For purposes of this paper, when I use the term "witch," I use it as it
was defined by Joseph Glanvill in his Saducismus Trimphatus: Or, Full
and Plain Evidence Concerning Witches and Apparitions (1681),
which was probably the most widely read of all English language
demonological treatises: "A witch is one, who can do or seems to do
strange things, beyond the known power of ordinary art and ordinary
nature, by virtue of a confederacy with evil spirits." (p. 269) Though
some current scholars argue compellingly that this notion is a perversion
of a vital and viable spiritual tradition, it nonetheless accurately
reflects both the 17th-century perception among Christian apologists
and the meaning presumed by Garvin and McCain below.