The purpose of this thesis is to consider the connections between witchcraft prosecutions and other social phenomena. A single county and a limited period of time have been chosen so that a study in depth can be made. W.Notestein's History of Witchcraft in England 1558-1718 (Washington, 1911) had already surveyed English witchcraft beliefs at a general level and the various works by C.L. Ewen, particularly his Witch Hunting and Witch Trials (1929), had shown that there was still a consid- erable amount of legal material relating to the prosecution of witches in the archives. Ewen's abstracts from Assize indictments suggested that Essex would be a suitable county for intensive study since it produced an over- whelming proportion of his witchcraft cases. The first part of the thesis is therefore an extension of the work of Ewen and Notestein. It discusses the various sources which may be used to analyse witchcraft beliefs. The cases which result from the investigation of these sources are presented in an appendix of prosecutions.

One area of history that historians have ignored is that of children and their relationship to witchcraft and the witch trials. This thesis begins with a survey of historical done on the general theme of childhood, and moves on to review secondary literature about children and the continental witch trials. The thesis also reviews demonological theory relating to children and the roles children played in the minds of continental and English demonologists. Children played various roles: murder victims, victims of dedication to Satan, child-witches, witnesses for the prosecution, victims of bewitchment or possession, and victims of seduction into witchcraft. The final section of the thesis deals with children and English witchcraft. In England children tended to play the same roles as described by the demonologists.

According to Walter Stephens, witch-theorists in the fifteenth century developed the witchcraft belief of demon copulation in order to prove the existence of demons and therefore the existence of God. In England, during the mid-seventeenth century, Cartesian and materialist philosophies spread. These new philosophies stated there was nothing in the world but corporeal substances, and these substances had to conform to natural law. This, the philosophers argued, meant witchcraft was impossible. Certain other philosophers believed a denial of any incorporeal substance would lead to atheism, and so used witchcraft as proof of incorporeal spirits to refute what they felt was a growing atheism in the world. By examining this debate we can better understand the decline of witchcraft. This debate between corporeal and incorporeal was part of the larger debate over the existence of witchcraft. It occurred at a time in England when the persecution of witches was declining. Using witchcraft as proof of incorporeal substances was one of the last uses of witchcraft before it disappeared as a valid belief. Therefore, a better understanding of this debate adds to a better understanding of witchcraft during its decline.