Without a precise separation between 'science' and 'magic', the line between the natural and supernatural worlds in early modern England was negotiable and porous, and could be used both to bolster and challenge authority. This collection reveals intersecting early modern anxieties in relation to the supernatural, and investigates issues of control and the exercise of power at different levels of society and in various publication contexts - manuscript sources, printed prose texts and the early modern stage.

Introduction: the intersections of supernatural and secular power, Victoria Bladen and Marcus Harmes. Part I Magic at Court: John Dee, alchemy and authority in Elizabethan England, Glyn Parry; Reginald Scot and the circles of power: witchcraft, anti-catholicism and faction politics, Pierre Kapitaniak; Treasonous Catholic magic and the 1563 witchcraft legislation: the English state's response to Catholic conjuring in the early years of Elizabeth I's reign, Michael Devine. Part II Performance, Text and Language: Shaping supernatural identity in The Witch of Edmonton (1621), Victoria Bladen; 'Mong'st the furies finde just recompence': suicide and the supernatural in William Sampson's The Vow Breaker (1636), Fiona Martin; 'You shal reade marvellous straunge things': Ludwig Lavater and the hauntings of the Reformation, Catherine Stevens; The politics of supernatural wonders in Paradise Lost, Martin Dawes. Part III Witchcraft, the Devil and the Body: The Devil and bishops in Post-Reformation England, Marcus Harmes; Sleeping with devils: the sexual witch in 17th-century England, Charlotte-Rose Millar. Index.