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

Apr 11, 2011 DoctorM rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history-favourites, sociology

One of the great works of social and religious history of the 20th-c. Thomas looks at religion in England--- both "official" and popular religion ---and how over the course of the 1500s and 1600s "magic" was slowly purged from the body of ritual and popular observances. The medieval English Church was a great accreted mass of beliefs and rituals and superstitions where Oxford theology existed alongside wonder-working local relics and saints,and where the line between prayer and spell-casting was...more

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May 03, 2011 Chris rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: arthur-king-of-the-britions, history-english, fairy-myth-legend-criticism, fairy, folklore-ghost, history-tudors, shakespeare, religion, folklore-english

Well, I'm glad I bought this year when I was in Montreal. I almost didn't, but then I did. I'm really glad, I did. In fact, Penguin publishing ROCKS! Never doubt them!

Thomas chronicles in easy to read prose the conflict and change among beliefs in magic and religion during the Tudor and Stuart periods in England.

While Thomas believes that the English Reformation had an impact on belief systems, he also looks at the rise of education, newspapers, and science as well. The book is split into sectio...more

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Sep 28, 2009 Victoria rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009, comps-eme, history, non-fiction, history-early-modern, history-england

Probably every historian of the Reformation (Protestant, Counter-, or Catholic) knows the contents of this book, even if they've never read it. And it says pretty much what everyone thinks it says, in 800 long and sometimes dull, often sexist, usually racist, and almost always paternalist and condescending language. Nonetheless, it is a very important and groundbreaking work on the culture of magic (et al.) in the premodern period, accounting for its widespread appeal, as well as its social and...more

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Mar 31, 2009 Brant rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: anthropology, christianity, history

Thomas looks at the transition point from a medieval world to the more modern version as it relates to religion and magic in England. He provides some contrasts to information from the continent, but England is the focus. It is remarkably detailed and examines the reasons that religion and magic were once almost inseparable, but became antithetical. That process came from the nature of change in the reform of Christian religion and was manifest in official pronouncements long before there was mu...more

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Nov 16, 2011 Mike rated it 5 of 5 stars

A powerful book and in-depth study of what really comes down to the paradigm shift from faith-systems that are inclusive of the layperson and allow him/her to participate in the spiritual experience to a system (Christian thought) that, while claiming to free the soul, binds the individual to a corporate system of worship under a culture of professional clergy. Make no mistake though, this is a work of history—and a fine and comprehensive one at that, expertly researched and well-written—and not...more

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May 06, 2013 Polenth Blake rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history, non-fiction, religion, europe

You may want to slap the author for his racism, sexism and other things. However, it does have a lot of information, and is a valuable reference for anyone studying magic and religion in sixteenth and seventeenth century England. As with all sources, just be careful to keep the author's tendencies in mind when judging the conclusion he draws from the information.

A few of the topics covered are the reformation, magic in the church, magical healing and fairies. Much of the magic of this time perio...more

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Jan 17, 2012 Damien Seaman rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is one of the great milestones in social history, academically rigorous while being not just readable, but actually exciting. A book about changing beliefs and why it was that people could start off believing in magic and witchcraft and end up losing all of that belief in under a hundred years. Not only will you learn a hell of a lot about the period, this book also gives you a vivid impression of what it might have been like to live during these times, just by describing the daily grind th...more

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Jan 28, 2012 Jan-Maat added it · review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-century, british-isles, early-modern-history, religion, society

Remembering Nancy Reagan consulting Indian astrologers, Cheri Blair's friend's enthusiasm for crystal therapy or the British Royal Families continued support for Homoeopathy it's hard to feel convinced that the seventeenth century saw a decisive shift in attitudes away from a belief in magic and towards a scientific world view.

That minor point aside the book remains an amazing account of something of the intellectual life of seventeenth century England. The description of the role of astrology i...more

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May 10, 2013 Eddy Allen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: arts-and-historical

Astrology, witchcraft, magical healing, divination, ancient prophecies, ghosts, and fairies were taken very seriously by people at all social and economic levels in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. Helplessness in the face of disease and human disaster helped to perpetuate this belief in magic and the supernatural. As Keith Thomas shows, England during these years resembled in many ways today's "underdeveloped areas." The English population was exceedingly liable to pain, sickness, an...more

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Mar 16, 2010 Kent rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: comps, renaissance-crit

You'd expect this to be a fascinating book, from the title. I found, however, that it took far too long for the writer to get into his argument, aside from the more obvious argument that people engage with religion similarlly to the ways they engage with magic. Add to that his method of presenting evidence, which treated any instance regardless of when it occurred as uniformly relevant. For me, an event that happens in 1540 needs to be accounted for in a different way from something that happene...more

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Apr 19, 2009 Eric_W rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: religion

Thomas sets the stage by describing economic and social conditions. During these two centuries, massive poverty and appalling health were the norm. Most children died before age six and the average life-span was only twentyseven so health was a concern. Every religion uses miracles or magic — perhaps a redundancy — to help define its monopoly on the truth. By the time of the Reformation, even though the church did not, as an institution, claim the power to work miracles, it was saddled with a tr...more Thomas sets the stage by describing economic and social conditions. During these two centuries, massive poverty and appalling health were the norm. Most children died before age six and the average life-span was only twentyseven so health was a concern. Every religion uses miracles or magic — perhaps a redundancy — to help define its monopoly on the truth. By the time of the Reformation, even though the church did not, as an institution, claim the power to work miracles, it was saddled with a tradition of saints who could, and appeal to them to ward off ill-health was commonplace. St. Wilgerfort (St. Uncumber) " eliminate husbands of those discontented wives who chose to offer her a peck of oats." The mere representation of St. Christopher, " said to offer a day' preservation from illness or death to all those who looked upon it." Saints were, after all, specialists, rather than general practitioners.

The association of magical powers with church ritual was not ostentatiously promoted by medieval church leaders; in fact, it' often through their writings refuting such claims that we know about them. But the imputation of magical powers was a logical result of church actions. In their intense desire to convert the heathens, the church incorporated many pagan rituals into religious practice. Ancient worship of natural phenomena was modified: hence, New Year' Day became the Feast of Circumcision, the Yule log became part of Christmas tradition and May Day was turned into Saints' Days, for example.

Theologians made a distinction between religion and superstition, but superstition was loosely defined as any practice having magical qualities that were not already designated as religious ritual. The church had the power to define what constituted legitimate and what it denied became heretical. The Protestant Reformation had a significant effect on how the populace regarded miracles and magic. By elevating the individual' faith in God, and denigrating ritual, a new concept of religion was created. The ignorant peasant had had no need for knowledge of the Bible or scripture; the rituals and rites of the church had become the "" of the supernatural and evidence for his/her belief. " was a ritual set of living, not a set of dogmas." The Protestant theologian insisted on a more personal faith, so it became necessary to invent a theology that explained the threat of plague, natural disasters, and the fear of evil spirits. One could no longer call on the " solutions offered by the medieval church." The solution was predestination. Everything that happened was God's will. Evil became a test.

Thus every Christian had the consolation of knowing that life was not a series of random events; there was purpose in everything. This also required scapegoats. There had to be a reason for calamitous events, and the moral degradation of your neighbor must be the cause behind the lack of rain for the past several months. Or it' because of the Jews in town. Get rid of the neighbor and the Jews and all will be well. Or, the calamity could be seen as a test of one' own faith. Righteous personal behavior was out of fear that God would avenge wickedness. Many of Pat Robertson' homilies could have been written in the middle ages. A whole genre of diarist writing arose out of the need for Puritans to document the hand of Providence. His interference could be seen in happy coincidences, accidents to the wicked, and deliverance from personal illness.

These judgments could be used as political weapons also. One party issued a whole list of calamities on land and sea that must surely be a sign from God that the Royalists were evil and should be overthrown (shades of Robertson). Of course, Catholics blamed calamities on the Reformation. Handy. But is was ultimately " observer' point of view which determined whether, and by whom, an event was held as a judgment or deliverance. . . the belief in providence degenerated into a crude justification of any successful policy. . . . The doctrine of providences was a conscientious attempt to impose order on the apparent randomness of human fortunes by proving that, in the long run, virtue was rewarded and vice did not go unpunished."

The Reformation did not put an end to prophecy and the association of miracle working to religious supremacy. The period following Elizabeth and during the Civil War reflected growing unease with social inequities. Women, normally excluded from political debate and discussion, used prophecy and dream interpretation to express political dissatisfaction. A virtual army of pseudo-messiahs appeared, claiming all sorts of personal relationships with God. Mostly they were the targets of humor unless their messages conveyed secular political implications. Punishment for heresy (the last burning for heresy occurred in 1642) could be a useful tool to eliminate political opposition. Common prayer served as a useful mechanism to bring people together for the purpose of harnessing group perceptions and action against a common social ill or malady. It became an act of solidarity.

The danger for the ruling elite comes only if the belief is that God is on the opposition=s side and it foments radical social dynamism. Religious fervor could be tolerated only as long as the voice of the people could never be confused or associated with the voice of God. Today=s efforts by some on the Religious Right to confound religion with politics plays right into the hands of political leaders because then religion can be manipulated to political ends. That is what often happened in Europe.

The Anglican Church, by this time, was in a seemingly impregnable position. It was intricately entwined with the ruling political structure, it was a crime not to attend church, one was born into it and the church service itself helped to maintain the social divisions: the rich sat in front, poor in the rear and even the quality of communion wine varied according to social standing. In 1543, one parson even preached there were three heavens, one for each level of prosperity -- Jerry Falwell would have approved -- and the Church was immensely wealthy, actively participating in making political decisions. From the book: " difference between churchmen and magicians lay less in the effect they claimed to achieve than in their social position and in the authority on which their respective claims rested."(less)

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Nov 23, 2010 Miriam rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: history students, those researching paganism/popular religion/superstitions

Recommended to Miriam by: Tom Kselman

Shelves: non-fiction

This is more a collection of topical papers than a continuous book. Some essays are stronger/more interesting/more convincing than others. A couple even contradict one another, leading me to suppose that the author wrote them some years apart. But it is well written and certainly worth picking up if you are interested in this period or subject.

The central question as stated by the author is Why did intelligent people believe in magic? In the category of "magic" Thomas includes "astrology, witch...more This is more a collection of topical papers than a continuous book. Some essays are stronger/more interesting/more convincing than others. A couple even contradict one another, leading me to suppose that the author wrote them some years apart. But it is well written and certainly worth picking up if you are interested in this period or subject.

The central question as stated by the author is Why did intelligent people believe in magic? In the category of "magic" Thomas includes "astrology, witchcraft, magical healing, divination, ancient prophecies, ghosts and fairies," and other "systems of belief... now all rightly disdained by intelligent persons." To answer this question, Thomas employs anthropological methods, basing his premises on the conclusions of anthropologists on African religious and magical practices. His own sources are solely English, but he posits that his observations and conclusions are not particular to England and could be applied to the rest of the British Isles and the Continent with similar accuracy.

Thomas argues in response to his own question that the practices he examines "seemed to be discharging a role very close to that of the established Church and its rivals." He posits that contemporary religion and magical systems of belief can be juxtaposed in order to illuminate one another. He also attempts to explain the "mental climate" in terms of its relationship to the "material climate." Accordingly, he begins his book with a section entitled "Environment" in which he lays out the characteristics of a pre-Industrial society, gives a demographic overview of Tudor and Stuart England, and briefly describes its class distinctions, educational standards, and professional breakdown. He describes this England as "a dynamic and infinitely various society, where social and intellectual change had long been at work and where currents were moving in many different directions."

One of the central features of the beliefs with which Thomas is concerned was "a preoccupation with the explanation and relief of human misfortune." This stemmed naturally enough from the insecurity of life under the hazardous conditions of the medieval and early modern world. Life expectancy was low, food scarce, sickness frequent and often inexplicable. Thomas identifies this "helplessness in the face of disease" as an "essential element in the background of the beliefs." Given the primitive state of "orthodox" medicine it is not surprising that many people preferred to rely on folk remedies or magical cures, which likely had a similar success rate, as well as being less painful and easier to comprehend. Other threats, such as crop failure, fire and other natural disasters were also warded off by magical means. Thomas points out that magical thinking was not a universal response to these problems; many people turned to alcohol as an alternative or additional source of comfort.

The second section of the book, "The Magic of the Medieval Church" opens with the assertion that "Nearly every primitive religion is regarded by its adherents as a medium for obtaining supernatural power. This does not prevent it from functioning as a system of explanation, a source of moral injunctions, a symbol of social order, or a route to immortality; but it does mean that it offers the prospect of a supernatural means of control over man's earthly environment. The history of Christianity offers no exception to this rule." Thomas goes on to describe many of the superstitious practices relating to the cults of saints, such as touching cattle with relics to ward off the murrain. He offers this as an example of the manner in which the Church was perceived as a dispenser or "repository of supernatural power" in the form of grace, prayer, rituals, and especially the sacrament. This type of magical thinking, Thomas writes in "The Impact of the Reformation," was attacked from the first the Protestants, especially Puritans, who sometimes went so far as to denounce formal prayers and other rituals as witchcraft. Many common people converted to this viewpoint, rejecting the idea that religious rituals could effect physical changes and emphasizing the important of faith rather than miracles. However, it proved impossible to stamp out superstitious religious practices completely, even among protestants. Thomas suggests that many adapted the idea of "Providence" so that it in many ways replaced magic, endowing natural phenomena and quotidian occurrences with prophetic or judgmental qualities, and linking moral virtue or status of personal salvation to the earthly fortunes of the individual.

In his analysis of witchcraft, Thomas does not speak generally of the magical or superstitious practices previously described in his book, such as astrology and other forms of divination. Rather, this term refers here to a specific type of magic which contemporary Englishpersons regarded as harmful, or in modern parlance, anti-social. Thomas defines this as "attribution of misfortune to occult human agency." Contemporaries imagined such agency to function in various ways and to cause various misfortunes, but witchcraft's key characteristic way malice. The evil intention and result distinguished witchcraft from other, potentially beneficial, forms of magic. Beginning in the late Middle Ages, this power was attributed to explicit demonic pacts, thus compounding the crime by the addition of apostasy and devil-worship. In the minds of most Latin-illiterate English people malicious activity remained the key conception of witchcraft; whereas on the Continent more emphasis was placed on the role of the Devil, English witchcraft trials focused on allegations of damage to property or persons, rarely raising the issue of devil-worship. Of the persons accused of witchcraft, a high percentage were found guilty of property damage, but very few of invoking spirits or worshiping devils. Judges were mostly likely to condemn when deaths had occurred, and in these cases the conviction was often for murder rather than witchcraft; as matter of fact, it was not until after 1600 that England even passed a law against compacting with the Devil. In brief, persecution of witches stemmed primarily from fear on the part of their neighbors, not from religious outrage. After 1736, witchcraft was prosecuted as fraud rather than magic; in the years preceding this legislation, skepticism had so increased that trials for witchcraft had ceased, although spontaneous lynching continued sporadically in rural areas. This is in accord with the general history of witchcraft in England, the demand for which generally proceeded from a popular level, not from pressure by religious or political leaders.

Thomas goes into considerable detail laying out the influences of Church teachings on demonology, religious despair, possession and the like, and the effect of these on ideas about and belief in witchcraft. He builds a convincing case for the relationship of these two bodies of beliefs, but unfortunately does not explain why this topic remains important in light of his earlier assertion that the role of the demonic in witchcraft was a later and less influential addition to concern with maleficium. Even after this religious exposition he adds again, "Witchcraft prosecution on England did not need the stimulus of religious zeal," but a paragraph later conversely concludes that "religious beliefs were a necessary pre-condition of the prosecutions."

This type of contradiction is typical of the book as a whole. Thomas weaves a rich tapestry and constructs many convincing and reasonable arguments. The weakness of the book is his failure to reconcile these into a totality. This difficulty may be explained by his inability to distinguish precisely in what way he sees magic and religion as distinct. After all, the term religion as described by Thomas does not inherently exclude magical belief systems. Thomas never really defines his usage of the term, but appears at times to use it simply as a synonym for "the Church" and at others even more loosely as a "belief system" in which case it seems hard to exclude magic from the category.

Thomas emphasizes at the outset "the essential unity of the period between the Reformation and the dawn of the Enlightenment." In light of his argument for the "self-confirming character" of belief systems, it seems reasonable that these systems would perpetuate themselves in the manner he suggests, and yet portions of Thomas' arguments are based on the theories of the growth or decline of ideas and beliefs. Despite his confident and authoritative tone, he often seems unable to make up his mind.(less)

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Oct 26, 2009 Grace rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was initially a bit daunted by the prospect of reading such a long history book without the comfort of a narrative and the best I thought of it at first was that it was very informative. However, the first section on magical thinking in religion is the least interesting and the sections on astrology and witchcraft were actually fascinating. A bit too much comparing early modern England to twentieth century 'primitive societies' for my taste - apart from anything it seems a little unhistorical...more

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Jan 09, 2009 Jean rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was born and raised in a fairly rural community in Southern England; Dorset in fact which the author specifically mentions. This book addressed questions that I had mulled over for years such as, Why are the English in general less inclined towards organized religion than North America. What do superstitions and religion have in common?

The book is a perfect backdrop to early Mormon beliefs. The background of Joseph Smith and most of the new converts was English or perhaps British and I recogni...more

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Feb 19, 2010 Smoothw rated it 5 of 5 stars

Extremely interesting, if a bit long winded, look at magical beliefs in pre-modern, yet post medieval, england. I especially liked the detailed look at witchcraft and astrology, most other sources I have read on that subject just sort of shrug their shoulders at why this stuff actually happened.

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Feb 11, 2013 Sumayyah added it

Shelves: thesis-research

I am frustrated by this book and I don't know if it's the Marxist approach that's making me put it down every few pages and sigh dramatically or if it's his inability (unwillingness?) the gender and socio-economic/class structures at work in constructing witch craft as a punishable offense. And yet he manages to go on for ~800 pages.

(This is maybe not entirely fair, but I am STILL FRUSTRATED.)

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Apr 05, 2010 imngrer rated it 5 of 5 stars

AFter too many years studying 19th and 20th century history and politics, this was one of two books that brought me back to it but the 17th century rather than the later periods. The other one was "The World Turned Upside Down" by Christopher Hill.

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Feb 02, 2012 Kris Frantz added it

Comprehensive and packed full of statistical information about life (and its perils) during the sixteenth century. I want to read it again, actually.

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Sep 16, 2012 Pippa222 rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: wizards, religion, power

Although Keith Thomas has a slight tendency to list this was an extremely interesting book, with much detailed research.

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Aug 28, 2011 Violet rated it 5 of 5 stars

An excellent, informative and non-sensationalist book, packed with well-researched citable facts. I know where JK got some of her ideas :) No piece of literature is original :))

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May 19, 2013 Sharmila Mukherjee marked it as to-read

Recommended highly by novelist Hilary Mantel, who writes an introduction to the latest edition of the book.

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Jun 24, 2012 Laura rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: academic-books

Read this for my major fields.

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Mar 01, 2012 Kristen Kemp rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If you want to know about the history of witches, magic and fairies, this is the undisputed authority.

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Sep 27, 2011 Mark rated it 4 of 5 stars

Fascinating.

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Dec 09, 2012 Dreamersemporium added it · review of another edition

very good

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Aug 18, 2012 Lisa added it · review of another edition

very good

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Sep 07, 2010 Ivan Voras rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: serious, documentary

I picked up this book hoping it was easy-read pop-history... which is isn't. It's a scholarly work presenting (with references) the phenomenon of witchcraft and folk magic from many different angles, from the "dark" middle ages towards more modern times, in England. It's not actually hard to read but amusement was certainly not among its purposes. I was actually surprised there is so much evidence and references to historical writings and quotes about the topic.

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Apr 09, 2012 Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides marked it as maybe-read-sometime

Recommended to Snail in Danger (Sid) by: Medieval Panorama

Shelves: religion, new-age-esoterica-etc

Basic gist seems to be that the church was seen as a source of supernatural power, but was eventually replaced by technology as it became available. Interesting definition of magic: things we do/believe because there are no demonstrably effective alternatives.

Had no proper bibliography, only endnotes. Consulted some interesting sources though.

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Apr 30, 2008 Tessa rated it 4 of 5 stars

Thomas does a good job setting up the environment of England in his book in order to help emphasize how intertwined into everyday life the ideas of witchcraft, astrology, fairies, etc. were. He also apologizes for his lack of statistics in his preface, but if you're scared of numbers like me, you'll appreciate it.

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May 14, 2010 !Tæmbuŝu marked it as to-read

Shelves: history, social-cultural, religion, judeo-christian, ebook-available, re-read

KOBOBOOKS

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