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European 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 with the ...
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]
As Renaissance occultism gained traction among the educated classes, the belief in witchcraft, which in the medieval period had been part of the folk religion of the uneducated rural population at best, was incorporated into an increasingly comprehensive theology of Satan as the ultimate source of all maleficium.
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 ...
In early medieval Europe, magia was a term of condemnation. [85] In medieval Europe, Christians often suspected Muslims and Jews of engaging in magical practices; [86] in certain cases, these perceived magical rites—including the alleged Jewish sacrifice of Christian children—resulted in Christians massacring these religious minorities. [87]
Throughout the medieval era, mainstream Christian doctrine had denied the belief in the existence of witches and witchcraft, condemning it as a pagan superstition. [14] Some have argued that the work of the Dominican Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century helped lay the groundwork for a shift in Christian doctrine, by which certain Christian theologians eventually began to accept the possibility ...
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 ...
Magic in Anglo-Saxon England (Old English: galdorcræft, among various terms) refers to the beliefs and practices of magic by the Anglo-Saxons between the fifth and eleventh centuries AD in Early Mediaeval England that can be gleaned from the various sources available.