The authors explain the case of Elspeth Reoch, who in the early 1600s was accused of witchcraft and killed in her teens after making a career as a person with the gift of “second sight.” She claimed to have received this gift from the knowledge of two men from the “fairy world,” one of whom she entered into a sexual relationship with. The same man was abusive and told Elspeth that giving her this gift meant he had to take away her power of speech. She stopped speaking shortly after that, and was at one point beaten by her own brother in an attempt to “cure” her of this. At her trial, she confessed that the man was indeed the Devil and no fairy at all.

The authors describe the presence of magical belief during this era and how creatures like fairies, sprites, and the Devil were all considered pure fact. They argue that it was not magic itself that people took issue with, because people known as “service magicians” were not persecuted in the same way as witches. These charmers and ritual performers were accepted in society while those deemed to be “witches” were not. The authors argue that many superstitions from this era linger today, and influence the way people live and view one another.

For much of Scottish history, people believed that the supernatural world (called the “Otherworld”) and natural worlds were interlinked and at their baseline neutral, but as Protestantism took over in the mid-1500s and Catholicism was gradually replaced with Protestantism, a new view of the supernatural took hold, which was to say that it was considered evil and satanic.

The 1500s-1700s in Scotland was a time of upheaval and instability, and the authors argue that the prevalence of witches or accusations of witchcraft increase during such times. In the mid-1500s, as the Scottish Reformation saw Protestantism take over as the dominant religion, the queen regent died, leaving her 18-year-old daughter Mary with the throne. Mary was Catholic but was away in France when, in 1560, two major laws were passed by what became known as the Scottish Reformation Parliament. The first deemed Protestantism the “true” Kirk (church) of Scotland, while the Papal Jurisdiction Act removed the Pope’s authority.

Three years later, the new government was seeking to impress the church’s power on Scottish people and created the Witchcraft Act of 1563. The authors argue that this was done as a way to solidify the church’s power and prevent people from turning to anyone but the church for their spiritual needs. The term “witchcraft” included anything deemed witchcraft, sorcery, or necromancy, but was no more specific than that. Anyone who performed or consulted these practices would be executed. Whereas witches were formerly associated with helping those in need, they now became directly associated with the Devil.

This idea was backed by the Queen of Scotland and her son, the future King James VI of Scotland (who would also become King James I of England). Though the Act did not specify women as being the only ones capable of witchcraft, around 85% of those accused were women, suggesting there was patriarchal bias at play. In the 1590s, during the reign of King James VI (who also authored the book Daemonologie which detailed the “evils” of witches and other entities), the first “big witch purge” (19) began.

King James VI was born to Queen Mary of Scotland and her husband, Lord Darnley, on June 19th, 1566, and was crowned King only thirteen months later, after his father was killed and his mother was blamed and arrested for his death. The Protestant church and one if its primary leaders, John Knox, held major influence over King James VI as he grew up. King James VI was raised to be vigilant against threats from the Devil, who was known to take on human form. When he was 23, he was married to Princess Anne of Denmark, but had never met her. When the ship she was on failed to cross the sea due to bad weather, witches were blamed for the issue, and King James VI instead sailed to meet Anne instead. They spent a year together before moving back to Scotland, during which time King James VI met Niels Hemmingsen, a theologian who spoke on what he considered the issue of witchcraft.

Witchcraft was also becoming a commonly accused crime in Denmark, where a pamphlet detailing witches and their confessions was distributed across the country. Debate continued on the issue of Anne’s ship to Scotland and what caused the bad weather, and it was decided that witches must have sent demons, riding in barrels, to interfere. In May of 1590, a Danish woman named Ane Koldings confessed to this exact crime while under torture, claiming that several other witches were also involved. She and the others were executed in the following months. King James VI began to consider his own return trip and how fraught with problems it was, and became convinced that witches were behind it as well. After “a lifetime of religious zeal, political paranoia, and influential advice” (26), James became the complainant in various cases brought to trial, accusing dozens and beginning Scotland’s first significant witch hunt.

The end of the chapter details a “Portrait of the Accused” (29) for Euphame MacCalzean, who despite her wealth and privilege was among the first to be part of the North Berwick witch trials in Scotland in 1590. She was accused of using witchcraft, along with several others, to interfere with King James VI’s safe passage back to Scotland, and executed by being burned alive in 1591.

This chapter includes the entirety of the pamphlet Newes from Scotland, written in 1591 and detailing a major case which resulted in the execution of dozens of people. The two authors sought access to the publication at the Bodleian Library at Oxford University and translated it into contemporary English for the reader.

This publication outlines the confessions of Dr. Fian, who was accused of sorcery alongside several others in the conspiracy to interfere with the King’s passage back to Scotland and murder him. The initial nine people named were named by Geillis Duncan, a maid who was suspected of witchcraft and who, when caught, decided to bring several others in with her. One of these people, Agnes Sampson, refused to confess anything until her entire body was shaved and a “Devil’s mark” was found on her private parts. Another woman confessed to interacting with the Devil directly and explained that each witch had to kiss the devil’s buttocks to swear allegiance to him. Agnes further added that the coven used a cat and the body parts of a dead man to curse the waters and cause the storm.

Dr. Fian, one of the only men accused, confessed to having manipulated a man into a type of mental illness, as well as attempted to win a woman’s sexual attention by having her brother steal her public hair. Dr. Fian managed to escape for a time, but was re-captured and severely tortured. He retracted his confessions before his death by strangulation. At no point was it considered a possibility that any of these people confessed under duress, and not because any of it was actually true. 

Throughout the publication, several mentions are made of King James VI’s holiness and the assertion that he was “saved” by his solid faith in God. At the end of the trials in North Berwick, King James VI penned Daemonologie, “the king’s own treatise on demons, spirits, witches, and all that is unholy” (45).

The chapter ends with the account of Allison Ballfour, who was executed for witchcraft. She was accused by the servant of the brother of the Earl of Orkney, who was sure his brothers were trying to kill him and take his power. Allison was named as a co-conspirator and taken to Kirkwall Castle, where she was tortured. She refused to give in or confess, so her family was brought in and tortured in front of her. Upon seeing her daughter experience the torture, Allison confessed, but retracted this confession before her death.

The authors explain that King James VI’s work was divided into three books and designed to argue against recent claims that witchcraft was a hoax by explaining the nature of witchcraft and all other associated supernatural phenomena. The King also wanted to prove that people who engaged with witchcraft deserved punishment (or worse). He framed the books as a conversation between two Greek men, one of whom is ignorant while the other is knowledgeable and teaches the unknowledgeable man. The authors include summaries of the book’s seven chapters/conversations.

The first chapter outlines three arguments for why witches are a real phenomenon, including their interactions with the Devil, their affinity for “fleshly” desires, and the fact that God does not intervene to prevent their executions. The second chapter outlines how the Devil preys on women who lack a belief in God and fills them with a sense of despair until they are vulnerable enough to agree to his deal. Afterwards, he marks them somewhere on their body, and does not heal the wound until they meet again. From there, the woman is taught how to do whatever it is she seeks to learn. 

Chapter three explains that witches worship the devil in the same way believers worship God, and ultimately live to serve the Devil’s purpose.

The fourth chapter discusses what witches cannot do, such as turning themselves into animals or leaving their bodies to travel in spirit form. Chapter five discusses how witches make bargains with the Devil to get what they want in exchange for evil acts, and explains that most witches are women because, like Eve, they are more susceptible to temptation. It explains how witches use various tactics like potions, weather manipulation, and manipulation of emotions, all of which are done through the Devil’s will. It also argues that no curse can be undone without killing the witch responsible for it.

Chapter six details how witches can only use their powers in prison if they are caught by a citizen, rather than the magistrate; it also discusses how the Devil will visit witches in prison, either to give them hope of escape or to encourage them to end their lives, depending on the state in which he finds them. The last chapter discusses the reason why witches were seen more often following the Scottish Reformation, with King James VI claiming it was because Catholicism led people toward the Devil and thus toward evil spirits, while in his time, witchcraft existed in plentiful amounts because of a sense of rebellion and rejection of faith amongst some.

The authors argue that the King’s book was his way of proving his value as the King of Scotland, and that throughout, he positions himself as a sort of savior or ultimate holy person. After he was crowned king of England, he passed the Witchcraft Act of 1603, which sought to further criminalize any activity considered witchcraft. The authors admit they were changed by the reading of this book, as it led to the realization that people at the time believed that God in some way allowed the Devil, and thus witches, to perform evil acts in order to test people’s faith.

The end of the chapter gives a portrait of Janet Wishart, who was accused of witchcraft in Aberdeen in 1597 following a supposed gathering of witches. Her husband and children were also accused, though all but she and her son were eventually acquitted. Janet was supposedly guilty of a wide array of crimes such as manipulating the weather and entering peoples’ dreams, and was executed in February of 1597.

The authors asked themselves whether the witch trials in Scotland were simply the result of religious extremism and control, or the result of environmental and social conditions which led to these events. They sought the expertise of a Scottish historian named Dr. Louise Yeoman, one of several founders of the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft, the largest online database of its kind. 

Louise explained that between the difficult physical life of fishing dangerous waters, succumbing to disease, and more, people were looking for something or someone to blame. Louise also described the story of a woman named Anna Tait, who upon being arrested used the opportunity to confess to murdering her first husband and helping her daughter have an abortion, which led to her death. In another case, a woman described her son being taken away from her by fairies. In both cases, the women seemed in deep grief for those they had lost. 

The authors argue that all of this, along with Scotland’s patriarchal attitudes toward women as more vulnerable and corrupt, is what led to the trials. Additionally, the men in power were making early attempts to keep women, or those without power, down. The authors also argue that Protestant minister John Knox held some influence over peoples’ ideas at the time, largely because of his belief that women should not hold positions of power.

The authors met historian Marion Gibson, who works to challenge misinformation about witches and their history. She explained that in the past, strange ideas would spread and catch on, much in the same way they do today. The authors point to a consistent pattern throughout history in which humans crave gossip and hearing about the mistakes and flaws of others, and this was coupled alongside a population that was largely illiterate and at the will of the elite. 

Marion argues that the idea of a binary good and evil, or God and Devil, also contributed to the belief in witches, as those on the “good” side were always powerful, elitist men, leaving their opposite to be the women. Overall, both Marion and the authors deem the main, underlying issue to be a general hatred toward women. Marion also believes that many women confessed to untrue events because of the position of power it put them in, however temporary. It instilled fear in the men who listened to these accounts.

The chapter ends with the account of Margaret Aitken who, after being accused of witchcraft, confessed to being able to detect other witches by simply looking in their eyes. The King approved for Margaret to tour around Scotland and pick out witches to be tried, which led to several hundred trials and deaths. When it was discovered that her ability was a fabrication, Margaret herself was executed by fire. King James VI was embarrassed by the error and another major witch hunt did not occur for over 30 years.