East Anglian Folk Magic and Witchcraft from the late 18th, to the early 20th century (original) (raw)
Related papers
It is well known that the historiography of early modern European witchcraft has been enriched by adopting a social/sociological approach during the last three decades. 1 I myself have made use of a similar perspective in my book analyzing the social and cultural background of witch hunting in forty-five Hungarian Calvinist communities from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries. While having studied the witnesses' testimonies from a sociological point of view, I have almost entirely neglected this aspect in my examination of the confessions of the accused witches themselves. I drew only data of the yes-or-no-type from the latter: whether the accused witches accepted the charges, or rejected them, whether Calvinist demonology influenced popular imagination, or not (Kristóf 1998).
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, 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.
Belief and Practice: Ideas of Sorcery and Witchcraft in Late Medieval England
2007
This thesis analyzes fourteenth- and fifteenth-century sorcery and witchcraft cases from England and argues that witch-beliefs were developed and spread at the community level. Unlike the 1324 trial of Dame Alice Kyteler in Ireland, there were no inquisitional authorities in England that could have influenced ideas about sorcery, which can be found in legal records from London and Durham. The ideas found within these records reflect medieval laypeople's beliefs about magic, as well as their concerns about urgent social problems.
The Devil in the Shape of a Man: Witchcraft, Conflict and Belief in Jacobean England
Historical Research, 1998
Historians agree that most early modern witches were women. A question rarely asked, though, is how any men came to be accused at all, given the strong association of women and witchcraft in popular folklore and learned demonology. This article examines the prosecution for witchcraft of a Kentish farmer in 1617, and argues that an integrated qualitative context of conflict and belief is essential for understanding this and other accusations. The aim is not, however, to offer yet another overarching explanation for the rise of witchcraft prosecutions, but rather to demonstrate how witchcraft can open windows on early modern mentalities.