ABSTRACT
Scottish Calvinism, like most other denominations in seventeenth-century Europe adhered to the demonic pact theory of witchcraft — the theory that the witch made a covenant with the Devil, selling her soul to him. This doctrine was all the more poignant in Scotland with its National Covenant of 1638 and its emphasis on the importance of soul-covenanting with God. Yet theories need the support of experience to survive. To ascribe a sudden death to witchcraft seems understandable in a pre-scientific society, but why embroider this almost common-sense notion with the whole paraphernalia of demonic pact and meetings with Satan? What experiences could have upheld this? Why did Catholic societies without the notion of covenanting also believe this theory? Is there, perhaps, a neglected dimension in which the experiences of seventeenth-century folk radically differed from our own?
