Digital Download eBook Saducismus Triumphatus by Joseph Glanvill Witches Ghosts Wicca Witchcraft

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Saducismus triumphatus is a book on witchcraft by Joseph Glanvill, published posthumously in England in 1681.

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Saducismus triumphatus is a book on witchcraft by Joseph Glanvill, published posthumously in England in 1681.

The editor is presumed to have been Henry More, who certainly contributed to the volume and topical material on witchcraft in Sweden was supplied by Anthony Horneck to later editions. By 1683 this appeared as a lengthy appendix. ]Horneck's contribution came from a Dutch pamphlet of 1670.

The book affirmed the existence of witches with malign supernatural powers of magic, and attacked skepticism concerning their abilities. Glanvill likened these skeptics to the Sadducees, members of a Jewish sect from around the time of Jesus who were said to have denied the immortality of the soul. The book is also noted for the account of the Drummer of Tedworth, an early poltergeist story, and for one of the earliest descriptions of the use of a witch bottle, a countercharm against witchcraft.




The book strongly influenced Cotton Mather in his Discourse on Witchcraft (1689) and the Salem witch trials held 1692-3 in Salem, Massachusetts. Mather's Wonders of the Invisible World (1693) is largely modeled after this book and its reports, particularly the material relating to the Mora witch trial of 1669.The book is cited by H. P. Lovecraft in his short story The Festival.




The "Saducismus Triumphatus" of Joseph Glanvill, originally published in 1681, is one of the seminal works on witches, demons, ghosts, and other paranormal happenings. Glanvill was a distinguished member of the famous Royal Society (of which Isaac Newton was a member) and was disturbed by the rising skepticism and disbelief concerning demons and witches in the late 17th century. Glanvill believed, perhaps justly, that a rising disbelief in ghosts and spirits would eventually lead to a disbelief in Christianity. Glanvill, as an active opponent to Atheism, set out to prove, using scientific means, that ghosts and demons were in fact real, and continued to be a menace to a good Christian society. In doing so, Glanvill produced what has been called the first book on psychical research and what is generally considered the most influential of all English works on witchcraft and the paranormal.
Glanvill relates a number of stories that he collected from friends and colleagues concerning witchery, demons, and other supernatural beings, though he himself witnessed one first hand. Glanvill personally visited the Mompesson house and claimed to witness the doings of the famous Demon Drummer of Tedworth, supposedly the disembodied spirit of a dead soldier who was thought to haunt the place. The other tales deal with other interesting incidents of levitations, flying witches, sabbats, and much more. It is understandable why this work was so popular in its day despite the growing disbelief in the existence of witches.
As noted below, Glanvill's works were highly influential on the Boston clergyman Cotton Mather and were referenced in his "Wonders of the Invisible World", a defence of the Salem Witch Trials published shortly after that infamous affair. Glanvill's attempt to use science and reason to empirically document the supernatural was a first and this book is a valuable addition to the literature of the paranormal.