?Jennet Preston lies heavy upon me,? cried Thomas Lister on his deathbed. We are told that his corpse bled when she touched it ? and Jennet was convicted of witchcraft. Was there really a satanic coven on Pendle side? Or was Jennet framed by Lister?s son? And were the other ?witches? actually caught up in a much broader and more disturbing pattern of religious persecution? In this best-selling account, Jonathan Lumby presents a remarkable series of new insights. By placing the events in their wider European context, he explains far more satisfactorily than ever before exactly why these disturbing events occurred.