This book breaks with three common scholarly barriers of periodization, discipline and geography in its exploration of the related themes of heresy, magic and witchcraft. It sets aside constructed chronological boundaries, and in doing so aims to achieve a clearer picture of what 'went before', as well as what 'came after'. Thus the volume demonstrates continuity as well as change in the concepts and understandings of magic, heresy and witchcraft. In addition, the geographical pattern of similarities and diversities suggests a comparative approach, transcending confessional as well as national borders. Throughout the medieval and early modern period, the orthodoxy of the Christian Church was continuously contested. The challenge of heterodoxy, especially as expressed in various kinds of heresy, magic and witchcraft, was constantly present during the period 1200-1650. Neither contesters nor followers of orthodoxy were homogeneous groups or fractions. They themselves and their ideas changed from one century to the next, from region to region, even from city to city, but within a common framework of interpretation. This collection of essays focuses on this complex.

1. Approaches to Magic, Heresy and Witchcraft in Time, Space and Faith; Louise Nyholm Kallestrup and Raisa Maria Toivo.- PART I: HERESY.- 2. 'Night is Conceded to the Dead': Revenant Congregations in the Middle Ages; Nancy Caciola.- 3. Heresy and Heterodoxy in Medieval Scandinavia; Stephen Mitchell.- 4. Caught between Unorthodox Medicine and Unorthodox Religion: Revisiting the Case of Costantino Saccardini, Charlatan-Heretic; David Gentilcore.- PART II: MAGIC.- 5. Angel Magic and the Cult of Angels in the Later Middle Ages; Richard Kieckhefer.- 6. Polyphony and Pragmatism in Scandinavian Spells, 1300-1600; Leif Søndergaard.- 7. The Divining Rod: Origins, Explanations, Uses: Johannes Dillinger and Benno Schulz.- 8. Ignorant Superstition? Popular Education on Magic in Early Seventeenth-Century Confessionalist Finland: The Case of Mary and the Rosaries; Raisa Maria Toivo.- PART III: WITCHCRAFT.- 9. The Biblical Witch of Endor Before the Witch Trials; Charles Zika.- 10. Preaching on Witchcraft? The Sermons of Johannes Geiler of Kaysersberg, 1445-1510; Rita Voltmer.- 11. Law, Nature, Theology, and Witchcraft in Ponzinibio's De lamiis; Matteo Duni.- 12. The Infected and the Guilty: On Heresy and Witchcraft in Post-Reformation Denmark; Louise Nyholm Kallestrup.- 13. The Laughing Witch: Notes on the Relationship between Literature and History in the Early Fifteenth Century; Willem de Blécourt.- 14. Images, Representations, and Self-Perception of Magic among the Sami Shamans of Arctic Norway, 1592-1692; Rune Blix Hagen.