Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century England

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In his discussion of medieval and immediately post-medieval religion, I found his use of the term “magic” confusing. In this period, much reliance was placed upon prayers, relics, etc., to gain access to the assistance of God and the saints to stave off misfortunes of different kinds. Many Protestants came to dismiss these aids – along with more mainstream activities, among them the mass – as “magical” and Thomas broadly accepts their usage. I see no reason, however, to follow their lead. The distinction seems to rest upon the idea that such objects and practices tried to coerce supernatural entities to intervene on one’s behalf, whereas a properly religious practices merely asked for help. This is, I fear, a fairly tenuous distinction. Moreover, if approaches to God and other supernatural beings to solve one’s problems cannot be described as “religion”, then nothing can. More properly, one should say that, in the early period, God – and also the saints and even the fairies – were supposed to intervene frequently in the trivia of daily life, often in response to human supplications. Later, God, the saints and the fairies had withdrawn and were held to intervene only occasionally, if at all. Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century England With that explanation for my no rating I should say there’s a lot of interesting stuff in the book. I was under the misapprehension that maybe medieval magic still included bizarre practises inherited from pagan Anglo Saxon, or Viking times, or even Roman and pre-Roman. But no, over 1000 years of Christianity in Britain ensured that magic and religion were linked, parallel rivals. For the late Medieval Catholic Church with its arcane ceremonies, icons, holy water, holy relics, it wasn’t so much of a step to the practises of cunning men and white witches in villages, who commonly used pseudo religious incantations and charms, sometimes even using stolen holy water or communion hosts! By the later period, however, the use and belief in such ritual means had much diminished in favour of rational, mechanical, and more strictly practical means, informed – at least in principle - by careful observation, experimentation and by “trial and error”. Belief in the danger of witchcraft and sorcery had similarly diminished. This shift was never total, however, but a matter of emphasis. In the sixteenth and earlier centuries, plenty of rationality had co-existed with magic and religious ritual. Conversely, ritual practices have persisted, despite the pre-eminence of science and rational technology. In fact the socioeconomic factor in all this becomes increasingly obvious. The Church had the power and it had the money, which meant ultimately the difference between magic and religion was what the Church said it was: ‘the ceremonies of which it disapproved were “superstitious”; those which it accepted were not.’

What happens when a village witch meets a skeptical judge? What gives way when credulous Catholicism meets the demystifying tendencies of radical Protestantism? For centuries, strategies for self-help run alongside the hopes reposed in magic, and rationality and superstition mingle, the same head often accommodating both. Evidence may be partial, contradictory, or baffling, but the author’s capacious technique scoops it all in. Keith Thomas has given us a book of questions, rather than answers. It is an incitement to further investigation rather than an attempt to categorize, define, or delimit the world we have lost.Indeed, so many are this book's qualities that it's near impossible to do it justice in the space of just a short review. In a fluent and easily readable style Thomas treats religion, magic, astrology, 'the appeal to the past' (prophecies), witchcraft and 'allied beliefs' (ghosts and fairies, times and omens) before coming to his conclusion about the decline of magic. Every chapter is illustrated with dozens of examples taken from diaries, court records, pamphlets, and so on which makes this grand story all the more captivating and bewitching (there I go again).

Religion & the Decline of Magic is Keith Thomas's classic history of the magical beliefs held by people on every level of English society in the 16th and 17th centuries and how these beliefs were a part of the religious and scientific assumptions of the time. It is not only a major historical and religious work, but a thoroughly enjoyable book filled with fascinating facts and original insights into an area of human nature that remains controversial today- the belief in the supernatural that still continues in the modern world I am a lumper, not a splitter. I admire those who write tightly focused micro-studies of episodes or individuals, and am impressed by the kind of quantitative history, usually on demographic or economic topics, which aspires to the purity of physics or mathematics. But I am content to be numbered among the many historians whose books remain literary constructions, shaped by their author’s moral values and intellectual assumptions. 2 Witch’ (like ‘chav’ today) is a term flung at the very poor by the slightly less poor; what we are looking at in many witchcraft trials (this book suggests) is a society trying to resolve its ‘conflict between resentment and a sense of obligation’. This chapter studies the phenomenon of second sight, the ability of some individuals (especially those living in the Scottish Highlands) to see into the future, from Robert Boyle onwards. Hunter argues that Boyle turned away from witchcraft and towards ‘new sources of evidence to prove the reality and elucidate the workings of the supernatural realm.’ Following the interminable trench warfare of the Tedworth controversy, second sight ‘must have seemed ideal’ (p. 148). Hunter also links the growth of scepticism in the phenomenon to a change in scientific ‘fashion’, namely the displacement of ‘the Boylian tradition of Baconian science’ with ‘an essentially mathematical mode’ based on a ‘new, Newtonian ethos’ and general laws of nature (pp. 154, 161). Boyle’s biographer does not approve. Hunter notes Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century EnglandA destitute old woman comes to your door to ask for some butter; you turn her away; you happen to break your ankle later on; and your own feelings of guilt connect the dots. Witches were rarely accused of responsibility for plagues or big fires – it was always personal disasters, individual calamities. i) It is epic. Slogging through it in one sitting is deeply inadvisable - this is a book which rewards regular visiting rather than a single extended tour. The book is about magic in the 1500's and 1600's, exactly as the title suggests. I do not remember whey I bought this book (maybe I mistook it for another), but it turned out to be an interesting read. It covers the intellectual and popular milieu of England during two centuries and the enormous changes in people's beliefs during t ancient prophecies to predict political outcomes, when the ancient was valued more than the current events which were only beginning to be referred to as "news", and the idea of progress was new. There’s a lot I’ve left out here on other magical practises pre and post Reformation including a few unusual ones supposedly linked to ‘classical times’ and the common attempts by the church to link Witchcraft to Satanic practises. A shame that my expectations of bizarre pagan practises being more common were not met, for novelty value, so at least I learnt that! But interesting to see that many of the superstitions people held at that time are still maintained to some degree today, even if paying for the service of a local cunning man or witch has (mostly) died out.

What was magic actually like in England? There are a lot of things we "know," but are they true? Why did people turn to magic? And, almost more importantly, why did they stop? Many wizards and conjurers called on God for their enchantments, and many religious rites and prayers were assumed to work purely mechanically as charms. Priests would routinely ring church bells during a thunderstorm to drive off evil spirits; women were ‘churched’ after childbirth to re-fit them for Christian society. The whole structure of the medieval Church ‘appeared as a vast reservoir of magical power, capable of being deployed for a variety of secular purposes’. In my humble opinion, Keith Thomas reveals the terrible truth that the various religions of England appeared to be in an almost olympic-like competition for winning God's favor, being held in highest esteem by the Grace of God, and perpetuating good health, prosperity, and happiness exclusively for church members. In essence, each church strived to become the sole, direct intermediary between God and men. A result of this endeavor and the authority gained thereby was to put them at odds with the other rival churches. Yes, certainly, it caused them to excommunicate, ostracize, ban, and burn all persons who were not of their faith. This is probably why, in later years, the Pilgrims sailed for America on the Mayflower and many others caught the first available sailing vessel bound for Australia. Probably about this time, it transpired that some "planetary travelers" began thinking about eternity in earnest.

According to Keith Thomas in his hefty, historical non-fictional book, Religion and the Decline of Magic Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth- Century England, the Church was in the process of undergoing a drastic, cataclysmic upheaval. It may be inferred that this was because the people were changing, society was changing, the government was changing, and the times were changing. In a nutshell, the ideas of rational-thinking intellectuals were beginning to catch on and take hold, based on scientific methods and concrete proof. The author then goes into great, painstakingly elaborate detail, describing the people, their thoughts, their beliefs, society, day-to-day activities, government, the laws, the environment in which they lived, and--most importantly, considering the subject matter and theme of the book, the power and influence exerted over them by the Church, during five crucial time periods: medieval times, the Reformation, Civil War, Interregnum, and the Industrial Age. a degree of intellectual arrogance about the infallibility of this [new] paradigm which contrasted with the rather humble sense of the provisional nature of knowledge that had characterised Boyle .... For better or worse, the new scientific world view challenged both the inclusiveness of the Boylian style of science and the rather heroic open-mindedness that Boyle displayed about the causation of phenomena.’ (p. 162)