Rhetoric operated at the crux of seventeenth-century thought, from arguments between scientists and magicians to anxieties over witchcraft and disputes about theology. Writers on all sides of these crucial topics stressed rhetorical discernment, because to the astute observer the shape of ones eloquence was perhaps the most reliable indicator of the hearts piety or, alternatively, of demonry. To understand the periods tenor, we must understand the periods rhetorical thinking, which is the focus of this book.