ABSTRACT
Recent years have witnessed a renaissance in the study of early modern demonology. Much attention has rightly fallen on Johann Weyer, the figure who initiated the late sixteenth-century discussion of the punishment of witches with his classic work De Praestigiis Daemonum. The debate between Weyer and Thomas Erastus represents a classic inter-Protestant discussion of the witchcraft question. Although scholars have long known that Erastus wrote in response to Weyer, the many personal and professional ties that linked the two men have not previously been disclosed. Erastus was embroiled in the controversy regarding church discipline when he first turned his attention to the question of the punishment of witches. He wrote his first short treatise regarding witchcraft in late 1570. Erastus and Weyer inhabited essentially the same world view regarding what witches could actually accomplish. The controversy between them was focused singularly on the punishment of witches.
