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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... parish officers, or sent to houses of correction.38 Less dramatic forms of mental illness were regarded either as cases of melancholy to be treated by purging and bloodletting, or wrongly diagnosed as 'hysteria', stemming from a ...
... parish officers, or sent to houses of correction.38 Less dramatic forms of mental illness were regarded either as cases of melancholy to be treated by purging and bloodletting, or wrongly diagnosed as 'hysteria', stemming from a ...
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... parish so that the pious could sprinkle their homes, their fields and their domestic animals. As late as 1543, when a storm burst over Canterbury, the inhabitants ran to church for holy water to sprinkle in their houses, so as to drive ...
... parish so that the pious could sprinkle their homes, their fields and their domestic animals. As late as 1543, when a storm burst over Canterbury, the inhabitants ran to church for holy water to sprinkle in their houses, so as to drive ...
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... Parish Priests John Myrc, the fourteenthcentury Austin Canon of Lilleshall, claimed the authority of St Augustine for the view that anyone who saw a priest bearing the Host would not lack meat or drink for the rest of that day, nor be ...
... Parish Priests John Myrc, the fourteenthcentury Austin Canon of Lilleshall, claimed the authority of St Augustine for the view that anyone who saw a priest bearing the Host would not lack meat or drink for the rest of that day, nor be ...
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... parish in Rogation week. This was the sole survivor of the many medieval ceremonies which had been conducted in the open to secure fertility and good weather: blessing the trees on the Twelfth Day after Christmas, reading gospels to the ...
... parish in Rogation week. This was the sole survivor of the many medieval ceremonies which had been conducted in the open to secure fertility and good weather: blessing the trees on the Twelfth Day after Christmas, reading gospels to the ...
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... parish boundaries at the accustomed time, i.e. Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday of Ascension week, carried out by the curate and substantial men of the parish. At convenient places the curate was to admonish the people of the need to give ...
... parish boundaries at the accustomed time, i.e. Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday of Ascension week, carried out by the curate and substantial men of the parish. At convenient places the curate was to admonish the people of the need to give ...
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