ABSTRACT
Number of witches and of supporters of the Devil is growing rapidly, so that almost all towns and villages in the whole of Germany not to mention other people and nations are full of this vermin. Throughout early modern Europe, people feared witchcraft. Anyone who has heard of an essential definition of witchcraft has been misinformed. The four fields of the early modern concept of witchcraft were all interlinked, but they can be separated out for analytical purposes. The first field to be discussed, then, is the demonic witch of the elite the witch who was in league with the Devil. Then comes the village witch of the common people the witch who harmed her or his neighbours. Witchcraft was also a matter of story and legend, so people need a third field: the folkloric witch. The fourth field, therefore, is the witch experienced through trance, dream and nightmare: the envisioned witch.
