English Demonologies

Darren Oldridge is Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Worcester. He has published extensively on religion and the supernatural in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and his books include The Supernatural in Tudor and Stuart England (2016) and Strange Histories, 2nd ed. (2017).

• Chapter 1The Varieties of Demonic ExperienceChapter 2Satanic Temptation and DeceitChapter 3‘Our Enemy’s Power is in Our Father’s Hand’: The Devil under ProvidenceChapter 4The Devil in the WorldChapter 5Witchcraft and the Lying SpiritChapter 6Providence and the PactChapter 7Satan’s Traces: Evidence of Witchcraft and SpiritsChapter 8Witches’ FamiliarsChapter 9Conclusions: Demonology and English WitchcraftBibliography

"In this terrific new book, Darren Oldridge seeks to give the devil his due. As he argues, the English devil has for too long been treated only in so far as he is the ominous shadow lurking behind witchcraft accusations. Here, though, Oldridge shows the extent to which the devil haunted the early modern protestant imagination. Spiritual tempter and purveyor of false religion to be sure, but Oldridge finds the devil also entangled in politics, prophecy, and in the debates about the ways of knowing of the period. This is an important study and deserves to be widely read."Richard Raiswell, University of Prince Edward Island"In this masterful and beautifully written book, Darren Oldridge has produced one of the most detailed and insightful histories of the Devil in recent years. By allowing early modern thinking to set the agenda, he showcases the central role the Devil’s desire to tempt and deceive held in all aspects of Tudor and Stuart life. Similarly, he convincingly shows how ideas about English witchcraft fit within broader Protestant diabology, thus re-enforcing the Devil’s often overlooked role in this exceptional crime. In reading English Demonologies we are transported back in time into a world in which the Devil lurked at every corner but, most terrifyingly, also sat dormant within one’s own mind."Charlotte Millar, The University of Melbourne