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

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14 Seminar 3: Popular Religion: Critics and Reformers Seminar Preparation The Protestant divine William Perkins wrote in 1591 ‗surely if a man will but take a view of all popery, he shall easily see that a great part of it is mere magic‘. Historians have long sought to define and identify ‗popular religion‘ in the early modern period, and to assess the impact that the Protestant Reformation had upon the beliefs and attitudes of the masses. But the Reformation was not just a reformation of popular belief : the evangelicals also took issue was some of the key elements in ‗official‘ Catholic practice on the basis that they were ‗magical‘, ‗superstitious‘, or ‗idolatrous‘. In this seminar we will look at some of the criticisms of popular religious practice in the 16 th century, and at some of the ‗flash-points‘ of the Reformation. In preparation for this seminar, you should read the documents indicated below, and consider the aspects of popular piety to which they refer. On what grounds were key aspects of popular religion criticised, and what kind of problems faced those who sought to change them? Can we draw any conclusions from this about the impact that the Reformation had upon popular religion? Primary Sources for Class Discussion Desiderius Erasmus: A Pilgrimage for Religion’s Sake, 1536 The Drummer of Niklashausen 1476 The Twelve Conclusions of the Lollards and the examination of Lollards in England (the full text can be viewed online at: http://www.medievalsources.co.uk/finish%20pdfs/catholic_full.pdf#page=271) Complaint and Opposition: Lollard Confessions Ostendorfer: Pilgrimage to the Beautiful Virgin Flotner: Procession of the Clergy Discussion Questions What were the main targets of the reformers? On what basis did they criticise the faith and practice of the church? What is the significance of the things that were targeted? What does this tell us about the nature of popular piety before and after the Reformation? What conclusions can we draw about popular levels of understanding of the debates? What can we learn about the relationship between official and popular religion? What kind of problems did the reformers have to confront? How effective were the critics and reformers of popular religion in getting the message across?
15 Secondary Sources Aston, M., England’s Iconoclasts. Laws Against Images (1988) Aston, M., Lollards and Reformers. Images and Literacy in Late Medieval Religion (1984) Blickle, P., ‗The Popular Reformation‘, in Handbook of European History, 1400- 1600: late Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Reformation, ed. Thomas A. Brady, Jr., Heiko A. Oberman, James D. Tracy (Leiden, 1994) ------- ‗Communal Reformation and Peasant Piety‘, Central European History 20 (1987). Bossy, J., ‗The Social History of Confession in the Age of the Reformation‘, TRHS 5 th ser. 25 (1974). Christianity in the West 1400-1700 (Oxford, 1985). Cameron, E., The European Reformation (Oxford, 1991). Duffy, E., The Stripping of the Altars. Traditional Religion in England 1400-1580 (New Haven and London, 1992). Gurevich, A., Medieval Popular Culture: Problems of Belief and Perception (1988) Hillerbrand, H., The Oxford Encyclopaedia of the Reformation (Oxford, 1996). Hutton, R., The Rise and Fall of Merry England (Oxford, 1996). ‗The English Reformation and the evidence of folklore‘, P+P 148 (1995). Kamen, H., ‗Regulating the people. The Catholic Reformation in Seventeenth Century Spain‘, JEH 51 (2000) (review) Karant-Nunn, S., The Reformation of Ritual. An Interpretation of Early Modern Germany (London, 1997). Klaniczay, G., The Uses of Supernatural Power. The Transformation of Popular Religion in medieval and Early Modern Europe (Cambridge, 1990). Lindberg, C., The European Reformations (Oxford 1996). Martin, J., ‗Popular Culture and the Shaping of Popular Heresy in Renaissance Venice‘, in Inquisition and Society in Early Modern Europe, ed S. Haliczer (London, 1987). Moeller, B., ‗Piety in Germany around 1500‘, in The Reformation in Medieval Perspective ed S. Ozment (Chicago, 1971). Monter, E.W., Ritual, Myth and Magic in Early Modern Europe (Brighton, 1983). Nalle, S., ‗Popular Religion in Cuenca on the Eve of the Catholic Reformation‘, in Inquisition and Society in Early Modern Europe, ed S. Haliczer (London, 1987). Parker, G., ‗Success and Failure During the First Century of the Reformation‘,P+P, 136 (1992). Pettegree. A., The Early Reformation in Europe (Cambridge 1992). Rubin, M., Corpus Christi. The eucharist in late medieval culture (Cambridge, 1991). Rublack, H-C., ‗New patterns of Christian Life‘, in Handbook of European history, 1400-1600 : late Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Reformation, ed. Thomas A. Brady, Jr., Heiko A. Oberman, James D. Tracy (Leiden, 1994). Scribner, R.W., The German Reformation (Basingstoke, 1986). For the Sake of Simple Folk. Popular Propaganda for the German Reformation (Oxford, 1994). ‗Ritual and popular Belief in Catholic Germany at the time of the Reformation‘, PCPM ch.2 or JEH, 35 (1984). ‗Ritual and Reformation‘, PCPM ch.5 The Reformation in National Context, ed., Scribner, R.Porter, M.Teich (Cambridge 1994). Strauss, G., ‗Success and Failure in the German Reformation‘, P+P 67 (1975)
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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 and 12: 11 T.Heffernan, Sacred Biography: S
Page 13: 13 Secondary Reading Burke, P., Pop
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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