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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... physician Thomas Sydenham assumed would sooner or later attack most people. Thirty thousand people died of smallpox in London between 1670 and 1689; and a study of the newspaper advertisements printed in the London Gazette between 1667 ...
... physician Thomas Sydenham assumed would sooner or later attack most people. Thirty thousand people died of smallpox in London between 1670 and 1689; and a study of the newspaper advertisements printed in the London Gazette between 1667 ...
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... physicians were given a purely academic training in the principles of humoral physiology as set out in the works of ... physician thus followed a dreary round of blood-letting and purging, along with the prescription of plasters, ointments.
... physicians were given a purely academic training in the principles of humoral physiology as set out in the works of ... physician thus followed a dreary round of blood-letting and purging, along with the prescription of plasters, ointments.
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... Physicians condemned this habit.15 It was just as well that in strict Galenic theory one of the humours was bound to predominate unnaturally, so that perfect health was almost by definition unattainable.16 In the seventeenth century ...
... Physicians condemned this habit.15 It was just as well that in strict Galenic theory one of the humours was bound to predominate unnaturally, so that perfect health was almost by definition unattainable.16 In the seventeenth century ...
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... physician were effectively beyond their reach, because there was a severely limited supply of trained men. The Royal College of Physicians had been set up in 1518 to supervise and license physicians practising in the City of London and ...
... physician were effectively beyond their reach, because there was a severely limited supply of trained men. The Royal College of Physicians had been set up in 1518 to supervise and license physicians practising in the City of London and ...
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... physicians': even 'frugal freeholders of twenty or thirty pounds a year' had difficulty in finding 'ten shillings to save their lives in cases of danger'.26 The Royal College of Physicians in 1687 ruled that their members should give ...
... physicians': even 'frugal freeholders of twenty or thirty pounds a year' had difficulty in finding 'ten shillings to save their lives in cases of danger'.26 The Royal College of Physicians in 1687 ruled that their members should 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