Contesting Orthodoxy in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (eBook)

Heresy, Magic and Witchcraft

Louise Nyholm Kallestrup, Raisa Maria Toivo (Herausgeber)

eBook Download: PDF

2017 | 1st ed. 2017
XVII, 349 Seiten
Springer International Publishing (Verlag)
978-3-319-32385-5 (ISBN)

Infos

This book breaks with three common scholarly barriers of periodization, discipline and geography in its exploration of the related themes of heresy, magic and witchcraft. It sets aside constructed chronological boundaries, and in doing so aims to achieve a clearer picture of what 'went before', as well as what 'came after'. Thus the volume demonstrates continuity as well as change in the concepts and understandings of magic, heresy and witchcraft. In addition, the geographical pattern of similarities and diversities suggests a comparative approach, transcending confessional as well as national borders. Throughout the medieval and early modern period, the orthodoxy of the Christian Church was continuously contested. The challenge of heterodoxy, especially as expressed in various kinds of heresy, magic and witchcraft, was constantly present during the period 1200-1650. Neither contesters nor followers of orthodoxy were homogeneous groups or fractions. They themselves and their ideas changed from one century to the next, from region to region, even from city to city, but within a common framework of interpretation. This collection of essays focuses on this complex. 

Louise Nyholm Kallestrup is Associate Professor in Early Modern History at the University of Southern Denmark. She has published widely on Danish and Italian witchcraft.

Raisa Maria Toivo is Senior Research Fellow at the University of Tampere, Finland. She has published widely on witchcraft, gender and the Reformation.

Inhalt

Acknowledgements 6
Contents 7
Notes on Contributors 10
List of Figures 13
List of Table 15
Approaches to Magic, Heresy and Witchcraft in Time, Space and Faith 16
Witchcraft 19
Magic 22
Heresy 24
Notes 27
Part I: Heresy 29
‘Night is conceded to the dead’: Revenant Congregations in the Middle Ages 30
A Gathering of the Dead, or of Demons? 35
Marvelous, Ancient Sacrifices 38
Thinking with the Dead 42
Notes 43
Heresy and Heterodoxy in Medieval Scandinavia 47
Introduction 47
Terminology 50
Heresy in Medieval Scandinavia 52
Concluding Discussion 58
Notes 60
Caught Between Unorthodox Medicine and Unorthodox Religion: Revisiting the Case of Costantino Saccardini, Charlatan-Heretic 69
Notes 77
Part II: Magic 81
Angel Magic and the Cult of Angels in the Later Middle Ages 82
The Issues at Stake 83
Four Texts of Angel Magic from the Later Medieval West 86
Efforts to Regulate the Veneration of Angels 92
Devotion to Angels and Conceptions of Angels: The Scope of Toleration 96
The Hazards of Conjuration 103
Notes 108
Polyphony and Pragmatism in Scandinavian Spells c.1300–1600 122
Notes 137
The Divining Rod: Origins, Explanations and Uses in the Thirteenth to Eighteenth Centuries 138
Notes 151
Ignorant Superstition? Popular Education on Magic in Early Seventeenth-Century Confessionalist Finland: The Case of Mary and the Rosaries 155
Magic, Superstition and Witchcraft in Early Modern Finland 156
Idolatry and Lip Service vs Obedient Mary 158
Traces of the Cult of Mary in the Lutheran County of Satakunta 161
A Tradition of Catholic Reformation and Lutheran Superstition? 165
Early Seventeenth-Century Magic and Superstition as Ignorance 168
Notes 170
Part III: Witchcraft 174
The Witch of Endor Before the Witch Trials 175
Notes 194
Preaching on Witchcraft? The Sermons of Johannes Geiler of Kaysersberg (1445–1510) 200
Johannes Geiler of Kaysersberg (1445–1510): Some Introductory Remarks 200
No Place for Witches: Johannes Geiler of Kaysersberg and His Concept of Urban Reform 205
Superstition, Sorcery and Witchcraft in the Sermons of Johannes Geiler (Until 1509) 207
Johannes Geiler and His Concepts of Witchcraft (1509) 209
Conclusion 214
Notes 216
Law, Nature, Theology and Witchcraft in Ponzinibio’s De lamiis (1511) 223
Notes 234
The Infected and the Guilty: On Heresy and Witchcraft in Post-Reformation Denmark 239
The Concept of Heresy 240
First-Generation Reformers, Witchcraft and Heresy 242
The Admonitions of Niels Hemmingsen on Heresy and Witchcraft 245
Legislation on Witchcraft and Heresy 250
In Court 252
Conclusion 255
Notes 256
The Laughing Witch: Notes on the Relationship Between Literature and History in the Early Fifteenth Century 261
The centrepiece of this chapter is an early fifteenth-century play in the Dutch language, now known by the anachronistic name Die Hexe (The Witch), a name I will keep here for convenience sake. The main question I will pose here is how this play shou 261
A Farce 262
The Waning of the Middle Ages 264
Ascribed Witchcraft 268
Contemporary Concepts 270
A Popular Wizard 273
Fictional Witchcraft 276
Notes 278
Images, Representations and the Self-­Perception of Magic among the Sami Shamans of Arctic Norway, 1592–1692 284
‘Nordmythos’ 285
The Septentrionale Region and the Big Dipper 289
Wind Knots and Weather Magic 291
The Sami and the Witch Trials 293
Sorcery Persecutions of the Sami 295
The Self-Perception of Magic among the Sami Shamans 298
Witchcraft Conspiracy at the Frontiers of European Civilization 299
Territorial Expansion, State-Building and Witchcraft 300
Notes 303
Bibliography 306
Archival (Unprinted) Sources 306
Sources and Bibliography Printed Before 1900 306
Sources and Bibliography Printed Since 1900 316
Index 350

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 4.2.2017
• Reihe/Serie: Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic
• Reihe/Serie: Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic
• Zusatzinfo: XVII, 349 p. 14 illus. in color.
• Verlagsort: Cham
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie
• Schlagworte: Christianity • heterodoxy • Popular beliefs • Reformation • Religion
• ISBN-10: 3-319-32385-7 / 3319323857
• ISBN-13: 978-3-319-32385-5 / 9783319323855