midterm 2 relig (middle ages)

what defines the middle ages POV of magic (3)

conversion period (5th-12 century) - magic = linked to paganism (lowks and thats wrong!)

renaissance (entire 12 century) - increased in education (distinction in HIGH magic (astrology + alchemy) + introduction to burning heretics

late middle ages (14th-15th century - more like 16 tho)

• the big one → “otherness of magicians” = practice low forms of magic = considered diabolical ஃ pagan = diabolical

• witches are diabolical + must be tried as a criminal

conversion period (5th-12th)

two perspective of magic during the conversion period + the magic the church offered

1) defined magic as laws, texts, that condemned the practices of evil magic

• practices that were condemned often looked pagan ஃ rituals including dead, curses etc —

• inherently these were percieved as illusotory + deceptive ஃ were condemed

2) defined as an explanation for the manipulation of nature that cannot be explained by science (so like the “good magic”)

• included things like saints who heal by touch + amulets

church offered a different realm of power — somethig that in of itself cannot be labelled as magic — priestly magic

• offering saints, prayers, relics, holy water = apparatuses that can aid people in every day problems

what did the canon episcopi say about witchcraft

canon episcopi argued that witchcraft = delusion caused by satan

• delusion = suggest theres no physical hold it has on reality (therefore curses not real lol

• people who practice witchcraft = weak in faith = easy to succumb to devil’s delusions

12 century rennaisance + neoplatism

rise of education + scholarsticism

• trying to regain access to Jerusalem → access to Arabic + Greek Text ஃ ↑ in Education

  
  

↑ rise of astrology + alchemy

• astrology = study of movement of planets to human affairs (has an impact)

• alchemy = philosopher’s stone - desire to make monetary wealth (base cheap metals → gold + silver)

  
  

↑ neoplatonism — belief cosmos = organic entity (line of magic + being = blurred)

• considered impact of imagination → body, mind → matter + words

• ஃ effects of incantation on physical object

suggestion = a shifted belief that the evil isn’t delusion / isn’t distant = closer connection to the body

12 century dramatic change in POV of magic

I think the belief that magic is closer than we think = ↑ crusades + hostility of Catharist

BIG ONE — king Robert’s = initiate FIRST EXECUTION OF HERETICS

• before they’d just do ex communication as punishment — now they actually killed them

• Victim = accused of orgies + killing naive babies

After = ↑ transition of accusations of heresy → burnings

• William of Malmsburg → describes witch of Berkeley

• ~end of 13th century = BISHOPS start looking for heretics THEMSELVES (start formal investigations) to burn themselves

Picatrix

Basically a magical book (deemed acceptable I guess…

• 4 books = composed on astrology + movement → really centred on philosophy + pratical rituals

INTENDED for only sages + magicians to use (literally says in the prologue that someone prays to the creator to allow this book to only be possessed by the hands of a sage)

• magic = derived from the energy of the microcosm (therefore magician = a vessel to manipulate the power present from above)

• Godhead → power downward → magician (picatrix = describes how we can utilize this in terms of practical rituals + philosophy/astrology + movemen)

late middle ages (14-16th)

at 14th century = wars = lots of widows being produced !!

Conflicts present =

↑ individualism ஃ ↑ conflict about property managements within communities (therefore ↑ us vs them to target)

heresay = linked to diabolism (no longer the “right christian” = you’re literally dancing with the devil … burn hoe

• no longer believed in high magic — Demonimanie magorum = magician trying to source power from above = deliberately trying to achieve something through diabolical means (diabolism)

• ஃ believe that the “high creator” = actually LOWER creator creating those currents of accessible magic

God’s magic is still widely accepted — therefore anything magical OTHER than priestly = gotta be devil bruh

diabolism was real ஃ had to be something physically combatted (good side and bad side)

• Kill all those doing that (ie. Joan of Arc - her story was just too unbelievable .. it HAD to be the devil .. rip queen)

malleus maleficarum - the witch hammer (15th cent)

the FIRST book on witchcraft — basically incell propaganda omg

• written by Henrich Kramer — he tried to persecuate a woman of witchcraft but got thrown out of trial

His argument: witches should be considered a legal manner + be a topic of execution

• basically in support of the bishops in the 13th century deliberatly heresay → burn) + now theres a need to transition into SECULAR COURTS (this is a matter that needs community to bear)

• ↑ concern that malefica (causing undo harm) = related to diabolism + transition into 16th century with we need to act in according defense = made his argument plausible

*statements that acts of misfortune = relation to the devil !!!

*made theory that midwives = sacrafice unbaptized infants for sabbath rituals

His solution: developed theological threat to justify persecution of witches — “witch” = held same status as a criminal — secular courts should prosecute to eliminate (a trial is neccesary)

• FINDING witches = through methods of torture + persuasion to obtain confession since witch pacts = in secret with devil

got his ish approved by the pope — papal bull

saducismus trimphatus

Written by Joseph Glanvill (1668)

• like kramer = argued for the REAL existence of witches + the supernature

• those who are skeptics of witches = akin to saudacees (those skeptics of satan) — they viewed these individuals as ignorant to knowlegde + missing the point

• also talked about a meeting place of witches + devil (blockula) — location was used for the mora witch trails

how to protect one self → witches bottle (basically captures witches curses)

• in a bottle you put a prickly thing, water, + a sweet fragrant herb

• witch curse = attracted to fragant herb — dies by prickly thing + drowns in water

16th century reformation

Martin Luther (girl lol)

Protestant Reformation -

• people who questioned priestly magic/catholic magic (lowkey thought it was blasemy someone could be a vessel of God) 

Things protestants didn’t agree on:

• Considered sign of the god = acts of practicing Christian witchcraft (purged all acts in name of papist superstition)

• Purgatory (middle place between he’ll + heaven) — with enough offering + prayer with priest = ancestor can transition from purgatory TO heaven

Big believe that only GOD CAN DO ALL THESE THJNGS AMEN - a human can DEF NOT

• ஃ ≠ need thjngs like soul eaters + priest since only God can decide who goes to purgatory lol

in the 16th century - what did gianfrancisco pico della mirandola suggest?

Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola → lead + executed 10 witch trials (witches are magic that ain’t god for sure ..)

• published strix = why witch hunts are good !

• suggest witch interactions = ONLY devilish — not rooted in delusions like conversion period suggest

heavily influenced by henrich kramer’s malleus maleficarum (to do witch hunts in italy)

Teutonic Crusade (transition of pagan → Christianity)

(long battle - 13-17th century)

Lithuanian = last modern European country to convert to Christianity

• Mindauges = pagan person who after baptism became king since he was recognized capable to do Christian rituals

promised to convert but ultimately kept their pagan traditions as a diplomatic tool + weapon (so they used to be able to practice as a barter system) ஃ conversion failed

• overtook lots of pagan sacred places (thought the area was still sacred but PROBABLY due to God’s influence, not pagan) + replaced it with Christian institutions (Vilnius Cathedral)

being pagan wasn’t prosecutable ஃ they decided to keep practice

• despite ↑ parishes, religion churches, Nobels trying to convert = barely anyone budged in not practicing tradition despite many of Lithuanians converting to “Christianity”

17th century paganism = died

• there’s still statues remembered to paganism + witches (witches hill @ neringa)

• hoeever sustaining belief AFTER CONVERSION - witch figure (Ragana + Velnias) = untrustworthy figured

what’s witches hill? (Where located + example of figures)

Neringa (witches hill)

Ragana

Velnias

= considered untrustworthy prominent figures of witches

late middle ages (2)

ok so looks like high magic is still looked into favourably… my bad

• still considered in the branch of science — magicians = practicing other religions + low common practice magic = now considered diabolical (devil related)

groups affected

• Jewish → pratices look like witchcraft (Blood Libel Myth)

• German legend Faust → pursuit of knowlegde/magic = evil apparently

↑ records of evidence of witchcraft at this time — important to note that it could just be accusations/prosecution TRIALS.. not necessarily hard evidence that people did it lol

WITCH HUNTSS (reasons + methods)

occured in waves — witch hunts were not consistent + high periods = occured with the climate + context (15-1600)

witches = embodied powerful sorcerers dealing with forces of nature that cannot be solved directly

• involved in causing famine, impotence, disease — causing disorder in contexs that are supposed to be ordered + civilized

• with diabolism (baptized by devil to gain monetary wealth) + witch’s sabbath (reject of normative society ஃ ↑ homosexuality, partying in the night, orgies/incest + desecration of the corss + murdering of babies)

*obscene kiss — kiss devil in the ass as a way to get in

witch trials: (trier + fulda + wurzberg + bamberg + mora)

trials = secular court

• process = ind = suspicious — neighbour makes accusation + along support from witness

• local elites take in charge, arrest accused + local judge tries case

• process of local elites take charge can involve torture + persuasion (the believe the sabbath was secret ஃ torture would give up the secret)

• at the stand = witnesses who would corroborate on the story (must be percieved good in society ஃ ↓ lie)

for a reduced sentence — they woild give opportunity for accused to name OTHER witches involved ஃ ↑ to mass trials

• mass trials didnt occur often BUT were sporadic + localized cases

punishment = either burning or hanging depending on area

Trier: THREE victims (368 executed)

• Archbishop Johann Von Schonenberg = wanted to showcase his fath by holding trails against PROTESTANTS, JEWS + WITCHES

• victims = for everyone

Fulda: COUNTER REFORMATION (250 executed)

• Abbot — Balthasar Von Duchbach + Balthasar Nuss

• conducted witch trials in name of protestant ↓

Wurzberg + Bamberg (1000+ executed)

Wuzberg = Julius Echter Von Mespelbrunn + Philip Adolf von Ehrenberg

Bamberg = Johann Gottfried von Aschhausen + Counterreformer Johann G.F von Dornheim

• both = situated nearby towns with TWO opposing sides (protestants + catholics) AND occured during the 30 year war (ஃ conflict)

• initially = older woman but transitioned into all demographics (nobels, priest, children etc)

Mora — children accused indivdiuals to be witches (23 confessed + was executed)

• Swedish Witch Trials

mathew hopkins (witchfinder general)

Influenced by king james — daemonologie =

• justification for drowning witches since they can float (float = reject baptism)

• promoted sleep deprivation as a way of confession — legal

• broke a lot of laws acting as a witch hunter — could only practice in specific counties as said by the authorities but would often practice his illegal methdologies in other counties to maintain reputation

• would get paid to enact these witch hunts

popularized the witch hunts

• was inspired with his involvement with elizabeth clark — an old, disabled widow

critics did speak out but was meant with threats + retaliation with witch conviction (got an ego boost with that last clergy he sent to thne gallows)

• flopped as people couldnt raise funds to enact these hangings + controversy came up painting him as a fraud

salem - putnams + porters

biggest case every — popularized belief that anyone of good social status wasnt safe

• lacked a court system ஃ there were a LOT of people bulding up numbers in those cells

• 200 accused + 19 executed (again those numbers are considered higher with the lack of secular courts — trials = quick + public

• created court of eyer + terminer to handle these disputes

geographical = ACCUSER = WEST SIDE + ACCUSED = EAST

• once Samuel Paris was elected (Putnam Support) — village considered the divide = MORAL ONE (therefore i cant agree with thise other side with how they view religious + land dist” + overall family issue perspective)

• Rebecca Nurse — children suggest that they were haunted by nurse + dispite nurse being very sympathetic on the stand AND in holding good faith = executed (Putnam Beef)

Samuel Paris' daughter = first to accuse

• Sarah Good, S. Osborn, Tituba = all accused

• Martha + Giles Cory = executed (played in their face)

new world:

cotton mather = witches are a vessel to doing unimaginable and strange things — they cannot do any miricles since thats at the role of God himself

• perspective that witches yes were now acting in accordance against GOD but with the domains they controlled = the community really is at risk

• women = homemakers, midwives — the communitie’s involvement of tending to food + healthcare (new remedies to induce pregancy so technically thought of witchcraft)

therefore since witches CANT do these things — they can only DO evil

Elizabeth Knapp

• teenage servant to Reverand Willard — Willard observed through a scientific lens her demonic possessions (ie. talking without lips moving + erractic behavior)

• she could cuss him out lol

• As a low servent + rigid class structure = gained a lot of sympathy + attention from the community → in relief of responsibilities

her case = legal + behavior precedent for demonic possesion in new england — influenced how Salem' children was believed considering how wide her case was accepted

VOUDOU - EE Evan Pritchard:

EE Evan Pritchard = revolutionized how anthropologist viewed witchcraft / the work he did with the Azande

• EE evan pritchard = saw witchcraft as logical explanations in certain cultural context for the unmerited misfortune

• ie) weight loss, coughing, sickness that didnt have a source = witchcraft is a complete logical explanation for these things happening — an invisiable life force eating someone elses up

*saw this same conclusion come up in many other cultures

• the why me? aspect — answer, its witchcraft it doesnt have a reason someone mustve wished it upon you (inexplanable curses)

• susceptible to children + fertility

Kurkano Case Study:

Suwage (witch) → place curse on man (Suwa’ye) with encephelitus (diagnosed by the Gbangbane - witch hunters)

• his sister (accused witch) also got sick of encelphalitus — said she cursed her brother because he didnt give her any rice

• buried alive — witch is not a person — method to disarm — gbangbane cannot destroy

*witch = associated with predatory animals

Michael Jackson (HELLO LOL)

Posits that the presence of the suwage (witches) = of individuals of antisocial presence using the identity of the witch as a vessel to claim grievances

• Morogoye = act of social expectations + ideal communial behaior — suwage = individuals who act in defiance as claimed by the community

• individuals = termina ill or maginalized because of the morogoye = use the death sentence of being a suwage to claim an identity to air out grievances — considered a last act of freedom

Last act of freedom — by claiming she is at the agency of her suffering + airing out generation long family grievances = deciding own identity of evil + fate when external circumstances force it upon her

Mobility Theory — James L Bryan

Belief that ↑ property attachments + ↓ mobility = ↑ ↑ chance to become fearful of witches/believe in their domain

• hunter gather society + little attachment to property usually only believe that if a witch from another tribe comes = we can leave lol

woman are often considered to be these witches because of the threat they pose in regards to PROPERTY

• property → man ஃ woman have non

• if she does have access ஃ at risk of being threatened to lose it/not have it since only role is to bear heirs

• if she doesnt have any access = willing do to malifica to GET property

• women = married from another family — unknown + assocaited belief witches came from OTHER tribes

history

haiti = birthplace of voudou

• voudou = considered sacred objects to serve the spirits

• used to increase luck (chans) + decrease misfortune (mize) — to do these things = need good human relations + attenuate to the spirits (via the voudou)

haiti = has african, spanish + indigenous dialect within the text, songs related to vodou

• Voudou = considered an alternate religon in mix of catholicism + african tradition (from the import of africans into) the catholic colony + gave the strength to uproar against french planation owners (Bois Caiman)

• haiti = second independent new world nation + FIRST ruled by enslaved people

was supressed by the military government force

• but voudou = entranched in haitain culture + even more entrenched with catholicism that the prist + bishops couldnt detect it

• Emperor Faustin = practied voudou in his palace himself

• In the Nazi world war context — US considered voudou = nazi + tried to seize hati to protect it from the germans — considered animalistic + otherwordly jibberish

voudou ↑ after US left

Political history:

Jean Jaque Dessaline → enforced voudou = illegal, enforced by miltary means

Faustin → elected himself king = practiced voudou in his palance

Pere Jean Bertrand → advocated for the religious freedomn + practice of voudou practitoner

Vodou Theology

Bondye → supreme diety + creator + possessor of all this magic (created the cosmos + stayed in the heavens)

• left earthly responsibilities to the Loas (spirits + gods)

Rada Loas — heart of all of africa emotional stability, heart, compassion - sacrafices considered more human

Petro Loas — originated in haiti → aggresive response to colonial slavery — ஃ ↑ independence, money + commerence desires ஃ more visceral offerings

Key Loas:

• Baron → loas of dead + cemetary

• Ezruille Dante → protector of woman/children + fierce vengence

• Papa Legba → God of crossroads — consideredthe bridge of humans + spririts

• Marrasa → divine twins

• Damballah → Snake god of purity + creation

Three Soul Component:

Grosbonage (great gaurdian angel) → undifferentiated LIFE SOURCE that animate the body (like the kah)

Ti bonaj → personality + individual unique character — embodiment personal soul of memory +

N’ame → the force that binds the physical bodily cells

*ஃ grosbonage + name = work in tandem

Mechanics of posession → Loas (Poto Mitan) goes down a pole (gateway for the spirits) + posseses/replaces persons Tibonaj (personality)

• ஃ perosnality replaced WITH the Poton Mitan + person = vessel/horse for the Loas

• Loas → dispenses advice through this chawl

Priesthood Roles:

Priest: both lead + perserve rituals + herbal doctors (due to poverty) + typically expected chawl for loas posession

• M → Houngan

• F → Mambo

RESPONSIBLE FOR THE HOUNFOR — temple that contains the pole for spirits to cross — ceremonial hall

Vever → powder used to draw design to summon specific loas

• depending if Petros or Rada → sacrafice method is specific

Bocor = privitized witch doctor → can be employed for monetary gain

Zombification:

Zombie → body without a soul

• rooted in word Nzambi → embody historical trauma of being a slaved (indentured worker without a soul)

Creation mechanism by a bocor (privitized witch)

• Tibonaj = captured + isolated ) done by beatings (↑ beating = ↓ personality)

*often held by the slave owner — capture of tibonaj = personality = held by + now forced to work at the hands of the owner

• Grosbonaj = living animated spirit = prevented to go to Bondye + the cosomos (animated force = FORCED TO WORK)

• N’ame → force holding the cells = also supposed to be retained (↓ body decay)

Wade Davis → bocors use neurotoxic powder → induce catatonic metabolic state (zombie state as a captiacl punishment)

• his findings suggest that zombification = of people who are deviant in social norms ஃ by stealing their tibonaj / personality ridden in deviance = social control of people who BREACH community norms

• personality = made them want to steal, preform adultery/create disorder

zombies ≠ considered scary — but of people of pity

• youre so bad that we have to use the opressors way just so u can act right

GRECO:

theourgia → highest form of magic (working things pertaining to the gods) = good

Mageia → standard socery + magic = more like midgeia

Goetia → lowest crude magic (potion weavers + incantations) → viewed as divient

Evolution of Daimon →

• Homer suggest daimon = god → transitioned into socrates daimon = inferior spirits who does bidding of gods + humans = with good or bad traits → xenocrates = GODS posess good traits = demons = the bad incarnate of god ஃ capable of producing only dark/harmful traits ஃ demons

ஃ dealing with non state considered entitties = dealing with evil entities

• state sanctioned = handling with gods — unsanctioned = handling with demons

Archetypal Witches in Question:

Medea → archytpal witch sucummbing to malefica as empowered by sexual love + passion (eros)

• betrayed family for Jason — Jason played in her face so she killed her children out of vengence

• Involved in trickery, potions + night spells under full moon

full moon ideolgy

• Hekate → underworld goddess of the crossroad, night + necromancy

• Utilized the moons power/foam to seduce + attract lovers

therefore individuals who utilize moons power = ustilizing supernatural, otherwordly means to obtain real attraction/control

Circe → pharmaka to turn Odyessus’s men into pigs (represent dangerous fem beauty, seduction + power to control men (percieved weak + naive))

Why state hated magic

ultimately (like always) = disrupted the social order — private unauthroized magic (goetia) = utiluzed by tricksters + fraudlent indviduals using to monopolize their magic

• considered politcaily subservient + a threat to social order

• goetia users could create magic potions used for harming individuals (veneficum) + enact magical evil deeds (malificium)

Laws placed:

Lex Cornelia → law placed against murders + sorcerers

• placed in same catagory

Augustus = banned a ton of prophecy/magical books that didnt agree with his own prophecy