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9 Thus we find one such writer, for example, in the space of one paragraph having James VI and I writing his Daemonologie after coming to the English throne, Queen Elizabeth being warned against witches by ‘Bishop Jewel of Switzerland’, and Calvinist missionaries from England going to spread the craze in Bavaria: Nelson, Mary, ‘Why witches were women’, in Freeman, Jo ed., Women: a feminist perspective (Palo Alto, California, 1975), 341.Google Scholar

10 This work has been through a number of modern editions, and its notoriety and its current availability in print have made it a key text for nonspecialist writers on the witch hunt. For a discussion of its significance see: Anglo, Sydney, ‘Evident authority and authoritative evidence: the Malleus Maleficarum’, in Anglo, S. ed., The damned art: essays in the history of witchcraft (London, etc., 1977).Google Scholar

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19 Gaule, John, Select cases of conscience touching witches and witchcraft (London, 1646), 4–5.Google Scholar

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21 This is one of the major themes of Karlsen, Carol F., The Devil in the shape of a woman: witchcraft in colonial New England (New York and London, 1987).Google Scholar

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30 Macfarlane, , Witchcraft, 160Google Scholar; Thomas, , Religion and the decline of magic, 568Google Scholar. It should be noted, however, that Macfarlane opened up some useful areas of discussion, arguing that, in a period of socio-economic change, ‘women were commonly thought of as witches because they were more resistant to such change. It was their social position and power which led to mounting hatred against them… they were the coordinating element in village society. People would feel most uneasy about them when society was segmenting. It was they who borrowed and lent most, and it was their curse which was most feared.’ Witchcraft, 161.Google Scholar

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32 Ibid., 3/1/242; e.g., 7/1/167.

33 Ibid., 3/1/243.

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40 Some of the relevant sources are discussed in Sharpe, J. A., ‘Plebeian marriage in Stuart England: some evidence from popular literature’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th series, 36 (1986), 69–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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43 Library, Bodleian, Oxford, Western MSS, Hearne Diaries 158–9 (‘Analecta Ro. Plot’), f. 146.Google Scholar

44 PRO, ASSI 45/1/5/38.

45 Ibid., 4/1/110.

46 Ibid., 5/3/133.

47 Ibid., 7/1/109.

48 Ehrenreich, and English, , Witches, midwives and nurses, 4Google Scholar. This notion rapidly gained wide currency: see, for an example Rowbotham, Sheila, Hidden from history (London, 1973), 2–3Google Scholar; Oakley, Ann, Subject women (Oxford, 1981), 326–7.Google Scholar

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51 Borthwick Institute, CP H 1475.

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54 Borthwick Institute, CP H 1504; 1961; 2177.

55 PRO, ASSI 45/3/2/133. Miranda Chaytor, who is also researching into northern circuit witchcraft cases, has suggested to me the possibility that Cordingley's daughters were of marriageable age, and that the issue was one of generational jealousy rather than the vulnerability of children. This problem illustrates how practically all these depositions raise more questions than they answer, questions which could frequently only be resolved by full-scale community studies.

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62 Quoted in Shahar, Shulamith, The fourth estate: a history of women in the middle ages (London and New York, 1983), 275.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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