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 unit 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 units of four 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.
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Description
This unit 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 unit 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.
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]). 3
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 4
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? 5
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? 6
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
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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)
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? 8
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 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?
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Discussion Questions
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?
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). 10
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
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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
Discussion Questions
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? 12
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). Klaniczay, G., The Uses of Supernatural Power. The Transformation of Popular Religion in medieval and Early Modern Europe (Cambridge, 1990). 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). 13
‗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) 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). Wilson, S., The Magical Universe: Everyday Ritual and Magic in Pre-Modern Europe (2000), introduction and ch. 17
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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 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 15
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?
Primary Sources for Class Discussion
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
Discussion Questions
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 T. Scott, ‗Peasant Revolts in Early Modern Germany‘, HJ, 1985 J.Davies, ‗Popular Revolts in Normandy‘, History Today, 1981
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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). Klaniczay, G., The Uses of Supernatural Power. The Transformation of Popular Religion in medieval and Early Modern Europe (Cambridge, 1990). 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).
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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 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 18 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 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?
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Primary Sources for Class Discussion
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) 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). 20
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) Walsham, A., 'Vox Piscis, or the Book-Fish': Providence and the uses of the Reformation past in Caroline Cambridge‘, EHR 114 (1999). ‗‖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). 21
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) 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.
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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?
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Source texts for discussion
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). 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) 24
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 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 25
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?
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). 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) 26
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). 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). More, T., The Supplication of Souls ed. F. Manley (New Haven, 1990). Naphy, W.G., Roberts, P., Fear in Early Modern Society (Manchester, 1997).
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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 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.
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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). 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) 29
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). Koslofsky, C., The Reformation of the Dead (Basingstoke, 2000). 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]
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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 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. You 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?
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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 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). [NOT in UL. Photocopy 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] 32
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.
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 33
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) 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)
Discussion Questions
(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? 34
(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? 35
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)
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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). ‗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). 37
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 38
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 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). Bennett, G. , "Ghost and Witch in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries", Folklore 96 (1986) 39
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 (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). 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). Roper, L., Oedipus and Devil. Witchcraft, Sexuality and Religion in Early Modern Europe (London, 1984). 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). 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 40
"Witchcraft and Judgement in Reformation Germany", History Today 40 (1990). Waite, G., Heresy, Magic and Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe (Basingstoke, 2003) 41
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, 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 accused in witch-trials? 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? 42
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). 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). 43
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) Roper, L., Oedipus and Devil. Witchcraft, Sexuality and Religion in Early Modern Europe (London, 1984). 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. Scarre, G, Witchcraft and Magic in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Europe (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). 44
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? 45
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?
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). 46
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 Thomas, K., Religion and the Decline of Magic (London, 1971). Thorndike, L., History of Magic (London, 1929-1958). 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) Wilson, S., The Magical Universe: Everyday Ritual and Magic in Pre-Modern Europe (2000), chs. 12-13
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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
Primary Sources Della Porta, Natural Magic Agrippa, De Occulta Philosophia 48
Ficino, Apologia Reuchlin, De Arte Cabbalistica Agrippa, De Occulta Philosophia 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) 49
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 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.
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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? 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?
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Primary Source Texts Cardano, De Libris Propriis Del Rio, Disquisitiones Magicae Agrippa, De Occulta Philosophia 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). Kassell, L., ‗How to read Simon Forman‘s Casebooks: Medicine, Astrology and Gender in Elizabethan London‘, Social History of Medicine, 12 (1999) 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) Read, J., Prelude to Chemistry. An outline of alchemy, its literature and relationships (London, 1936). Redondi, P., Galileo Heretic (Princeton, 1987). 52
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). 53
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). 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) 54
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 Thomas, K., Religion and the Decline of Magic (London, 1971). 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
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Learning outcomes
(a) assessable outcomes
By the end of the unit it is expected that students will be able to:
achieve a detailed command of the themes, events and eras studied locate and assemble information on the subject by their own research recognise and interpret a wide range of different primary materials appraise critically the primary sources and historical interpretations of the subject organise their material and articulate their arguments effectively in writing under timed conditions plus, more specifically undertake detailed textual analysis and comment (in paper A) deploy primary materials to shed light on the issues and problems studied (in paper B)
(b) additional outcomes
This unit also aims to encourage the development of oral communication skills and the student‘s effectiveness in small group situations. It requires a considerable input of student effort in terms of the handling of a large quantity of information, and is aimed at developing powers of synthesis and analysis, and of summary. Students should also develop their IT skills through word processing, location of on-line resources, and bibliographical searching, and should be able to cite references correctly according to the conventions of the subject.
(c) transferable skills
This unit deals with a specific historical topic, and students will be learning subject- specific skills by studying it. But as with all University-level units, they should also develop general intellectual and practical skills which will not only be of use in degree study but also in later employment. Different units will develop different skills to different degrees. A list of some of the transferable skills students should be gaining and developing, as suggested by the University‘s Teaching and Learning Strategy, are to be found in the Departmental handbook.