The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe

Valerie Irene Jane Flint

Published by Princeton University Press 1991

The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe

Valerie Irene Jane Flint

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691210025

Overview
Contents

About this book

"There are forces better recognized as belonging to human society than repressed or left to waste away or growl about upon its fringes." So writes Valerie Flint in this powerful work on magic in early medieval Europe. Flint shows how many of the more discerning leaders of the early medieval Church decided to promote non-Christian practices originally condemned as magical--rather than repressing them or leaving them to waste away or "growl." These wise leaders actively and enthusiastically incorporated specific kinds of "magic" into the dominant culture not only to appease the contemporary non-Christian opposition but also to enhance Christianity itself.

Author / Editor information

Valerie I. J. Flint is Professor of History at the University of Auckland. Among her books is The Imaginative Landscape of Christopher Columbus (Princeton).

Reviews

"Diligently researched and well-written survey of what antiquity and churchmen between the fifth and eleventh centuries had to say about magical beliefs and practices, and what the Church and State should do about them."

"In this large, brave and erudite book, Valerie 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.... This is a book which will inevitably arouse welcome and refreshing controversy."---Julia Smith, Early Medieval Europe

"Flint combines a bold thesis and sophisticated historiography with impeccable scholarship. Her semantic disentangling of contemporary texts and their various terms is as sensitive as her contextual interpretation of them.... Flint writes with verve and style. This is an extraordinarily good book."---Patrick Curry, History Today

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Abbreviations Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
PART I. Introduction
Chapter 1. The Scope of the Study Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	3
Chapter 2. The Legacy of Attitudes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
Chapter 3. The Sources for the Early Middle Ages Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	36
Chapter 4. The Situation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	59
PART II. The Magic of the Heavens
Chapter 5. The Magic That Persisted: Condemned Magical Agencies Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	87
Chapter 6. The Magic That Was Needed: Rescued Means of Magical Intervention Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	127
Chapter 7. The Magic That Was Needed: The Power of the Cross in the Heavens Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	173
PART III. The Magic of the Earth
Chapter 8. Forbidden Magic: The Focal Points of Christian Disapproval Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	203
Chapter 9. Encouraged Magic: The Process of Rehabilitation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	254
PART IV. The Magus
Chapter 10. The Discredited Practitioner: Charlatans Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	331
Chapter 11. The Figure of Esteem: Christian Counterparts Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	355
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	393
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	409
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	439