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One of the central issues of current research, especially of feminist research into early modern witchcraft,is the question of (female) agency. The stereotype of female passivity in the face of male oppression has been contested, and we have now a far more sophisticated understanding of women and their varied means of expressing agency and resistance than was possible in a system of reference based on
our own questions to the past is, surely, beyond reasonable question: why else do we study history? But we must be much more careful than many practitioners of social-science-model historical research have been; and we must have the courage to say that even so celebrated, indeed, so sexy a book as Lyndal Roper’s Oedipus and the Devil is, in places, simply wrong because it uses modernist theory (theory built to help
archival material complements a wide range of sources aiding us in researching attitudes regarding the belief in witchcraft during the nineteenth century. As well as examining the archival material kept by the state administration and official church records, in which administrators and clergy stated their opinions, it is also helpful to consider the opinions of physicians and journalists regarding popular beliefs. After all, it
The study of witchcraft accusations in Europe during the period after the end of the witch trials is still in its infancy. The present volume, together with its companion Beyond the witch trials , intends to develop the field further by presenting a plethora of studies from across Europe and, most importantly, to inspire new research. Whereas Beyond the witch trials focused on the period of the
have seen the historical study of witchcraft transformed ‘from an esoteric byway into a regular concern of social, religious and intellectual historians’ who have carried out intensive, often interdisciplinary research in the archives of continental Europe, the British Isles, and the New World. 2 This mass of research has produced a variety of explanations for the so-called witch craze, including, but not limited to: the
. Documentation and occurrence Another reason for the neglect of witchcraft in the western Netherlands during the decades around 1900 can be found in Hans de Waardt’s thesis on the subject. Although it is primarily concerned with the period up to 1800, the author thought research into manifestations beyond the eighteenth century was hardly fruitful. ‘The witchcraft histories from this period can be characterized as isolated
to consider the structure of health care more generally. This is a topic that still needs more in-depth research. 6 Nevertheless, during the period concerned we can identify two main forms of collective medical care: charity provided by authorities and individuals, and so-called ‘friendly societies’. Charitable health care funded by public authorities (municipalities, provinces and the central government) covered home and
the project of linking what has traditionally been understood as the Enlightenment to modernity. Rethinking does not mean freedom from bias – after all, my views are my own – but it does mean that a more frank attitude towards the nature and problems inherent 3 The Enlightenment and religion within the historical record is needed and commonplace research assumptions need to be re-examined. Rarely do the philosophy of history and historical research meet, yet it is only by raising basic but tricky practical and theoretical questions relating to the nature of the
. Yet we should not jump to the conclusion that the continued strength of belief, compared to England, was largely because of the influence of Catholicism. More detailed comparative research is required looking at supernatural beliefs in French Protestant areas. In the mid 1870s only around 600,000 people out of a population of thirty-six million were Protestant, 9 but did they think differently
the writer’s own more personal experiences, education and beliefs, yet those moments and phases too often remain insufficiently known to posterity. Thus, even when historians feel they have ‘well-documented’ studies of individual thinkers, the full reconstruction of the interaction of the historical subject with his/her society and immediate surroundings remains an ideal rather than a practical proposition. So, in pursuing the context of a historical figure, a realization of the frequent practical limitations of research is necessary. Most importantly, for this