In 1597, King James I of England (when he was still James VI of Scotland) published a compendium on witchcraft lore called "Dæmonologie". It was also published in England in 1603 when James acceded to the English throne.

The book asserts James’s full belief in magic and witchcraft, and aims to both prove the existence of such forces and to lay down what sort of trial and punishment these practices merit – in James’s view, death. "Dæmonologie" takes the form of a dialogue (popular for didactic works) and is divided into three sections: the first on magic and necromancy (the prediction of the future by communicating with the dead), the second on witchcraft and sorcery and the third on spirits and spectres.