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DEMONIC POSSESSION AND EXORCISM
IN EARLY MODERN ENGLAND
This is the first book exclusively devoted to demonic possession and
exorcism in early modern England. It offers, for the first time, mod-
ernised versions of the most significant early modern texts on nine
cases of demonic possession from the period 1570 to 1650, the key
period in English history for demonic possession. The nine stories
were all written by eye-witnesses or were derived from eye-witness
reports. They involve matters of life and death, sin and sanctity, guilt
and innocence, of crimes which could not mitted and punish-
ments which could not be deserved. The nine critical introductions
which pany the stories address the different strategic inten-
tions of those who wrote them. The modernised texts and critical
introductions are placed within the context of a wide-ranging general
introduction to demonic possession in England across the period 1550
to 1700.
philip c. almond is Professor of Studies in Religion at the
University of Queensland. He is the author of a number of books
including Adam and Eve in Seventeenth-Century Thought (Cambridge,
1999); Heaven and Hell in Enlightenment England (Cambridge, 1994);
Heretic and Hero: Muhammad and the Victorians (1989); and The
British Discovery of Buddhism (Cambridge, 1988).
DEMONIC POSSESSION
AND EXORCISM IN EARLY
MODERN ENGLAND
Contemporary Texts and their Cultural Contexts
PHILIP C. ALMOND
cambridge university press
Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo
Cambridge University Press
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge cb2 2ru, UK
Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
Information on this title: 0521813235
© Philip C. Almond 2004
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of
relevant collective licensing agreement