Was there a ‘decline of magic’ in Europe after the mid seventeenth century?

It has been argued by Levack that ‘by the mid sixteenth century the early modern European stereotype of witchcraft had been fully formed’[1], and was instilled in people through their belief in God. The problem with such faith is that ‘once their initial premises are accepted, no subsequent discovery will shake the believer’s faith’[2]. On studying religion of the Early Modern period it would appear that systems of belief possess a resilience which makes them virtually immune to external argument. However, for the practice of magic to see a decline there must have been vital factors involved in changing people’s mindsets. Thomas argues that ‘magic … has valuable side-effects. It lessens anxiety, relieves pent-up frustration, and makes the practitioner feel that he is doing something positive towards the solution of his problem’[3]. Thus, it could be argued that the only way to see a decline in magic was for there to be ways in which people could feel in control of their everyday problems, from the faith in potentialities supported by scientific aspiration to more practical every day methods of taking control of ones situation. This essay will address four key areas highlighted in Keith Thomas’s work to assess how intellectual developments, new technology and improvements in material life and new aspirations[4] helped lessen the popular practice and belief of magic.

An important reason for the changes in popular opinion on magic is the intellectual developments which were emerging throughout the Seventeenth century. Thomas argues that change in religiously ingrained beliefs on the practice of magic ‘had to arise from outside the system altogether’[5]. This system was science. Before long, it was impossible for people to deny that there were natural laws outside of religion which had an effect on the world and strongly weakened the ideas of miracles and things alike. Whilst originally, magic and science had advanced side by side with the rise in cunning folk, who treated patients using herbal remedies, charms and amulets, a modern society would argue that this was not science. At the time of the cunning folk they were seen as well-respected medical professionals who brought hope and instilled confidence in their patients and their relatives, who otherwise felt they had no control over their situation. The particular methods the cunning folk used often involved ‘reciting certain sayings…or rituals’[6], these techniques often helped to calm the patient down but were not of medical value. However, some of the ingredients they used in their remedies ‘were understood to work – and, indeed, did work[7] . For example, Lindemann argues that ‘some herbal remedies undoubtedly alleviated symptoms. Willow bark tea, for instance...reduces fever' and later 'In the nineteenth century, chemists discovered that willow contains salicvlates, the active ingredient in aspirin.'[8] So the wise women and cunning folk were at times truly beneficial, but the fact that they existed brought an element of control and hope to sick patients or families at a time of turmoil. However, ‘this union of magic and science was short lived’, possibly due to the declining need for cunning folk, as ‘'Diaries and correspondence abundantly testify to...how often...remedies travelled and changed hands’ and how remedies ‘moved quickly among the literate and the illiterate alike' [9] showing that once the medical ideas were established, many felt capable to practice them without the aid of another. Furthermore, a number of intellectual advances made within the early seventeenth century. These advancements began to instil within Early Modern society something which was still quite new: faith in humanity. Due to the potentialities of scientific experiment, people no longer felt hopeless, and even though their problems had not yet been solved, they became confident that they could be controlled and maybe one day combated by humans. One of the most important developments of the new science was that the forces such as Magnetism and electricity could now be explained in mechanical terms rather than just as an outside magical influence - which, left unexplained, led people to blame forces of the supernatural. Furthermore, this new and more developed scientific knowledge began to lead to a demand for empirical evidence to prove all beliefs. This led to a rise in demonstrations, one such is stated by Gaskill, that stories such as 'the king sending his physician William Harvey...in order to study a witch’s familiar' circulated, and argues that whilst these stories were usually told for entertainment, 'a seed of change had been sown'[10]. People were no longer confined to the explanations of wise women and cunning folk, but were assisted by the new science, towards a mental change which led people to believe that holding faith in demonstration and reason would someday find the answers. The role of ancient figures was vital to this too, as they acted as the foundation on which Early Modern scientists and intellectuals were to base their opinions and methods of investigation. Figures such as Epicurus and Lucretius ‘showed that the course of the world could be explained without invoking divine intervention’[11], showing that the new ideas of experiment and reason could be linked back to the work of ancient, respected authorities - for example, Galenic theory which was being referred to throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The role early modern scientific authorities were vital in the decline of magic, as the substantial evidence and theories that they produced now made witch trials very difficult to prosecute, and discredited things such as astrology which could now be challenged with scientific theories. Furthermore, the proof that they produced and the research they carried out was enough to give the population some hope, and Byrne argues that these were the catalysts behind the ’emergence of ways of looking at the world which no longer viewed it as the sphere of the finely-balanced battle between the Lord and the Devil...but rather as the place in which systematic and rational investigation brings the truth into the light and banishes the darkness of ignorance'[12] He then elaborates, by saying that the natural world could now be viewed 'as a place which was to some extent within our control and within the limits of our comprehension'[13], marking a change in mindset assisted by the new science.

In terms of material life within society, things began to improve, from the population pressure easing off to the improvements in agriculture and trade, there was far less of a burden on the public. It has been argued that ‘general circumstances of this kind must have done something to increase human self-confidence’[14].  This improving confidence in human control was supported by the developments of new technology. For example, printed news sheets were a development of the early sixteenth century  which not only aided the increase in popular literacy which would have allowed a wider range of people to gain access to the latest scientific advancements, and be able to process these into their daily life. Furthermore, a vital part of the decline of magic was due to media like advertisements in the paper which combated the everyday problems in which people usually turned to magic. For example, Keith Thomas highlights that there were sections for ‘lost property…lost dogs’ and ‘stolen horses’ which would have restored an element of human control in the management of these everyday issues, as it offered a practical solution to the misfortune, rather than it leading people to turn to prayers, saints, amulets and charms. Subsequently, ‘the need for the cunning man was accordingly reduced’[15] – and similarly to how the rise of self-help regarding illness occurred, cunning folk also became less popular when a practical method of helping one another out of everyday misfortunes was established.

 Another improvement which benefitted society was the development of the social sciences, in which ‘Instead of accusing witches’ people could attribute misfortunes ‘to the way in which his parents had brought him up, or the social system into which he had been born’[16]. Furthermore, the rise of the social sciences brought with it the emergence of words such as ‘co-incidence’, which highlighted that events could happen at random and could be calculated using the mathematics that is probability. This awareness of the fact that misfortunes could be attributed to simple bad luck, and that there were now ways of taking control of your misfortunate situations allowed people to relax somewhat.


 This leads me on to discuss the new aspirations within the mid seventeenth century, which Thomas highlights in his work. There was a significant urge to experiment, shown by the introduction of new drugs such as quinine for the treatment of Malaria which still exists today. There also emerged a practical and optimistic attitude, in which the idea of self-help was central. ‘Seventeenth century towns took increasingly strenuous precautions to protect themselves’ and ‘there was nothing passive or fatalistic’[17] about this protection, it simply represented people taking matters into their own hands. Thomas argues that these new aspirations led men to become ‘more prepared to combine impotence in the face of current misfortune with the faith that a technical solution would one day be found’[18]. Whilst this might seem like a radical and modern idea for the time based on what we know was actually achieved within the early modern period, we can again trace back to the ancient work of Hippocrates, to argue that this trust in potentialities was not completely unheard of, as even when he said that epilepsy did not have supernatural causes, he did not provide any alternative causes or cures for epilepsy, but for some reason (perhaps due to his authoritative intellectual position) people trusted this opinion and were content with waiting, as they were faithful that one day evidence would emerge to prove this theory. There is also evidence to show that reasons for change in magical beliefs can be attributed to changes in the minds of the people, and not science alone, for if this was the case then what encouraged the scientists themselves to recognise a need for change in the beginning? The work by Galileo, Descartes and others did not simply occur due to co-incidence, but due to other factors, which anthropologists have drawn attention to: ‘the importance of literacy, the trade-travel complex, Protestantism, the clash of cultures in the movement to the ‘Open society’ of modern science and technology’ and there has been an argument that science emerged as a result of the curiosities brought on by these changes within society.

This leads me to conclude, the developments of the later seventeenth century were all too late in making the change which resulted in the decline of magic, and the scepticism of witchcraft and magic emerged long before the mid seventeenth century.  However, whilst Thomas points out that ‘many of the sceptical and anti-magical attitudes were already present in the Lollard works of the fifteenth century’[19], I would finalise my argument by saying that if it was not for intellectual changes, alterations in technology and material life and forthcoming aspirations in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries then we may not have seen this emergence of a new faith in the potentialities of human initiative. For a mental change to occur, people have to believe that something new is developing, even if it has not yet happened, and whether they support this development is completely dependent on the premise that there is something else for them to fixate their beliefs on. So I would oppose the idea that other factors of the time highlighted in early paragraphs were futile, as I think it is factors such as the potentialities offered by intellectuals who warranted a relaxation and thus decline of the practice and belief of magic, and without them we may not have seen such change in mentalities.

Bibliography

J.M. Byrne, Religion and the Enlightenment: From Descartes to Kant, (London 1996)
M. Gaskill, Witchfinders: A Seventeenth-Century English Tragedy, (UK and USA 2005)
B.P. Levack, The Witchcraft Sourcebook, (USA and Canada 2004)

M. Lindemann, Medicine and Society in Early Modern Europe, (Cambridge 2010)
A. Macfarlane, Civility and the Decline of Magic (Cambridge 2002)

K. Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, (London 1971)
M.E Wiesner-Hanks, Early Modern Europe 1450-1789 (USA 2006)

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[1] edited by Brian P. Levack, The Witchcraft Sourcebook, (USA and Canada 2004), page 69 

[2] Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, (London 1971), page 767

[3] K. Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, page 775

[4] K. Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, page 767

[5] K. Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, page 768

[6] Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks, Early Modern Europe, 1450-1789, (USA 2006), pages 49-50

[7] M.E Wiesner-Hanks, Early Modern Europe, pages 49-50

[8] Mary Lindemann, Medicine and Society in Early Modern Europe, (Cambridge 2010), page 113

[9] M. Lindemann, Medicine and Society, page 122

[10] Malcom Gaskill, Witchfinders: A Seventeenth-Century English Tragedy, (UK and USA 2005), page 193

[11] K. Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, page 773

[12] James M. Byrne, Religion and the Enlightenment: From Descartes to Kant, (London 1996), page 19

[13] J.M Byrne, Religion and the Enlightenment, page 19

[14] K. Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, page 778

[15] K. Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, page 779

[16] K. Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, page 784

[17] K. Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, page 786

[18] K. Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, page 790

[19] Alan Macfarlane, Civility and the decline of magic (Cambridge 2002) available at: www.alanmacfarlane.com/TEXTS/THOMAS/pdf [accessed 11/03/13]