Francis Young - English Catholics and the Supernatural, 1553–1829

FRANCIS YOUNG

First published 2013 by Ashgate Publishing

Published 2016 by Routledge
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Copyright 2013 Francis Young

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Young, Francis.

English Catholics and the supernatural, 15531829. (Catholic Christendom, 13001700)

1. Occultism Religious aspects Catholic Church. 2. Supernatural (Theology) History of doctrines. 3. Catholic Church England History 16th century. 4. Catholic Church England History 17th century. 5. Catholic Church England History 18th century.

I. Title II. Series

261.51309dc23

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Young, Francis.

English Catholics and the supernatural, 15531829 / by Francis Young.

p. cm. (Catholic Christendom, 13001700)

Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.

ISBN 9781409455653 (hardcover : alk. paper)

1. Catholic Church England History. 2. England Church history 1485 3. Occultism Religious aspects Catholic Church. 4. Parapsychology Religious aspects Catholic Church. 5. Supernatural (Theology) 6. Exorcism England History. 7. Catholic Church Doctrines.

I. Title.

BX1492.Y68 2012

282.420903dc23

ISBN 9781409455653 (hbk)
ISBN 9781315579726 (ebk)

The still-usual emphasis on medieval (or Catholic) and reformation (or Protestant) religious history has meant neglect of the middle ground, both chronological and ideological. As a result, continuities between the middle ages and early modern Europe have been overlooked in favor of emphasis on radical discontinuities. Further, especially in the later period, the identification of reformation with various kinds of Protestantism means that the vitality and creativity of the established church, whether in its Roman or local manifestations, has been left out of account. In the last few years, an upsurge of interest in the history of traditional (or catholic) religion makes these inadequacies in received scholarship even more glaring and in need of systematic correction. The series will attempt this by covering all varieties of religious behavior, broadly interpreted, not just (or even especially) traditional institutional and doctrinal church history. It will to the maximum degree possible be interdisciplinary, comparative and global, as well as non-confessional. The goal is to understand religion, primarily of the Catholic variety, as a broadly human phenomenon, rather than as a privileged mode of access to superhuman realms, even implicitly.

The period covered, 13001700, embraces the moment which saw an almost complete transformation of the place of religion in the life of Europeans, whether considered as a system of beliefs, as an institution, or as a set of social and cultural practices. In 1300, vast numbers of Europeans, from the pope down, fully expected Jesuss return and the beginning of His reign on earth. By 1700, very few Europeans, of whatever level of education, would have subscribed to such chiliastic beliefs. Pierre Bayles notorious sarcasms about signs and portents are not idiosyncratic. Likewise, in 1300 the vast majority of Europeans probably regarded the pope as their spiritual head; the institution he headed was probably the most tightly integrated and effective bureaucracy in Europe. Most Europeans were at least nominally Christian, and the pope had at least nominal knowledge of that fact. The papacy, as an institution, played a central role in high politics, and the clergy in general formed an integral part of most governments, whether central or local. By 1700, Europe was divided into a myriad of different religious allegiances, and even those areas officially subordinate to the pope were both more nominally Catholic in belief (despite colossal efforts at imposing uniformity) and also in allegiance than they had been four hundred years earlier. The pope had become only one political factor, and not one of the first rank. The clergy, for its part, had virtually disappeared from secular governments as well as losing much of its local authority. The stage was set for the Enlightenment.

Thomas F. Mayer
Augustana College

In 2009, in the course of research for an article on Catholic exorcisms, I was struck by the absence of any literature on the relationship between Catholicism and belief in witchcraft. This was a surprising omission, since possession was so often blamed on bewitchment. As there was no literature integrating the study of the Catholic community with the history of English witchcraft, I felt it necessary to write this book if Catholic exorcism was to be fully understood. For that reason two chapters of the book are devoted to witchcraft and one to exorcism. Witchcraft and exorcism, however, are not the only subjects of the book, since it became necessary to situate these phenomena within the wider context of Catholic responses to the supernatural (or preternatural). The chapters on the English Counter-Reformations and the English Catholic Enlightenments approaches to the definition of superstition and the chapter on ghosts are part of what is apparently, I hope, an integrated and coherent study.