The mass of existing material on this subject is so great that the author has not attempted to make a survey of the whole of European 'Witchcraft', but has confined herself to an intensive study of the cult in Great Britain. In order, however, to obtain a clearer understanding of the ritual and beliefs she had recourse to French and Flemish sources, as the cult appears to have been the same throughout Western Europe. The sources from which the information is taken are the judicial records and contemporary chroniclers. In the case of the chroniclers, the author has studied their facts and not...

Margaret Alice Murray (1863 -1963) was a prominent British anthropologist and Egyptologist. Her theories were acknowledged to have significantly influenced the emergence of Wicca and reconstructionist neopagan religions. Her main thesis in The Witch-cult in Western Europe was that a common pattern of underground pagan resistance to the Christian Church existed across Europe. Pagans worshipped a male God in covens of 13 worshippers. She believed that pagan beliefs and religion dating from the neolithic through the medieval period, secretly practiced human sacrifice until exposed by the...

A ground breaking work of Anthropology, Margaret Murray tackles the taboo subject of Europe's Pagan roots. Contrary to popular history, Murray contends that our European ancestors did not completely convert to Christianity at an early date- rather, remnants of "The Old Religion" lingered long into the 17th century. She backs up her theories with competant, scholarly research into both archeological and historical records. With the eye of a scientist and scholar, Murray examines the truth behind the Witch Trials, the legend ofRobin Hood, the deaths of Thomas Beckett and Joan of Arc, and the...