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. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 89
Page
... clergy. Physic alone was not enough to cure melancholy, declared the Puritan oracle, William Perkins.41 These were the circumstances in which so many unorthodox methods of healing enjoyed prestige. The population at large disliked ...
... clergy. Physic alone was not enough to cure melancholy, declared the Puritan oracle, William Perkins.41 These were the circumstances in which so many unorthodox methods of healing enjoyed prestige. The population at large disliked ...
Page
... celibacy and ritual consecration, should have derived an extra cachet from their position as mediators between man and God. It was also inevitable that around the Church, the clergy and their holy apparatus there clustered.
... celibacy and ritual consecration, should have derived an extra cachet from their position as mediators between man and God. It was also inevitable that around the Church, the clergy and their holy apparatus there clustered.
Page
... clergy and their holy apparatus there clustered a horde of popular superstitions, which endowed religious objects with a magical power to which theologians themselves had never laid claim. A scapular, or friar's coat, for example, was a ...
... clergy and their holy apparatus there clustered a horde of popular superstitions, which endowed religious objects with a magical power to which theologians themselves had never laid claim. A scapular, or friar's coat, for example, was a ...
Page
... clergy themselves were sometimes involved in these perversions. A plethora of sub-superstitions thus accumulated around the sacrament of the altar. The clergy's anxiety that none of the consecrated elements should be wasted or ...
... clergy themselves were sometimes involved in these perversions. A plethora of sub-superstitions thus accumulated around the sacrament of the altar. The clergy's anxiety that none of the consecrated elements should be wasted or ...
Page
... clergy and people to invoke supernatural assistance. Private men made their solitary appeals to God, while communities offered a corporate supplication, most characteristically in large processions arranged by the Church. Such ...
... clergy and people to invoke supernatural assistance. Private men made their solitary appeals to God, while communities offered a corporate supplication, most characteristically in large processions arranged by the Church. Such ...
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 | |
Other editions - View all
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