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

More documents

Recommendations

Info

26 Primary Sources Thomas a Kempis: Preparation for Death Image from The Art of Dying Well 1416 Erasmus, Treatise on Preparing for Death The Book of the Craft of Dying Thomas Becon, The Solace of the Soul 1549 Dying well: the case of Martin Luther Selection of Documents: Obits and Anniversaries; Chantries and Almshouses Wills: The Wills of John Port Secondary Sources Aries, P., Western Attitudes Towards Death from the Middle Ages to the Present (Baltimore, 1974). The Hour of Our Death (London, 1981). Aston, M., ‗Death‘, in Fifteenth Century Perceptions, ed R.Horrox (Cambridge, 1994). Binski, P., Medieval death : ritual and representation (London, 1996). Clark, P. and Claydon, T., The Church, the Afterlife and the fate of the soul (Woodbridge, 2009) Daniell, C., Death and Burial in Medieval England 1066-1550 (London, 1997). Eire, C.M.N., From Madrid to Purgatory : the art and craft of dying in sixteenthcentury Spain (Cambridge, 1995). Gittings, C., Death, burial and the individual in early modern England (London, 1984) Houlbrooke, R.A., Death, Religion and the Family in England 1480-1750 (Oxford, 1998). (esp. ch2) Death, Ritual and Bereavement (London, 1989). Huizinga, J., The Waning of the Middle Ages (London, 1955). Koslofsky, C., The Reformation of the Dead (Basingstoke, 2000). Le Goff, J., The birth of purgatory (London, 1984). Marshall, P., Gordon, B., The Place of the dead : death and remembrance in late medieval and early modern Europe (Cambridge, 2000). More, T., The Supplication of Souls ed. F. Manley (New Haven, 1990). Naphy, W.G., Roberts, P., Fear in Early Modern Society (Manchester, 1997). Seminar 8 : Ghosts and Apparitions Summary The map of the afterlife in late medieval Europe left open the possibility that the dead might revisit the living, and appearances of the restless dead were not uncommon. Catholic belief allowed for the possibility that the souls in purgatory might be permitted by God to return to the earth, most often with the mission to warn individuals to amend their ways. St Augustine had concluded that communication between the living and the dead was not only a possibility, but in fact a likely occurrence. Dreams and visions were already a fact of life, but as Finucane suggests, the doctrine of purgatory ‗provided a greatly expanded stage‘ on which confrontations between the living and the dead might occur. The appearance of ghosts allowed the living to learn about the afterlife from those who had gone before them, and it seemed
27 that the dead were only too happy to oblige by appearing before the living. However as we saw in week 6, the Reformation dismantled the doctrine of purgatory, and sent the souls of the faithful either to heaven or to hell. Belief in ghostly apparitions was condemned as superstition, a reflection of ignorance, or the product of an overheated imagination. Keith Thomas devoted one chapter of Religion and the Decline of Magic to beliefs in ghosts, and concluded that ghosts ‗presented no problems‘ to Protestant reformers. Ghosts did not exist, and they did not appear – at least in theory. But there is evidence that ghosts did continue to appear, even after the repudiation of purgatory, and explanations needed to be found. The post-Reformation ghost was not just a resident of the popular imagination – indeed the presence of ghosts in literature and drama (eg Hamlet) suggests that cultural attitudes to ghosts were formed by the interaction of elite and popular beliefs, in a world in which the supernatural continued to operate despite the protests of the Reformation. Seminar Preparation Gobbet samples We will look in detail at some of the source texts for this topic. Please select a text extract ‗gobbet‘ which we will discuss in the class. You can choose from any of the texts for this week‘s session, and set a gobbet of any reasonable length. Discussion questions What was a ghost? Where did they come from? How were people expected to deal with ghosts? What function did ghosts have in early modern Europe? How did the Reformation deal with the question of ghosts – and how successfully were beliefs changed? Who believed in ghosts and why? What problems might have been caused by the rejection of ghosts? Are ghosts a feature of the popular imagination or a reflection of the views of the educated and literate? Primary Sources Lewes Lavater, Of Ghosts and Spirits Walking by Night, 1572 (English edition) James VI, Daemonologie, 1597 The ghost in William Shakespeare‘s Hamlet Girolamo Cardano, De Vita Propria Liber, 1575; De Rerum Varietate 1551 Secondary Sources Bowyer, R.A., ‗The role of the ghost story in medieval Christianity‘, in The Folklore of ghosts ed. H.Davidson, W.Russell (Woodbridge, 1981).
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 and 12: 11 T.Heffernan, Sacred Biography: S
Page 13 and 14: 13 Secondary Reading Burke, P., Pop
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: 25 people were familiar with death
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.

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

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?