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European belief in witchcraft can be traced back to classical antiquity, when magic and religion were closely entwined. During the pagan era of ancient Rome , there were laws against harmful magic. After Christianization , the medieval Catholic Church began to see witchcraft ( maleficium ) as a blend of black magic and apostasy involving a pact ...
Medieval Europe also saw magic come to be associated with the Old Testament figure of Solomon; various grimoires, or books outlining magical practices, were written that claimed to have been written by Solomon, most notably the Key of Solomon. [11] In early medieval Europe, magia was a term of condemnation. [12]
Europe's Inner Demons: An Enquiry Inspired by the Great Witch-Hunt is a historical study of the beliefs regarding European witchcraft in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe, with particular reference to the development of the witches' sabbat and its influence on the witch trials in the Early Modern period.
Ralph Merrifield, the British archaeologist credited as producing the first full-length volume dedicated to a material approach to magic, [2] defined the differences between religion and magic: "'Religion' is used to indicate the belief in supernatural or spiritual beings; 'magic', the use of practices intended to bring occult forces under ...
Harrison identifies William Chillingworth's The Religion of Protestants (1638) and William Sclater's An exposition with notes upon the first Epistle to the Thessalonians (1619) as the original sources of this myth. According to Harrison, the myth of the 'needles point' may have arisen from a pun claiming that the medieval scholastics argued ...
Forced conversion of minorities was against the law, and so was the belief in the existence of witchcraft, oracles or similar superstitions. In general, all "people from the book" were permitted to practice their own customs and religions as far as they did not attempt proselytizing on the Christian population.
The Mass was at the heart of medieval religion. In the Mass, the priest offered bread and wine on the altar, and, according to the doctrine of transubstantiation, the bread and wine miraculously became the body and blood of Christ, though not in outward appearance. Theologically, this meant that when Christians ate sacramental bread (called the ...
Philosophy seated between the seven liberal arts; picture from the Hortus deliciarum of Herrad von Landsberg (12th century).. Medieval philosophy is the philosophy that existed through the Middle Ages, the period roughly extending from the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century until after the Renaissance in the 13th and 14th centuries. [1]