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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... woman sit(s) and lie(s) alone and is a stranger to the breath of his own relations. If a man be sick of a fever it is some comfort that he can take a bed-staff and knock, and his servant comes up and helps him with a cordial. But if a ...
... woman sit(s) and lie(s) alone and is a stranger to the breath of his own relations. If a man be sick of a fever it is some comfort that he can take a bed-staff and knock, and his servant comes up and helps him with a cordial. But if a ...
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... woman, will prescribe you a medicine for it.' 'None practise physic or professeth midwifery', reported the villagers of Dry Drayton, Cambridgeshire, in 1662, 'but charitably one neighbour helps one another'.35 In childbirth, indeed, a ...
... woman, will prescribe you a medicine for it.' 'None practise physic or professeth midwifery', reported the villagers of Dry Drayton, Cambridgeshire, in 1662, 'but charitably one neighbour helps one another'.35 In childbirth, indeed, a ...
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... woman that had been at many sick people's bedsides, than from the learnedst but unexperienced physician'.45 Doctors of physic, thought the sectary, Lodowick Muggleton, were 'the greatest cheats... in the world. If there were never a ...
... woman that had been at many sick people's bedsides, than from the learnedst but unexperienced physician'.45 Doctors of physic, thought the sectary, Lodowick Muggleton, were 'the greatest cheats... in the world. If there were never a ...
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... woman had set her thatched house alight by throwing all her used bed-straw on the fire. Tiverton was heavily damaged in 1598 when a fire was started by some beggar-women who had been pathetically trying to cook pancakes on straw because ...
... woman had set her thatched house alight by throwing all her used bed-straw on the fire. Tiverton was heavily damaged in 1598 when a fire was started by some beggar-women who had been pathetically trying to cook pancakes on straw because ...
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... 1,934,000 of small beer), each barrel containing thirty-six gallons in London, and thirty-four in the provinces. This suggests that each member of the population, man, woman and child, consumed almost forty gallons a year, i.e. nearly a.
... 1,934,000 of small beer), each barrel containing thirty-six gallons in London, and thirty-four in the provinces. This suggests that each member of the population, man, woman and child, consumed almost forty gallons a year, i.e. nearly a.
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