UC Santa Barbara

This research examines several demonologists, ranging from well-known writers including Henri Boguet and Père Jean Baptiste Labat, to several lesser-known men, including the French judges and lawyers, Jean Chenu and Gilbert Gaulmin, and two Scottish writers, professor George Sinclair, and judge and Lord Advocate George Mackenzie. All of these men had personal, political, and religious stakes in the success or failure in the circulation of their publications. These writers also had similar upbringings: they were educated elites with law or philosophy degrees from prestigious universities who worked their way up within their respective legal systems or in universities where they were able to educate and influence the people around them. This level of local prominence allowed them a platform from which to deliver personal views on witchcraft and demonology, which in turn reinforced their own political power and religious piety.These middling men were active members of their communities who saw it as their moral and legal duty to protect and educate the public from witches and other supernatural activity. They published collections of notable stories of the supernatural, judicial procedures, advice on how to approach witches, and examples of their own legal successes trying cases of witchcraft. Local judges, lawyers, and demonologists dealt with cases of witchcraft and the supernatural under the guidance of their respective legal systems, but my research has shown that religious beliefs, personal experience, knowledge of other demonological practices, and legal training all played equally important roles in how a judge or lawyer conducted his trials. I argue that a textual community of demonologists, judges, lawyers, and urban professionals developed throughout the 16th and 17th centuries in Europe, which resulted in a specific level of expertise required in order to conduct witchcraft trials and publish demonological works. This level of expertise also helped boost personal reputation within these writers’ respective communities. By examining cases in France, Franche-Comté, Scotland, and French Martinique, this research presents a trans-European and trans-Atlantic view of demonology and judicial culture in the 16th and 17th centuries. My research provides a new way to look at witchcraft and demonology by utilizing a comparative methodology, and by examining the development of French judicial practices and witchcraft beliefs in comparison to Scotland and French Martinique, this work specifically traces the evolution of patterns of influence of Protestantism and Catholicism on demonology in these regions.