In popular tradition witches were either practitioners of magic or people who were objectionable in some way, but for early European courts witches were heretics and worshippers of the Devil. This study concentrates on the period between 1300 and 1500 when ideas about witchcraft were being formed and witch-hunting was gathering momentum. It is concerned with distinguishing between the popular and learned ideas of witchcraft. The author has developed his own methodology for distinguishing popular from learned concepts, which provides adequate substantiation for the acceptance of some documents and the rejection of others. This distinction is followed by an analysis of the contents of folk tradition regarding witchcraft, the most basic feature of which is its emphasis on sorcery, including bodily harm, love magic, and weather magic, rather than diabolism. The author then shows how and why learned traditions became superimposed on popular notions – how people taken to court for sorcery were eventually convicted on the further charge of devil worship. The book ends with a description of the social context of witch accusations and witch trials.

Product Description: First published in 1962, Elliot Rose's A Razor for a Goat is a study of witchcraft as a religion, whether the religion was a form of pagan survival or a depraved Christian (or anti-Christian) heresy. Rose surveyed witch-scares, fairy folklore, 'ritual' deaths, the Canon Episcopi, and goliards for evidence for witchcraft, and to make some suggestions about the reality behind the popular beliefs on witchcraft societies and Sabbats...read more

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Looks at the lives of three representative saints of the fourteenth century, describes how they showed patience, devotion, penitence, and religious rapture, and examines the spiritual mood of those times

Product Description: Medieval Studies, German Studies