Ritual, Myth and Magic in Early Modern Europelhs99hlp/Parish Special Ritual Myth and... · Module...

Module title: Ritual, Myth and Magic in Early Modern

Europe, A

Module code: HS3S05 Providing Department: History

Level: H Number of credits: 20

Terms in which taught: Autumn & Spring Module convenor: Dr Helen Parish

Pre-requisites: None Co-requisites: HS3S55 for Single &

Combined History

Modules excluded: None Current from: 2002-03

Aims:

Specials aim to provide ‗hands-on‘ experience of the historian‘s task through close

examination and evaluation of primary sources and the light they shed on issues and

problems. This particular module examines the source materials which focus on the

rituals and beliefs which characterised the culture of early modern Europe.

Assessable outcomes:

By the end of the module it is expected that the student will be able to:

recognise and interpret a range of different primary materials

undertake detailed textural analysis and comment on the primary materials

achieve a detailed command of varying historical interpretations of the primary

materials and subject as a whole

organise material and articulate arguments effectively in writing under timed

conditions

Additional outcomes:

This module also aims to encourage the development of oral communication skills

and the student‘s effectiveness in group situations. Students will also develop their IT

skills by use of relevant web resources.

Outline content:

Religious upheaval and political change in the 16th

and 17th

centuries had a dramatic

impact upon European culture, and upon the beliefs and practices of European

populations. This module will examine sources concerning the place of ritual, myth,

and magic in popular cultures in the early modern period, and analyse the way in

which the people of Europe viewed, and attempted to influence, the world around

them. These sources include early modern writings on astrology and the occult, magic

and witchcraft, especially the Malleus Maleficarum, plays, individuals‘ letters and

narratives, church records and visual propaganda.

2

Brief description of teaching and learning methods: The teaching for this module and for HS3S55 together involves weekly two-hour

discussion seminars. Students will gain ‗hands-on‘ experience of the historian‘s task

through the detailed evaluations of key texts, and the light they shed on the issues and

problems being investigated. Students are expected to carry out self-directed revision

in the Summer term. Staff will be available for consultation as necessary.

Contact hours: The contact hours for this module are the same as those in HS3S55

Autumn Spring Summer

Lectures none none n/a

Tutorials/seminars 20 20 n/a

Practicals none none n/a

Other contact (eg

Study visits)

none none n/a

Total hours 20 20 n/a

Number of essays

Or assignments

1 1 n/a

Other (eg major

Seminar paper)

1 1 n/a

Assessment:

Coursework

Students will be required to prepare for seminars through reading from both the

primary sources and the secondary literature. Practice commentaries on the sources

will be required for formative assessment.

Relative percentage of coursework

None

Examinations

A three-hour paper involving detailed commentary on extracts from the sources

studied.

Requirements for a pass

A mark of 40% overall.

Reassessment arrangements

Re-examination in September.

3

Module title: Ritual, Myth and Magic in Early Modern

Europe, B

Module code: HS3S55 Providing Department: History

Level: H Number of credits: 20

Terms in which taught: Autumn & Spring Module convenor: Dr Helen Parish

Pre-requisites: None Co-requisites: None

Modules excluded: None Current from: 2002-03

Aims:

Specials aim to provide ‗hands-on‘ experience of the historian‘s task through close

examination and evaluation of primary sources and the light they shed on issues and

problems. This particular module focuses on the rituals and beliefs which

characterised the culture of early modern Europe.

Assessable outcomes:

By the end of the module it is expected that the student will be able to:

achieve a detailed command of the themes, events and eras studied

locate and assemble information on the subject by independent research

organise material and articulate arguments effectively in writing

deploy primary materials to shed light on the issues and problems being studied.

Additional outcomes:

This module also aims to encourage the development of oral communication skills

and the student‘s effectiveness in group situations. Students will also develop their IT

skills by use of relevant web resources.

Outline content:

Religious upheaval and political change in the 16th

and 17th

centuries had a dramatic

impact upon European culture, and upon the beliefs and practices of European

populations. This module will examine the place of ritual, myth, and magic in popular

cultures in the early modern period, and analyse the way in which the people of

Europe viewed, and attempted to influence, the world around them. The impact of the

Protestant Reformation and Catholic reform on popular culture will be examined in

depth, alongside a study of the changing nature of the ritual year, the calendar by

which communities measured the passage of time. Consideration will also be given to

beliefs in magic and witchcraft, the persecution of witches in the early modern period,

and the changing patterns of belief.

4

Brief description of teaching and learning methods: The teaching for this module and for HS3S05 together involves weekly two-hour

discussion seminars. Students will gain ‗hands-on‘ experience of the historian‘s task

through the detailed evaluations of key texts, and the light they shed on the issues and

problems being investigated. Students are expected to carry out self-directed revision

in the Summer term. Staff will be available for consultation as necessary.

Contact hours: The contact hours for this module are the same as those in HS3S05

Autumn Spring Summer

Lectures none none n/a

Tutorials/seminars 20 20 n/a

Practicals none none n/a

Other contact (eg

Study visits)

none none n/a

Total hours 20 20 n/a

Number of essays

Or assignments

1 1 n/a

Other (eg major

Seminar paper)

1 1 n/a

Assessment:

Coursework

Students will be required to prepare for seminars through reading from both the

primary sources and the secondary literature. Four pieces of formative written work,

for instance essays, seminar presentations, book reviews, posters, will normally be

required over the two terms.

Relative percentage of coursework

None

Examinations

A three-question essay paper to be answered in three hours.

Requirements for a pass

A mark of 40% overall.

Reassessment arrangements

Re-examination in September.

5

Ritual, Myth and Magic in Early Modern Europe

Autumn & Spring Terms 2009-10

A special subject involves the detailed study of a particular period or series of events

through a close examination of the evidence left by contemporaries. Teaching is for

two hours per week over the Autumn and Spring terms, in seminar groups of about 10

students, and group discussion plays a central part. The module provides students with

`hands-on' experience of the historian's task, through the close examination and

evaluation of primary sources, and the light they shed on the issues and problems

being investigated.

Work requirements Each special subject will represent two modules within the university modular

scheme. Four essays, or the equivalent in other forms of written work, will be

required over the two terms, plus practice in commenting on source extracts (or

`gobbets' as they are often termed). Detailed reading and study of the sources is an

essential part of the preparation for class discussion.

Assessment The assessment of each special subject is normally by means of two three-hour

examination papers at Finals. The first paper (A) will involve comment on extracts

from the sources studied during the special subject. This will examine skills

developed during the special subject, including the ability to write concisely and to

have a detailed command of the subject, and where appropriate of its technical

language. The second paper (B) requires three essay questions to be answered in three

hours: these should also draw on and refer to the source material studied.

Description

This special subject explores the rituals and beliefs which characterised the culture of

Early Modern Europe. It will involve close evaluation and examination of appropriate

primary sources in a number of formats, introducing students to the tasks of the

historian and to the variety of approaches to the subject in recent work. Students will

be expected to familiarise themselves with the material and undertake detailed textual

analysis, and comment on the texts in class.

Religious upheaval and political changes in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries

had a dramatic impact upon European culture, and upon the beliefs and practices of

the populations. This special subject will examine the place of ritual myth and magic

in popular culture in the early modern period, and analyse the way in which the

people of Europe viewed and attempted to influence the world around them. The

impact of the Reformation and Catholic reform on popular culture will be examined

in depth, alongside a study of the changing nature of the ritual year, the calendar by

which communities measured the passage of time. Consideration will also be given to

beliefs in magic and witchcraft, the persecution of witches in the early modern period,

and changing patterns of belief.

6

Further information

Students will be required to complete three pieces of written work (or equivalent)

over the two terms of the course, but will also be expected to prepare informal

contributions to class discussion.

The workload for the course is as follows:

Two essays from the list of titles below. The first essay must be submitted

by the end of 9th

week in the Autumn Term, and the second essay must

be submitted by the end of 9th

week in the Spring Term. Students should

choose one essay topic from titles listed under ‗Autumn term‘, and one from

titles listed under ‗Spring Term‘.

Gobbet test. This will take place during the class hours in 7th

week of the

Spring Term. Students will be expected to comment on unseen text

extracts as if under examination conditions.

In addition, students may be asked to prepare informal presentations for

seminars, and comment on relevant primary source material.

Contact information

I am usually available to see students without an appointment during my ‗office

hours‘ listed on my door, room 138. Or you can arrange a meeting via email

([email protected]).

mailto:[email protected])

7

Course Outline

Autumn Term

Week One: History and Hagiography: The Lives and Cults of the Saints

Week Two: Popular Culture: The People of Europe and the Ritual Year

Week Three: Popular Religion: Critics and Reformers

Week Four: Popular Culture – Order and Disorder

Week Five: Times, Omens, Prophecies and Prophets

Week Six: Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory

Week Seven: Death, dying, and the place of the dead

Week Eight: Ghosts and Apparitions

Week Nine: The Cheese and the Worms

Week Ten: Superstition

Spring Term

Week One: Witchcraft : The Malleus Maleficarum

Week Two: Witchcraft : the dimensions and dynamics of the witch-hunt

Week Three: Witchcraft : trials and victims

Week Four: Magic I : popular beliefs

Week Five: Magic II : the Renaissance magus

Week Six: Text study Wolfgang Behringer Shaman of Obertsdorf

Week Seven: GOBBET TEST

Week Eight: Astrology and the stars

Week Nine: Science and the supernatural : the ‘disenchantment’ of Europe

Week Ten: Revision session

8

Essay Titles

Autumn Term

History and Hagiography

How useful are the lives of the saints to the historian of late medieval religion?

Was late medieval Europe a society ‗saturated with saints‘?

The People of Europe and the Ritual Year

Is the history of popular culture in the early modern period possible?

To what extent were rituals responsible for group cohesion and the formation

of community identity in early modern Europe?

What impact did the Reformation have upon the rituals of the population?

Popular Religion

―Christendom in 1500 was a coherent cultural unit‖. (Monter) Is this an

accurate assessment of Catholic church on the eve of the Reformation?

How successful were Catholic and Protestant reformers in changing patterns

of popular piety in the sixteenth century?

Order and Disorder

Why did early modern revolts take the form that they did?

Was popular protest in early modern Europe planned or spontaneous?

Times Omens and Portents

Why did the people of early modern Europe see a prophetic significance in

natural irregularities?

Why were prophets so popular and so feared in early modern Europe?

Heaven and Hell

What impact did the reformation have upon attitudes to the afterlife?

Did Heaven or Hell loom larger in the beliefs and practices of the laity in the

early modern period?

‗A fond thing vainly invented‘. Why did Protestants writers attack the Catholic

doctrine of purgatory?

Death and the place of the dead

How far did attitudes to death and dying change in the period 1450-1650?

Account for the hostility of Protestant reformers to Catholic rituals and

practices surrounding death

Ghosts

―The Gospel hath chased away walking spirits.‖ How accurate was

Archbishop Sandys‘ assessment of post-Reformation attitudes to ghosts?

To what extent did belief in ghosts depend upon belief in the existence of

purgatory?

9

The Cheese and the Worms

Does the trial of Menocchio suggest the existence of a popular peasant culture

which was distinct from that of the learned?

Superstition

What was regarded as superstition in the early modern period?

How successful were church and state in eradicating ‗superstition‘ from early

modern culture?

Spring Term

Witchcraft

Has the influence of the Malleus Maleficarum in the European witch-hunt

been exaggerated?

‗There were neither witches nor bewitched until they were spoken and written

about‘. Discuss

Popular Magic How did the people of early modern Europe distinguish between natural magic

and demonic magic?

Is evidence of popular belief in magic indicative of a thriving pagan culture in

Early Modern Europe?

Renaissance Magic

Examine the role played by learned magic in the development of science in the

early modern period.

What impact did the Cabal and the Cabalists have upon the nature of magic in

the Renaissance?

Shaman of Obertsdorf

―The popular dream world…represented a dangerous rival to the joyless

society of Christendom‖. Discuss with reference to the case of Conrad

Stoecklin.

Alchemy and Astrology

What impact did the trial of Galileo have upon popular and learned attitudes to

the heavens?

How can the decline of alchemy and astrology best be explained?

The Disenchantment of the World

To what extent was the Reformation responsible for the ‗disenchantment of

the world‘?

‗Magic was ceasing to be intellectually acceptable‘ in the seventeenth century.

Is Keith Thomas correct?

10

Seminar Topics & Bibliographies

Seminar 1 : History and Hagiography: The Lives and Cults of the Saints

Seminar Preparation This seminar will look at the written lives or Vitae of medieval saints, and consider

what historians of medieval religion and society might be able to learn from such

documents. We will look at the primary source texts listed below together, and

consider their strengths and weaknesses as ‗primary sources‘, the context in which

they were composed, and the purposes of their authors.

Please maker sure that you have read the source texts before the seminar, and refer to

the recommended secondary reading for further guidance. It should be possible to

access some of the secondary texts online, even if you are away from the university

library.

Look at the ‗questions for discussion‘ for further guidance.

Primary Sources for Class Discussion

The Life, Translation, and Miracles of St Sacerdos by Hugh of Fleury, available

online at http://urban.hunter.cuny.edu/~thead/sacerdos.htm

Extracts from Jacobus of Voraigne, The Golden Legend (The 11,000 Virgins, Thomas

Becket, the Translation of Thomas Becket)

The Miracles of St Osmund

The Miracles of Henry VI

Thomas of Celano, Two Lives of St Francis, online extracts at

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/stfran-lives.html

Secondary Sources

P. Delehaye, The Legends of the Saints: An Introduction to Hagiography (tr.V. M.

Crawford). Available online at: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/delehaye-

legends.html : Chapters 1-3

D.Farmer, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, 2003 (most recent edition, but there are

others)

B. Abou-El-Haj, The medieval cult of saints : formations and transformations (1993)

P.Brown, The cult of the saints : its rise and function in Latin Christianity (1981)

T.Head, Medieval hagiography : an anthology (2001)

http://urban.hunter.cuny.edu/~thead/sacerdos.htm

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/stfran-lives.html

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/delehaye-legends.html

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/delehaye-legends.html

11

T.Heffernan, Sacred Biography: Saints and their Biographers in the Middle Ages,

1988

A.Vauchez, Sainthood in the later Middle Ages, 1988

D. Weinstein, Saints and society [electronic resource] : the two worlds of western

Christendom, 1000-1700 (History E-Book Project, accessible via Unicorn)

S.Wilson, Saints and their cults : studies in religious sociology, folklore and history,

1983

Discussion Questions

When was the saint alive, and when was the life written? By whom? (if we know)

What motives might there have been for writing the life of this saint at this specific

time?

What can we learn about the saint from this text? And, conversely, what can‘t we

learn?

Why were the legends of the saints so popular? And what function / purpose did the

texts fulfil?

By what other means might information about the saints have been disseminated?

What is ‗hagiography‘, and how does it differ from other sorts of biography?

Are the lives of the saints a form of historical writing?

How useful is hagiography to the historian? Why have historians been sceptical about

its worth, and are they right to be? Are the lives of the saints anything more than

myths and legends? And does this matter?

Seminar 2: Popular Culture: The People of Europe and the Ritual Year

Summary

‗It is sometimes expedient to allow people to play the fool and make merry‘ (Claude

de Rubys). In this session we will look in more detail at ‗merry-making‘, the idea of

the ‗ritual year‘, and the feasts and festivities that marked out the calendar in Early

Modern Europe. Without being overly prescriptive, we will focus our attention upon

publicly celebrated festivals and customs – not least because these provide the

historian with the best source materials – and the way in which they were changed

and adapted during our period. Some distinction may be made between the festivities

of the populace and those of the ‗elite‘, or between those festivals with a religious

12

focus and those that were primarily a form of secular entertainment, but as you will

see in the course of your reading, these distinctions are not always immediately

visible. We will examine the extent of participation in such activities, their origins,

development and critics, which might help our discussions next week of the impact

that the Reformation had upon popular religion and popular culture.

Seminar Preparation Our discussion of the ‗ritual year‘ will build upon a more detailed understanding and

knowledge of the key dates and festivals in the calendar. We will spend the first part

of the seminar drawing up our own calendar of the ritual year, and looking at the local

or national festivals that took place. Most of the customs and rituals were celebrated

within a clear time-frame, making it possible to break up the year into more

manageable chunks :

(1) December – February

(2) March – July

(3) August - November

As preparation for the class, identify and describe the major festivals and customs in

the months of the year allotted above.

Some questions to consider :

What went on at these events?

How long did they last?

What was their purpose – and did they have another function besides this?

Were the celebrations primarily sacred or secular in their focus, this worldly or

otherworldly?

Were the celebrations adapted or altered, or condemned outright by church and /

or state? Why?


What is a ‗ritual‘? : common problems of definition and application

What function did ritual and communal celebration have for the individual and

community?

How did rituals and attitudes to rituals change in this period?

Was there a ‗reformation of ritual‘, or a ‗reformation of manners‘ in this period?

Were there distinctively Protestant rituals?

What kinds of sources are available to the historian of popular culture and popular

ritual? How valuable are they – is the history of popular culture possible?

How easy is it separate religious rituals from secular ritual and folklore?

Is it possible to distinguish between magic and religion?

13

Secondary Reading

Burke, P., Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe (London, 1978).

Clark, S., ‗French Historians and Early Modern Popular Culture‘, Past and Present

(1983).

Davis, N.Z., Society and Culture in Early Modern France (London, 1975).

Dymond, D., ‗God‘s Disputed Acre‘, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 50 (1999).

Hutton, R., The Rise and Fall of Merry England (Oxford, 1996).

Stations of the Sun (Oxford, 1996).

The English Reformation and the evidence of folklore‘, P+P 148 (1995).

Ingram, M., ‗Ridings, rough music and the ‗reform of popular culture‘ in early

modern England‘, P+P 105 (1984).

Kaplan, S.L., Understanding Popular Culture. Europe from the Middle Ages to the

Nineteenth Century (Berlin, 1984).

Karant-Nunn, S., The Reformation of Ritual. An Interpretation of Early Modern

Germany (London, 1997).

Kinser, S., ‗Carnival at Nuremberg 1450-1550‘, Representations, 13 (1986).

Klaniczay, G., The Uses of Supernatural Power. The Transformation of Popular

Religion in medieval and Early Modern Europe (Cambridge, 1990).

Muir, E., Ritual in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge, 1997).

Marshall, P., Beliefs and the Dead in Reformation England (2002), pp. 286-308.

Reay, B., Popular Cultures in England 1550-1750 (Harlow, 1998).

Roper, L., ‗Going to Church and Street : Weddings in Reformation Augsburg‘, Past

and Present (1985)

Roud, S., The English Year (London, 2008)

Sabean, D., Power in the Blood. Popular Culture and Village Discourse in Early

Modern Germany (Cambridge, 1984).

Thomas, K., Religion and the Decline of Magic (1971), ch. 20.

Muchembled, R., Culture populaire et culture des elites (Paris, 1978).

Scribner, R., ‗Is the History of Popular Culture Possible?‘, History of European Ideas

(1978).

‗Ritual and Reformation‘, PCPM ch.5

Todd, M., The Culture of Protestantism in Early Modern Scotland (New Haven and

London, 2002), ch. 7.

Walsham, A., ‗Reforming the Waters: Holy Wells and Healing Springs in Protestant

England‘, in D.Wood (ed), Life and Thought in the Northern Church,c.1100-1700,

Studies in Church History Subsidia 12, (1999)

Walsham, A., ‗Sacred Spas? Healing Springs and Religion in Post-Reformation

Britain‘, in B. Heal and O.P. Grell (eds.), The Impact of the European Reformation

(Aldershot, 2008)

Wilson, S., The Magical Universe: Everyday Ritual and Magic in Pre-Modern

Europe (2000), chs. 1-2

14

Seminar 3: Popular Religion: Critics and Reformers

Seminar Preparation The Protestant divine William Perkins wrote in 1591 ‗surely if a man will but take a

view of all popery, he shall easily see that a great part of it is mere magic‘. Historians

have long sought to define and identify ‗popular religion‘ in the early modern period,

and to assess the impact that the Protestant Reformation had upon the beliefs and

attitudes of the masses. But the Reformation was not just a reformation of popular

belief : the evangelicals also took issue was some of the key elements in ‗official‘

Catholic practice on the basis that they were ‗magical‘, ‗superstitious‘, or ‗idolatrous‘.

In this seminar we will look at some of the criticisms of popular religious practice in

the 16th

century, and at some of the ‗flash-points‘ of the Reformation. In preparation

for this seminar, you should read the documents indicated below, and consider the

aspects of popular piety to which they refer. On what grounds were key aspects of

popular religion criticised, and what kind of problems faced those who sought to

change them? Can we draw any conclusions from this about the impact that the

Reformation had upon popular religion?

Primary Sources for Class Discussion Desiderius Erasmus: A Pilgrimage for Religion’s Sake, 1536

The Drummer of Niklashausen 1476

The Twelve Conclusions of the Lollards and the examination of Lollards in England

(the full text can be viewed online at:

http://www.medievalsources.co.uk/finish%20pdfs/catholic_full.pdf#page=271)

Complaint and Opposition: Lollard Confessions

Ostendorfer: Pilgrimage to the Beautiful Virgin

Flotner: Procession of the Clergy


What were the main targets of the reformers?

On what basis did they criticise the faith and practice of the church?

What is the significance of the things that were targeted?

What does this tell us about the nature of popular piety before and after the

Reformation?

What conclusions can we draw about popular levels of understanding of the debates?

What can we learn about the relationship between official and popular religion?

What kind of problems did the reformers have to confront?

How effective were the critics and reformers of popular religion in getting the

message across?

http://www.medievalsources.co.uk/finish%20pdfs/catholic_full.pdf#page=271

15

Secondary Sources

Aston, M., England’s Iconoclasts. Laws Against Images (1988)

Aston, M., Lollards and Reformers. Images and Literacy in Late Medieval Religion

(1984)

Blickle, P., ‗The Popular Reformation‘, in Handbook of European History, 1400-

1600: late Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Reformation, ed. Thomas A. Brady, Jr.,

Heiko A. Oberman, James D. Tracy (Leiden, 1994)

------- ‗Communal Reformation and Peasant Piety‘, Central European History

20 (1987).

Bossy, J., ‗The Social History of Confession in the Age of the Reformation‘,

TRHS 5th

ser. 25 (1974).

Christianity in the West 1400-1700 (Oxford, 1985).

Cameron, E., The European Reformation (Oxford, 1991).

Duffy, E., The Stripping of the Altars. Traditional Religion in England 1400-1580

(New Haven and London, 1992).

Gurevich, A., Medieval Popular Culture: Problems of Belief and Perception (1988)

Hillerbrand, H., The Oxford Encyclopaedia of the Reformation (Oxford, 1996).

Hutton, R., The Rise and Fall of Merry England (Oxford, 1996).

‗The English Reformation and the evidence of folklore‘, P+P 148 (1995).

Kamen, H., ‗Regulating the people. The Catholic Reformation in Seventeenth Century

Spain‘, JEH 51 (2000) (review)

Karant-Nunn, S., The Reformation of Ritual. An Interpretation of Early Modern

Germany (London, 1997).



Lindberg, C., The European Reformations (Oxford 1996).

Martin, J., ‗Popular Culture and the Shaping of Popular Heresy in Renaissance

Venice‘, in Inquisition and Society in Early Modern Europe, ed S. Haliczer

(London, 1987).

Moeller, B., ‗Piety in Germany around 1500‘, in The Reformation in Medieval

Perspective ed S. Ozment (Chicago, 1971).

Monter, E.W., Ritual, Myth and Magic in Early Modern Europe (Brighton, 1983).

Nalle, S., ‗Popular Religion in Cuenca on the Eve of the Catholic Reformation‘, in

Inquisition and Society in Early Modern Europe, ed S. Haliczer (London, 1987).

Parker, G., ‗Success and Failure During the First Century of the Reformation‘,P+P,

136 (1992).

Pettegree. A., The Early Reformation in Europe (Cambridge 1992).

Rubin, M., Corpus Christi. The eucharist in late medieval culture (Cambridge, 1991).

Rublack, H-C., ‗New patterns of Christian Life‘, in Handbook of European history,

1400-1600 : late Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Reformation, ed. Thomas A. Brady,

Jr., Heiko A. Oberman, James D. Tracy (Leiden, 1994).

Scribner, R.W., The German Reformation (Basingstoke, 1986).

For the Sake of Simple Folk. Popular Propaganda for the German

Reformation (Oxford, 1994).

‗Ritual and popular Belief in Catholic Germany at the time of the

Reformation‘, PCPM ch.2 or JEH, 35 (1984).

‗Ritual and Reformation‘, PCPM ch.5

The Reformation in National Context, ed., Scribner, R.Porter, M.Teich

(Cambridge 1994).

Strauss, G., ‗Success and Failure in the German Reformation‘, P+P 67 (1975)

16

Swanson, R.N., Religion and devotion in Europe, c. 1215- c. 1515 (Cambridge,

1995).

Thomas, K., Religion and the Decline of Magic, London, 1991).

Tracey, J., Erasmus of the Low Countries (1996) online at

http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft5q2nb3vp/

Trexler, R.,‗Florentine Religious Experience : The sacred image‘, Studies in the

Renaissance, XIX (1972).

Wunderli, R., Peasant Fires. The Drummer of Niklashausen (Bloomington, 1992).


Europe (2000), introduction and ch. 17

Seminar 4 : Popular Culture – Order and Disorder

Summary

In this session we will examine the way in which order was challenged, reinforced, or

maintained in early modern Europe. There are plenty of studies of individual revolts

and rebellions across the continent, which also outline some of the common causes of

local and regional unrest in this period. However historians in recent years have also

attempted to chart the relationship between ritual and violence, between festivities and

unrest, and their work raises a number of important questions about the nature of

violence, protest, and popular culture in early modern Europe. We shall explore some

of these themes in this session, with particular emphasis upon carnival, popular

justice, and rites of violence.

Seminar Preparation

(1) Carnival

The carnival was an important feature of popular culture, and especially urban

culture. Its festivities could take many forms, and the records available for the

historian include descriptions of processions, dances, fancy dress and drama.

However on occasion early modern carnival spilled over into violence, and the

images of the world turned upside down, disorder and inversion portrayed

became all too real – as at Romans in 1580. So what function did carnival

have in early modern Europe – did it bring the community together, reinforce

stereotypes of order and hierarchy, and allow the populace to let off steam. Or

did is encourage a seditious attitude, breed disorder and spread contempt for

authority?

(2) Popular Justice

Although historians often benefit from substantial quantities of evidence about

the enforcement of law and order on a national scale, it is clear that for many

in early modern Europe, popular local justice was still an important fact of

life. On the continent, we have accounts of community action known as

‗charivari‘, in England descriptions of similar events, ‗skimmingtons‘. What

was the function of popular and community justice? Did such activities

http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft5q2nb3vp/

17

reinforce the social and legal order, or undermine the structures of power by

subverting ‗official‘ justice? Why did people take part – who were the victims

and who the aggressors

(3) Violence, Upheaval and Ritual

Both at a local level, and on a national level (most famously in the French Wars of

Religion) is can be hard to separate violence against the individual from other

rituals and ritualised actions. Similarly, some writers, including Scribner (and to

some extent Muir) have identified in the Reformation a process and actions which

might be termed ‗rituals‘, or a revolution in the understanding of ritual. Looking at

the materials and topics for discussion both this week and last week, are such

judgements and conclusions accurate? Were the actions of the people of Early

Modern Europe highly ‗ritualised‘? To what extent were debates, events, and

activities governed by a sense of prescribed actions or rituals, and the need to

conform to them?


Images of the World Turned Upside Down

The Descent of the Pope into Hell: Hans Sebald Beham

The Spicers Play

The Nose Dance

The Grand Inquisitor in the Soup


To what extent did the maintenance of order depend upon the elaborate rituals

associated with monarchy and rulers?

Did community rituals create disorder or reinforce order? Did community festival act

as a safety valve, allowing people to let off steam without provoking general unrest?

Was popular protest in early modern Europe planned or spontaneous?

What impact might the exercise of popular local justice have had upon power of the

state or monarch?

The world turned upside down‘ : what is the appeal of the idea – and to whom?

Secondary Reading

For some basic background information about revolts and rebellions in early modern

Europe, try the following :

R.Bonney, European Dynastic States, 1993

Y-M Berce, Revolt and Revolution in Early Modern Europe, 1987

A History of Peasant Revolts, 1990

18

T. Scott, ‗Peasant Revolts in Early Modern Germany‘, HJ, 1985

J.Davies, ‗Popular Revolts in Normandy‘, History Today, 1981

Burke, P., Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe (London, 1978).

Cashmere, J., ‗The Social Uses of Violence in Ritual‘, European History Quarterly,

21 (1991).

Clark, S., ‗French Historians and Early Modern Popular Culture‘, Past and Present

(1983).

Davis, N.Z., Society and Culture in Early Modern France (London, 1975).

‗The Reasons of Misrule. Youth Groups and Charivari in Sixteenth Century

France‘, Past and Present (1971).

Estebe, J., ‗Debate, The rites of Violence : Religious Riot in 16th

Century France‘,

P+P 67 (1975).

Ingram, M., ‗Ridings, rough music and the ‗reform of popular culture‘ in early

modern England‘, P+P 105 (1984).

Kaplan, S.L., Understanding Popular Culture. Europe from the Middle Ages to the

Nineteenth Century (Berlin, 1984).

Kinser, S., ‗Carnival at Nuremberg 1450-1550‘, Representations, 13 (1986).



Ladurie, E. Le Roy., Carnival : a People’s Uprising at Romans (Harmondsworth,

1980).

Reay, B., Popular Cultures in England 1550-1750 (Harlow, 1998).

Rollinson, D., ‗Property, Ideology and Popular Culture in a Gloucestershire Village‘,

P+P 93 91981).

Scribner, R., ‗Reformation, Carnival, and the World Turned Upside Down‘, in

Popular Culture and Popular Movements in Reformation Germany (London, 1987).

Popular religion in Germany and Central Europe, 1400-1800 (New York, 1996).

For the sake of simple folk : Popular Propaganda for the German

Reformation (Oxford, 1994).

Underdown, D., Revel Riot and Rebellion. Popular Politics and Culture in

England 1603-1660 (Oxford, 1985).

Seminar 5: Times, Omens, Prophecies and Prophets

Summary

Over the last few weeks we have discussed the way in which the inhabitants of early

modern Europe sought to influence the world around them through rites and rituals,

and looked at some of the communal festivities and activities in which they

participated. We have considered the extent to which religion and magic acted as a

means of making contact with the world of the supernatural, and thought about the

way in which participation in certain rites and rituals helped to create a daily order, a

community order, and perhaps even a cosmic order. It is clear that control over the

supernatural, or at least access to it, was a vital concern for many of the population.

But what about the occasions on which the supernatural appeared to enter the

materials world uninvited? How were these manifestations of the sacred in time and

space understood and interpreted, and why were certain meanings attributed to these

events? The early modern world, writes Peter Maxwell Stuart, was one of ‗signs and

portents, sent by God….or by the devil….. some natural, some portentous, some

19

miraculous, and other prodigious….‘. It is these events and incidents, and their

interpretation in early modern Europe, that we will discuss in this session.

Seminar Preparation

(1) Portents and Signs in Nature

The earth and the skies presented a vast resource of information and occurrences that

required interpretation and understanding. Comets, lights in the sky, storms, unusual

animals and animal behaviour – all could be warnings of divine anger, messages from

the angels, or lures and tricks of the devil. But how was nature to be interpreted?

What was a natural event, and what had a preternatural significance? What kind of

events and incidents caused alarm and generated fear? Was there a difference between

such a portent and a miracle? What was it about the early modern period that meant

that these events acquired a great significance? How were true signs and portents

separated from superstition or impious interpretation and divination?

(2) Signs in the Body : Monstrous Births and Physiognomy

It was not only the natural world which provided signs and portents : the human body

could also be a mirror for supernatural revelation. We witness a number of reports in

this period of ‗monstrous births‘ – births of animals to humans, malformed

individuals and twins, and even monsters. What kind of interpretations are advanced

of these events? Are they to be feared or welcomed? What role does the monster –

either real or imaginary – play in popular beliefs? Is it possible to ascertain the

character of something – even and individual – from its physical form? For example

what meaning is attached to certain facial or bodily characteristics – and is there a line

between science and superstition in such interpretations?

(3) Dreams

Although it was widely believed among Protestants that the age of miracles had

passed, there was still some debate over dreams – were they purely the result of

physical causes, or did they have a supernatural significance for example. So how

were dreams to be understood and interpreted? Were dreams divinely inspired? Was

it thought to be particularly good to dream of certain things and not of others? How

much attention were dreams given as a means of prediction or divination?

(4) Popular and Unpopular Prophets

The most famous prophet of the early modern period – or at least the one whose

prophecies have been most clearly transmitted to the present day was Nostradamus.

His predictions are not the simplest to grapple with – but alongside his prophecies lie

those of numerous other ‗popular prophets‘, some of whom attracted a widespread

following. Such individuals and their revelations were not uncommon before the

reformation – indeed late medieval mysticism did much to encourage the growth of

the genre – but it is also possible to chart individual prophets during and after the

20

Reformation. What role did they play in society? What kind of reaction did they get

from church and state, or from the people? Why were they popular – but why might

they also have been feared?

Questions for Discussion

Why did the people of Europe see a great significance in events that to us appear

‗natural‘?

How were signs and portents categorised and interpreted?

What kinds of signs and portents were most common?

How did early modern commentators separate the true ‗sign‘ from the false?

Was there a difference between a miracle and a portent?

How were dreams understood and interpreted?

Why were prophets and prophecy so popular –or so feared?


A True Report of Certaine Wonderfull Overflowings of Waters

Strange News out of Kent (1609)

Strange News from Mile-End (1684)

Philip Melanchthon, Initia Doctrinae Physicae

Martin Luther, In Primum Librum Mose Enarrationes

Thomas Campanella, Astrologicorum book 7

Tycho Brahe, De Cometa Anni

Pierre Bayle, Pnsees Diverses sur la comete

Bierre Boaistuau, Histoires Prodigieuses

Paracelsus, De Natura Rerum

Martin del Rio, Disquisitiones Magicae book 9

Cornelius Agrippa, De Occulta Philosophia

Martin del Rio, Disquisitiones Magicae book 4

Paracelsus, De Natura Rerum book 9 (extract 2)

Giovanni Indagine, Chiromantia

Girolamo Cardano, Metoposcopia

Four images of monsters

A Most Strange and Wonderful Accident (1600)

Secondary Reading

Bauckham, R., Tudor Apocalypse (Sutton Courtenay, 1978).

Brammall, K., ‗Monstrous Metamorphosis: Nature, Morality and the Rhetoric of

Monstrosity in Tudor England‘, Sixteenth Century Journal (1996)

Clark, S., Thinking with Demons: The Idea of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe

(1997), part II, chs. 10, 11, 16, 17

Cressy, D., Travesties and Transgressions (Oxford, 1999). (esp. chapters 1,2,11)

21

Curry, P., Prophecy and power : astrology in early modern England (Cambridge,

1989).

Daston, L., ‗Marvellous Facts and Miraculous Evidence in Early Modern Europe‘,

Critical Inquiry 18 (1991).

Daston, L., and K. Park, Wonders and the Order of Nature (1998)

Deconinck-Brossard, F., ‗Acts of God, Acts of Men: Providence in Seventeenth- and

Eighteenth-Century England and France‘, in J. Gregory and K. Cooper (eds), Signs,

Wonders, Miracles: Representations of Divine Power in the Life of the Church,

Studies in Church History 41 (2005)

Durston, C., ‗Signs and Wonders and the English Civil War‘, History Today (October,

1987)

Friedman, J., ‗The Battle of Frogs and Fairford‘s Flies: Miracles and Popular

Journalism during the English Revolution‘, Sixteenth Century Journal (1992)

Hill, C., ‗The Many Headed Monster in Late Tudor and Early Stuart

Political Thinking‘, in From the Renaissance to the Reformation ed.

C.H.Carter (London, 1966).

Hole, R., ‗Incest, Consanguinity and a Monstrous Birth in Rural England‘, Social

History (2000)

Holmes, C., ‗Women : Witnesses and Witches‘, P+P 140 (1993).

Hsia, R.P-C., The World of Catholic Renewal 1540-1770 (Cambridge, 1998).

Jansen, S.L.,Political Protest and Prophecy under Henry VIII (Woodbridge, 1991).

Kagan, R.L., Lucrecia’s Dreams. Politics and Prophecy in 16th

century Spain

(London, 1995).

Kaplan, S., Understanding popular culture : Europe from the Middle Ages to the

nineteenth century (Berlin, New York, 1984).

Kocher, P.H., Science and religion in Elizabethan England (1953).

Moore, S.H., ‗‖Such perfecting of praise out of the mouth of a babe‖ : Sarah Wright

as child prophet‘, Studies in Church History 31 (1994).

Niccoli, O., Prophecy and people in Renaissance Italy (Princeton, 1990).

Niccoli, O., ‗Menstruum Quasi Monstruum: Monstrous Births and Menstrual Taboo

in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century England‘, in E. Muir and G. Ruggiero (eds),

Sex and Gender in Historical Perspective (1990)

Park, K & Daston, L., ‗Unnatural Conceptions. The Study of Monsters in France and

England‘, P+P 92 (1981).

Sabean, D.,Power in the Blood. Popular Culture and Village Discourse in Early

Modern Germany (Cambridge, 1994). Ch.3

Scribner, R.W., Johnson, T., Popular Religion in Germany and Central Europe (New

York, 1996) ch.8.

Soergel, P., ‗The Afterlives of Monstrous Infants in Reformation Germany‘, in Bruce

Gordon and Peter Marshall (eds), The Place of the Dead: Death and Remembrance in

Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe (2000)

Thomas, K., Religion and the Decline of Magic, (London, 1991).

Todd, M., ‗Providence, Chance and the New Science in Early Stuart Cambridge‘,

Historical Journal, 29 (1986)

Vickers, B., Occult and scientific mentalities in the Renaissance (Cambridge, 1984).

Walker, D.P., Unclean Spirits (London, 1981).

Walker, D.P., ‗The Cessation of Miracles‘, in I. Merkel and A. Debus (eds),

Hermeticism and the Renaissance (1988) [available from HLP]

Walsham, A., 'Vox Piscis, or the Book-Fish': Providence and the uses of the

Reformation past in Caroline Cambridge‘, EHR 114 (1999).

22

‗‖Frantic Hackett‖: prophecy, sorcery, insanity, and thhe Elizabethan puritan

movement‘, HJ 41 (1998).

‗‖Out of the Mouths of babes and sucklings‖ : Prophecy, Puritanism and

Childhood in Elizabethan Suffolk‘, Studies in Church History 31 (1994).

‗The Fatall Vesper: Providentialism and Anti-Popery in Late Jacobean

London‘, Past and Present (1994)

‗Miracles and the Counter Reformation Mission to England‘, Historical

Journal, 46, no. 4 (2003)

Sermons in the Sky: Apparitions in Early Modern Europe‘, History Today

(April 2001)

Providence in early Modern England (Oxford, 1999).

Westfall, R.S., Science and religion in 17th Century England (1958).

Warmington, A., ‗Frogs, Toads and the Restoration in a Gloucestershire Village‘,

Midland History (1989)

Wilks, M.Prophecy and Eschatology (Oxford, 1994. Studies in Church History).

Wilson, D., Signs and portents. Monstrous Births from the Middle Ages to the

Enlightenment (London, 1993).

Wittkower, R., ‗Marvels of the East: the Study of Monsters in Early Modern Europe‘,

Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 5 (1942), 159-97

Worden, B., ‗Providence and Politics in Cromwellian England‘, Past and Present

(1985)

Yolton, J.W., Philosophy, religion and science in the seventeenth and eighteenth

centuries (Rochester, N.Y., 1990.

More Specifically on Prophecy:

Prophecy and the end of the world

K.Firth, The Apocalyptic Tradition in Reformation Britain 1530-1645 (1979)

C. A. Patrides and J. Wittreich (eds), The Apocalypse in English Renaissance Thought

and Literature (1984), esp. Bernard Capp‘s essay on the political nature of

apocalypticism

R., Bauckham, Tudor Apocalypse (1978)

P. Christianson, Reformers and Babylon: English Apocalyptic Visions from the

Reformation to the Eve of the Civil War (1977)

P.Lake, The Significance of the Elizabethan Identification of the Pope as Antichrist,

Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 31 (1980)

S.Clark, Thinking with Demons (1997), part III, esp. chs 20, 22, 23, 24

R. K. Emmerson, Antichrist in the Middle Ages (1981)

S. Thrupp, Millennial Dreams in Action: Studies in Revolutionary Religious

Movements (1962)

A. Williams (ed.), Prophecy and Millenarianism: Essays in Honour of Marjorie

Reeves (1980)

U. Lotz-Heumann, ‗The Spirit of Prophecy has not yet Left the World: The

Stylisation of Archbishop James Usher as a Prophet‘, in H. Parish and W.G.Naphy

(eds.), Religion and Superstition in Reformation Europe (2002)

P. Mack, ‗Women as Prophets during the English Civil War‘, Feminist Studies (1982)

A.Walsham, ‗‖Frantick Hacket‖: Prophecy, Sorcery, Insanity and the Elizabethan

Puritan Movement‘, Historical Journal (1998)

23

D.Watt, Secretaries of God: Women Prophets in Late Medieval and Early Modern

England (1997)

H.Dobin, Merlin’s Disciples: Prophecy, Poetry and Power in Renaissance England (1990)

R.Popkin, ‗Predicting, prophecying, divining and foretelling from Nostradamus to

Hume‘, History of European Ideas, 5 (1984),117-135.

Seminar 6 : Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory

Summary

Over the last few weeks we have looked in detail at the rituals and beliefs of the living

– attitudes to the supernatural, popular religion, the liturgical year, and communal

festivities. Over the next few weeks we will consider the place and the role of the

dead in the culture of early modern Europe. Popular and learned views on death, the

afterlife, and ghosts were an important part of religious culture, and like most aspects

of religion in this period, were redefined or remodelled as a consequence of religious

change. Late medieval sermon literature, both orthodox and heterodox, pulled no

punches in its representations of the afterlife, and particularly the pains that would be

suffered by the souls condemned to Hell, or making their passage through Purgatory.

Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory loomed large in the popular consciousness – as we can

see from the popularity of literary works such as Dante‘s Divine Comedy. The

geography of the afterlife was mapped out in detail, helped not just by literary

creativity but also by accounts of visions, warnings from the dead, and the theology

propounded by the church. This model, and the theology that underpinned it, came

under attack during the Reformation, and it was traditional teaching on Purgatory that

took the brunt of the assault. Alongside our study of traditional beliefs, we will

consider the impact that the Reformation had upon attitudes to the afterlife, and the

nature of the attack on traditional modes of thought.

Seminar Preparation

What picture did the people of early modern Europe have of the afterlife?

How did the geography of the afterlife change in this period?

Did general attitudes to the afterlife change in this period?

Which had the greater impact upon popular beliefs and actions – heaven hell, or purgatory?

Were attitudes to the afterlife more influenced by fear or by hope?

Are popular and elite views of the afterlife different?

Was there any difference between medieval views of heaven and those of the early

modern period?

How strong was the fear of Hell?

Why did purgatory loom so large in the popular imagination?

Why did the doctrine of purgatory become so controversial in this period?

Source texts for discussion

24

Erasmus, The Apotheosis of Reuchlin

Lollard Sermon Of Dead Men: Hell

Tarleton, Newes out of Purgatory

Thomas More, Supplication of Souls

The Map of Hell from Dante; the Island of Purgatory; the Structure of Paradise

Scala Coeli: The Way of Perfection

Secondary Sources

Allmond, P.C., Heaven and Hell in Enlightenment England (Cambridge,1994).

Bernstein, A.E., The Formation of Hell : Death and resurrection in the Ancient and

Early Christian Worlds (Ithaca & London, 1993).

Burgess, C., ‘”A Fond Thing Vainly Invented” : An essay on Purgatory and

Pious Motive‘, in Parish, Church and People, ed., S.J.Wright (London, 1988).

Burns, N.T., Christian Mortalism from Tyndale to Milton (Cambridge Mass. 1972).

Clark, P. and Claydon, T., The Church, the Afterlife and the fate of the soul

(Woodbridge, 2009)

Delumeau, J., Sin and fear : the emergence of a Western guilt culture, 13th-18th

centuries (New York, 1990).

Daniell, C., Death and Burial in Medieval England 1066-1550 (London, 1997).

Disley, E., ‗Degrees of Glory. Protestant Doctrine and the Concept of Rewards

Hereafter‘, Journal of Theological Studies 42 (1991).

Duffy, E., The Stripping of the Altars (New Haven, 1993).

Houlbrooke, R.A., Death, Religion and the Family in England 1480-1750 (Oxford,

1998). (esp. ch2)

Death, Ritual and Bereavement (London, 1989).

Hughes, R., Heaven and Hell in Western Art (London, 1968).

Ingebretsen, E., Maps of heaven, maps of hell : religious terror as memory from the

Puritans to Stephen King (Armonk, 1996).

Koslofsky, C., The Reformation of the Dead (Basingstoke, 2000).

Le Goff, J., The Birth of Purgatory (London, 1984).

Marshall, P., Gordon, B., The Place of the dead : death and remembrance in late

medieval and early modern Europe (Cambridge, 2000).

Marshall, P., ‗Fear, Purgatory and polemic in Reformation England‘, in Fear in Early

Modern Society eds., W.Naphy, P.Roberts (Manchester 1997).

McDannell, C., Heaven. A History (New York, 1990).

Nalle, S., God in La Mancha. Religious Reform and the People of Cuenca 1500-1650

(Baltimore & London 1992) ch.6

Naphy, W.G., Roberts, P., Fear in Early Modern Society (Manchester, 1997).

Walker, D.P., The Decline of Hell (London, 1964)

Seminar 7 : Death, dying, and the place of the dead

Summary

The French historian, Philip Aries, spent the best part of two decades examining the

changing attitudes to death in western culture, and seeking to explain how and why

attitudes changed. In particular, he focused upon the way in which individuals

approached death, or responded to death within their society. We know that

conditions in the medieval and early modern period meant that life expectancy was

short by modern standards, especially in times of hardship and disease. Therefore

25

people were familiar with death – as Huizinga remarked, the culture of the late middle

ages seemed obsessed with death and dying. Aries identified an important trend in the

period after 1100, when Christian cultures tended to focus upon the clash between

good and evil and the battle for the soul of the individual – hence the kind of graphic

representations of death in churches and in art, and the development of literature on

the art of dying well, the Ars Moriendi. The scope of Aries‘ research extends into the

twentieth century, but it is attitudes to death in the early modern period that we shall

focus on in this session, taking some of the ideas expressed by Aries as our starting

point.

Seminar Preparation

Using the source materials and literature on the topic, we shall base our discussion

around three main themes. As part of the preparation for this seminar, please identify

a few lines of one of the sources for the class to comment on as gobbet practice.

(1) the ars moriendi : the art of dying well

The final moments of life were considered to be vital in determining the fate

of the soul after death – indeed it was often thought that the manner in which

an individual died betrayed the final destination of their soul. The church had

much advice for this time – not least in terms of the value of deathbed

confession and repentance – but there was also a vast volume of literature on

the art of dying well, or making a good death. While the notion of the ‗good

death‘ had its origins in the middle ages, the ideal of the good death persisted

through the early modern period, adapted rather than rejected by the

Reformation. But what was a ‗good death‘? How might the individual best

prepare for death? Who else might be involved

(2) death in early modern culture

If we believe John Huizinga, the inhabitants of the later middle ages were

more obsessed with death than at any time since. So what role did death play

in the culture of early modern Europe? How was death represented and

portrayed? Was it to be welcomed or feared? How did death fit in with many

of the other customs and rituals of the times that we have spent time looking at

over the last few weeks. Did death and the dead have a distinctive place in

early modern society?

(3) the Reformation of death

From our study so far of the impact that the reformation had upon popular

culture, and particularly the impact of Protestant reform upon the theology of

the afterlife, it might be thought that the Reformation did much to alter the

theology of death, and attitudes to death in the early modern period. But

should we be more struck by continuities than discontinuities: how much is

really changed by the Reformation? On what grounds did Protestants attack

traditional belief and practice, and with what effect? Aries suggested that the

18th

century marked the greatest change in attitudes after 1100 – but has the

impact of the Reformation been played down?

26

Primary Sources Thomas a Kempis: Preparation for Death

Image from The Art of Dying Well 1416

Erasmus, Treatise on Preparing for Death

The Book of the Craft of Dying

Thomas Becon, The Solace of the Soul 1549

Dying well: the case of Martin Luther

Selection of Documents: Obits and Anniversaries; Chantries and Almshouses

Wills: The Wills of John Port

Secondary Sources Aries, P., Western Attitudes Towards Death from the Middle Ages to the Present

(Baltimore, 1974).

The Hour of Our Death (London, 1981).

Aston, M., ‗Death‘, in Fifteenth Century Perceptions, ed R.Horrox (Cambridge, 1994).

Binski, P., Medieval death : ritual and representation (London, 1996).

Clark, P. and Claydon, T., The Church, the Afterlife and the fate of the soul

(Woodbridge, 2009)

Daniell, C., Death and Burial in Medieval England 1066-1550 (London, 1997).

Eire, C.M.N., From Madrid to Purgatory : the art and craft of dying in sixteenth-

century Spain (Cambridge, 1995).

Gittings, C., Death, burial and the individual in early modern England (London,

1984)

Houlbrooke, R.A., Death, Religion and the Family in England 1480-1750 (Oxford,

1998). (esp. ch2)

Death, Ritual and Bereavement (London, 1989).

Huizinga, J., The Waning of the Middle Ages (London, 1955).


Le Goff, J., The birth of purgatory (London, 1984).

Marshall, P., Gordon, B., The Place of the dead : death and remembrance in late

medieval and early modern Europe (Cambridge, 2000).

More, T., The Supplication of Souls ed. F. Manley (New Haven, 1990).

Naphy, W.G., Roberts, P., Fear in Early Modern Society (Manchester, 1997).

Seminar 8 : Ghosts and Apparitions

Summary

The map of the afterlife in late medieval Europe left open the possibility that the dead

might revisit the living, and appearances of the restless dead were not uncommon.

Catholic belief allowed for the possibility that the souls in purgatory might be

permitted by God to return to the earth, most often with the mission to warn

individuals to amend their ways. St Augustine had concluded that communication

between the living and the dead was not only a possibility, but in fact a likely

occurrence. Dreams and visions were already a fact of life, but as Finucane suggests,

the doctrine of purgatory ‗provided a greatly expanded stage‘ on which confrontations

between the living and the dead might occur. The appearance of ghosts allowed the

living to learn about the afterlife from those who had gone before them, and it seemed

27

that the dead were only too happy to oblige by appearing before the living. However

as we saw in week 6, the Reformation dismantled the doctrine of purgatory, and sent

the souls of the faithful either to heaven or to hell. Belief in ghostly apparitions was

condemned as superstition, a reflection of ignorance, or the product of an overheated

imagination. Keith Thomas devoted one chapter of Religion and the Decline of Magic

to beliefs in ghosts, and concluded that ghosts ‗presented no problems‘ to Protestant

reformers. Ghosts did not exist, and they did not appear – at least in theory. But there

is evidence that ghosts did continue to appear, even after the repudiation of purgatory,

and explanations needed to be found. The post-Reformation ghost was not just a

resident of the popular imagination – indeed the presence of ghosts in literature and

drama (eg Hamlet) suggests that cultural attitudes to ghosts were formed by the

interaction of elite and popular beliefs, in a world in which the supernatural continued

to operate despite the protests of the Reformation.

Seminar Preparation

Gobbet samples

We will look in detail at some of the source texts for this topic. Please select a text

extract ‗gobbet‘ which we will discuss in the class. You can choose from any of the

texts for this week‘s session, and set a gobbet of any reasonable length.

Discussion questions

What was a ghost? Where did they come from?

How were people expected to deal with ghosts?

What function did ghosts have in early modern Europe?

How did the Reformation deal with the question of ghosts – and how successfully

were beliefs changed?

Who believed in ghosts and why?

What problems might have been caused by the rejection of ghosts?

Are ghosts a feature of the popular imagination or a reflection of the views of the

educated and literate?

Primary Sources

Lewes Lavater, Of Ghosts and Spirits Walking by Night, 1572 (English edition)

James VI, Daemonologie, 1597

The ghost in William Shakespeare‘s Hamlet

Girolamo Cardano, De Vita Propria Liber, 1575; De Rerum Varietate 1551

Secondary Sources Bowyer, R.A., ‗The role of the ghost story in medieval Christianity‘, in The Folklore

of ghosts ed. H.Davidson, W.Russell (Woodbridge, 1981).

28

Briggs, K.M., The Anatomy of Puck (London, 1959).

The fairies in tradition and literature (London, 1967).

Caciola, N., ‗Wraiths, Revenants and Ritual in Medieval Culture‘, P+P (1996).

‗Spirits Seeking Bodies. Death, possession, and communal memory in

the middle ages‘, in The Place of the Dead ed. P. Marshall, B.Gordon

(Cambridge, 2000).

Davidson, H., Russell, W., The folklore of ghosts (Woodbridge, 1981).

Davis, N.Z., ‗Ghosts, Kin and Progeny. Some Features of Family Life in Early

Modern France‘, Daedalus (1977).

Dover Wilson, J., What Happens in Hamlet (1951), ch. 3

Edwards, K., (ed), Werewolves, witches, and wandering spirits : traditional belief and

folklore in early modern Europe (2002).

Finucane, R., Appearances of the Dead. A Cultural History of Ghosts (London,1982).

Frye, R.M., The Renaissance Hamlet : issues and responses in 1600 (Princeton,

1984).

Gowing, L., ‗The Haunting of Susan Lay: Servants and Mistresses in Seventeenth-

Century England‘, Gender and History, 14 (2002)

Handley, S., ‗Reclaiming Ghosts in 1690s England‘, in J. Gregory and K. Cooper

(eds), Signs, Wonders, Miracles: Representations of Divine Power in the Life of the

Church, Studies in Church History 41 (2005)

Harrison, G.B., Daemonologie (James I) (London, 1924).

Hutton, R., ‗The English reformation and the evidence of folklore‘, P+P (1995).

Joseph, M., ‗Discerning the Ghost in Hamlet‘, PMLA 76 (1961).


Marshall, P., Beliefs and the Dead in Reformation England (2002), ch. 6

--------, ‗Deceptive Appearances: Ghosts and Reformers in Elizabethan and Jacobean

England‘, in H. Parish and W.G. Naphy (eds.), Religion and Superstition in

Reformation Europe (2002)

Prosser, E., Hamlet and Revenge (Stanford, 1971).

Russell, M.S., (eds), The Folkore of Ghosts (1981)

Schmidt, J-C., Ghosts in the Middle Ages (1994)

Shakespeare, W., Hamlet (various copies in RUL)

The Merry Wives of Windsor

A Midsummer Nights Dream

Scot, R.,The Discoverie of Witchcraft (link from

www.luminarium.org/renlit/renaissanceinfo.htm)

Thomas, K., Religion and the Decline of Magic (London, 1991).

Wilson, J.D., What happens in Hamlet (Cambridge, 1951).

‗Ghost stories‘, in J. Shinners (ed.), Medieval Popular Religion 1000-1500 (1997)

[primary sources]

Seminar 9 : The Cheese and the Worms

Summary

Although not the only focused local study of popular culture and attitudes to religion

and magic, Carlo Ginzburg‘s study The Cheese and the Worms had been widely

received and commented upon. The book presents what we might refer to as the

‗mental cosmos‘ of the 16th

century miller, Menocchio, who was brought to trial

29

before the Inquisition, and whose testimony gives us an almost unique window into

his world and the world of his community. It may be argued then, that Ginzburg‘s

work presents the historian with an astonishingly useful account of early modern

popular culture, and the interaction between the world of the village miller and that of

the educated and elite, as represented by the Inquisitors. But Ginzburg‘s work raises

as many questions as it answers, and should lead us to think more about the way in

which the history of popular culture and belief is written. Ginzburg invites us to use

the magnifying glass of Menocchio‘s testimony to explore the culture of the people on

a much broader level, and to look at the dissemination of literate ideas into the

popular thought and practice. But how representative is Menocchio – and how much

authority should Ginzburg‘s account be given? Based on our reading of this text, and

the discussions that we have had so far this term on popular culture, rituals, and

attitudes to life and the afterlife, in this session we will draw some of these threads

together in a more general discussion of popular culture and belief, and the role of

myths and rituals in the local mental world.

Seminar Preparation Obviously The Cheese and the Worms is the most sensible starting point. I have a

photocopy of the La Capra piece which is not available in the library. However you

might find it useful to look forward to the reading for week 10, and back at some of

the literature in earlier sections of the course bibliography dealing with popular

culture – Peter Burke is a good place to start, as is David Gentilcore‘s Bishop and

Witch.

General questions for discussion

The book itself – how to Menocchio view his world, and from what perspective?

How does Menocchio view the church and religion?

Why is the Inquisition so interested in Menocchio and the Friuli?

How useful is Ginzburg‘s approach – how much can we learn from the tale of

Menocchio?

What is ‗popular culture‘ in this period?

What are the main features of popular culture?

What kind of sources are available to the historian of early modern popular culture,

and what advantages / disadvantages do they have?

What is the relationship between popular and elite culture in this period?

What impact – or lack of impact – does the Reformation have on local beliefs?

Secondary Sources

Ginzburg, C., The Cheese and the Worms (London, 1980).

Burke, P., ‗The Cheese and the Worms. The Cosmos of a 16th

Century Miller‘,

History Today, 31 (1981) p.50-1

Chiappelli, F. ‗The Cheese and the Worms. The Cosmos of a 16th

Century Miller‘,

Renaissance Quarterly, 34 (1981) pp.397-400.

Cohn, S., ‗The Cheese and the Worms. The Cosmos of a 16th

Century Miller‘, Journal

of Interdisciplinary History, 12 (1982) pp.523-5.

Hunter, M., ‗The Cheese and the Worms. The Cosmos of a 16th

Century Miller‘,

History, 66 (1981) p.296

30

Kelly, W.W., ‗The Cheese and the Worms. The Cosmos of a 16th

Century Miller‘,

Journal of Peasant Studies, 11 (1982) pp.119-21

La Capra, D., ‗The Cheese and the Worms. The Cosmos of a 20th

Century Historian‘

in History and Criticism ed. La Capra (1985). [available from HLP.]

Midelfort, H., ‗The Cheese and the Worms. The Cosmos of a 16th

Century Miller‘,

Catholic Historical Review, 68 (1982) pp.513-4.

Schutte, A.J., ‗The Cheese and the Worms. The Cosmos of a 16th

Century Miller‘,

Church History 51 (1982) p.218

Scribner, R.W., ‗Is the history of popular culture possible?‘, History of European

Ideas 10 (1989).

Valeri, V., ‗The Cheese and the Worms. The Cosmos of a 16th

Century Miller‘,

Journal of Modern History 54 (1982) pp.139-43

[see also listings for popular culture and popular religion above]

Seminar 10 : Superstition

Summary

In 1586, Pope Sixtus V in the bull Coeli et Terra drew attention to unwelcome

practices within and outside the Church. There are certain men, he complained ‗either

mad or meddlesome or impious and irreligious who take such pains to attain

knowledge of the future and other hidden things that they offend many times against

the law of God‘. So what were these ‗certain men‘ up to? The list provided by Sixtus

seems fairly comprehensive – there were those who were guilty of conjuring, of

necromancy, those who engaged in magic and magical incantations, more still who

made images and spectres miraculously appear by fraudulent means, some – mainly

women he thought – who ‗gave up to superstitious practices‘, and yet more who ‗by

means of incantations and various superstitions‘ attempted to foretell the future.

Sixtus‘ complaint made reference on more than one occasion to the prevalence of

what he deemed to be ‗superstition‘ and ‗superstitious‘ practices, a catch-all term for

unsuitable actions and misplaced trust. In fact, superstition was one of the most used

- and perhaps even overused words in the vocabulary of religious debate – both

Catholic and Protestant. Because of the ease with which accusations of superstition

slipped into the language of Reformation debate, one of the most fought over terms in

the history of early modern popular culture, especially religious culture, is also one of

the most difficult to define. What, in the sixteenth and seventeenth century, was

‗superstition‘ – where were you likely to find it, what would you do with it when you

saw it, and how would you know if you were supporting it. Was there even a

comprehensive or watertight contemporary understanding of the meaning of the word

– or was it simply a stock term of abuse, and a term of abuse which has all too often

found its way into the historiography of the period.

31

Seminar Preparation We will use this session as a chance to revisit some of the themes that we have

considered during the term, including the relationship between religion and magic, the

purpose of rituals and communal festivities, and the nature of popular culture in early

modern Europe.

Primary Sources The papal bull Sixtus V Coeli et Terra

Carolus de Baucius, Modus Interrogandi Daemonum

Antonio de Guevara, Visitation Reports 1541

Henry VIII: The Second Royal Injunctions

Edward VI: Act for the Dissolution of the Chantries

Elizabeth I: Proclamation and Injunctions

Secondary Sources

In addition to some of the reading in sections above, the following provide useful

introductions and case studies:

Edward Muir, Ritual in Early Modern Europe (1997), chs. 5-6

Richard van Dülmen, ‗The Reformation and the Modern Age‘, in C. Scott Dixon

(ed.), The German Reformation (1999), pp. 193-219.

Carlos M. Eire, War against the Idols: The Reformation of Worship from Erasmus to

Calvin (1986), conclusion

Euan Cameron, ‗For Reasoned Faith or Embattled Creed? Religion and the People in Early

Modern Europe‘, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6th

series, 7 (1998)

Euan Cameron, Enchanted Europe. Superstition, Reason and Religion (Oxford, 2010)

R. Hutton,The Rise and Fall of Merry England (Oxford, 1996).

Stations of the Sun (Oxford, 1996).

The English Reformation & the evidence of folklore‘ P+P 148 (1995).

T.Johnson & R.Scribner eds., Popular religion in Germany and Central Europe,

1400-1800 (New York, 1996).

N. Jones, ‗Defining Superstitions: Treasonous Catholic and the Act Against

Witchcraft of 1563‘ in C.Carlton, R.Woods, M. Roberston and J.Black eds., State,

sovereigns & society in early modern England : essays in honour of A.J. Slavin

(Stroud, 1998)

G. Klaniczay, The uses of supernatural power : the transformation of popular

religion in medieval and early-modern Europe (Polity, 1990)

H. Parish and W. Naphy (eds), Religion and Superstition in Reformation Europe

(2002), introduction

Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, (1992) ch. 4. [relevant

section also in A reader in the anthropology of religion, ed. Michael Lambek (2002)]

Eamon Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England c.1400-

c.1580 (1992), part II

Ulinka Rublack, Reformation Europe (2005), ch. 4 and epilogue

Peter Marshall, ‗Forgery and Miracles in the Reign of Henry VIII‘, Past and Present,

no. 178 (2003)

32


(1) What was regarded as ‗superstition‘ by the Catholic church and by the Protestant

churches? Are there differences – and what are they?

(2) Did post-reformation culture accommodate what Reformation leaders had themselves

termed as superstition both in thought and in practice? Was any effort made to

attempt to defend or rationalise continued ‗superstitious‘ beliefs and practices? For

example, was any accommodation made with those practices that were termed as

‗superstitious‘ in order to blunt or soften the impact of religious change?

(3) Were these developments more than just the survival of traditional ideas – were these

practices actively promoted as part of a new religious culture?

(4) The ever present spectre of the debate over what we mean when we talk about

‗popular‘ religion in the era of the Reformation. Whose religion are we referring to,

and what makes it ‗popular‘? Is the religion and culture of the laity merely passively

accepted, or distorted this to fit their needs, which were often material rather than

spiritual?

33

Spring Term

Seminar One: The Malleus Maleficarum

Summary

We shall be spending the first three sessions this term looking at witchcraft, attitudes

to witchcraft, and the persecution of witches in early modern Europe. In the course of

these three seminars, we will study the writings of the witch-hunters, the records of

trials, and the expansion of belief in witchcraft and the witch-hunt spread across

Europe. The first seminar of the term will be devoted to representations of witchcraft

in the writings of the persecutors, inquisitors, and educated, with a particular focus on

the Malleus Maleficarum or the ‗Hammer of Witches‘, which is perhaps the best

known document of the witch-craze. Some extracts are provided, but you can read

more in the University Library edition of the Malleus. or on the web (follow

references from the course homepage) The book is often referred to in the records of

the witch-trials in Germany, France, Italy, and England, and its influence was

enduring — indeed the introduction to one modern edition states ‗this famous

document should interest the historian, the student of witchcraft and the occult, and

the psychologist who is interested in the medieval mind‘.

Seminar Preparation

Please read the primary source documents before the first class. We will spend some

time looking at these in detail in class. Beforehand, please let me have a gobbet

extract from these passages (choose your own section as a ‗question‘ for the rest of

the class). You might also find it helpful to dip into the relevant section of reading list.

Questions for Discussion

(i) What was ‗witchcraft‘ in the early modern period?

(ii) Why was it so feared — especially by the church?

(iii) How did the learned stereotype of the witch develop?

(iv) How do learned views of the witch compare with popular attitudes?

(v) How far did the Malleus Malficarum shape attitudes to witchcraft?

(vi) Has the influence of the Malleus been overexaggerated?

Primary Sources for Class Discussion The Malleus Maleficarum (extracts)

Guazzo: Compendium Maleficarum (extracts)

Secondary Reading Anglo, S., The Damned Art : Essays in the Literature of Witchcraft (London, 1977).

"Evident Authority and Authoritative Evidence: The Malleus Maleficarum." In his

The Damned Art: Essays in the Literature of Witchcraft. (London, 1977).

Baroja, J.C., "Witchcraft and Catholic Theology.", in B. Ankarloo, G. Henningsen, eds. Early

Modern European Witchcraft: Centres and Peripheries (Oxford, 1989).

Clark, S., Thinking with Demons. The idea of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe

(Oxford, 1997).

34

‗Inversion, Misrule, and the Meaning of Witchcraft‘, Past and Present 87 (1980)

‗The Gendering of Witchcraft in French Demonology‘, French History (1991)

‗The Scientific Status of Demonology‘, in B.Vickers Occult and

Scientific Mentalities in the Renaissance (Cambridge, 1984).

"The Rational Witchfinder: Conscience, Demonological Naturalism, and

Popular Superstitions‖, in S. Pumfrey et al., eds. Science, Culture, and

Popular Belief in Renaissance Europe (Manchester, 1991).

Cohn,N., Europe's Inner Demons (New York, 1993).

Fation, Olivier. "Lambert Daneau, 1530-95‖, in J. Rait, ed. Shapers of Religious

Traditions in Germany, Switzerland, Poland, 1560-1660 (New Haven, 1981).

Kieckhefer, R., Magic in the Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1989).

The European Witch Trials. Their Foundation in Popular and Learned

Culture (Berkeley, 1976).

Kors, A., Witchcraft in Europe 1100-1700. A Documentary History (London, 1973).

Kramer, H., Malleus Maleficarum (London, 1971).

Larner, Christina. "James VI and I and Witchcraft‖, in A.G. R. Smith, ed. The Reign

of James VI and I (London, 1973). Reprinted in Larner, Witchcraft and

Religion: The Politics of Popular Belief ( New York, 1984).

"Two Late Scottish Witchcraft Tracts: Witchcraft Proven and The Trial of

Witchcraft." In S. Anglo, ed. The Damned Art: Essays in the Literature of Witchcraft

(London, 1977).

Lehmann, H., ‘The Persecution of Witches as the Restoration of Order. Germany

1590-1650’, Central European History 21 (1988)

Levack, B., The Witch-hunt in Early Modern Europe (London, 1987).

The Literature of Witchcraft (New York, 1992).

Maxwell Stuart, P., ‗Rational superstition: The Writings of Protestant

Demonologists‘, in H. Parish and W.G.Naphy (eds.), Religion and Superstition in

Reformation Europe (2002)

Midelfort H.C., Witch hunting in South West Germany 1562-1684 (London, 1972).

Monter, E.W, Ritual, Myth and Magic in Early Modern Europe (Brighton, 1983).

European Witchcraft (London, 1969).

Pearl, J., "French Catholic Demonologists and Their Enemies in the Late

Sixteenth and Early Seventeeth Centuries", Church History 52 (1983).

Purkiss, D., The Witch in History. Early Modern and Twentieth Century

Representations (London, 1996).

Roper, L., Oedipus and Devil. Witchcraft, Sexuality and Religion in Early Modern

Europe (London, 1984).

Scarre, G, Witchcraft and Magic in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Europe

(London, 1987).

Scribner, R.W., ‗Sorcery, Superstition and Society : the Witch of Urach 1529‘,

PCPM ch.12

Seminar 2 : The Dynamics and Dimensions of the Witch Hunt

Summary

The idea of witchcraft was not invented by the persecutors of the sixteenth and

seventeenth centuries : as we have seen there were precedents in the distant past, and

in the late medieval witch trials (see Kieckhefer) that helped to shape and inform the

persecutions of the early modern period. But historians are still left with the problem

35

of explaining why it was that the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries saw such violent

and vigorous persecution of witches. Works like the Malleus Maleficarum certainly

did much to raise awareness of witchcraft, and throw the spotlight onto the alleged

pact between the witch and the devil, allowing writers such as Jean Bodin to claim

that witchcraft was a ‗crimen exemptum‘ – a crime so awful that the normal standards

of justice did not apply. But why did the people of early modern Europe fear witches

– or witchcraft – as much, and what were the concerns and motivations of those who

persecuted and prosecuted witches, and those who made accusations against their

neighbours?

Seminar Preparation and Questions for Class Discussion

There are no set documents for this week, but the materials from first session on the

Malleus, and the records of witch trials in the first four pages of the document

handbook may be of interest. We shall spend this session looking in general terms at

the persecution of witchcraft in the early modern period, and at the historiography of

the European witchcraze. There are a number of themes to consider :

(i) the persecution of witches as a reaction to disaster, hardship.

(ii) the ‗acculturation‘ explanation – persecution by church and state as a means of

imposing a Christian culture on the populace

(iii) the ‗anthropological‘ explanation – persecution / accusation as a result of

local divisions, hostility to outcasts and those on the margins

(iv) the impact of the printed word in shaping ideas, and the selffulfilling

prophecy. (―There were neither witches nor bewitched until they were spoken

and written about‖).

Secondary Reading

Ankarloo, B., Henningsen, G., Early Modern Witchcraft, Centres and Peripheries

(Oxford, 1989).

Apps, L. and Gow, A., Male Witches in Early Modern Europe (Manchester, 2003).

Barry, J., Hester, M., Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe. Studies in Culture and

Belief (Cambridge, 1998).

Behringer, W., "Weather, Hunger, and Fear: The Origins of the European Witch

Persecutions in Climate, Society, and Mentality" German History 13 (1995).

[available from HLP]

Bennett, G. , "Ghost and Witch in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries", Folklore

96 (1986)

Briggs, R., Witches and Neighbours. The social and Cultural Context of European

Witchcraft (London, 1996).

"Witchcraft and Popular Mentality in Lorraine, 1580-1630", in B.Vickers, ed.

Occult and Scientific Mentalities in the Renaissance (Cambridge, 1984).

Clark, S., Languages of Witchcraft (Basingstoke, 2001)

Dewindt, A., ‗Witchcraft and Conflicting Visions of the Ideal Village Community‘,

Journal of British Studies, 34 (1995)

Estes, Leland. "Reginald Scot and His Discoverie of Witchcraft : Religion and

Science in the Opposition to the European Craze." Church History 52 (1983).

Gaskill, M., ‗The Devil in the Shape of a Man: Witchcraft, Conflict and Belief in

Jacobean England‘, Historical Research, 71 (1998)

Gibson, M., Early Modern Witches: Witchcraft Cases in Contemporary Writing

36

(London, 2000)

Ginzburg, C., The Night Battles : Witchcraft & Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth &

Seventeenth Centuries (London, 1983).

Goodare, J., ‗Women and the witch-hunt in Scotland‘, Social History, 23 (1998)

--------, The Scottish Witch-hunt in Context (2002)

Gregory, A., ‘Witchcraft, Politics and Good ‗Neighbourhood‘ in Early Seventeenth

Century Rye‘, Past and Present 133 (1991)

Henningsen, G., The witches' advocate : Basque witchcraft and the Spanish

Inquisition, 1609-1614 (Reno, 1980).

Hutton, R., ‗Anthropological and historical approaches to witchcraft: potential for a

new collaboration?‘, Historical Journal, 47 (2004), 413-434.

Lehmann, H., ‗The Persecution of Witches as the Restoration of Order. Germany

1590-1650‘, Central European History 21 (1988)

Levack, B., The Witch-hunt in Early Modern Europe (London, 1987).

Levack, B., ‗The Great Scottish Witch Hunt of 1661-62‘, Journal of British Studies

19 (1980)

Midelfort H.C., Witch hunting in South West Germany 1562-1684 (London, 1972).

"Heartland of the Witchcraze: Central and Northern Europe‖, History

Today 31 (1981).

"Witchcraft and Religion in Sixteenth-Century Germany: The

Formation and Consequences of an Orthodoxy", Archiv fur

Reformationsgeschichte 62 (1971). [available from HLP]

Monter, E.W, Ritual, Myth and Magic in Early Modern Europe (Brighton, 1983).

European Witchcraft (London, 1969).

"European Witchcraft: A Moment of Synthesis?" HJ 31 (1988)

"The Historiography of European Witchcraft: Progress and

Prospects" Journal of Interdisciplinary History 2 (1972).

"Witchcraft in France and Italy", History Today 30 (1980).



Rowlands, A., "Witchcraft and Popular Religion in Early Modern Rothenburg ob der

Tauber‖, in R.W. Scribner and T. Johnson, eds. Popular Religion in Germany

and Central Europe, 1400-1800 (New York, 1996).


(London, 1987).

Scribner, R.W., ‗Sorcery, Superstition and Society : the Witch of Urach 1529‘,

PCPM ch.12 "Witchcraft and Judgement in Reformation Germany", History Today 40 (1990).

Waite, G., Heresy, Magic and Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe (Basingstoke, 2003)

Seminar 3 : Witchcraft : Trials and Victims

Summary

Works like the Malleus Maleficarum did much to influence the way in which the

people of early modern Europe viewed magic and witchcraft. Even if we are cautious

in our assessment of the impact that that Mallues had upon popular, and even elite

attitudes, the work has gone down in history for the way in which it associated women

with witchcraft. The views expressed in the Malleus were not unique to its authors,

37

and the majority of those who were tried and executed for witchcraft were women.

The prevalence of women among the victims of the witch-trials has been the cause of

much debate in recent decades, leading some writers to see the accusation of women

as part of the ‗ongoing mechanisms for the social control of women‘ (Hester). From

our earlier discussions on the historiography of early modern witchcraft, it is clear that

this is only one of a number of possible explanations for the persecutions of the

sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Having looked at literature on witchcraft in this

period, and at the views of historians in recent research, in this session we will make

more use of the records of the trials of witches, and test out the various hypotheses at

a local and individual level.

Seminar Preparation

It may be useful to refer back to the extracts from the Malleus and other tracts from

first week. In this session, we will look in detail at a number of specific witch-trials in

the seminar. Examples are provided in the gobbet handbook, but your preparation for

this week is to find a witch (!) or an account of an early modern witch trial, and bring

the relevant primary sources to class.

There are some accounts of trials in the Malleus, a few in the Kors & Peters volume

Witchcraft in Europe 1100-1700, and of course plenty to be found on the web.

Look at the course homepage

(http://www.rdg.ac.uk/~lhs99hlp/ritual.html)

or at witchcraft links on my other course pages (particularly the Part One Approaches

to History course)

If you would like any information copied for the rest of the group, drop it off by

Tuesday afternoon.

Questions for Class Discussion

Why were women so prominent among the accusers in witch-trials?

What light does the case of ‗your‘ witch shed on the interpretations of the trials that

we discussed in week 2?

How closely does ‗your‘ witch conform to the models set out in the literature?

What are the most important / common features of witchcraft allegations?

How reliable is the evidence for ‗your‘ trial? Compared to other types?

How much popular support / interest is there in the witch-hunt?

How can we explain the rise and fall of levels of persecution, and the geography and

chronology of persecution?

Is the witchcraze an event of cultural and historical importance?

Primary Sources The Examination and Confession of Certain Witches (1566)

The Apprehension and Confession of Three Notorious Witches (1589)

A Tryal of Witches (1662)

Secondary Reading

Ankarloo, B., Henningsen, G., Early Modern Witchcraft, Centres and Peripheries

(Oxford, 1989).

http://www.rdg.ac.uk/~lhs99hlp/ritual.html

38

Barry, J., Hester, M., Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe. Studies in Culture and

Belief (Cambridge, 1998).

Bever, E., ‗Witchcraft, female aggression, and power in the early modern

community‘, Journal of Social History, 35 (2002)

Briggs, R., Witches and Neighbours. The social and Cultural Context of European

Witchcraft (London, 1996).

‗Women as Victims? Witches, Judges, and the Community‘, French History (1991).

"Many Reasons Why: Witchcraft and the Problem of Multiple Explanation‖,

in J.Barry et al., eds, Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe: Studies in Culture

and Belief (Cambridge, 1996).

Clark, S., ‗The Gendering of Witchcraft in French Demonology‘, French History (1991).

Clark, S. and P. T. J. Morgan. "Religion and Magic in Elizabethan Wales: Robert

Holland's Dialogue on Witchcraft‖, JEH 27 (1976).

Gaskill, M., ‗Witchcraft and power in early modern England: the case of Margaret

Moore‘, in Jenny Kermode and Garthine Walker (eds.), Women, Crime and the

Courts in Early Modern England (1994)

--------, ‗Witchcraft and Evidence in Early Modern England‘, Past and Present, 198 (2008)

Geis, G., and Ivan Bunn, A Trial of Witches: a Seventeenth-Century Witchcraft

Prosecution (1997)

Ginzburg, C., The Night Battles : Witchcraft & Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth &

Seventeenth Centuries (London, 1983).

Gibson, M., Early Modern Witches: Witchcraft Cases in Contemporary Writing

(London, 2000)

Goodare, J., ‗Women and the witch-hunt in Scotland‘, Social History 23 (1998).

Holmes, Clive. "Popular Culture? Witches, Magistrates, and Divines in Early Modern

England‖, in S.Kaplan, ed. Understanding Popular Culture (Amsterdam, 1984).

Horsley, R.A., ‗Who were the witches? The Role of the Accused in European Witch

Trials‘, Journal of Interdisciplinary History 9 (1979).

Lehmann, H., ‗The Persecution of Witches as the Restoration of Order. Germany

1590-1650‘, Central European History 21 (1988).

Macfarlane, A., Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England (New York, 1970).

Midelfort, H., "Johann Weyer and the Transformation of the Insanity Defense", in R.

Po-Chia Hsia, ed. The German People and the Reformation, (Ithaca, 1988).

Monter, E.W., "Toads and Eucharists: The Male Witches of Normandy‖, French

Historical Studies 20 (1997).

Poole, R. (ed.), The Lancashire Witches: Histories and Stories (2003)

Purkiss, D., ‗Women‘s Stories of Witchcraft in Early Modern England: The House,

the Body, the Child‘, Gender and History, 7 (1995)



Rushton, P., ‗Texts of Authority: Witchcraft Accusations and the Demonstration of

Truth in Early Modern England‘, in Stuart Clark (ed.), Languages of Witchcraft:

Ideology and Meaning in Early Modern Culture (2001), pp.21-39.


(London, 1987).

Sharpe, J. A., "The Devil in East Anglia: The Matthew Hopkins Trials Reconsidered‖,

in Jonathan Barry et al., eds.Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge, 1996).

Instruments of Darkness: Witchcraft in England, 1550-1750 (London, 1996).

39

Seminar 4 : Magic I – Popular Beliefs

Summary

In discussions in the first half of the autumn term we considered the relationship

between magic and religion, and especially the relationship between magical rites and

the sacramentals of the pre-reformation church. The willingness to attribute

supernatural powers to material objects, or to see in natural events a supernatural

significance suggests that the people of early modern Europe had few doubts about

the power of the supernatural in the world, and the potency of magic. The study of the

persecution and prosecution of witches in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries

gives us a clear indication of the widespread fear and hatred of maleficient magic,

especially where such practices appeared to be linked to a pact made between the

individual witch and the devil.

However is it fair to see maleficient witchcraft as the primary concern of early

modern demonologists? How was beneficent magic perceived by these same writers?

Indeed how easy is it to separate magic from witchcraft in this period, given the

important role that the counter-magic offered by local cunning folk played in the

identification of witches and in cures from bewitchment? On what basis did church

and state, on both sides of the confessional divide, approach local practitioners of

magic. Richard Kieckhefer has argued that we should see magic as a crossroads in

medieval culture, ‗one with numerous paths radiating from it‘. (Magic in the Middle

Ages) But what was popular magic in early modern Europe, where was it to be found,

and why was it so feared?

Seminar Preparation

Taking Kieckhefer‘s assertion that magic is at a crossroads of medieval culture as our

starting point, we will consider the relationship between popular magic and –

(1) religion

(2) science and medicine

(3) witchcraft

(4) law and justice

General Questions for Class Discussion

Why were both Catholic and Protestant Churches so hostile to magic?

What was the attitude of secular governments to magic?

What were the main differences between natural and demonic magic? How clear is

the distinction, and did it affect the degree of opposition to the magical arts?

What did popular magical belief owe to Christianity or paganism?

How might natural remedies be distinguished from the supernatural?

What function did magic have in early modern popular culture?

40

Primary Sources

Oswald Cron (extracts)

Reginald Scot (extracts)

Martin del Rio (extracts)

Secondary Reading

Bossy, J., ‗Early Modern Magic‘, History 57 (1972)

Burke, P., ‗Rituals of healing in early modern Italy‘, in his The Historical

Anthropology of Early Modern Italy (Cambridge, 1987).

Christian, W., Local Religion in Sixteenth Century Spain (Princeton, 1981).

Clark, S., Thinking with Demons (Oxford, 1997). Ch.14-15

Curry, P., ‗Revisions of Science and Magic‘, History of Science 23 (1985).

Davies, O., ‗Healing Charms in Use in England and Wales 1700-1950‘, Folklore ,

107 (1996)

--------, ‗Cunning Folk in England and Wales during the 18th

and 19th

Centuries‘,

Rural History (1997)

--------, ‗Charmers and Charming in England and Wales from the 18th

to the 20th

Century‘, Folklore, 109 (1998), 41-52

De Blécourt, W., ‗Witch doctors, soothsayers and priests: on cunning folk in

European historiography and tradition‘, Social History, 19 (1994), 285-303.

Geertz, H., / Thomas, K., ‗An anthropology of Religion and magic‘, Journal of

Interdisciplinary History 6 (1975).

Gentilcore, D., From Bishop to Witch. The system of the sacred in early modern

Terra d’Ottranto (Manchester, 1992). Ch.4-7

Harley, D., ‗Spiritual Physic, Providence and English Medicine, 1560-1640‘, in Ole

Peter Grell and Andrew Cunningham (eds), Medicine and the Reformation (1993)

Henry, J., ‗Doctors and Healers: Popular Culture and the Medical Profession‘, in S.

Pumfrey et al (eds), Science, Culture and Popular Belief in Renaissance Europe (1991)

Hillerbrand, H., The Oxford Encyclopaedia of the Reformation (Oxford, 1998) article

on Magic

Hsia, R.P-C., The Myth of Ritual Murder. Jews and Magic in Reformation Germany

(New Haven, London, 1988).

Kieckhefer, R., Magic in the Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1989).

Levack, B., Renaissance Magic (New York, 1992).

Macfarlane, A., Witchcraft in Early Modern England: A Regional and Comparative

Study (1970), chs 8, 13

Maxwell Stuart, P., The occult in Early Modern Europe (New York, 1999).

Monter, W., Ritual Myth and magic in Early Modern Europe (Brighton, 1983).

O‘Neill, M., ‗Magical Healing. Love Magic and the Inquisition‘, in S. Haliczer ed.,

Inquisition and Society in Early Modern Europe (London, 1987).

‗Sacerdote ovvero strione. Ecclesiastical and Superstitious remedies in 16th

century Italy‘, in S.Kaplan ed., Understanding Popular Culture (Berlin, 1984).

Scribner, R.W., ‗Magic, Witchcraft and Superstition‘, HJ 37 (1994)

‗The reformation, popular magic and the disenchantment of the world‘,Journal of

Interdisciplinary History 23 (1992-3).

‗Cosmic Order and Daily Life‘, PCPM


Thorndike, L., History of Magic (London, 1929-1958).

41

Wear, ‗Religious Beliefs and Medicine in Early Modern England‘, in H. Marland and

M. Pelling (eds), The Task of Healing Medicine, Religion and Gender in England and

the Netherlands (1996)

Webster, ‗Paracelsus Confronts Saints: Miracles, Healing and the Secularisation of

Magic‘, Social History of Medicine, 8 (1995)


Europe (2000), chs. 12-13

Seminar 5 : Magic II – The Renaissance Magus

Summary

Any attempt to survey popular beliefs and attitudes towards magic raises questions

about the interaction of popular and elite cultures, and the ability to separate the two.

In looking at attitudes to magic in early modern Italy, for example, it is clear that the

role of the clergy in local practice, as sources of ecclesiastical medicine, or of more

general supernatural and magical powers, should not be underestimated. Richard

Kieckhefer has identified a clerical underworld of sorcerers and necromancers in late

medieval Europe, suggesting that early modern magic was not simply ill thought out

superstition, but also a pastime of the educated and literate. In seeking precedents and

advice in their art, the magicians of the Renaissance, like other scholars, turned to the

classical and ancient past, seeking what they believed were authentic materials for

study and learning. Out of this investigation of the past emerged the hero of the

Renaissance magus, Hermes Trismegistus, the origin of the ‗hermetic tradition‘. The

Humanist revival of the ancient languages also helped to renew interest in the Jewish

Kabbalist tradition, and the wonderworking power of words. The same themes of the

relationship between magic, science, and religion can be traced in both elite and

popular magic, and the revival of interest in magic in the Renaissance helped to stir up

further controversy and debate.

Seminar Preparation

There are a number of individuals whose contribution to writing and thinking on

magic in the Renaissance are worthy of further consideration. Renaissance magic was

not monolithic, and there are a few different discernible trends. We will focus our

discussions on the documents and on the life and work of the following :

(1) Marsilio Ficino

(2) Johannes Trithemius (see N.Brann The Abbot Trithemius for more detail)

(3) Giordano Bruno

(4) Cornelius Agrippa

(5) Thomas Campanella

(6) Paracelsus (Theophrastus Phillippus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim)

(7) John Dee

(8) Johannes Reuchlin

42

Primary Sources Della Porta, Natural Magic

Agrippa, De Occulta Philosophia

Ficino, Apologia

Reuchlin, De Arte Cabbalistica


Do Valle de Moura, De Incantationibus

Borromeo, De Cabbalisticis Inventis

Reuchlin, De Arte Cabbalistica

Del Rio, Disquisitiones Magicae

Secondary Reading

Bossy, J., Giordani Bruno and the Embassy Affair (New Haven, 1991).

Burke, P., ‗Witchcraft and Magic in Renaissance Italy. Gianfrancesco Pico and his Strix‘,

in S.Anglo ed., The Damned Art. Essays in the Literature of Witchcraft (London, 1977).

Clulee, N.H., John Dee's natural philosophy : between science and religion (London, 1988).

Copenhaver, B.P., ‗Scholastic Philosophy and Renaissance Magic in the De Vita of

Marsilio Ficino‘, Renaissance Quarterly 37 (1984).

‗Astrology and Magic‘, in C.Schmitt, Q.Skinner eds., The Cambridge

History of Renaissance Philosophy (Cambridge, 1987).

‗Natural Magic, Hermeticism and Occultism in early Modern Science‘,

in D.Lindberg, R.Westman eds., Reappraisals of the Scientific

Revolution (Cambridge, 1990).

Debus, A.G., Man and Nature in the Renaissance (Cambridge, 1978).

The English Paracelsians (Cambridge, 1975).

Dobbs, B., The Foundations of Newton’s Alchemy (1975)

Gatti, H., Giordano Bruno and Renaissance Science (Ithaca, 1999).

Kieckhefer, R., European Witch Trials. Their Origin in Popular and Learned

Culture 1300-1500 (London, 1976).

Levack, B., Renaissance Magic (New York, 1992).

Marshall, P., The Philosopher’s Stone: A Quest for the Secrets of Alchemy (2002)

Michel, P.H., The Cosmology of Giordano Bruno (London, 1972).

Nicholl, C., The Chemical Theatre (1980) [on alchemy in Shakespeare and his contemporaries]

Paterson, A., The Infinite Worlds of Giordano Bruno (New York, 1970).

Sigerist, H ed., Paracelsus. Four Treatises (Baltimore, 1996).

Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic (1971), chs 10-12

Thorndike, L., History of Magic (London, 1929-1958).

Vickers, B., Occult and Scientific Mentalities in the Renaissance (Cambridge, 1984).

Walker, D.P., Spiritual and Demonic Magic from Ficino to Campanella

(Pennsylvania, 2000).

Webster, C., From Paracelsus to Newton : magic and the making of modern science

(Cambridge, 1982).

Yates, F., Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition (London, 1964).

Szydlo, Z., and R. Brzezinksi, ‗A New Light on Alchemy‘, History Today, 47 (January 1997)

Seminar 6 : Text Study – Wolfgang Behringer’s ‘Shaman of Oberstdorf’.

At the end of our study of attitudes to witchcraft, magic, and the occult, the story of

events in the town of Oberstdorf provides a useful case study of popular beliefs and

43

fears, and attitudes to the supernatural, ghosts, death and myth. Behringer outlines the

events that led to the death of Stoeckhlin, and others of the his community, and the

tensions that could develop between popular religious and magic practice and the

official stance of the church. The ‗end of the dreamtime‘ came when the forces of

church and state were brought to bear on the stories of Stoeckhlin, and as Behringer

writes ‗the people of the night were pushed underground and the fairies took their

leave of history‘.

Given that the book is often compared to Ginzburg‘s The Cheese and the Worms, it

raises the same kind of questions about the value of such individual studies and the

problems of detailed research into popular oral culture. When reading Shaman of

Oberstdorf it is worth bearing in mind these issues, but also considering how the story

of Conrad Stoeckhlin fits into our work on magic and witchcraft this term, and last

term‘s discussions on ghosts, the afterlife, portents and prophecy. Although we will

have a general ‗revision‘ session at the end of term, this text study would be a good

chance to think about some of the themes covered already in the course.

There are no set documents for this class. Secondary reading as appropriate to the

broader implications of the book.

Seminar 8: Astrology and Astronomy

Summary

Keith Thomas tells us that the basic astrological assumptions are easy to grasp:

astronomy is the study of the movements of the starts, while astrology is the study of

the effects of those movements. The four elements earth, air, fire and water — were

controlled by the movements of the stars, and kept in motion by the journeys of the

planets across the skies. We have already seen in our studies of magic and medicine

that a knowledge of the stars was also a key feature of much of the learned magic.

divination and science of the time. Astrology offered an explanation for human

fortunes, good and bad, and a means of understanding worldly events. As Lilly, the

great English astrologer, wrote in 1647 there was ‗nothing appertaining to the life of

man in this world which is one way or another hath not relation to one of the twelve

houses of heaven‘. However from the earliest Christian centuries there had been

conflict and hostility between the star-gazers and the church, and the aftermath of the

Reformation was no exception. Protestant writers and preachers denounced the

predictions of the astrologers as anti-Christian, and astrology was among the long list

of practices forbidden in the Bull of Sixtus V, Coeli et Terra. Universities with a chair

of astrology changed the title to astronomy to avoid papal condemnation. The early

modern period also witnessed a renewal of interest in astronomy, its most famous

practitioners including Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler. What advances, then, did

astronomy bring in knowledge and understanding of the stars? What was the

relationship between astronomy and astrology, between astrology and religion, events

in the heavens and events on earth?

Seminar Preparation What was the attraction of astrology in the early modern period, and to whom?

What functions did astrology have?

What was the appeal of almanacs and prognostications?

44

Was astrology the preserve of the elite, or a set of ideas which was accessible to the

populace? Who practiced astrology?

What were the main reasons for ecclesiastical opposition to astrology?

What were the main ‗discoveries‘ of early modern astronomy?

Why was there such opposition to the works of Copernicus and Galileo?

How far did Copernicus and Galileo (and their condemnation) shape attitudes to the

stars?

Was there a practical difference between astrology and astronomy at this time?

Primary Source Texts Cardano, De Libris Propriis

Del Rio, Disquisitiones Magicae


Morin, Astrologia Gallica

Calvin, Advertissement Contra L‘Astrologie Judicaire

Pithoys, Traitte Curieux de l‘astrologie judiciaire

Brahe, De Disciplinis Mathematicis

Copernicus, The Revolution of the Heavenly Bodies

Bellarmine on Galileo

Secondary Reading Allen, D., The Star Crossed Renaissance: The Quarrel about Astrology and its

Influence in England (1966)

Armitage, A., Copernicus and the Reformation of Astronomy (London, 1950).

Capp, B., English Almanacs 1500-1800: Astrology and the Popular Press (1979)

Copenhaver, B.P., ‗Astrology and Magic‘, in C.Schmitt, Q.Skinner eds., The

Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy (Cambridge, 1987).

Curry, P., Prophecy and Power (Cambridge, 1989).

‗Astrology in Early Modern England. The making of vulgar knowledge‘,

S.Pumfrey et al. Eds., Science, Culture and Popular Belief in Renaissance Europe

(Cambridge, 1991).

Debus, A.G.,Man and Nature in the Renaissance (Cambridge, 1978).

Alchemy and Chemistry in the Seventeenth Century (New York, 1966).

Dixon, C.S., ‗Popular Astrology and Lutheran Propaganda in Reformation

Germany‘,History 84 (July 1999).

Finocchiaro, M., The Galileo Affair. A Documentary History (Berkeley, 1989).

Garin, E., Astrology in the Renaissance. The Zodiac of Life (London, 1983).

Goodman, C., Science & Belief from Copernicus to Darwin (Open University, 1974).

Koyre, A., The Astronomical Revolution (Cambridge, 1973).

Levere, T., Shea, W., eds Nature, Experiment and the Sciences. Essays on Galileo

and the history of science (Dordrecht, London, 1990).

Maxwell-Stuart, P., The Occult in Early Modern Europe (New York, 1999).

Parker, D., Familiar to All: William Lilly and Astrology in the Seventeenth Century (1975)

Racaut, L., ‗A Protestant or Catholic Superstition? Astrology and Eschatology during

the French Wars of Religion‘, in H. Parish and W.G.Naphy (eds.), Religion and

Superstition in Reformation Europe (2002)

45

Read, J., Prelude to Chemistry. An outline of alchemy, its literature and relationships

(London, 1936).

Redondi, P., Galileo Heretic (Princeton, 1987).

Schechner, S., Comets, Popular Culture and the birth of modern cosmology (Princeton, 1997).

Shumaker, W., Occult Sciences in the Renaissance (London, 1972).

Tester, S., A History of Western Astrology (1987)

Thomas, K., Religion and the Decline of Magic (London, 1971). Esp. ch 10-12

Wallace, W.A., Prelude to Galileo. Essays on Medieval and sixteenth century

sources of Galileo’s Thought (Dordrecht, London 1981).

Wildong, M., Raising Spirits, making gold, and swapping wives (Beeston, 1999).

Seminar 9 : Science and the Supernatural : The Disenchantment of Europe

Summary

Throughout the course, we have examined a variety of beliefs and attitudes in popular

and elite culture. We have looked at perceptions of magic and the influence of the

supernatural in the material world, views on death, ghosts and the afterlife, and at

attitudes to witches, witchcraft, prophecy and astrology. However we have also

considered the way in which these beliefs have changed over time, moulded by

religious conflict, scientific discovery, and intellectual debate. By now, the

description of early modern culture by Keith Thomas in terms of religion and the

decline of magic should be a familiar one. Max Weber referred to the rise of a rational

and orderly universe, and the subsequent ‗disenchantment of the world‘, the removal

of the magic, mysterious, and supernatural from the events of daily life. Similarly,

Bob Scribner has approached this question of ‗disenchantment‘ through a study of the

impact of the Protestant Reformation on popular religion and popular culture in the

sixteenth century. We saw how the arrival of the Inquisition in Oberstdorf brought

about the ‗end of the dreamtime‘ – did the scientific revolution bring an end to the

influence of ritual, myth, and magic? Or did, as Thomas suggests, magic decay before

a new rational system of explanation had been invented to take its place? Did the

supernatural cease to hold power, leaving space for the explanations of the scientists,

or did magic collapse under pressure, squeezed by reformed religion on one side and

natural science on the other?

Seminar Preparation

Although we will use this session to consider explanations for the decline of magic at

the end of our period, it will also be a useful chance to revisit some of our earlier

topics. We will look at the relevant documents together, and consider some of the

questions outlined above, but do take this opportunity to think about broad questions

that will help you to revise this course, and we will take time to have a general

revision session in the latter half of the seminar.

Primary Source Texts Scot, Discoverie of Witchcraft

Montaigne (extracts)

Secondary Reading Anglo, S., The Damned Art : Essays in the Literature of Witchcraft (London, 1977).

46

Boas, M., The Scientific Renaissance (Cambridge, 1962).

Burke, P., ‗Religion and Secularisation‘, in New Cambridge Modern History, XIII

(Cambridge, 1979).

Clark, J.C.D., ‗Providence, predestination and progress: or, did the Enlightenment

fail?‘, Albion, 35 (2004)

Clark, S., Thinking with Demons (1997), pt II, ch. 19; postscript

Curry, P., ‗Revisions of Science and Magic‘, History of Science 23 (1985).

Debus, A.G., Man and Nature in the Renaissance (Cambridge, 1978).

Alchemy and Chemistry in the Seventeenth Century (New York, 1966).

Science, Medicine and Society in the Renaissance (London, 1972).

Dijksterhuis, E.J. Mechanization of the world picture (London, 1961).

Fix, A. "Angels, Devils, and Evil Spirits in Seventeenth-Century Thought: Balthasar

Bekker and the Collegiants", Journal of the History of Ideas 50 (1989).

Gaskill, M., ‗The Displacement of providence: Policing and Prosecution in Seventeenth

and Eighteenth Century England‘, Continuity and Change, 11 (1996), 341-74

Glucklich, A., The End of Magic (1997)

Harrison, P., ‗Newtonian Science, miracles, and the Laws of Nature‘, Journal of the

History of Ideas, 56 (1995)

Henry, J., The Scientific Revolution and the Origins of Modern Science (1997), chs. 4, 6

Kassell, L., ‗―All was this Land Full Fill‘d Of Faerie‖, Or Magic and the Past in Early

Modern England‘, Journal of the History of Ideas, 67, 1 (2006)

Kearney, H., Science and Change 1500-1700 (London, 1971).

Lindberg, D., Westman, R.S., Reappraisals of the Scientific Revolution (Cambridge, 1990).

Mandrou, R., From humanism to science 1480-1630 (Harmondsworth, 1978).

Nauert, C.G. Agrippa and the Crisis of Renaissance Thought, (Urbana, IL, 1965).

"Magic and Skepticism in Agrippa's Thought." Journal of the History of Ideas

18 (1957)

Porter, R., Teich, M., The Scientific Revolution in National Context (Cambridge,

1992)

Scribner, R.W., ‗The Reformation, popular magic, and the "disenchantment of the

world‘, in Journal of interdisciplinary history, XXIII, 1993

"Magic, Witchcraft, and Superstition‖, HJ 37 (1994).

Shapiro, B., Probability and Certainty in Seventeenth Century England (1983), ch. 6


Thorndike, L,. "The Attitude of Francis Bacon and Descartes Towards Magic and Occult

Sciences‖, in E.Ashworth Underwood, ed. Science, Medicine, and History: Essays on the

Evolution of Scientific Thought and Medical Practice 2 vols. (London, 1953).

Webster, C., From Paracelsus to Newton: Magic and the Making of Modern Science

(1982), ch. 4

Ritual, Myth and Magic in Early Modern Europelhs99hlp/Parish Special Ritual Myth and... · Module...

Documents

Transcript of Ritual, Myth and Magic in Early Modern Europelhs99hlp/Parish Special Ritual Myth and... · Module...