ENGLISH

Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century England

By Thomas , Keith

Book information

Publisher
Penguin Books Ltd
ISBN
9780141932408, 0141932406
Language
english
Format
EPUB
Filesize
3 MB (2744071 bytes)
Pages
880 pages\0
Time added
2020-07-26 19:24:52
Alchemy & Hermetic Thought;RELIGION--History;SOCIAEarly Modern History: C 1450/1500 To C 1700;FolkloMyths & Legends;HISTORY--Modern--16th Century;HIST

Description

Witchcraft, astrology, divination and every kind of popular magic flourished in England during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, from the belief that a blessed amulet could prevent the assaults of the Devil to the use of the same charms to recover stolen goods. At the same time the Protestant Reformation attempted to take the magic out of religion, and scientists were developing new explanations of the universe. Keith Thomas's classic analysis of beliefs held on every level of English society begins with the collapse of the medieval Church and ends with the changing intellectual atmosphere around 1700, when science and rationalism began to challenge the older systems of belief.

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