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9780752423395

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The image of the witch finder subjecting women to the ducking stool and the stake is familiar in popular culture, but how much do we really know about the witch-hunters of the seventeenth century? This fascinating book by a leading author on witchcraft answers this question by looking at six people involved in the witch-hunting process. He demonstrates that, however false their beliefs may have been, they were for the most part not ignorant bigots, but educated men who genuinely believed they were protecting society from evil. He shows how they used 'scientific' processes to investigate witchcraft, and produced learned theses on how to identify and deal with witches. The final chapter, a portrait of a female accuser, reveals the disturbing fact that ordinary women often took part in the persecution of witches. Maxwell-Stewart has produced an intriguing study of a dark and often misunderstood subject. (Kirkus UK)

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