著者

黒川 正剛

出版者

太成学院大学

雑誌

太成学院大学紀要 (ISSN:13490966)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.9, pp.15-30, 2007-03-31

---

The imp or the familiar is the characteristic English witch-belief, and frequently referred to in the witch-hunt documents in early modern England. The imp is a kind of demon, which is given to the witch by the Devil when they make a contact with. It was believed to cause harm such as disease or death to the human being and livestock. It was also believed to suck the blood from the witch, and to be transferred to one witch by the other witch or to the child-witch by the mother-witch. Did people consider the imp as the truth in those days? If they took the fiction as the truth, what dynamics worked there? In this paper, we investigate the problem of truth on the imp-belief in the pamphlet, W.W., A true and just Recorde (1582). In conclusion, the imp-belief is based on some truth, and the powers of the pamphlet writer and the examiner play important roles in this belief.