Knowing Demons, Knowing Spirits in the Early Modern Period

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xv

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2. Introduction

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Theory and Practice in Early Modern Epistemologies of the Preternatural

      • Michelle D. Brock, David R. Winter

      Pages 3-19

3. Knowing in Theory

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 21-21

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   2. Knowing the Spirit(s) in the Dutch Radical Reformation: From Physical Perception to Rational Doubt, 1536–1690

      • Gary K. Waite

      Pages 23-54

   3. Hell and Fairy: The Differentiation of Fairies and Demons Within British Ritual Magic of the Early Modern Period

      • Daniel M. Harms

      Pages 55-77

   4. Preternatural Peasants and the Discourse of Demons: Xenoglossy, Superstition, and Melancholy in Early Modern Spain

      • Andrew Keitt

      Pages 79-104

   5. Testing for Demonic Possession: Scribonius, Goclenius, and the Lemgo Witchcraft Trial of 1583

      • Stefan Heßbrüggen-Walter

      Pages 105-122

   6. “The Damned Trinity”: Judas, the Devil, and the Hell-Beast in Russian Iconography

      • Dmitriy Antonov

      Pages 123-142

4. Knowing in Practice

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 143-143

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   2. Curious Companions: Spirit Conjuring and Alchemy in the Sixteenth Century

      • Frank Klaassen

      Pages 145-170

   3. Edward Terry and the Demons of India

      • Richard Raiswell

      Pages 171-210

   4. Jesuit Missionaries and the Accommodationist Demons of New France

      • Mairi Cowan

      Pages 211-238

   5. Angels, Devils, and Discernment in Early Modern Scotland

      • Martha McGill

      Pages 239-263

   6. Discerning Spirits in the Early Enlightenment: The Case of the French Prophets

      • Michael B. Riordan

      Pages 265-290

5. Afterword

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 291-291

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   2. The Science of Knowing Spirits: Rationality and the Invisible World

      • Nancy Mandeville Caciola

      Pages 293-301

6. Back Matter

   Pages 303-317

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This book explores the manifold ways of knowing—and knowing about— preternatural beings such as demons, angels, fairies, and other spirits that inhabited and were believed to act in early modern European worlds. Its contributors examine how people across the social spectrum assayed the various types of spiritual entities that they believed dwelled invisibly but meaningfully in the spaces just beyond (and occasionally within) the limits of human perception. Collectively, the volume demonstrates that an awareness and understanding of the nature and capabilities of spirits—whether benevolent or malevolent—was fundamental to the knowledge-making practices that characterize the years between ca. 1500 and 1750.  This is, therefore, a book about how epistemological and experiential knowledge of spirits persisted and evolved in concert with the wider intellectual changes of the early modern period, such as the Protestant Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, and the Enlightenment.

• angels
• fairies
• religion
• demonology
• possession
• religion and society

• Washington and Lee University, Lexington, USA

  Michelle D. Brock

• University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, Canada

  Richard Raiswell

• Brandon University, Brandon, Canada

  David R. Winter

Michelle D. Brock is Associate Professor of History at Washington and Lee University, USA.

 
Richard Raiswell is Associate Professor of History at the University of Prince Edward Island, Canada.


David R. Winter is Associate Professor of History at Brandon University, Canada.

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