ABSTRACT
English witchcraft literature abounds with narratives of imps or familiars, devils or demons in animal form that assist the witch in evildoings. The imps attended the witches on evil errands, executing their malefic plans, harming cattle. Gaule believed in witchcraft but attacked popular beliefs, including the test of trying to kill the imp, as superstitious and contradictory to the Gospel. His argument was compatible with the caution he showed toward the devil's mark, which was the imps' sucking spot. Other popular imp beliefs that thrived despite Puritan disapproval included the transformation of shapes. The epistemology underlying the variety of physical evidence was not necessarily cogent. But this study concerning the legal conundrums presented by the witchcraft phenomenon illustrates that even physical evidence is neither simple nor direct, but rather socially constructed. The evil spirits, the English widely believed, were transformed into concrete physical forms. Presenting the demons in court as direct physical evidence could have been conclusive.
