Magic and Superstition in Christian Europe

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Do curso por Universitat de Barcelona

Magic in the Middle Ages

642 classificações

Universitat de Barcelona

Magic in the Middle Ages

642 classificações

Magical thought has always attracted human imagination. In this course we will introduce you to the Middle Ages through a wide conception of magic. Students will have an approach to medieval culture, beliefs and practices from the perspective of History and History of Science. Popular magic, as well as learned magic (alchemy, geomancy and necromancy) will be addressed. Moreover, we will also deal with how eastern practices and texts influenced western culture. In July 2016, the course will contain a brand-new module devoted to astrology. Magic in the Middle Ages offers a captivating overview of medieval society and promotes reflection about certain stereotypes associated with this period. At the end of the course, the students: a) will have overcome the usual prejudices about the Middle Ages, b) will be able to analyze historical documentation from the Middle Ages and recognize the most common patterns of juridical documents regarding witchcraft, and c) will be capable of distinguishing between popular magic and the magic of the learned people; will have a notion of which spiritual practices were allowed in medieval Europe and which ones were related to the devil, and will be aware of the link between a cultural product and the society that produced it. This course is taught in English, although subtitles in English, Catalan and Spanish will also be provided. COURSE SYLLABUS Week 1. Introduction to medieval magic (Pau Castell). Week 2. Magic & Heresy (Delfi I. Nieto-Isabel). Week 3. From Magic to Witchcraft (Pau Castell). Week 4. Magic in Islam (Godefroid de Callataÿ and Sébastien Moureau). Week 5. Astrology & Geomancy (Theo Loinaz, Delfi I. Nieto-Isabel, Godefroid de Callataÿ and Blanca Villuendas). © Gemma Pellissa Prades (coord.), Delfi I. Nieto-Isabel and Joana Palau Mumany Magic in the Middle Ages by Gemma Pellissa Prades (coord.), Delfi I. Nieto-Isabel and Joana Palau Mumany is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Na lição

UNIT 1: INTRODUCTION TO MEDIEVAL MAGIC

Introduction2:35

The Idea of Magic3:33

The Ancient Precedents5:26

Magic and Superstition in Christian Europe6:56

The Decline of Magic7:30

Weekly Video 1 (2015)5:22

Conheça os instrutores

Godefroid de Callataÿ - University of Louvain
Professor
Oriental Institute (University of Louvain)
Dr Pau Castell Granados
Research and Teaching Scholar at University of Barcelona
Sébastien Moureau - University of Louvain
Chargé de recherches du F.R.S.-FNRS
Institut Orientaliste (CIOL)
Dr Gemma Pellissa Prades
Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow
Department of the Classics, Harvard
Delfi I. Nieto-Isabel
BSc, BA, MA
Dept. of Medieval History, Palaeography & Diplomatics, Institute for Research on Medieval Cultures, University of Barcelona
Blanca Villuendas
PhD Candidate
Instituto de Lenguas y Culturas del Mediterráneo y Oriente Próximo, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas

[MUSIC]

During the first medieval centuries, the new Christian authorities would try

to convince people to abandon their magical beliefs and

practices, often portrayed as pagan superstitions.

The ecclesiastical elites condemned superstition repeatedly in their councils

and in their pastoral works, while the Christian rulers promulgated their

own legislation against such beliefs and practices among their subjects.

This kind of sources are precious for us historians, since they describe, while

condemning them, the different kinds of magical activities performed at that time.

When we dive into those sources, magic usually comes to the surface.

We can find legal ordinances against those who perform acts of divination in

order to predict the future or to unravel the fate of kings and their subjects.

The sources call them <i>divini</i>, or <i>divinatores</i>.

This is clairvoyants or diviners, and condemn those who consulted them.

We also find condemnations against those who could influence the weather,

the so-called <i>tempestarii</i>, considered capable of controlling thunder and

lightning through magical incantations.

Other sources mention the so called necromancers from greek <i>necros</i>,

the dead, and <i>manteia</i>, divination.

Thus, the people capable of mediating with the dead in order to get some answers or

even to provoke evil among the living.

The dangerous nature of premonitory dreams is also attested to in the sources,

as well as the diabolical nature of the magical rituals performed by the <i>magi</i> or

the <i>sortilegi</i>.

This is, the sorcerers and sorceresses, to whom people used to go to

with the aim of avoiding bad fortune, seeking counsel about future endeavors,

healing sickness, and attracting or preventing another person's love.

Many of those anti-superstition laws were aimed against women, mostly for

performing a wide range of magical activities, mostly healing practices,

with herbs, potions, magical knots, charms, and amulets.

Apart from the magicians themselves,

many sources condemned those who consult them or seek their assistance.

They also legislate against common magical practices performed by most of the folk,

such as believing in the influence of stars and planets, composing or

wearing amulets and written formulas, performing some magical rituals on trees,

water sources, or graves,

believing in spiritual figures such as fairies or nocturnal armies, and

leaving them food and drink during the night,

using magical rituals to protect children or cattle, and a long etcetera.

Despite the efforts shown by some ecclesiastical authorities,

the wide range of magical activities performed by our medieval ancestors

keep appearing in the sources throughout all the Middle Ages.

That fact shows their deep rooting among people and also the difficulty

experienced by Christian authorities in their aim to eradicate them.

We will see an example taken from the 14th-century series of pastoral visitations

carried out in the principality of Catalonia,

the head of the Iberian Crown of Aragon.

For those who do not know, pastoral visitations were a common practice at

that time in many Christian territories.

They consisted in the annual inspection of the parishes carried out by their bishops.

During those inspections, the bishops or their envoys asked the people and

the local priests about the state of the cult among them and

the behavior of the parishioners.

Did they follow the church rules, or were they quarrelsome, adulterous,

blasphemous or even superstitious?

Let's see what did those Catalan parishioners answer

during those 14th-century visitations.

In 1310 during the pastoral visit of the diocese of Barcelona,

people were asked about the presence of sorcerers and diviners among their parish.

The neighbors of the village of Badalona, a village near to Barcelona,

told the bishop that a woman called Nadala was <i>divinatrix et sortilega</i>,

and that people used to go to her for different purposes,

and that she performed her incantations with a strap, and

also with enchanting symbols carved in the soil.

The original document says, <i>facit coniurationes suas

<i>cum corrigia et in terra cum signis coniuratoribus</i>.

In other the villages the neighbors informed about women, often called <i>sortilegas</i>,

<i>divinatrices</i> or <i>coniuratrices,

that is, sorcerers, diviners, and conjurers.

Women that made some kind of sorcery with bread, wheat grains, knives,

herbs, or stones, and that were capable of binding the souls of men and women,

of healing sickness, enchanting animals, curing or

preventing the evil eye and other bad spells, predicting the future or

finding lost objects through some magical rituals, and even wandering by night what

some female spirits, commonly known as "the good ladies", the fairies of the night.

All those magical activities had been condemned by ecclesiastical laws since

the first medieval centuries.

And still, the pastoral visitations from the late Middle Ages showed a deep rooting

among people who used to turn to those <i>sortilegas</i>, <i>divinatrices</i> and <i>coniuiratrices

in order to cure the illnesses for those of the family and cattle,

to solve a love or sexual problems and to recover lost objects or stolen goods.

Nevertheless the attempts to change people's attitude towards magic,

would begin to payoff at the end of the medieval times.

The reasons?

Mainly two.

The renovated evangelization efforts undertaken by the Church, and

the emergence of neo-scientific and

theological paradigms issued by medieval universities.

[MUSIC]

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