Witchcraft and Magic in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Europe (original) (raw)
Related papers
In the last decades, the multiplications of works in the field of Witchcraft Studies made it possible to profoundly renew the approaches and the study designs of the repression of witchcraft in the late Middle Ages and in the beginning of the Early Modern Era. Consequently, research has substantially specified the methods and configurations (ideological, political and doctrinal) that contribute to the genesis of the “witch-hunt”. Research also uncovered that the repression of witchcraft could take a number of different forms depending on the contexts, the spaces studied, the sources and the aims they seem to pursue. It underlines the extreme plasticity of the accusation of witchcraft and the categories of such a crime. Hence, the conference aims to focus the discussions on three main areas: the definition of the crime of witchcraft, its different receptions and the question of its reality. The goal of the conference is also to discuss the crime of witchcraft by highlighting new fields of research and unstudied sources. The variety of definitions, the modalities of reception and the different realities that the crime of witchcraft had undergone in the late Middle Ages and at the beginning of the Early Modern Era (14th-16th centuries) will be addressed and debated. Potential topics include, but are not limited to: – Medieval and Early modern discourses and conceptions on the crime of witchcraft – Medieval and Early modern representations of the crime of witchcraft – Theorization of repression – Forms of resistance against the charge and repression – Discourses and controversies on the reality and/or veracity of witchcraft – History and epistemology of the repression of witchcraft The conference will be in French and in English. The conference is open to young researchers, PhD students, Post-doctoral researchers as well as advanced graduate students. Submission: You are invited to submit a 300-word abstract with key words in either English or French by November 30th, 2020 to the following email address: maxime.perbellini[at]ehess.fr. Please include: a brief résumé, the title of your presentation, as well as your name and your academic affiliation. Please send any additional questions you may have to the aforementioned email address. The presentations will have to be 20 minutes long maximum. Practical information: The conference is sponsored by the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS, Paris, France). It will take place on the premises of the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS, Paris, France) on May 20th-21st 2021. The conference would start on May 20th at 2pm and would end on May 21st at 5pm. Conference organizers: Maxime Gelly-Perbellini, PhD student at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS, Paris, France) and at the Free University of Brussels, Belgium, Research and Teaching Assistant at the University of Reims Champagne-Ardennes, France Olivier Silberstein, PhD student at the University of Neufchâtel, Switzerland
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 2001
The triune creator. A historical and systematic study. By Colin E. Gunton. (Edinburgh Studies in Constructive Theology.) Pp. xj. Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, . £. (paper). This volume is one of a series that has produced some first-rate books. The present volume continues these extremely high standards and maintains the series' aim of avoiding preoccupation with method and ideological critiques. It draws from Christian history and tradition to engage with the modern world. Colin Gunton, Professor of Doctrine at King's College London, has achieved two important goals in this single volume. For rather too long there has been the need for a comprehensive history of the doctrine of creation within Christian history. Gunton presents that history with care and detail, from Greek philosophy and the biblical world to the contemporary writings of Karl Barth and Wolfhart Pannenberg, but primarily as a critical theologian. This means that the historical material is accompanied by analysis and Gunton advances an interesting and important argument. His second achievement is to develop the argument that a Trinitarian doctrine of creation allows for theology to engage with science in a properly robust manner, for it offers the presuppositions of intelligible and realist discourse regarding nature and ' history '. Gunton traces the loss of the doctrine of divine creation from Scotus to Kant and its disastrous implications for so many aspects of modern thought. Gunton then develops the implications of the doctrine of creation in relation to providence, ethics and eschatology. Gunton's important contribution to systematic theology in this book complements his earlier Christ and creation () and The one, the three and the many (). This is a book that historians and theologians will find deeply stimulating. U B G D'C Continuity and change in Christian worship. Papers read at the summer meeting and the winter meeting of the Ecclesiastical History Society. Edited by R. N. Swanson. (Studies in Church History, .) Pp. xxivj incl. figs. Woodbridge : Boydell Press (for the Ecclesiastical History Society), . £. ; In these thirty-one papers we encounter the results of two recent meetings of the Ecclesiastical History Society. The theme on these occasions was liturgy. About two-thirds of the essays treat aspects of ecclesiastical practice in England, Scotland and Wales, whilst the remainder range over myriad places and themes, from Augsburg (Philip Broadhead) to East Africa (Emma L. Wild). The studies are placed in chronological order, beginning with Paul F. Bradshaw's consideration of the early Christian eucharistic meal and ending with Edward Yarnold's discussion of the restored catechumenate after the Second Vatican Council. While most contributors show a strong interest in the textual evidence, several authors also reflect methodological and theoretical shifts in our own time. Bradshaw insists that liturgical manuscripts are ' living literature ' : they circulate within a community, forming part of its heritage and tradition, but modify continually ' to reflect changing historical and cultural circumstances ' (p. ). He thereby rightly dismisses the premise of Gregory Dix and others that there was not only a unified archetype for the eucharist but in some measure a common Christian adherence to it. Donald Bullough argues for dynamism and variety in Carolingian liturgical experience, criticising ' an excessive credence in the '' unifying '' effect of early Carolingian liturgical reform ' (p. ). He urges moderation in looking to anthropology and ' the new criticism ' (p. ) although raising related questions about the effects of ritual Latinity upon the laity. Brenda Bolton looks as far afield as sixteenth-century Mexico in finding parallels to the use of liturgical drama for essentially missionary purposes (p. ). Bruce Gordon finds some non-Zwinglian sources for liturgical formulation in Zurich, including medieval precedent and the ideas of Leo Jud. Simon Ditchfield disputes the uniformity of ritual after the Council of Trent, allegedly the result of a ' centralising papal monarchy '. He argues persuasively for a ' kinetic, interactive mode of breviary reading ' (p. ). Thus, he insists that Tridentine worship was not static but does have a detailed, including a local, history. Judith Champ provides a fascinating window onto the nineteenth-century Romantic movement in England and its effects upon the liturgy. The reintroduction of Catholic episcopal hierarchy drew upon the wide appeal of the Middle Ages to educated classes. Champ briefly traces and reinterprets the roles of men like Daniel Rock and Augustus Welby Pugin. Although Romanism gained the ascendancy over Gallicanism, ' the divisions between '' old-English '' and '' Roman '' cannot be as sharply drawn as has been traditionally believed ' (p. ). R. W. Ambler firmly sets liturgical innovation within the context of social and economic change in nineteenth-century Lincolnshire. Frances Knight, too, places Welsh choir participation in a setting that includes traditional harvest festivals and English-medium as opposed to Welsh-medium worship. Reviewing anthologies is always frustrating, for much of great worth can only be hinted at or not mentioned at all. Taken as a group, these essays are based in deep research. At the same time, they reveal a pattern within liturgical history of relating ritual to the society and the occasions it both serves and mirrors.
Magic and Medieval Society presents a thematic approach to the topic of magic and sorcery in western Europe between the eleventh and the fifteenth centuries. It aims to provide readers with the conceptual and documentary tools to reach informed conclusions as to the existence, nature, importance and uses of magic in medieval society. Contrary to some previous approaches, the authors argue that magic is inextricably connected to other areas of cultural practice and was found across medieval society. Therefore, the book is arranged thematically, covering topics such as the use of magic at medieval courts, at universities and within the medieval Church itself. Each chapter and theme is supported by additional documents, diagrams and images to allow readers to examine the evidence side-by-side with the discussions in the chapters and to come to informed conclusions on the issues. This book puts forward the argument that the witch craze was not a medieval phenomenon but rather the product of the Renaissance and the Reformation, and demonstrates how the components for the early-modern prosecution of witches were put into place. This new Seminar Study is supported by a comprehensive Documents section, Chronology, Who's Who and illustrations. It offers a concise and thought-provoking introduction for students of medieval history.
Crime, history and societies, 2003
Already in the first sentences of the preface to this book Sharpe shows that he is aware of the present flourishing of the historiography of witchcraft. Indeed, hardly a month passes without the appearance of new syntheses, studies, theoretical works or source editions. So, one is inclined to ask, why add a new title to this rapidly expanding list? The reason simply is that despite this booming, books like this one are only rarely produced. It is not meant as a contribution to debates of spec...
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 2014
How Fighting Ends: A History of Surrender. Edited by Holger Afflerbach and Hew Strachan. Oxford University Press. 2012. xx + 473pp. £70.00. This volume arises from a three-day conference on the topic held at Leeds in 2009. It is a somewhat neglected area of study. A book by John Lynn on the subject is anticipated, while Robin Wagner-Pacifici's study The Art of Surrender: Decomposing Sovereignty at Conflict's End (Chicago, 2006) offers a rare if much briefer analysis which takes a thematic approach over the last four centuries. How Fighting Ends: A History of Surrender, is a much fuller treatment, starting in prehistoric times and moving through antiquity, the Middle Ages, the early modern and modern periods right up to the present day in a helpful, chronological sequence. The 'how war ends' genre from Taylor and most recently Rose and Reiter has a different take, where diplomacy and politics come to the fore, and these tend to have a very modern focus. As the editors set out in their brief introduction (four more introductory pieces are included between the book's seven parts), their focus is on the end of actual combat and not the end of wars. Of the questions the editors set themselves and which the essays go a long way to answer, one might surely seem to answer itself: 'When, and why, do soldiers stop fighting before they die?' In fact, it becomes clear that there is a whole range of factors-many cultural and profoundly psychological-that are often explored through the ideas of 'forced' and 'unforced' surrender. The first arises from such situations as when, in a given example, a knight is trapped under his dead horse and has only two choices: surrender or die. In fact, it might have been pointed that even this was not all that clear. At the battle of Bouvines in 1214, the count of Boulogne was indeed trapped under his horse. While a number of knights argued over who would have the honour (and profit) of taking him captive, a lowly foot soldier busily set about the count trying to find a weakness in his armour to kill him. All the while the count was pleading for anyone to take him prisoner. By comparison, unforced surrender arises when there are alternatives to death or capture, but soldiers and/or their officers opt to end their fighting, usually because they see no practical point in continuing: obviously, in nearly all cases captivity or ransom were better options. It emerges, with the notable exception of medieval knights opting for ransom, that voluntary surrender is much more prevalent in the modern era, when the ordinary soldier could hope to be treated not so differently from the more privileged (in security terms) officer bs_bs_banner