When strange signs appeared in the sky over Quebec in 1660, people grew worried about the arrival of evil forces. Barbe Hallay, a teenaged servant, started to act as if possessed, and a miller accused of using dark arts to torment her was executed. Mairi Cowan explores this case of demonic infestation to understand the everyday experiences and deep anxieties of people in New France.
Exploring the interplay between life and death in Scottish towns from 1350 to 1560, this book delves into the impact of the Black Death and the subsequent Catholic Reform movement. It investigates how townspeople navigated their individual desires within communal religious practices, revealing the beliefs about the dead's influence on the living and vice versa. The narrative highlights both continuities and shifts in lay religious culture, emphasizing a unique historical sequence leading to the Protestant Reformation in Scotland.