Glanvil, Joseph

Joseph Glanvill (1636-1680) was the English minister of religion and a demonographer. His name is sometimes spelled "Glanvill." In 1668, he wrote the "Philisophical Considerations Concerning the Existence of Sorcerers and Sorcery," a treatise to consider the actuality of sorcerers based on the story of a weird drum which was heard every night in a house in Wiltshire around 1663. The conclusions he drew from this simple instance were elaborate and wild. He was attacked for his bizarre and unfounded conclusions. In defence of his theories, he drew together twenty-six more accounts in a volume called the Saducismus Triumphatus, or "Triumph of Sadduceeisn" (London, 1681), in which he developed an ambitious hypothesis of organised witchcraft. Unfortunately he died before the volume was completed. The original edition was rather bizarre and 'Cotton Matherian.' Diverse hands tampered with the second edition the following year.



[The Transition of Juan Romero - H.P.L.]