"Stuart Clark brings the Universe down to Earth for the general reader and explains why we should expect to find life on every habitable planet in the Galaxy."--Jacket.

"The chronological scope of this volume ranges from the heroic age of Homer's Greek East to the time of the rise of Christianity, a period of well over a thousand years. In this long millennium the political and cultural landscapes of the Mediterranean basin underwent significant changes, as competing creeds and denominations rose to the fore, and often accused each other of sorcery." -- Page 4 of cover.

Introduction / Bengt Ankarloo and Stuart Clark -- pt. 1. Witch trials in continental Europe, 1560-1660 / William Monter -- Montgaillard, 1643 -- Features of continental witch trials -- Witchcraft and the Reformations -- Three-quarters German? European witch trials 1560-1660 -- A German Sonderweg? -- 1563: Weyer and Wiesensteig -- Germany's "superhunts" (1586-1639) -- A Bavarian Sonderweg? -- Confessionalism and appellate justice in the empire -- The...