of witch hunting in Europe during the early modern period.
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