Religion and the decline of magic : studies in popular beliefs in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Religion and the decline of magic : studies in popular beliefs in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England
（Penguin books）
Penguin Books, 1991, c1971
Available at 21 libraries
Note
Originally published: London : Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1971
Includes bibliographies and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Witchcraft, astrology, divination and every kind of popular magic flourished in England during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, from the belief that a blessed amulet could prevent the assaults of the Devil to the use of the same charms to recover stolen goods. At the same time the Protestant Reformation attempted to take the magic out of religion, and scientists were developing new explanations of the universe. Keith Thomas's classic analysis of beliefs held on every level of English society begins with the collapse of the medieval Church and ends with the changing intellectual atmosphere around 1700, when science and rationalism began to challenge the older systems of belief.
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