Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century EnglandWitchcraft, astrology, divination and every kind of popular magic flourished in England during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, from the belief that a blessed amulet could prevent the assaults of the Devil to the use of the same charms to recover stolen goods. At the same time the Protestant Reformation attempted to take the magic out of religion, and scientists were developing new explanations of the universe. Keith Thomas's classic analysis of beliefs held on every level of English society begins with the collapse of the medieval Church and ends with the changing intellectual atmosphere around 1700, when science and rationalism began to challenge the older systems of belief. |
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... Essex, one of the counties for which the evidence permits such an operation, has now been published.* My main aim has been to draw attention to a large and relatively neglected area of the past. I shall be well satisfied if future ...
... Essex, one of the counties for which the evidence permits such an operation, has now been published.* My main aim has been to draw attention to a large and relatively neglected area of the past. I shall be well satisfied if future ...
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... Essex, Glamorgan, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Ipswich and East Suffolk, Kent, Lancashire, London, Middlesex, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Somerset and Yorkshire (East Riding). I am also grateful to the City Librarians of Birmingham ...
... Essex, Glamorgan, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Ipswich and East Suffolk, Kent, Lancashire, London, Middlesex, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Somerset and Yorkshire (East Riding). I am also grateful to the City Librarians of Birmingham ...
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... Essex, who refused communion to menstruating women and those who had had sexual intercourse on the previous night.55 Such prejudices may have been reinforced by the all-male character of the Church and its insistence on celibacy, but ...
... Essex, who refused communion to menstruating women and those who had had sexual intercourse on the previous night.55 Such prejudices may have been reinforced by the all-male character of the Church and its insistence on celibacy, but ...
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... Essex woman justified her absence from church by defiantly asserting that she could say her prayers as effectively at home. On the eve of the Civil War a man at Portsmouth was presented for saying that the church and churchyard were no ...
... Essex woman justified her absence from church by defiantly asserting that she could say her prayers as effectively at home. On the eve of the Civil War a man at Portsmouth was presented for saying that the church and churchyard were no ...
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... Essex perambulator in 1565. 'Charming the fields', Henry Barrow called it.48 At Deddington, Oxfordshire, typical scruples were displayed in 1631 by the Puritan incumbent, William Brudenell, who refused to wear his surplice on the outing ...
... Essex perambulator in 1565. 'Charming the fields', Henry Barrow called it.48 At Deddington, Oxfordshire, typical scruples were displayed in 1631 by the Puritan incumbent, William Brudenell, who refused to wear his surplice on the outing ...
Contents
Ghosts and Fairies | |
Times and Omens | |
Cunning Men and Popular Magic | |
Magic and Religion | |
its Practice and Extent | |
its Social and Intellectual Role | |
Astrology and Religion | |
THE APPEAL TO THE PAST 13 Ancient Prophecies WITCHCRAFT | |
the Crime and its History | |
Witchcraft and Religion | |
The Decline of Magic | |
Index | |
Providence | |
Prayer and Prophecy 6 Religion and the People | |
Magical Healing | |
The Making of a Witch | |
Witchcraft and its Social Environment | |
Decline | |
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Common terms and phrases
2nd edn accused almanac Archaeol Ashm Ashmole astrological Aubrey Autobiography belief Bishop Bodl Book Cambridge Catholic chap charms Christian Church clergy clients confessed conjuration contemporary courts cunning cunning folk cure curse death declared Devil Diary Discourse Discoverie disease divine doctrine early ecclesiastical Elizabeth Elizabethan England English Essex evil Ewen example fairies faith G. G. Coulton Gadbury Gentilisme ghosts God's healing Henry Hist History holy Hugh Latimer intellectual John John Aubrey John Dee John Gadbury John Jewel Josten Journ judicial astrology King Kittredge Lilly Lilly's Lollards London magic medicine medieval misfortune natural Oxford Parish persons Physicians plague popular practice prayer predictions prognostication prophecies prophetic prosecution Protestant Puritan Records Reformation Reginald Scot reign religion religious Richard ritual Robert Royal scepticism Science Scot Sermons sixteenth century Sloane social society sorcery spirits supernatural Superstitions Thomas thought trans Treatise Tudor William William Lilly William Perkins witch-beliefs witchcraft witches wizard woman