The author cannot hope that the work here presented is final. Unfortunately there is still hidden away in England an unexplored mass of local records. Some of them no doubt contain accounts of witch trials. I have used chiefly such printed and manuscript materials as were accessible in London and Oxford. Some day perhaps I may find time to go the rounds of the English counties and search the masses of gaol delivery records and municipal archives. From the really small amount of new material on the subject brought to light by the Historical Manuscripts Commission and by the publication of many municipal records, it seems improbable that such a search would uncover so many unlisted trials as seriously to modify the narrative. Nevertheless until such a search is made no history of the subject has the right to be counted final. Mr. Charles W. Wallace, the student of Shakespeare, tells me that in turning over the multitudinous records of the Star Chamber he found a few witch cases. Professor Kittredge believes that there is still a great deal of such material to be turned up in private collections and local archives. Any information on this matter which any student of English local history can give me will be gratefully received. I wish to express my thanks for reading parts of the manuscript to William Savage Johnson of Kansas University and to Miss Ada Comstock of the University of Minnesota. For general assistance and advice on the subject I am under obligations to Professor Wilbur C. Abbott and to Professor George Burton Adams of Yale University. It is quite impossible to say how very much I owe to Professor George L. Burr of Cornell. From cover to cover the book, since the award to it of the Adams Prize, has profited from his painstaking criticism and wise suggestion. W. N. Minneapolis, _October 10, 1911_. CONTENTS. PAGE Preface v CHAPTER I. The Beginnings of English Witchcraft 1 CHAPTER II. Witchcraft under Elizabeth 33 CHAPTER III. Reginald Scot 57 CHAPTER IV. The Exorcists 73 CHAPTER V. James I and Witchcraft 93 CHAPTER VI. Notable Jacobean Cases 120 CHAPTER VII. The Lancashire Witches and Charles I 146 CHAPTER VIII. Matthew Hopkins 164 CHAPTER IX. Witchcraft during the Commonwealth and Protectorate 206 CHAPTER X. The Literature of Witchcraft from 1603 to 1660 227 CHAPTER XI.