Gender, Supernatural Power, Agency and the Metamorphoses of the Familiar in Early Modern Pamphlet Accounts of English Witchcraft

Supernatural creatures, widely believed to carry out malevolent deeds for witches, and commonly called familiars or imps, figured prominently in pamphlet accounts of early modern English witchcraft. Incorporated as they were into theological and judicial notions of maleficium, familiars came to be viewed as evidence of the witch's diabolical pact. Evidence from English pamphlets suggests, nevertheless, that accused women actively contested such intellectual concepts. The familiar rather became a vehicle through which accused women resisted the learned language of diabolical subordination and presented witchcraft in their own terms, commensurate with their experiences of, and struggles to survive in, the harsh environment of early modern England.