medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
From: Marjorie Greene <[log in to unmask]>
> One of the points of Flint's book is that the Church, while forbidding and
decrying any form of "magic," nonetheless adopted and accommodated some
practices for a variety of reasons.
and at different times.
surely much of what was in widespread practice before 1200 was, slowly,
"weeded" out by "the Church" in subsequent centuries --though much of it never
was, even after the reformation.
Guibert of Nogent's account of a divination (not really an "augery", as i
mis-spoke earlier) is presented as something quite normal and straight-forward
--a new bishop has been elected (at Laon, i believe it was) and this is
considered an opportune moment to consult a biblical text, at random, to see
what it might foretell about this fellow's reign. (do bishops "reign"?)
the book is opened --in the "normal", random manner, one supposes-- to a blank
page.
"as if to say, 'Nothing of significance will happen during his term in
office'" --or somesuchlike interpretation.
of course, Guibert is equally straight-forward and nononsensical when he
describes the little green devil which his mother saw one day...
>As the blurb on the back of the book says: "...Flint sets out to rescue the
preternatural aspects of medieval culture from the opprobrium with which
Reformation polemicists attacked them, and to understand magic, both
'Christian magic' and non-Christian, on its own terms..."
a worthy goal, certainly.
i believe i have had occassion to mention this book on the list before :
Merrifield, Ralph. _The archaeology of ritual and magic_ (New York: New
Amsterdam Books, 1988) xiv, 224pp.
and this new one looks interesting :
Wilson, Stephen, _The magical universe : everyday ritual and magic in
pre-modern Europe_ (London ; New York : Hambledon and London, 2004), xxx, 546
p., [16] p. of plates.
>Suggesting that Romanesque churches _may_ have been tiny-windowed to prevent
augury from birds (at least at the outset) is not such a stretch in the
context of her entire book,
perhaps not, but it is in the context of the history of architecture.
>which I can't digest for the list :-((
sure you can.
give it a try.
c
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