Includes bibliographical references (pages 453-458) and index.
Contents:
The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries : the full fury of the witch-hunts. Defending the harvest : the cult of the Benandanti ; In praise of natural magic : Cornelius Agrippa ; Martin Luther's devil ; Papists, popedom, and witchery : John Calvin ; A voice of skepticism from the medical profession : Johann Weyer ; Witch persecutions in Trier ; Charms,tricks, and day-to-day sorcery ; Demon mania in France : Jean Bodin ; Mechanics of torture : Dr. Fian and Suzanne Gaudry ; King James and the witches of North Berwick : "News from Scotland" ; Skepticism and a forced recantation ; King James I of England : Treatise on demons and witchcraft ; A midsummer night's dream ; Shakespeare's witches : Macbeth ; A Jacobean comedy ; The witches' Sabbath ; Persecution of the Burgomaster of Bamberg ; The witches of Wiirzburg ; Witch panic in Bonn ; In defense of the accused ; The demonic possession of the nuns of Loudun ; England's Witch Finder General. Post-Roman kingdoms of Europe : traffic with demons (500-750). Three post-Roman Law Codes against malicious magic ; Caesarius of Aries preaches against magic and paganism ; Continuity in magic spells ; A warning to peasants about the evils of trafficking with demons ; Sorcery in Gregory of Tours's sixth-century Gaul ; Saint Patrick battles pagan magicians ; Early Medieval sainthood and demons : Saint Radegund ; Isidore of Seville defines magic : The etymologies ; Penance for sins of magic ; A demoniac in early Medieval England : Bede-- The Carolingian dynasty : demons cut down to size (750-1000). An eighth-century list of pagan practices ; Paganism of the Saxons ; Beowulf fights the demons : Grendel, and Grendel's mother ; Agobard of Lyons and weather magic ; Carolingian catalogue of magical acts : Council of Paris ; Treatise on magic : Hrabanus Maurus ; Magic at the Court of Louis the Pious : Paschasius Radbertus ; The devil of Kempten and the villager ; Marriage and magic : The divorce of Lothar ; Loosed women and night flight : Canon episcopi ; Anglo-Saxon healing cures and charms ; Anglo-Saxon sermon against augury : Aelfric of Eynsham ; A prayer to Mother Earth and other charms ; An eleventh-century penitential : Burchard of Worms-- The high Middle Ages : many threads (1000-1300). Evil angels : Lombard's Sentences ; Divination and the Court : the Policraticus ; Lanval and the Fairy Queen : Marie de France ; The gentle werewolf : Marie de France ; Guide for the perplexed : Jewish magic and Maimonides ; Weather well and magic ring : Chrétien de Troyes ; Norse magic : Saga of the Volsungs ; Magic as a cautionary tale : Caesarius of Heisterbach ; A saintly dog and the changelings ; Picatrix : Arabic magic ; Astronomy : natural magic or necromancy? ; The golden legend : saints and devils ; Heresy versus sorcery ; A new kind of devil : Thomas Aquinas-- The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries : diabolism. A priest dupes his friend with a promise of magic in The Decameron ; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight ; Key to occult mysteries of Solomon ; Clerical magic : a handbook ; A warning to the people of Siena to expunge witches from the city ; Trial of Joan of Arc ; Witch beliefs coalesce : Formicarius ; The ordinal of alchemy ; Natural magic and Renaissance humanism : Oration on the dignity of man ; Pope Innocent VIII empowers the Inquisitors ; The witch hammer-- The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries : the full fury of the witch-hunts. Defending the harvest : the cult of the Benandanti ; In praise of natural magic : Cornelius Agrippa ; Martin Luther's devil ; Papists, popedom, and witchery : John Calvin ; A voice of skepticism from the medical profession : Johann Weyer ; Witch persecutions in Trier ; Charms,tricks, and day-to-day sorcery ; Demon mania in France : Jean Bodin ; Mechanics of torture : Dr. Fian and Suzanne Gaudry ; King James and the witches of North Berwick : "News from Scotland" ; Skepticism and a forced recantation ; King James I of England : Treatise on demons and witchcraft ; A midsummer night's dream ; Shakespeare's witches : Macbeth ; A Jacobean comedy ; The witches' Sabbath ; Persecution of the Burgomaster of Bamberg ; The witches of Wiirzburg ; Witch panic in Bonn ; In defense of the accused ; The demonic possession of the nuns of Loudun ; England's Witch Finder General.
Summary:
Magic, witches, and demons have drawn interest and fear throughout human history. In this comprehensive primary source reader, Martha Rampton traces the history of our fascination with magic and witchcraft from the first through to the seventeenth century. In over 80 readings presented chronologically, Rampton demonstrates how understandings of and reactions toward magic changed and developed over time, and how these ideas were influenced by various factors such as religion, science, and law. The wide-ranging texts emphasize social history and include early Merovingian law codes, the Picatrix, Lombard's Sentences, The Golden Legend, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. By presenting a full spectrum of source types including hagiography, law codes, literature, and handbooks, this collection provides readers with a broad view of how magic was understood through the medieval and early modern eras. Rampton's introduction to the volume is a passionate appeal to students to use tolerance, imagination, and empathy when travelling back in time. The introductions to individual readings are deliberately minimal, providing just enough context so that students can hear medieval voices for themselves.
Series:
Readings in medieval civilizations and cultures ; XX
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.