XPost: alt.books.cs-lewis
From: hayesmstw@hotmail.com
On Sun, 09 Oct 2005 05:55:32 GMT, Bree wrote:
>On Sun, 09 Oct 2005 06:52:08 +0200, Steve Hayes
>wrote:
>/snip/
>
>>One of the other Inklings, Charles Williams wrote a history of Christianity
in
>>relation to witchcraft. The title is simply "Witchcraft".
>
>I read that years ago but don't remember much about it. Was there something
>in it or quoted to the effect of the Devil being there -- inspiring the
>hunters?
Not in so many words.
But in my view (not Williams's) the Great European Witchhunt was certanly
Satanic, and probably Satanically inspired. After all, "satan" means
"accuser", and nothing can be more satanic than the making of accusations.
What williams *did* say, however, was:
Laws against witchcraft.
Source: Williams 1959:68.
"The Salic law of Charlemagne decreed that anyone who was
convicted of witch-cannibalism should be heavily fined, but
also that anyone who was found guilty of bringing such an
accusation falsely should be fined an amount equal to one
third of the other."
Witchcraft trials.
Source: Williams 1959:142.
The 16th century witch trials ordered by the Malleus
Maleficarum differed from earlier ones in that they did not
punish false accusations. "The secular governments of
centuries earlier had been wiser; they had penalized the talk
as much as the act. The new effort did not do so; it
encouraged the talk against the act."
>>It is worth reading if only to discover that the kind of behaviour you
>>describe did not belong to the Middle Ages, but to Early Modern Europe.
>>
>>The Great European Witchhunt was a prduct of modernity, not of the Middle
>>Ages. And, as Williams shows, it was an aberration, that lasted about 200
>>years. Many people speak as though witchhunting was "medieval". It wasn't
(and
>>isn't). It was, and is, modern.
>
>
>Thanks for the correction. I'm so bad on dates and periods. What dates do
>Middle Ages, Early Modern, etc refer to? And why are they called that?
The division of history into Ancient, Medieval and Modern was something done
by Western European historians in the modern period, and reflects their
particular cultural prejudices.
Ancient history concerned classical Greece and Rome, and to a lesser extent
earlier civilisations. The collapse of the Western Roman empire for them
marked the end of Antiquity, and the Renaissance marked the beginning of
modern history, when people once again began to take an interest in the
history and culture of antiquity. Everything in between was called "the middle
ages", but people who lived in the Middle Ages had no idea that they were
living in the Middle Ages. But the period so designated lasted roughly 1000
years, from 500-1500.
And that periodisation doesn't really apply outside Western Europe.
>I'm afraid I associate 'modern' mainly with 20th century. Before that
>would be 'Victorian', then the various centuries themselves....
"Modern" means roughly 1500 to the present, though some might say that the
present is more Postmodern.
Modernity was shaped mainly by three cultural movements: the Renaissance, the
Reformation and Enlightenment. Thosde whose education and upbringing have been
shaped by these have difficulty in coping with premodern thought pattrerns.
C.S. Lewis and Tolkien, who studied premodern literature, helped to build
bridges to the premodern worldview. Lewis does it most noticably in the
character of Merlin in "That hideous strength".
--
Steve Hayes
Web: http://www.geocities.com/hayesstw/stevesig.htm
http://www.bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf/Methodius
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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