The Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft

The Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft is by John Webster, Practitioner in Physick. The title page affirms that there are many sorts of Deceivers and Impostors, and divers persons under a passive Delusion of Melancholy and Fancy. Of a corporeal league made betwixt the Devil and the Witch, or of Witches turned into Cats, Dogs, raise Tempests, or the like, the title page says it is utterly denied and disproved.

The title page lists as also handled the existence of Angels and Spirits, the truth of Apparitions, the nature of Astral and Sydereal Spirits, the force of Charms, and Philters. The text says it is necessary and expedient to examine that text to the bottom to sift out the true translation, and sense of that place, and gives the rendering of the deaf Adder or Asp which will not hearken to the voice of the charmers, charming never so wisely. The text says that what totally overthrows the conceit that they should be real Devils in corporeal shapes and figures is this, that both the Calves and the Images of these Satyres were made by Jeroboam.