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Witchcraft and Maleficent Magic (7:18)

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A Magia na Idade Média

Universidade de Barcelona

4.5 (794 classificações) | 60K alunos inscritos

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.

Visualizar o programa do curso

Habilidades que você aprenderá

Middle East, Astronomy, History, Anthropology

Avaliações

4.5 (794 classificações)

5 stars
522 ratings
4 stars
212 ratings
3 stars
41 ratings
2 stars
13 ratings
1 star
6 ratings

CB

Apr 07, 2019

I learnt a lot from this module. The lessons are incredibly interesting especially for those who are interested in the Medieval Ages and the beliefs of the people back then

MC

Aug 07, 2017

The materials in this course gave me a lot to think about. The effects of the ideas and attitudes towards medieval "magic" are still affecting modern thought today.

Na lição

UNIT 3: FROM MAGIC TO WITCHCRAFT

The Medieval Origin of the Crime of Witchcraft (3:46)3:52

Witchcraft and Maleficent Magic (7:18)7:22

The Mythology of Witchcraft (8:04)8:10

Medieval Witchcraft Trials (I) (5:58)6:03

Medieval Witchcraft Trials (II) (6:34)6:40

Optional video: Medieval Sources on Witchcraft (I) (6:19)6:25

Optional video: Medieval Sources on Witchcraft (II) (5:53)5:56

Weekly Video 3 (2015)4:28

Ministrado por

Godefroid de Callataÿ - University of Louvain
Professor
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
Dr Gemma Pellissa Prades
Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow
Delfi I. Nieto-Isabel
BSc, BA, MA
Blanca Villuendas
PhD Candidate

Transcrição

[MUSIC]

In 1996, The British historian Jonathan Barry stated that, I quote,

"few historical enterprises have been as intensively historiographical and

reflexive in character as the study of witchcraft."

Barry's words do indeed illustrate a fact,

that is, that during the last 200 years dozens of scholars have

devoted their studies to the history of witchcraft, thus offering

a huge amount of historiographical literature to delve into.

In this unit, we will try to sum up some of their conclusions, in order to

understand the emergence of the witch craze at the end of medieval times.

To do that, we will first analyze the so-called "witch stereotype",

which appeared in Europe during the 14th and 15th centuries.

A central aspect of this "witch stereotype"

is clearly related to the world of malificent magic.

Along human history, most societies have believed in the existence of some people

capable of causing harm to others through magical means.

Those practices were known in medieval times as <i>Maleficia (</i>maleficent crime),

often accompanied by the expression <i>Veneficia</i>, this is, poisoning.

During the first medieval centuries, secular laws established

a clear difference between that kind of evil practices and beneficial magic.

We can find an example of that in the Law Code promulgated by

the Castilian King Alfonso the Wise during the 12th century.

It goes like this:

"Every person of the village can accuse soothsayers, sorcerers, and

other impostors, of whom we talk about in this chapter, in front of the judge.

And if witnesses prove that they have done some of those evil deeds,

they must die for that.

But those who perform enchantments or other things with good intention, such as

to expel the demons from the body of people, to heal couples afflicted with

magical impotence, to prevent the hail that falls from the clouds,

to avoid the mist that spoils the crops, to exterminate the locusts and

aphids that spoil bread or vineyards, or for any other beneficial reason such as

those, they must not be harmed, and they should even receive a prize for it."

This distinction between good and bad magic (depending on the intentions of

the performer) was not so clear among ecclesiastical elites.

For them, most kinds of magic were superstitious and should be avoided,

as they could lead people away from the belief in an only true God,

as you have already seen in the previous unit.

Nevertheless, such distinction was well established in people's minds,

as can be seen through the secular laws of medieval Europe and

the trials held against maleficent magic in many secular courts.

For example, we can find numerous trials against men and women portrayed as

"<i>malefici</i>" for preventing sexual intercourse between couples through magical means.

We can also find secular laws against those women

who were capable of provoking goitre and other throat diseases to people or

cattle, an affliction quite common in European mountain areas.

The penance for those crimes was quite severe.

According to a 14th-century law code from the Pyrenean Valley of Àneu,

the defendants had to prove their innocence through the ordeal of iron.

This ordeal consisted in forcing them to hold a red-hot iron and

then assessing the evolution of their wounds.

In the case of a fast recovery, the woman was considered innocent.

Otherwise, she was seen as guilty of the alleged crime, and was to be burned,

whereas all her possessions were confiscated and

went to both her lord and her accuser.

As we have seen in the previous unit, all kinds of magical practices,

both good and evil,

started to be seen under a more sinister light during the last medieval centuries.

They were associated with a diabolical behavior and even with heresy.

This phenomenon, attested to in many theological works and

in the sermons of the mendicant preachers, entailed a change in the way in which

people who perform magical activities were perceived.

At that point, those diviners and sorcerers, and

also those <i>malefici,</i> started to be seen not only as evil individuals,

but as members of a maleficent group of people,

a sort of heretical sect who polluted Christian society with their devilish means.

Some 15th-century works started to talk about the sect of the diviners,

while some mendicant preachers, such as Vicent Ferrer or Bernardino de Siena, talked about

some sects whose members gathered at night to carry out dark rituals, and

were capable of provoking illness or death through sorcery or poison.

In that scenario, Pope Alexander V promulgated a bull

in 1409 in which he condemned, I quote, the "new sects integrated by Christians and

Jews that are sorcerers, diviners,

invokers of demons, enchanters, conjurers, superstitious people, and

soothsayers who use damned and forbidden arts that pervert and sully Christendom."

Within that context, the ancient accusations against individuals for

maleficent magic gave place to a much more disturbing scenario,

in which the evils that haunted society

were to be attributed to the misdeeds of a heretical and diabolical collectivity.

Remember the ordeal of iron to which the women allegedly causing throat diseases

in the Pyrenean valleys were subjected?

Well, a hundred years later, in 1424, the notables of

that same valley decided again to legislate against those magical crimes.

But this time, the suspected women were not only accused of individually causing

the illness, but of being part of a group of people that gathered by night,

abjured Christian faith, paid homage to the Devil,

kidnapped little babies from the side of their mothers to kill them, and

provoked throat diseases and other illnesses through poison or sorcery.

This merging of heresy and

diabolism with maleficent magic

brought about the crime of witchcraft.

[MUSIC]

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