ABSTRACT
Scotland is a good place to carry out a regional study of this issue. As a country where witch-hunting was intense, it was naturally also the scene of demonological discussion, some of it involving the country’s royal demonologist, James VI. It was usually agreed that the witch’s ability to fly came from the Devil. However, demonologists recognized several different types of flight – especially bodily flight and flight in spirit. James seems to have created these problems for himself by basing his understanding of witches’ flight on the story of Habbakuk. Witches’ flight received further and perhaps broader demonological treatment in the university of St Andrews on 26 July 1599. The final period of Scottish demonology began with the high-profile case of the Bargarran witches of 1697 – though the flurry of publications at this time was followed by terminal decline.
