Ritual, Myth and Magic in Early Modern Europe - University of Reading

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12 focus and those that were primarily a form of secular entertainment, but as you will see in the course of your reading, these distinctions are not always immediately visible. We will examine the extent of participation in such activities, their origins, development and critics, which might help our discussions next week of the impact that the Reformation had upon popular religion and popular culture. Seminar Preparation Our discussion of the ‗ritual year‘ will build upon a more detailed understanding and knowledge of the key dates and festivals in the calendar. We will spend the first part of the seminar drawing up our own calendar of the ritual year, and looking at the local or national festivals that took place. Most of the customs and rituals were celebrated within a clear time-frame, making it possible to break up the year into more manageable chunks : (1) December – February (2) March – July (3) August - November As preparation for the class, identify and describe the major festivals and customs in the months of the year allotted above. Some questions to consider : What went on at these events? How long did they last? What was their purpose – and did they have another function besides this? Were the celebrations primarily sacred or secular in their focus, this worldly or otherworldly? Were the celebrations adapted or altered, or condemned outright by church and / or state? Why? Discussion Questions What is a ‗ritual‘? : common problems of definition and application What function did ritual and communal celebration have for the individual and community? How did rituals and attitudes to rituals change in this period? Was there a ‗reformation of ritual‘, or a ‗reformation of manners‘ in this period? Were there distinctively Protestant rituals? What kinds of sources are available to the historian of popular culture and popular ritual? How valuable are they – is the history of popular culture possible? How easy is it separate religious rituals from secular ritual and folklore? Is it possible to distinguish between magic and religion?
13 Secondary Reading Burke, P., Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe (London, 1978). Clark, S., ‗French Historians and Early Modern Popular Culture‘, Past and Present (1983). Davis, N.Z., Society and Culture in Early Modern France (London, 1975). Dymond, D., ‗God‘s Disputed Acre‘, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 50 (1999). Hutton, R., The Rise and Fall of Merry England (Oxford, 1996). Stations of the Sun (Oxford, 1996). The English Reformation and the evidence of folklore‘, P+P 148 (1995). Ingram, M., ‗Ridings, rough music and the ‗reform of popular culture‘ in early modern England‘, P+P 105 (1984). Kaplan, S.L., Understanding Popular Culture. Europe from the Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century (Berlin, 1984). Karant-Nunn, S., The Reformation of Ritual. An Interpretation of Early Modern Germany (London, 1997). Kinser, S., ‗Carnival at Nuremberg 1450-1550‘, Representations, 13 (1986). Klaniczay, G., The Uses of Supernatural Power. The Transformation of Popular Religion in medieval and Early Modern Europe (Cambridge, 1990). Muir, E., Ritual in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge, 1997). Marshall, P., Beliefs and the Dead in Reformation England (2002), pp. 286-308. Reay, B., Popular Cultures in England 1550-1750 (Harlow, 1998). Roper, L., ‗Going to Church and Street : Weddings in Reformation Augsburg‘, Past and Present (1985) Roud, S., The English Year (London, 2008) Sabean, D., Power in the Blood. Popular Culture and Village Discourse in Early Modern Germany (Cambridge, 1984). Thomas, K., Religion and the Decline of Magic (1971), ch. 20. Muchembled, R., Culture populaire et culture des elites (Paris, 1978). Scribner, R., ‗Is the History of Popular Culture Possible?‘, History of European Ideas (1978). ‗Ritual and Reformation‘, PCPM ch.5 Todd, M., The Culture of Protestantism in Early Modern Scotland (New Haven and London, 2002), ch. 7. Walsham, A., ‗Reforming the Waters: Holy Wells and Healing Springs in Protestant England‘, in D.Wood (ed), Life and Thought in the Northern Church,c.1100-1700, Studies in Church History Subsidia 12, (1999) Walsham, A., ‗Sacred Spas? Healing Springs and Religion in Post-Reformation Britain‘, in B. Heal and O.P. Grell (eds.), The Impact of the European Reformation (Aldershot, 2008) Wilson, S., The Magical Universe: Everyday Ritual and Magic in Pre-Modern Europe (2000), chs. 1-2
Page 1 and 2: Module title: Ritual, Myth and Magi
Page 3 and 4: 3 Module title: Ritual, Myth and Ma
Page 5 and 6: 5 Ritual, Myth and Magic in Early M
Page 7 and 8: 7 Course Outline Autumn Term Week O
Page 9 and 10: 9 The Cheese and the Worms Does the
Page 11: 11 T.Heffernan, Sacred Biography: S
Page 15 and 16: 15 Secondary Sources Aston, M., Eng
Page 17 and 18: 17 reinforce the social and legal o
Page 19 and 20: 19 miraculous, and other prodigious
Page 21 and 22: 21 Curry, P., Prophecy and power :
Page 23 and 24: 23 D.Watt, Secretaries of God: Wome
Page 25 and 26: 25 people were familiar with death
Page 27 and 28: 27 that the dead were only too happ
Page 29 and 30: 29 before the Inquisition, and whos
Page 31 and 32: 31 Seminar Preparation We will use
Page 33 and 34: 33 Seminar One: The Malleus Malefic
Page 35 and 36: 35 of explaining why it was that th
Page 37 and 38: 37 and the majority of those who we
Page 39 and 40: 39 Seminar 4 : Magic I - Popular Be
Page 41 and 42: 41 Wear, ‗Religious Beliefs and M
Page 43 and 44: 43 fears, and attitudes to the supe
Page 45 and 46: 45 Read, J., Prelude to Chemistry.

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