Daemonologie

Printed in 1597 over the signature of James, this treatise argues that magic, sorcery and witchcraft are real and that those who practise them deserve harsh punishment. The preface says it was written to answer two authors of the day, Scot and Wierus, who doubted that witches existed at all.

The text is a conversation between two speakers. Philomathes doubts, and Epistemon answers him with Scripture, scholarly reasoning and what he calls daily experience. The talk is split into three books: the first deals with magic and necromancy, the second with sorcery and witchcraft, and the third with the spirits and apparitions said to trouble people.

A short piece titled Newes from Scotland follows the dialogue. The spelling is that of the sixteenth century, with u and v swapped and doubled letters throughout. Today it is read as a primary source for how an educated ruler reasoned about the supernatural, and for early modern thinking on witchcraft in Scotland.