A Note on the Survival of Popular Christian Magic

Abstract

THE magical use of Christian symbols prayers, relics, parts of the 'true cross' or the gospels has been noted as an integral element in the origins of popular magical practices in Europe.' The medieval Church encouraged, or at least tolerated, the use of tokens of faith to provide magical protection for their owners. In this way the language and symbols of Christianity passed into the general pool of popular magic. Yet it is unclear from the evidence collected, for example, by Keith Thomas, whether the supposed 'decline of magic' in the seventeenth century affected this element of traditional popular culture. It is reasonable to suppose, as Thomas does, that despite the changing intellectual climate and its consequences for the credibility of astrology or the legal respectability of witchcraft cases, popular customs in the rural villages remained relatively untouched until the nineteeth century. One unexplored area in this pattern of survival, therefore, is the extent to which Christianity itself provided the symbols and resources for magical practices throughout the period. Certainly Christian prayers and phrases were much used in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries for charms, spells and curses. Many of these formulae consisted of Catholic prayers and words which had been outlawed in the midsixteenth century. The Latin prayers, the paternoster, aves and the creed were thought to be particularly effective in curing disease and countering witchcraft. Because Catholicism was illegal, and frequently regarded as devilish, it is not surprising to find the use of Latin prayers for magical purposes figuring as evidence in accusations of witchcraft and sorcery.2 In the ecclesiastical courts, for example, there were many cases of the use of paternosters and creeds as charms to cure sickness. One woman from Aldeburgh in Suffolk, accused in 1597, was thought to be particularly good at cures through this method, 'and therefore hath recourse of people to her farre and nighe.'3 One of the Lancashire witches of 1612 was alleged to have sold a charm against bewitched drink (ironically), which concluded:-