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 6-10 of 96
Page
... contemporary abortions, stillbirths, and deaths in child-bed were to be attributed to the lack of care and skill displayed by her colleagues.36 The wife of one Newark apothecary was so afraid of any midwife coming near her that her ...
... contemporary abortions, stillbirths, and deaths in child-bed were to be attributed to the lack of care and skill displayed by her colleagues.36 The wife of one Newark apothecary was so afraid of any midwife coming near her that her ...
Page
... contemporary life. Drunkenness broke down social distinctions, and brought a temporary mood of optimism to the desperate. It was extensive in Elizabethan prisons65 and among the lower classes. (It was only during the seventeenth century ...
... contemporary life. Drunkenness broke down social distinctions, and brought a temporary mood of optimism to the desperate. It was extensive in Elizabethan prisons65 and among the lower classes. (It was only during the seventeenth century ...
Page
... contemporary remarked that addicts were consuming it 'for wantonness... and cannot forbear it, no, not in the middest of their dinner'. Jacobean observers were familiar with the chain smoker who puffed his pipe from morning to night ...
... contemporary remarked that addicts were consuming it 'for wantonness... and cannot forbear it, no, not in the middest of their dinner'. Jacobean observers were familiar with the chain smoker who puffed his pipe from morning to night ...
Page
... contemporary kinds of magical activity. As far as Scot was concerned, the power of exorcism was a special gift to the Apostles, which had long ceased to be operative. The error of the Catholic Church was to have preserved the ritual ...
... contemporary kinds of magical activity. As far as Scot was concerned, the power of exorcism was a special gift to the Apostles, which had long ceased to be operative. The error of the Catholic Church was to have preserved the ritual ...
Page
... contemporary medicine to the widely held belief that there was a certain span of life allotted to every man which nothing could prolong.39 From 1588 onwards the government's Plague Orders required the clergy to refute the idea that it ...
... contemporary medicine to the widely held belief that there was a certain span of life allotted to every man which nothing could prolong.39 From 1588 onwards the government's Plague Orders required the clergy to refute the idea that it ...
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