The history of witchcraft and demonology

"The history of witchcraft and demonology" by Montague Summers is a historical account written in the early 20th century. It contends that witchcraft was a real, organized, diabolic cult intertwined with heresy, law, and society, and that grasping it is essential to understanding European civilization. Drawing on inquisitorial records, trial narratives, and classic demonologists, it challenges rationalist skepticism, links modern spiritualism to old sorcery, and even considers the witch’s portrayal on the stage. The opening of this work sets out a selective, document-driven method, arguing for depth over breadth and announcing a companion volume on regional witch panics. Summers laments English historians’ neglect, attacks materialist dismissals, and insists the obscene and criminal elements of witchcraft must be faced to understand its social danger. He critiques modern scholars—rejecting blanket skepticism (Notestein) and disputing the “survivalist” Dianic-cult thesis (M. A. Murray)—while commending careful use of evidence. Beginning his argument, he defines the witch via Bodin as one who seeks ends through the Devil, rejects romantic and antiquarian trivializations, and explains contested motifs (broom “flights” as ritual acts; the Sabbat’s “Devil” often a human grand master; curses abetted by poison). He maintains confessions are not mere hysteria, traces legal repression of sorcery back to the Roman Empire, and sketches how the medieval Inquisition emerged to combat heresy with judicial procedure. He then links witchcraft to Gnostic and Manichaean currents (Bogomiles, Cathari, Albigenses), treating it as Satanism rather than a benign pre-Christian fertility religion, and illustrates the continuity with early medieval cases and later practices.