Witchcraft and Witch Trials: A History of English Witchcraft and Its Legal Perspectives, 1542-1736

The justification for this fresh book is that the English persecution of witches was overwhelmingly a secular legal phenomenon, rather than the result of popular or ecclesiastical action. Prior to it becoming a secular crime, it appears to have been of little significance. With its decriminalisation (both de facto and de jure), it gradually died out as a topic of concern. This book is aimed at remedying a lacuna in recent scholarship by making a proper examination of the subject in its legal context, as well as providing a more general history of the phenomenon.