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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... doctrine that the laity could benefit from being present at the celebration even though they could not understand the proceedings. If too ignorant to follow a private mass book, they were encouraged to recite whatever prayers they knew ...
... doctrine that the laity could benefit from being present at the celebration even though they could not understand the proceedings. If too ignorant to follow a private mass book, they were encouraged to recite whatever prayers they knew ...
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... doctrine of the Mass. For if conjurations and exorcisms were ineffective, then what was transubstantiation but a spurious piece of legerdemain – 'the pretence of a power, plainly magical, of changing the elements in such a sort as all ...
... doctrine of the Mass. For if conjurations and exorcisms were ineffective, then what was transubstantiation but a spurious piece of legerdemain – 'the pretence of a power, plainly magical, of changing the elements in such a sort as all ...
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... doctrine that baptism was absolutely necessary for salvation, but they still regarded it as 'formally' necessary. Anxiety on this score led some clergy to defend baptism in an emergency by a midwife or a layman and provoked others into ...
... doctrine that baptism was absolutely necessary for salvation, but they still regarded it as 'formally' necessary. Anxiety on this score led some clergy to defend baptism in an emergency by a midwife or a layman and provoked others into ...
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... doctrine was, so far as one can tell, usually extremely slight. The Church was important to him not because of its formalized code of belief, but because its rites were an essential accompaniment to the important events in his own life ...
... doctrine was, so far as one can tell, usually extremely slight. The Church was important to him not because of its formalized code of belief, but because its rites were an essential accompaniment to the important events in his own life ...
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... doctrine of special providence to a great deal of strain. Under its influence many writers tended to speak as if God's providence consisted solely in the original act of creation and that thereafter the world had been left to be ...
... doctrine of special providence to a great deal of strain. Under its influence many writers tended to speak as if God's providence consisted solely in the original act of creation and that thereafter the world had been left to be ...
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