Yes indeed, and furthermore "the Church" is not now
and probably never has been a unified monolith where
all levels agree in their judgements. Quite apart from
the huge Catholic/Protestant/ Orthodox divisions,
there are 'elite' and 'popular' levels, differing in
their definition of 'magic'. To take an example at
random friom the vast store of popular Catholic
practices:If you lay a replica of the crozier of St
Gertrude of Nivelles (Belgium) across the threshold to
prevent rats and mice entering your house, is this a
religious or a magical act? Some priests might judge
it one way, others the other, but certainly the people
actually doing it would think it part of their
religion. I recall a book on the folk beliefs of 19th
century France (I think the author's name is Judith
Devlin) which discusses many instances of this sort of
thing.
Jacqueline
--- mapremshya <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> In my understanding and readings, most folk (if not
> all) considered
> themselves Christian. Now, whether the Church did or
> not is another matter.
> It appears to be more the case of, in paraphrasing
> Jonathan Z. Smith's
> words: what you do is magic, what I do is religion.
> Sometimes it is very
> difficult to determine the difference, in our terms.
> Robert Scribner is a
> very excellent source on "popular"
> culture/religion/worldview in the Holy
> Roman Empire.
> I think we have to be very careful in imposing our
> definitions, boundaries
> and binaries over the abyss of the Enlightenment and
> Reformation.
> Shya
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "jacqueline simpson"
> <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Thursday, December 15, 2005 12:15 PM
> Subject: Cunning Folk
>
>
> > Dale wrote a few days ago asking whether he was
> right
> > in thinking some of the Cunning Folk were
> Christian.
> > I'd say that for our British documented period
> (say,
> > 16th century to first part of 20th) they probably
> all
> > were. Certainly a high proportion of the healing
> > charms here and in the rest of Europe used
> explicit
> > Christian imagery -- e.g.Christ's baptism in
> > blood-stopping charms, St Peter in toothache
> charms,
> > etc. A book on English Verbal Charms by Jonathan
> Roper
> > is about to come out (if it hasdn't already),
> which
> > will amply support this point. And accounts of
> Cunning
> > Folk doing anti-witchcraft magic such as sticking
> pins
> > in a sheep's heart sometimes mention that a psalm
> was
> > recited. And magic protective sigils are
> notoriously
> > full of "Names of God" and bits of mutilated Latin
> and
> > Hebrew. After all, one major function of the
> Cunning
> > Folk was to protect the community against
> malevolent
> > witchcraft; when doing so, they would have seen
> > themselves as working FOR God and against demonic
> > forces.
> >
> > I admit other functions (e.g. fortune telling)
> maight
> > have been regarded as dubious by strict
> Christians.
> >
> > Jacqueline
> >
> >
>
>
>
> --
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>
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