Home : Book details : Book description

Description of  England's First Demonologist: Reginald Scot and 'The Discoverie of Witchcraft'

""The fables of witchcraft have taken so fast hold and deepe root in the heart of man, that few or none can endure with patience the hand and correction of God."" Reginald Scot's The Discoverie of Witchcraft (published in 1584) was England's first major work of demonology, witchcraft, and the occult. The book was unashamedly skeptical. It is said that so outraged was King James VI of Scotland by the disbelieving nature of Scot's work that, on James' accession to the English throne in 1603, he ordered every copy to be destroyed. Yet for all the anger directed at Scot, and his scorn for Stuart orthodoxy about witches, the paradox was that his detailed account of sorcery helped strengthen the hold of European demonologies in England while also inspiring the distinctively English tradition of secular magic and conjuring. Scot's influence was considerable. Shakespeare drew on Read more