Leland L. Estes: ‘Reginald Scot and his Discoverie of Witchcraft: Religion and Science in the Opposition to the European Witch Craze’

Which historian did Estes critise?

Wallace Notestein

What did Wallace Notestein credit for Reginald Scot’s views on witchcraft?

Notestein attributes Scot’s opinions to his “scientific spirit”; instead of relying on the views of others, he “thought the subject out for himself”

What did Notestein frame Scot’s arguement as?

not simply as a preliminary of the scientific revolution but as a participant

What was one experiment Scot did to test out belief in witches?

He tried to get some suspected witches to enrol him in the Devil’s league

How does Leland Estes characterise Reginald Scot’s opposition to witchcraft?

Estes argues that Scot’s opposition to the witch craze found its source “in a theology that rejected the very possibility of witchcraft because, more fundamentally, it rejected the corporeal activity of created spirit”

What theological belief prevented Scot from accepting the existence of witchcraft?

Scot’s theology denied that spirits could act physically in the material world — thus, the Devil could not enter pacts or perform physical acts

How did Scot reinterpret the exorcism of Mary Magdalene in the Bible?

He claimed that the seven devils cast out of her were actually “an uncertain number of vices”

What philosophical and religious positions did Scot reject?

He rejected “the ungodly and profane sects and doctrines of the Sadducees and the Peripatetics, who deny that there are such as devils and spirits”

Who were the Sadducees?

An ancient Jewish sect that rejected beliefs in spirits, the afterlife, and angels

Who were the Peripatetics?

Followers of Aristotle, who emphasised empirical observation and often took a more rational, materialistic approach to the world

What other type of thinking did Scot reject?

Neoplatonic thinkers

Who were the Neoplatonic thinkers?

Who endorse the belief in seemingly excessive spiritual speculation

Why does Estes argue Scot’s achievement was religious, not scientific?

“Scot's achievement was not a scientific but a religious one”