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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... thought, deriving from other societies and sometimes dating from the remote classical past. The task of the historian is thus infinitely harder than that of the social anthropologist, studying a small homogeneous community in which all ...
... thought, deriving from other societies and sometimes dating from the remote classical past. The task of the historian is thus infinitely harder than that of the social anthropologist, studying a small homogeneous community in which all ...
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... , thus attracting the black rats, which are nowadays thought to have carried the fleas which spread the disease. (Like the people of India today, the poorer classes in parts of seventeenth-century England still used cow-dung as fuel.12) In.
... , thus attracting the black rats, which are nowadays thought to have carried the fleas which spread the disease. (Like the people of India today, the poorer classes in parts of seventeenth-century England still used cow-dung as fuel.12) In.
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... thought to have died of it every year and periodically there were massive outbreaks, although many of the deaths which contemporaries attributed to plague probably occurred for other reasons. In 1563 some 20,000 Londoners are thought to ...
... thought to have died of it every year and periodically there were massive outbreaks, although many of the deaths which contemporaries attributed to plague probably occurred for other reasons. In 1563 some 20,000 Londoners are thought to ...
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... thought that 'empirics and old women' were 'more happy many times in their cures than learned physicians'. Robert Burton, Archbishop Abbot, and many less notable contemporaries, said the same. Some scientists and intellectuals followed ...
... thought that 'empirics and old women' were 'more happy many times in their cures than learned physicians'. Robert Burton, Archbishop Abbot, and many less notable contemporaries, said the same. Some scientists and intellectuals followed ...
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... thought to be a means of divining the date of one's own death.72 Prayers could also be used for maleficent purposes, for example, by being recited backwards.73 Dives and Pauper asserts that 'it hath oft been known that witches, with ...
... thought to be a means of divining the date of one's own death.72 Prayers could also be used for maleficent purposes, for example, by being recited backwards.73 Dives and Pauper asserts that 'it hath oft been known that witches, with ...
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