The Discoverie of Witchcraft

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Summary: A Skeptic Looks at the Occult
Review: Praise be to Dover Publications, the company that publishes cheap but durable and attractive paperback editions of a lot of really obscure and out-of-the way stuff, usually in the original typeface, so that you get the experience of reading a real 16th-century artifact).

Okay, Reginald Scot's "Discoverie of Witchcraft."

First of all, the hokey occultism-mongers and flaky New Age wiccans will be disappointed if they get this book, so be warned. It isn't a grimoire or a how-to on witchcraft. Rather, it is a skeptic's (Reginald Scot was roughly contemporary with Montaigne and Shakespeare) look at an issue which got just about everybody riled up during those days. I suppose "witchcraft" in the 15th and 16th centuries was a subject like "terrorism" in the 2Oth and 21st, and taking anything other than the hardline approach to witchery was about as subversive as reading the works of Noam Chomsky after 11 September 2001.

As skepticism gradually took firm hold in the intellectual culture of Renaissance and post-Renaissance Europe, a wider variety of opinions on witchcraft became common coin. Prior to that time, the only opinion you were allowed to have on the subject was that of the Roman Catholic Church. Which was, witches exist, they are agents of the devil, and must be burned. Scot says something like this: "Well, MAYBE there is something to the whole witchcraft thing, but it's doubtful, based on the reading I've done. Let's clear away all the smoke and mystery surrounding the subject and take a hard look at it." He then proceeds to roll up his sleeves and do a case-by-case analysis.

Reginald Scot, of course, is not a major figure in European (or even English) intellectual history. But with this book he helped pave the way for the breakdown of the Church's iron-fisted authority over the life of the mind.

For a look at the mentality of the Church, read two other books preceding Scot's by about 50 to 100 years, the "Compendium Maleficarum" (a catalogue of demons and devils--it is amazing to think that people fervently believed in these things) and the "Malleus Maleficarum" (the "Hammer of Witches") which outlines the the official dogma on what makes a witch and what should be done with them. Both are also available from Dover.

Rating:
Summary: A Difficult Read
Review: This book is a difficult read considering the old English; otherwise it is entertaining and educational.

Rating:
Summary: good for you, Reg
Review: This is a classic expose dating back to 1584. Thanks to the author many named witches were spared from being burned at the stake! The author reveals the secrets of so-called witches and explains their supernatural powers as being nothing more than conjuring tricks. If you like magic, or reading about the history of magic then this book is a must have. -Diamond Jim Tyler

Rating:
Summary: Very interesting read.
Review: This is a good book. This is the oldest book known to contain methods of producing magical effects. It's not a book about witchcraft as much as a book exposing the methods used to cause an accusation of witchcraft to be made. It was written in the 16th century, so take that into account when reading it. There are other places to read this book online, but it's much easier to read a real book than an e-book. Dover has put the book into an easier to read format as well.

Rating:
Summary: A Voice of Reason in the Darkness
Review: This is the reprint of the Montague Summers edition of Reginald Scot's "Discoverie of Witchcraft". Scot's treatise was first published in 1584, just at the height of the European witchcraze, and was one of the few published works that argued vehemently against the belief in witches and demons.

Scot argued that a belief in witches was fallacy and ran counter to the classical Christian view as given in the Canon Episcopi that stated that belief in witches and demonic magic was a delusion and that witches were not working in league with the Devil but were rather deluded persons who needed guidance in the ways of religion rather than death and torture. Scot goes on at length to discuss the illusion of supposed witchcraft and magic and that God alone, not Devils or witches, controls the elements and that he alone dictates the fate of men.

Scot, like his contemporary Johann Weyer, was met with hostility from the learned demonologists and theologians of the day. His work was condemned and ordered burned by King James I of England. Rather than being hailed as a rational and sensible humanist thinker for his valiant atttempt to stem the tide of the burnings of human beings, Scot was accused by some as promoting the heresy of Sadducism (a disbelief in spirits) while others dismissed his arguments and beliefs as being thinly veiled atheism and argued that witches were in fact real and dangerous and that the bonfires of witches must continue. The credulous and eccentric Montague Summers himself argues this viewpoint in his shamelful introduction. Summers even stoops so low as to essentialy accuse Scot and Weyer of Satanism! Nonetheless, Scot's work gave hope that some in the 16th century were not overcome with belief in witches and demonic pacts and was skeptical of the popular fears that devils and demons were lurking around every corner, waiting to inflict evil and death on the unsuspecting populace. Unfortunately, it would be another 200 years before the murderous pyres of the witchhunters were finally snuffed out.