Public Infidelity and Private Belief? The Discourse of Spirits in Enlightenment Bristol

Abstract

Recent work on the history of witchcraft and magic has identified three themes or approaches as of particular importance in our understanding of a subject which, although it has been centre stage since the publication of Religion and the Decline of Magic in 1971, has continued to trouble historians. The first problem, acknowledged as ‘the most baffling aspect of this difficult subject’ by Thomas himself, is that of its decline: by rendering early modern witchcraft beliefs intelligible, historians have highlighted the issue of why and how far they ceased to have meaning (or function), and many have regarded this as the least satisfactory feature of Thomas’s account.¹ The much greater interest now being displayed in the culture of the long eighteenth century, including its occult aspects, has rendered this theme of pressing concern.