Howard Williams, Frederick George Lee, M. Schele de Vere, Cotton Mather, Increase Mather, Charles Wentworth Upham, M. V. B. Perley, James Thacher, William P. Upham, Samuel Roberts Wells, John M. Taylor, Allen Putnam
Witchcraft in America
The Wonders of the Invisible World, The Salem Witchcraft, The Planchette Mystery, Witch Stories…
Published by
Books
- Advanced Digital Solutions & High-Quality eBook Formatting -
2019 OK Publishing
EAN 4064066051778
Table of Contents
The Superstitions of Witchcraft by Howard Williams
The Wonders of the Invisible World by Cotton Mather and Increase Mather
Salem Witchcraft by Charles Wentworth Upham
Salem Witchcraft and Cotton Mather by Charles Wentworth Upham
A Short History of the Salem Village Witchcraft Trials by M. V. B. Perley
An Account of the Witchcraft Delusion at Salem in 1682 by James Thacher
House of John Procter, Witchcraft Martyr, 1692 by William P. Upham
The Salem Witchcraft, the Planchette Mystery, and Modern Spiritualism by Samuel Roberts Wells
The Witchcraft Delusion in Colonial Connecticut (1647-1697) by John M. Taylor
Witchcraft of New England Explained by Modern Spiritualism by Allen Putnam
Introduction
The Superstitions of Witchcraft
by Howard Williams
Preface
'The Superstitions of Witchcraft' is designed to exhibit a consecutive review of the characteristic forms and facts of a creed which (if at present apparently dead, or at least harmless, in Christendom) in the seventeenth century was a living and lively faith, and caused thousands of victims to be sent to the torture-chamber, to the stake, and to the scaffold. At this day, the remembrance of its superhuman art, in its different manifestations, is immortalised in the every-day language of the peoples of Europe.
The belief in Witchcraft is, indeed, in its full development and most fearful results, modern still more than mediæval, Christian still more than Pagan, and Protestant not less than Catholic.
PART I.
EARLIER FAITH
Chapter I.
The Origin, Prevalence, and Variety of Superstition—The Belief in Witchcraft the most horrid Form of Superstition—Most flourishing in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries—The Sentiments of Addison, Blackstone, and the Lawyers of the Eighteenth Century upon the Subject—Chaldean and Persian Magic—Jewish Witchcraft—Its important Influence on Christian and Modern Belief—Greek Pharmacy and Sorcery—Early Roman Laws against Conjuration and Magic Charms—Crimes perpetrated, under the Empire, in connection with Sorceric Practices—The general Persecution for Magic under Valentinian and Valens—German and Scandinavian Sagæ—The probable