ABSTRACT
This chapter diverts from an examination of conventional theatrical performances and instead considers the phenomenon of werewolf trials to examine the special place that the werewolf holds in the psychology of the Renaissance, and in our own. Werewolves have also been associated with legal procedures since ancient times. The problem with werewolves emerges in the courts. Augustine's influence on the development of both the Church and Western philosophy was so profound that he was quoted as the central authority on werewolves for as long as demonologists wrote about them. Augustine's stable universe is, at the time of writing, utterly exploded. Scientists have demonstrated that the universe is always in transition from one form to another. Life itself is permanently changing: follow the genetic ancestries of both wolf and man far enough back – to the Cretaceous Period – and they do in fact become one.
