The Role Of Witchcraft In New England

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These skeptical interpretations of possession coexisted in New England society alongside the official Puritan view. Sometimes the possessed were not encouraged to name the witches responsible for their afflictions (not even by their own ministers); any names voluntarily offered by them were not taken seriously, and no one was formally accused. Other times, most notably during outbreaks, the possessed became important— if not the most important— sources of witch identifications. At all times, however, as we shall see, the possessed provided the most visible support for the clergy’s argument that the greatest danger of witchcraft lay in the power of witches to enlist others in the Devil’s

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