Introduction 1. Mediaeval Origins 1.1. Witch Trials in Mediaeval Europe, Richard Kieckhefer; 1.2. The Demonization of Mediaeval Heretics, Norman Cohn; 2. Witchcraft, Magic and Culture 2.1. The Experience of Bewitchment, Robin Briggs; 2.2. Weather, Hunger and Fear: Origins of the European Witch-Hunts on Climate, Society and Mentality, Wolfgang Behringer; 2.3. The Sociology of Jura Witchcraft, E. William Monter; 2.4. Witchcraft Narratives and Folklore Motifs in Southern Italy, David Gentilcore; 3. The Idea of a Witch Cult 3.1. Heartland of the Witchcraze, H.C.E. Midelfort; 3.2. Deciphering the Witches' Sabbat, Carlo Ginzburg; 3.3. The Alternative World of the Witches' Sabbat, Eva Pocs; 3.4. Satanic Myths and Cultural Realities, Robert Muchembled; 3.5. Inversion, Misrule and the Meaning of Witchcraft, Stuart Clark; 4. Witchcraft and the Reformation 4.1. Protestant Witchcraft, Catholic Witchcraft, Stuart Clark; 4.2 Confessional Identity and Magic in the Late Sixteenth Century, Edmund Kern; 4.3. Between the Devil and the Inquisitor: Anabaptists, Diaboilical Conspiracies and Magical Beliefs, Gary Waite; 5. Witchcraft, the State and Social Control 5.1. The Crime of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe, Brian Levack; 6. Possession and the Devil 6.1. The Devil in Renaissance France, David Nicholls; 6.2. The Devil and the German People, H.C.E. Midelfort; 6.3. A Divine Apparition or Demonic Possession? Moshe Sluhovsky; 7. Witchcraft and Gender 7.1. Was Witch-Hunting Woman-Hunting? Christina Larner; 7.2. Patriarchal Reconstruction and Witch Hunting, Marianne Hester; 7.3. Women, Witchcraft and the Legal Process, Jim Sharpe; 7.4. Women: Witches and Witnesses, Clive Holmes; 8. Reading Confessions 8.1. Oedipus and the Devil, Lyndal Roper; 8.2. Woman and Power in Early Modern England: The Case of Margaret Moore 8.3. Witches, Wives and Mothers: Witchcraft Persecution and Women's Confessions in Seventeenth-century England, Louise Jackson; 9. The Decline of Witchcraft 9.1. The End of Witch Trials, Brian Levack; 9.2. The Decline of Witches and the Rise of Vampires, Gabor Klaniczay; 9.3. Urbanisation and the Decline of Witchcraft, Owen Davies; 10. A Twentieth-Century Witch-Hunt? 10.1. Occult Survivors: The Making of a Myth, Philip Jenkins and Daniel Maier-Katkin; 10.2. The Wish Not to Know, Patrick Casement