ABSTRACT
Each venture featuring Lancashire's witches discussed below both reflects and contributes to the social, political, and religious discourse of the era. This chapter argues that these allegedly supernatural episodes were manipulated to comment upon contemporary issues: religious tenets were disseminated, monarchical policies confirmed and criticized, and popular culture vilified. Before Lancashire's infamous witches, it was its purported demoniacs that fascinated both regional and national populations. From modern perspective, it may be difficult to comprehend the belief that it was possible for an insubstantial spirit to physically possess an individual, but in the sixteenth century it was a perfectly viable possibility for diabolic forces to intervene directly in everyday life. Just as one can read modern literary and dramatic representations of witchcraft, such as The Crucible and Wicked, as social and political commentaries, the same is true of their predecessors. Like Lancashire's demoniacs, its witches were destined for literary infamy, appearing in print and on stage throughout the early modern era.
