Demon Possession in Elizabethan England

Subjects:

• History » European History -- Early Modern/Renaissance
• Religious Studies » History of Religion

Reviews:

• Sands has produced a highly readable, engaging study of the phenomenon of demonic possession in late Tudor England....Recommended. General collections; lower and upper-division undergraduates.
  —Choice June 2005
• Kathleen R. Sands's book is a series of case studies, each chapter focusing on one demoniac or a related pair. The stories are well presented, developed in sufficient depth for the reader to have some understanding of the actors and their circumstances. Some are moving, such as the story of Sarah Williams, a teenage servant kept as a prisoner for years by her employers while a team of priests tried to rid her of demons....[t]his is a pleasant little book.
  —The Historian .
• Sands (early modern English literature and history) recounts 11 cases of Elizabethan demonic possession, documenting details of each case and providing the cultural context to explain each diagnosis.
  —Reference & Research Book News August 2005
• [A] solid analysis of this intriguing topic. This book will be of use to the scholar and advanced student of the Elizabethan period. It provides good insight into this era from an often neglected angle.
  —The Sixteenth Century Journal Spring 2006

• Endorsement From Elaine Forman Crane,
  Department of History, Fordham University
  , author of Killed Strangely: the Death of Rebecca Cornell: This engaging new book by Kathleen Sands explores the mysterious world of demons, devils, and witchcraft. In scholarly--yet highly readable--prose Sands not only persuades us that Satan skulked around his unsuspecting victims, but she places the sufferers of demon possession in the larger social context of post Reformation England.... This book is a must read for anyone interested in the impact of the invisible world on early modern England.
• Endorsement From Robert D. Hicks, Ph.D.,
  Director, Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry
  Chemical Heritage Foundation: ...In her enthralling and wide-ranging study that holds its own in anthropology, intellectual history, theology, and medicine, Dr. Sands makes Elizabethan demonic possession intelligible. She leaves the reader with a respect for the lives and circumstances of long-vanished Elizabethans, and empathy for their projection of distress and suffering as religious phenomena. [She] has afforded a glimpse into the lives of people distant in time and culture who handled their difficulties differently from us....
• Endorsement From Melissa A. Zimmerman,
  Curator of Education
  Agecroft Hall & Gardens: ...Dr. Sands has pulled together information on the topic of demon possession in Elizabethan England that will please scholars with its level of research, its thoroughness in placing such cases in the context of this time in history, and above all, in its avoidance of the dry manner frequently employed in books composed with such a high level of information and research; this book is an absolute page-turner. Demon Possession in Elizabethan England presents a fascinating, scholarly look into a subject that continues to elicit discussion amongst religious institutions and the public at large even today.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction
• Anne Mylner
• Edmund Kingsfield's Wife
• Alexander Nyndge
• Robert Briggs
• Agnes Brigges and Rachel Pindar
• Sarah Williams
• Katherine Wright
• Thomas Darling
• The Starchy Seven
• William Somers
• Mary Glover
• Conclusion