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Cover of A Treatise of Witchcraft by Alexander Roberts

Daemonology

PUBLIC DOMAIN

A Treatise of Witchcraft

By Alexander Roberts

Original publication
1616
Language
English
Pages
71
File size
181.3 KB

A severe Jacobean warning against witchcraft, built around the prosecution of Mary Smith and the belief that hidden malice served an infernal master.

About this text

Description

Alexander Roberts published this treatise in 1616 as both theological warning and account of the case of Mary Smith, executed for witchcraft in King’s Lynn. The text defends the reality of diabolical compacts, harmful magic and spiritual corruption, reflecting the assumptions that sustained early modern prosecutions. It is preserved here as historical evidence, not validation of its accusations. Every argument reveals how easily doctrine could turn suspicion into certainty and certainty into a sentence pronounced beneath an unseen authority.

Archive notes

Historical context

Early seventeenth-century England

Source and rights

Rights information

Licence: PUBLIC DOMAIN

The Project Gutenberg catalogue identifies this edition as public domain in the USA. The identified author, editor and translator dates were screened against the EU life-plus-70 term; the latest identified contributor died no later than 1950, or the work is centuries old. The builder retains the complete Project Gutenberg licence in the converted PDF. Distribute the resulting PDF without charge unless the Project Gutenberg trademark terms are reviewed separately.

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