LEADER 04392nam 2200673 a 450 001 9910792041103321 005 20230803023712.0 010 $a0-8014-6731-4 024 7 $a10.7591/9780801467318 035 $a(CKB)2560000000101729 035 $a(EBL)3138474 035 $a(OCoLC)922998397 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000872988 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)12357934 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000872988 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10865011 035 $a(PQKB)11376745 035 $a(StDuBDS)EDZ0001503901 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC3138474 035 $a(OCoLC)966803302 035 $a(MdBmJHUP)muse51854 035 $a(DE-B1597)478370 035 $a(OCoLC)845013865 035 $a(OCoLC)979622637 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780801467318 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL3138474 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10699911 035 $a(CaONFJC)MIL681568 035 $a(EXLCZ)992560000000101729 100 $a20120817d2013 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aur|n|---||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 10$aFearful spirits, reasoned follies$b[electronic resource] $ethe boundaries of superstition in late medieval Europe /$fMichael D. Bailey 210 $aIthaca $cCornell University Press$d2013 215 $a1 online resource (312 p.) 300 $aDescription based upon print version of record. 311 $a1-322-50286-2 311 $a0-8014-5144-2 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index. 327 $aIntroduction : the meanings of medieval superstition -- The weight of tradition -- Superstition in court and cloister -- The cardinal, the confessor, and the chancellor -- Dilemmas of discernment -- Witchcraft and its discontents -- Toward disenchantment?. 330 $aSuperstitions are commonplace in the modern world. Mostly, however, they evoke innocuous images of people reading their horoscopes or avoiding black cats. Certain religious practices might also come to mind-praying to St. Christopher or lighting candles for the dead. Benign as they might seem today, such practices were not always perceived that way. In medieval Europe superstitions were considered serious offenses, violations of essential precepts of Christian doctrine or immutable natural laws. But how and why did this come to be? In Fearful Spirits, Reasoned Follies, Michael D. Bailey explores the thorny concept of superstition as it was understood and debated in the Middle Ages.Bailey begins by tracing Christian thinking about superstition from the patristic period through the early and high Middle Ages. He then turns to the later Middle Ages, a period that witnessed an outpouring of writings devoted to superstition-tracts and treatises with titles such as De superstitionibus and Contra vitia superstitionum. Most were written by theologians and other academics based in Europe's universities and courts, men who were increasingly anxious about the proliferation of suspect beliefs and practices, from elite ritual magic to common healing charms, from astrological divination to the observance of signs and omens. As Bailey shows, however, authorities were far more sophisticated in their reasoning than one might suspect, using accusations of superstition in a calculated way to control the boundaries of legitimate religion and acceptable science. This in turn would lay the conceptual groundwork for future discussions of religion, science, and magic in the early modern world. Indeed, by revealing the extent to which early modern thinkers took up old questions about the operation of natural properties and forces using the vocabulary of science rather than of belief, Bailey exposes the powerful but in many ways false dichotomy between the "superstitious" Middle Ages and "rational" European modernity. 606 $aSuperstition$zEurope$xHistory 606 $aSuperstition$xReligious aspects$xCatholic Church$xHistory 606 $aCivilization, Medieval 615 0$aSuperstition$xHistory. 615 0$aSuperstition$xReligious aspects$xCatholic Church$xHistory. 615 0$aCivilization, Medieval. 676 $a398/.41094 700 $aBailey$b Michael David$f1971-$01550456 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910792041103321 996 $aFearful spirits, reasoned follies$93809297 997 $aUNINA