medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
> I wonder, most learned Jim, if you would be so kind as to clarify what
> you mean. If by the early modern clerical esablishment you mean the
> establishment of the reformed church - i.e. the protestants - I would
> have thought that they were concerned to write such things into, rather
> than out of, their account of medieval religion, in their efforts to
> show how corrupt and superstitious the Catholic church was. If, on the
> other hand, you mean the Catholic clergy - well, such things go on
> unabated, and I am much in demand to bless things that go round the
> neck, not least for the feast of St Blaise (3rd Feb) when the faithful
> continue to come forward in numbers to have their throats blessed with
> candles blessed the day before.
Dear Bill,
You are quite right that things happened differently in England. Most of my
research on this phenomenon comes from the still and continuously Catholic parts
of the continent. I believe, however, that the Anglican church was rather more
concerned in the 17th and possibly even the 18th century with stamping out, or
toning down, such superstitious practices than recording them in the context of
vilifying medieval religion (and there were still a few crypto-Catholics sneaking
around Welsh holy wells, etc. at that time, as well). Most of what we know about
such practices comes from the occasional attempts of both Protestant and Catholic
churches to control or forbid certain practices. Outside of that, their treatment of
them was rather more disastrous for "history": namely, they just ignored them, and
from the point of view of the historical discipline, all too often it seems that what
didn't get written down didn't exist. It was only when folklorists (some of whom were
indeed clerical) began their activities that any positive sort of documentation began
to accumulate. I don't pretend to be an expert on this Early Modern phenomenon.
In fact, I'm beginning to despair that there ever have been experts in it, or that it's
even been recognized. Although, as you say, Catholic priests (and perhaps
Anglican ones, too) still -- in relatively small ways -- support the largely harmless
remnants of such practices, the practices themselves remain largely in oblivion,
both in the present, and even more so in the past.
Cheers,
Jim
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