ABSTRACT
During one of the most violent phases of the French Wars of Religion (1562-1598), the Spanish Jesuit Juan Maldonado made an extraordinarily original contribution to early-modern demonology. This contribution did not originally take on a printed form: rather it started life as a theological course taught at one of the most prestigious and innovative Parisian educational institutions of the period. Between 1551 and 1557 Maldonado studied grammar, Greek, logic, rhetoric and philosophy in Salamanca. Even more recent historians have, for the most part ignored him and have continued to underestimate his significance both for his contribution to Catholic theology and demonology, and for his role in the Wars of Religion. The lectures dedicated to impure spirits also show a trace of bitterness which reflected the anti-Protestant fanaticism of the author, disappointed by the outcome of the Third War of Religion (1568-1570), which made considerable concessions to French Protestants.
