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1610 · The Damned Art of Witchcraft

William Perkins; published by Thomas Pickering · 1610

The Damned Art of Witchcraft

William Perkins, the most influential English Puritan theologian of his generation, preached on witchcraft at Cambridge; after his death in 1602 Thomas Pickering edited the sermons as this discourse, first printed in 1608 and dedicated to Sir Edward Coke. Perkins defines witchcraft as an art grounded on a league with the Devil, divides it into divination and working witchcraft, and explains which kinds of evidence are sufficient for conviction. He insists that the 'good' witch who heals and finds stolen goods is worse than the bad, since she draws people from God, and that all witches deserve death. The work shaped English and New England thinking on witchcraft for a century. This text follows the EEBO-TCP transcription of the 1610 edition.

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Contents

  1. 1.Title page93 w.
  2. 2.Thomas Pickering’s dedication to Sir Edward Coke3,183 w.
  3. 3.A Discourse of Witchcraft, chapter 1: Of the Nature of Witchcraft (part 1 of 2)3,583 w.
  4. 4.A Discourse of Witchcraft, chapter 1: Of the Nature of Witchcraft (part 2 of 2)3,585 w.
  5. 5.A Discourse of Witchcraft, chapter 2: The Ground of Witchcraft, and of all the practises thereof2,507 w.
  6. 6.A Discourse of Witchcraft, chapter 3: Of the kinds of Witchcraft, and first of Divination (part 1 of 4)3,168 w.
  7. 7.A Discourse of Witchcraft, chapter 3: Of the kinds of Witchcraft, and first of Divination (part 2 of 4)3,131 w.
  8. 8.A Discourse of Witchcraft, chapter 3: Of the kinds of Witchcraft, and first of Divination (part 3 of 4)3,052 w.
  9. 9.A Discourse of Witchcraft, chapter 3: Of the kinds of Witchcraft, and first of Divination (part 4 of 4)3,485 w.
  10. 10.A Discourse of Witchcraft, chapter 4: Of Operative or working Witch-craft (part 1 of 2)3,646 w.
  11. 11.A Discourse of Witchcraft, chapter 4: Of Operative or working Witch-craft (part 2 of 2)3,570 w.
  12. 12.A Discourse of Witchcraft, chapters 5–6: What Witches be, and of how many sorts; and following chapters3,089 w.
  13. 13.A Discourse of Witchcraft, chapter 7: The application of the doctrine of Witchcraft to our times (part 1 of 4)2,487 w.
  14. 14.A Discourse of Witchcraft, chapter 7: The application of the doctrine of Witchcraft to our times (part 2 of 4)3,428 w.
  15. 15.A Discourse of Witchcraft, chapter 7: The application of the doctrine of Witchcraft to our times (part 3 of 4)3,510 w.
  16. 16.A Discourse of Witchcraft, chapter 7: The application of the doctrine of Witchcraft to our times (part 4 of 4)3,440 w.