Superstition and Magic in Early Modern Europe: A Reader

Helen L. Parish

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781441149749
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Early Modern History
• Index: History

Superstition and Magic in Early Modern Europe brings together a rich selection of essays which represent the most important historical research on religion, magic and superstition in early modern Europe. Each essay makes a significant contribution to the history of magic and religion in its own right, while together they demonstrate how debates over the topic have evolved over time, providing invaluable intellectual, historical, and socio-political context for readers approaching the subject for the first time. The essays are organised around five key themes and areas of controversy. Part One tackles superstition; Part Two, the tension between miracles and magic; Part Three, ghosts and apparitions; Part Four, witchcraft and witch trials; and Part Five, the gradual disintegration of the 'magical universe' in the face of scientific, religious and practical opposition. Each part is prefaced by an introduction that provides an outline of the historiography and engages with recent scholarship and debate, setting the context for the essays that follow and providing a foundation for further study. This collection is an invaluable toolkit for students of early modern Europe, providing both a focused overview and a springboard for broader thinking about the underlying continuities and discontinuities that make the study of magic and superstition a perennially fascinating topic.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• General Introduction
• Part I Superstition
• Introduction: Superstition in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe
• 1 Shaping Superstition in Late Medieval England
• 2 For Reasoned Faith or Embattled Creed? Religion for the People in Early Modern Europe
• 3 The Medieval Church and State on Superstition, Magic and Witchcraft: From Augustine to the Sixteenth Century
• Part II Miracles and Magic
• Introduction: Magic and Miracle: Contested Categories
• 4 ‘Lying Histories Fayning False Miracles’: Magic, Miracles and Medieval History in Reformation Polemic
• 5 Marvelous Facts and Miraculous Evidence in Early Modern Europe
• 6 The Specific Rationality of Medieval Magic
• Part III Ghosts and Apparitions
• Introduction: Ghosts and Apparitions in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe
• 7 Sermons in the Sky: Apparitions in Early Modern Europe
• 8 The Role of the Ghost-Story in Mediaeval Christianity
• Part IV Witchcraft
• Introduction: Witchcraft and Witch Beliefs in Medieval and Early Modern Europe
• 9 Toads and Eucharists: The Male Witches of Normandy, 1564–1660
• 10 Witchcraft and Magic in Early Modern Culture
• 11 Witchcraft, Female Aggression, and Power in the Early Modern Community
• Part V ‘Disenchantment’ of Europe?
• Introduction: The ‘Disenchantment’ of Europe?
• 12 The Disenchantment of Magic: Spells, Charms, and Superstition in Early European Witchcraft Literature
• 13 The Decline and End of Witchcraft Prosecutions
• 14 The Cessation of Miracles
• Index