Europe's Inner Demons: The Demonization of Christians in Medieval Christendom [Paperback]

Norman Cohn (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0226113078 | ISBN-13: 978-0226113074 | Publication Date: January 15, 2001 | Edition: 1

Europe's Inner Demons is a fascinating history of the irrational need to imagine witches and an investigation of how those fantasies made the persecutions of the middle ages possible. In addition, Norman Cohn's discovery that some influential sources on European witch trials were forgeries has revolutionized the field of witchcraft, making this one of the most essential books ever written on the subject.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“It is a brilliant book.”
—Bernard Levin, Observer --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From the Inside Flap

Europe's Inner Demons is a fascinating history of the irrational need to imagine witches and an investigation of how those fantasies made the persecutions of the middle ages possible. In addition, Norman Cohn's discovery that some influential sources on European witch trials were forgeries has revolutionized the field of witchcraft, making this one of the most essential books ever written on the subject.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 281 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition (January 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226113078
• ISBN-13: 978-0226113074
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #509,618 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Elegantly Written -- The Intellectual Roots of Witch Hunts, January 29, 2001

By 

James Wood (El Paso, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Europe's Inner Demons: The Demonization of Christians in Medieval Christendom (Paperback)

Witch-hunts have erupted again and again throughout the history of Western civilization. The accusations are remarkably similar and stable over time. A group of "witches" or "devil worshippers" are accused of sacrificing and eating children, engaging in incestuous orgies, and worshipping a "god" in animal form who presides over the obscene rituals. The first such accusations were leveled against the early Christians, culminating in a bloody persecution in the (then) Roman city of Lyons. The most recent example occurred in the United States in the 1980s and early 1990s, when similar accusations were made against teachers and child-care workers across the United States in the "daycare ritual abuse panic" that included the McMartin, Country Walk, and Kelly Michaels cases. In "Europe's Inner Demons", Norman Cohn shows how the "fantasy" of witch-cults grew and took shape during the early Christian era, leading to persecutions of heretics such as the Waldensians, orthodox Catholic Crusaders such as the Order of the Knights Templar, and finally the Great European Witch Hunt, which eventually spilled over into North America in the famous Salem Witch Trials. This is one of the most informative books on witchcraft available, elegantly written, and relatively short. It will appeal to anyone who is seriously interested in witch-craft, organized persecutions, or the history of religious thought. More importantly, it will provide a deeper understanding of the "fantasy" of witch sects and bloody satanic cults that still lives in our own country and our own time.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Classic of Historical Writing and Sober Thinking, October 30, 2001

By 

Ricky Hunter (New York City, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Europe's Inner Demons: The Demonization of Christians in Medieval Christendom (Paperback)

Norman Cohn's Europe's Inner Demons (The Demonization of Christians in Medieval Christendom) originally came out in 1975 and is a nice companion piece to his Pursuit of the Millennium book. It has remained in print because it is a sober analysis of the fantasies behind the persecutions of such dissenting Christians as the Waldensians which led horribly to the great witch-hunts of the early modern period. The author helps remove much of the scholary nonsense that had accumulated onto the historical concept of witches in the past two centuries and puts them into their proper historical context. The book begins with a wonderfully enlightening glimpse of antiquity that is both illuminating and horrifying as the later fantasies against witches are first seen being used by Romans against early Christians. This is a well-argued and presented book that deserves to remain in circulation as long as people continue to believe there was truth behind the accusations direct at these persecuted and demonized Christians of the Middle Ages. A superb book.

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How the Great Witch Hunt Really Started, June 16, 2002

By 

"badric" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Europe's Inner Demons: The Demonization of Christians in Medieval Christendom (Paperback)

Europe's Inner Demons is a fascinating account of how some generally harmless traditions and superstitions combined to make the massive witch hunts of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries possible. There are no conclusive figures, but it is generally agreed that several thousands of men, women and children were executed during this period across Western Europe. With the only exception of England, where this phenomenon never really caught on, this was a widespread practice in countries as different as Spain, Portugal, Scotland, Sweden, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands and particularly in France and Germany. But how did it all begin? Why was Eastern Europe and the rest of the world virtually untouched by this phenomenon? And how did the educated classes came to believe the ancient peasant superstitions that allowed the Great Witch Hunt to take place?

You'll find all the answers in Norman Cohn's stunning piece of historical detective work; an exhaustively researched and brilliantly written book that doesn't deal with the Great Witch Hunt itself but with the societies and traditions were it originated, in some cases stretching as far back as classical Greece and Rome. Also prominent are the persecutions of members of several heretical sects throughout Middle Ages and even religious orders like the Templars. Norman Cohn also analyses the works of modern "specialist" like Margaret Murray and Montague Summers and concludes that the reality was more complex and definitely less glamorous than they thought.