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Description of  John Stearne s Confirmation and Discovery of Witchcraft: Text, Context and Afterlife (Routledge Research in Early Modern History)

0367894041 rar Between 1645-7, John Stearne led the most significant outbreak of witch-hunting in England. As accusations of witchcraft spread across East Anglia, Stearne and Matthew Hopkins were enlisted by villagers to identify and eradicate witches. After the trials finally subsided in 1648, Stearne wrote his only publication, A confirmation and discovery of witchcraft, but it had a limited readership. Consequently, Stearne and his work fell into obscurity until the 1800s, and were greatly overshadowed by Hopkins and his text. This book is the first study which analyses Stearnes publication and contextualises his ideas within early modern intellectual cultures of religion, demonology, gender, science, and print in order to better understand the witch-finders beliefs and motives. The book argues that Stearne was a key player in the trials, that he was not a mainstream puritan, and that his witch-finding availed from contemporary science. It traces Read more