ABSTRACT
“Demonology” means ideas about witches and demons, and ideas that explain witches through their relationship with demons. And “witch-hunting” means prosecutions of witches, sometimes in large numbers. Early modern Europe had a good deal of both. Demonology and witch-hunting were not the same as each other, but they were surely connected—or were they? This chapter is primarily historiographical and conceptual, reviewing the changing ways in which demonology and witch-hunting—and various other related topics—have been studied in recent decades. The chapter argues that it has been helpful to study demonology and witch-hunting separately, and indeed that separate studies of these and other topics will continue to be welcome. However, it is time to revisit the idea that they were connected, and to explore and clarify the nature of that connection.
