HIST 314L - Witchcraft and Sorcery in Pre-Modern Europe

3 Credit(s)

Liberal Arts
The early modern concern about witches and the diabolic intervention they harnessed through sorcery or magic is one of the most debated historical phenomena. This class explores the central issues that historians have grappled with When considering the preoccupation with witchcraft in the fifteenth-eighteenth centuries. Main topics of discussion include “popular” versus “learned” religion; issues of gender in the witch hunts; geographical comparisons of the process; the effect of accusations on social relationships; and the role of Catholicism and Protestantism in the rise of state-sponsored persecution.

Prerequisite(s): Six credits in history