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Early Modern England

Yale, , Prof. Keith E. Wrightson

Updated On 02 Feb, 19

Overview

General Introduction - The Tree of Commonwealth : The Social Order in the Sixteenth Century - Households: Structures, Priorities, Strategies, Roles - Communities: Key Institutions and Relationships - Countries and Nation: Social and Economic Networks and the Urban System - The Structures of Power - Late Medieval Religion and Its Critics - Reformation and Division, 1530-1558 - "Commodity" and "Commonwealth": Economic and Social Problems, 1520-1560 - The Elizabethan Confessional State: Conformity, Papists and Puritans - The Elizabethan - Economic Expansion, 1560-1640 - A Polarizing Society, 1560-1640 - Witchcraft and Magic - Crime and the Law - Popular Protest - Education and Literacy - Street Wars of Religion: Puritans and Arminians - Crown and Political Nation, 1604-1640 - Constitutional Revolution and Civil War, 1640-1646 - Regicide and Republic, 1647-1660 - An Unsettled Settlement: The Restoration Era, 1660-1688 - England, Britain, and the World: Economic Development, 1660-1720 - Refashioning the State, 1688-1714 - Concluding Discussion and Advice on Examination

Includes

Lecture 14: Witchcraft and Magic

4.1 ( 11 )


Lecture Details

Early Modern England Politics, Religion, and Society under the Tudors and Stuarts (HIST 251)

In this lecture, Professor Wrightson discusses witchcraft and magic. He begins with the context of magic beliefs in this period, introducing the cunning folk who had reputations as healers and were often consulted. He then considers the specific problem of witchcraft, the use of magic to do harm, and its identification by the late medieval church as a form of anti-Christian cult. He examines the distinctive nature of both witchcraft beliefs and the history of witchcraft prosecution in England (as compared with both Scotland and continental Europe), outlining the typical circumstances of a witchcraft accusation and what these might suggest about the rise and fall of concern with witchcraft. Finally he considers a number of unresolved problems in the history of witchcraft in England the nature of the links between gender and witchcraft; the reasons behind the passage of the statutes defining witchcraft as a crime; and the exceptionally large number of trials conducted in the county of Essex.

0000 - Chapter 1. Magic
0856 - Chapter 2. Differences between Witchcraft in England and in Europe
1926 - Chapter 3. Trials in England
3505 - Chapter 4. Witchraft Statutes in Essex

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website httpopen.yale.educourses

This course was recorded in Fall 2009.

Ratings

3.2


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Comments
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Sam

Excellent course helped me understand topic that i couldn't while attendinfg my college.

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Dembe

Great course. Thank you very much.

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