Instruments of Darkness: Witchcraft in Early Modern England

Seminar Studies in History

by James Sharpe

They flew through the air, consorted with animals, and made pacts with the devil. Witches were as unquestioned as alchemy or astrology in medieval England; yet it wasn't until the midsixteenth century that laws were passed against them. Now a leading historian of crime and society in early modern England offers the first scholarly overview of witchcraft in that country in over eighty years, examining how tensions between church, state, and society produced widespread distrust among fearful people.

Instruments of Darkness takes readers back to a time when witchcraft was accepted as reality at all levels of society. James Sharpe draws on legal records and other sources to reveal the interplay between witchcraft beliefs in different partts in the social hierarchy. Along the way, he offers disturbing accounts of witch-hunts, such as the East Anglian trials of 1645-47 that sent more than 100 people to the gallows. He tells how poor, elderly women were most often accused of witchcraft and challenges feminist claims that witch-hunts represented male persecution by showing that many accusers were themselves women.

Prosecution of witches gradually declined with increasing skepticism among jurists, new religious attitudes, and scientific advances that explained away magic. But for two hundred years, thousands participated in one of history's most notorious persecutions. Instruments of Darkness is a fascinating case study that deepens our understanding of this age-old cultural phenomenon and sheds new light on one society in which it occurred.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Witchcraft, British Literature, Witches, 17th Century, 16th Century

384 pages, Paperback

First published August 29, 1996

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Reviews

[Joseph F. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author gives us here a very exhaustive view of witchcraft in that little country we know as England. Not Great Britain, just jolly old England. So you will not see anything here concerning Scotland, Northern Ireland or Wales. (Although Wales never seems to come up in books dealing with the history of witchcraft).
So Sharpe gives us a very focused book. Although continental witchcraft does come up at times for the sake of comparison, this work paints a picture of the peculiarities concerning English witchcraft. For example, witches were not burned, but hanged. The idea of the familiar was popular here, and less so on the continent. Thus the famous witche's mark was more like a teat than a simple mark (in order to feed the familiar.) I like ghoulish things like this. But as the history of witchcraft is to a large extent a legal history, it is just a matter of time before the justice system of England is talked about. This is good or bad depending on how excited you are about legal history! so we then learn about the assizes of England and the fact that the justice system was less inquisitorial than it was elsewhere.
Sharpe's book is interesting to those who love this stuff. But it may not find too much love with those who don't care about history. He writes in a straight forward style that is not dull, but not too exciting either. That's fine by me, but a few complaints include the fact that Sharpe refers to cases of witchcraft often, without starting with the story from beginning to end. For example, he/she refers to different facts of the Lancashire trials to illustrate different points throughout the book. It works well when dealing with proving a point, but the reader is left with a rather complex and confused picture as to what the heck happened, from beginning to end, at Lancashire! of course the author is in a tough spot, if he/she gave a brief description of all the cases that were referred to, the book may have been too big. But perhaps some of the larger, more notorious cases could have been more sketched out, such as the one mentioned above, and the episode at Warboys, as well as some others.
Another small complaint is the size of the print. Really, really small! I'm old! I like larger print. It made me feel like I was plowing through a 400 hundred page book rather than a 300 page one.
But still, this would be a good addition to your history of witchcraft book collection, if you are thinking of starting one. Just don't make it the first one; it's a tad overwhelming. And have good lighting!

[Melisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book to be a dense and protracted exercise in reading. The topic was interesting, and I liked the first-hand accounts and examples. Yet, I felt like it took me an eternity to process through its chapters. I think that it could have been less plodding if the author had not gone on so many different tangents in each chapter.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very basic/baseline history of English witch trials. Didn't go too much into depth and only brushed over gender which I thought was weird for a history of witch trials.... some good ideas and will deffo use the primary sources from this

[bri]

james sharpe does not understand that things can be historically connected without being perfectly comparable in scale or logic so

[lea ౨ৎ]

read for uni

[Liko · Rating 3 out of 5]

ტომასის გადამღერებაა, მაგრამ საინტერესოა მაინც

[Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fairly short, academic text, pitched at sixth year high school to university undergraduate level. The style is fairly dry, but probably to be expected considering the target readership. It charts the rise and fall of witchcraft as a belief before it was written in and out of statute over the course of the 16th to 18th centuries. As the title suggest, it focuses on England but does reference Scotland and Europe by way of comparison and contrast. It is concisely dense, if that makes sense, but offers a generous amount of reference material. The main book itself is over in less than a hundred pages. It sets out that there was no singular reason attributable to the rise of witchcraft accusations, despite misogyny and theology being at its core. The lesser known fact, that accusations of witchcraft were often challenged by friends or neighbours who would give evidence leading to the case being dropped, was interesting as it is something not often reported. Overall a good supplementary text for people interested in the subject. The author makes clear where the evidence is lacking and does his best not to jump to undocumented conclusions.

[Patrycja]

It would be unfair to say that this book was written in response to an exaggerated number of killed witches used in broadly named "feminist narrative" ( I believe this is the wording used in the book. But it is treating this narrative as the touchpoint of some sorts.

Is that bad? Nor necessarily. But sometimes it did came accross like "See? See? Women were more involved in witch trials then in any other trials. So it wasn't the patriarchat.". It makes sense when we keep in mind the relevant touchpoint. (And yes I am simplifying a nuanced academic book. Oh well.)

Personally I started reading it to build a neutral background of knowledge in this topic, before I get to interpretation heavy titles. It was good for that. I ain't a historian, so somewhere in the other half I was "just getting through to the other side". Conclusion got me into thinking about modern spirituality.
I trust mr James Sharpe that all the data he based his research on was indeed relevant and of good quality, so can't say much more than that.

[nia · Rating 1 out of 5]

this book BLOWS dude watch out for chapter 7 which is literally just hot steaming misogyny??? i honestly think that any work in witchcraft studies that so glaringly ignores feminist historiography is functionally useless and not worth the paper it's printed on :)

[Salsabeel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very witchy!

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

The author's dry, dusty writing style makes what could be a fascinating book about an interesting subject a tedious plod. The chapter on witchcraft and women so badly misses the point it's laughable.

[Erin-Lucy Bird · Rating 5 out of 5]

"New Thomas Colleys, Kramers and Sprengers are already inside the gates awaiting their opportunity."
This was a very interesting introduction to early modern witchcraft. It gave a clear and easy to understand examination of these tragedies.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a short but informative book by James A. Sharpe, a great historian on the subject. James Sharpe examines why witch hunts occured in early modern England, and looks at contemporary views of witchcraft. James Sharpe provides an overview of the current arguments and schools of thought regarding the period. He also addresses the gender dimensions of the witch persecutions since the majority of people accused of witchcraft in England were women. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the subject. It's a great introduction into the study of early modern english witchcraft trials.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

I gave Instruments of Darkness 3 stars for the copious amounts of information that it contains and not necessary for the quality of writing. It is completely packed with examples of witchcraft which means that it can get rather boring. Honestly, this book is best when skimmed for the main ideas. But, despite my misgivings as to Sharpe's writing abilities (at least when it comes to readability), the analysis of witchcraft in this book is very compelling. Sharpe does a good job of giving a new perspective on witchcraft in early modern England.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

James Sharpe is a well known historian on the topic of witchcraft in early modern England. The witchcraft trials in England were different from their contiental counterparts and that becomes apparent in this book. Sharpe comes to some great conclusions. Mr. Sharpe analyzed how tensions between church, state, and society were able to produce such widespread fear that led to the witchcraft accusations and trials. I really enjoyed this book and learned a lot from it. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to learn more about the subject.

[Lynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great - erudite and accessible. Lifts the metaphorical lid from some of the ridiculous myths that have grown up around accusations and trials, especially that of the 'swimming' torture. Academic and well researched. Anyone who's remotely interested should read this.

[Annalisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

An introduction to both witchcraft in early modern England and what scholars have argued about it. It also includes excerpts from 27 documents from the period, which is a great help to drawing my own conclusions about the period.

[J.D. Yoakum · Rating 4 out of 5]

Walks the line between survey and argument well. A bit too critical of Thomas and Macfarlane, but still an excellent and important addition to the historiography of witchcraft.