Reginald Scot's remarkable text The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584) provided a startlingly direct challenge to popular witchcraft beliefs and Continental demonology. Scot believed that what commonly passed as witchcraft was little more than fear and delusion, refracted through the melancholic minds of foolish old women, scheming Catholics, or common hucksters. Scot focused his withering gaze on those who presumed supernatural interference where none existed, who saw miracles or wonders in a post-apostolic age, or who insisted that human enemies rather than God's providence caused their troubles. One of Scot's most important arguments was that spirits could not take corporeal form, and therefore could not interact with humans in the ways described by European demonologists. And homegrown English maleficium fared poorly in Scot's view as well, since he saw familiar spirits, spectral afflictions, and even witches' confessions as products of melancholy and delusion. The Discoverie was very influential, but not because...

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