Witchcraft and the Act of 1604 / / edited by John Newton and Jo Bath.

• Superior document: Studies in medieval and Reformation traditions, v. 131
• TeilnehmendeR: Newton, John, 1973-; Bath, Jo.
• Year of Publication: 2008
• Language: English
• Series: Studies in medieval and Reformation traditions ; v. 131.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (248 p.)
• Notes: Based on a conference held in Mar. 2004 at St. John's College, Durham.

The essays in this volume examine the relationship of the Jacobean Witchcraft Act to the culture and society of seventeenth-century England. The book explores the potential influence of King James’s works and person on the framing of the Act, including the relationship of Shakespeare's MacBeth to these events, as well as the impact of the Darrell controversy on the shaping of witchcraft beliefs before the Act. It also asseses the impact of the legislation on society in various parts of the country, as well as examining how drama reflected the ideas found in the legislation. The volume concludes with a look at the reasons for its repeal in 1736. This work provides new interpretations of the influence and application of the 1604 Witchcraft Act by some of the world’s leading scholars of witchcraft. Contributors include: Jonathan Barry, Jo Bath, Roy Booth, Chris Brooks, Owen Davies, Malcolm Gaskill, Marion Gibson, Clive Holmes, P. G. Maxwell-Stuart, John Newton, and Tom Webster.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material / John Newton and Jo Bath -- Introduction: Witchcraft; Witch Codes; Witch Act / John Newton -- The New King and the Crucible of the Act King James’s Experience of Witches, and the 1604 English Witchcraft Act / P.G. Maxwell-Stuart -- Standing within the Prospect of Belief: Macbeth, King James, and Witchcraft / Roy Booth -- Witchcraft and Possession at the Accession of James I: The Publication of Samuel Harsnett’s Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures / Clive Holmes -- (Re)possession of Dispossession: John Darrell and Diabolical Discourse / Tom Webster -- England Under the Act Applying the Act of 1604: Witches in Essex, Northamptonshire and Lancashire / Marion Gibson -- The Treatment of Potential Witches in North-East England, c. 1649–1680 / Jo Bath -- Witchcraft and Stage Spectacle: / Chris Brooks -- Witchcraft, Emotion and Imagination in the English Civil War / Malcolm Gaskill -- The Passing of the Act The Politics of Pandaemonium / Jonathan Barry -- Decriminalising the Witch: The Origin of and Response to the 1736 Witchcraft Act / Owen Davies -- Appendix I. The Witchcraft Act of 1563 (5 Eliz I, c. 16.) / John Newton and Jo Bath -- Appendix II. The Witchcraft Act of 1604 (1 Jas. I, c. 12.) / John Newton and Jo Bath -- Appendix III. Canon 72 of the Church of England (1604) / John Newton and Jo Bath -- Appendix IV. The Witchcraft Act of 1736 (9 Geo. II, c. 5.) / John Newton and Jo Bath -- Index / John Newton and Jo Bath.