Publisher's Synopsis
Belief in witches persisted for centuries across very different cultures and societies. Women could be burned and communities terrorized in the name of a superstition. Historians think that the persecuted were the victims of the rulers' need to control the people, and that the witches' sabbath - women consorting with animals and the devil - was a useful myth. In this text, Ginzburg shows that there was a popular culture of belief in natural forces and non-Christian ideas and that it was never fully tamed by the Church. He also shows that the powerful could never eradicate the culture of the people.
