There is an immediate irony in regard to witchcraft and its history. Few, in England at least, have believed in witches for at least two and a half centuries. Yet we remain fascinated, it might even be said enchanted, by the subject. It is of course the peculiarity which seeds the fascination. We live in a rationalist age. Sometimes history seems modern and contemporary. It is for this reason that the history of the textile industry or gardening or the law of nuisance seem different to the history of witchcraft. There is nothing especially fantastical or alien in these histories. We still wear clothes, prick pansies and try to make sense of Rylands v Fletcher. We do not think that herbalists present a mortal danger to our souls or worry that the neighbour’s cat might be the Devil’s familiar. Witchcraft is different; not just a long time ago in a chronological sense, but part of an almost-vanished cultural and intellectual world. It was this dissociation which Keith Thomas so brilliantly emphasised in his seminal study of the subject Religion and the Decline of Magic. Any subsequent history of witchcraft is indebted to Thomas’s book. During the intervening forty years, however, historians have evinced a greater scepticism of grander narratives. And Peter Elmer’s impressive new contribution to the field, Witchcraft, Witch-Hunting and Politics in Early Modern England, is no exception to this trend. The first chapter of Elmer’s book provides the reader with a valuable overview of this historiography, paying due deference not only to Thomas but to the similarly influential work of scholars such as Alan Macfarlane, James Sharpe and Malcolm Gaskill. Thereafter Witchcraft, Witch-Hunting and Politics in Early Modern England assumes a chronological approach, successive chapters charting the history of witchcraft in England during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, before closing with a briefer look at the apparent demise of witchcraft belief in the eighteenth. Thus in his second chapter Elmer explores the period from the 1563 Witchcraft Act through until the accession of Charles I in 1625. The picture presented here is one of relative stability, especially so during the later Elizabethan period. There were prosecutions, but there were no ‘panics’. The concern of

中文翻译：

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现代早期英格兰的巫术，狩猎女巫和政治

关于巫术及其历史，存在直接的讽刺意味。至少在英格兰，很少有人相信巫婆至少两个半世纪。然而，我们对这个主题仍然着迷，甚至可以说很着迷。当然，独特性会吸引人。我们生活在一个理性主义者的时代。有时历史似乎是现代的和当代的。出于这个原因，纺织业或园艺业的历史或令人讨厌的法律似乎与巫术的历史不同。在这些历史中，没有什么特别是幻想或外星人的。我们仍然穿衣服，穿刺三色紫罗兰，并试图使Rylands v Fletcher有意义。我们认为草药师不会给我们的灵魂带来致命的危险，也不会担心邻居的猫可能是魔鬼熟悉的。巫术是不同的。不只是按时间顺序排列，而且还属于几乎消失的文化和知识世界的一部分。基思·托马斯（Keith Thomas）在对宗教与魔术的衰落这一开创性的研究中如此出色地强调了这种分离。后来的任何巫术史都归功于托马斯的书。然而，在过去的40年中，历史学家对更大的叙事表现出更大的怀疑。彼得·埃尔默（Peter Elmer）在该领域做出的令人瞩目的新贡献，即现代英格兰早期的巫术，狩猎和政治领域，也不例外。Elmer的书的第一章为读者提供了这一史学的宝贵概观，不仅要尊重托马斯，还要尊重像艾伦·麦克法兰（Alan Macfarlane），詹姆斯·夏普（James Sharpe）和马尔科姆·加斯基尔（Malcolm Gaskill）这样有影响力的学者的著作。此后，现代英格兰早期的巫术，狩猎和政治采取了按时间顺序排列的方法，随后的各章概述了16、17世纪英格兰的巫术历史，然后以更简短的视角回顾了18世纪巫术信仰的明显消亡。因此，埃尔默（Elmer）在其第二章中探讨了从1563年《巫术法》直到1625年查理一世加入的时期。这里展示的图片是相对稳定的时期之一，尤其是在伊丽莎白时代后期。有起诉，但没有“恐慌”。的关注 在结束前简要介绍一下十八世纪巫术信仰的消亡。因此，埃尔默（Elmer）在其第二章中探讨了从1563年《巫术法》直到1625年查理一世加入的时期。这里展示的图片是相对稳定的时期之一，尤其是在伊丽莎白时代后期。有起诉，但没有“恐慌”。的关注 在结束前简要介绍一下十八世纪巫术信仰的消亡。因此，埃尔默（Elmer）在其第二章中探讨了从1563年《巫术法》直到1625年查理一世加入的时期。这里展示的图片是相对稳定的时期之一，尤其是在伊丽莎白时代后期。有起诉，但没有“恐慌”。的关注