Reformation Thought. Alister E. McGrath
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In the late thirteenth century, Alfonso X of Castile and León assembled a group of scholars to translate texts from Arabic into Latin and Castilian. At least five of these texts would now be counted as “magical” – such as the Libro de astromagia, which concerns the networks of natural forces in the universe and how they can be manipulated to human advantage. These works included “lapidaries” (studies of the magical powers attributed to different stones) and studies of the medicinal uses of plants. These works did not understand magic in terms of the invocation of dark or demonic forces, but rather saw magic as opening up new possibilities for human control of situations arising from a deeper understanding of the natural world. The practitioner of magic was sometimes described as “the perfect philosopher” who had mastered the arts of natural philosophy, geometry, music, and astronomy.
Alongside this, a darker form of ritual magic emerged, which functioned through the invocation of angels or demons. These forms of magic – often referred to as “Solomonic” magic – involved the subjugation or domination of spirits through a knowledge of their secret names, which allowed the magician to command them to perform certain functions. Many in late medieval Germany shared a belief in fiends and devils lurking in woods and dark places, awaiting their opportunity to snatch unwary souls and take them straight to hell. This widespread fear of demons and evil spirits led to the emergence of necromantic rituals, designed to protect an individual or household from malevolent spirits – such as the invocation of the names of Christ or the saints to subdue demons, and the construction of magic circles to act as zones of safety.
While many theologians were highly critical of ritual magic, the evidence suggests that various forms of what Frank Klaassen terms “Illicit Learned Magic” had a considerable impact on the imagination of the late medieval and Renaissance world. By the sixteenth century, “image magic” was in decline, and “ritual” magic was gaining the ascendancy, playing an important role in the social fascination with witchcraft which became so prominent in the later sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, after the period covered by this textbook (1500–60). Yet the importance of magic for a student of the Reformation lies mainly in its role as a quasi-religious phenomenon, which was mediated through charismatic or learned individuals, not through institutions. It was an alternative theology, independent of the church, which engaged human anxiety and needs, whether those needs were laudable or not. Magic was, for some, an anti-authoritarian means of self-actualization and agency.
It is generally believed that the Reformation contributed to the decline of magic, although this generalization must be treated with some caution. For example, magic seems to have continued to be seen by some as an “alternative spirituality” in many Lutheran areas of Germany. Historically and sociologically, this process of decline is more complex than some writers – such as the famous German scholar Max Weber – might suggest, and depends largely on how “magic” is defined. In his landmark Sociology of Religion, Weber famously held that magic was initially rejected and ultimately displaced through a process of rationalization, which was exemplified religiously in Calvinism and intellectually in the natural sciences.
Weber can be criticized here, not least on account of his own implicit theological preferences, which lead him to favor the “rational” approach of Calvin over the “magical” approach of Catholicism to the question of salvation, and its link with the sacraments. Furthermore, English Protestant writers – such as the seventeenth-century poets John Donne and George Herbert – are quite willing to use alchemical imagery in their theological reflections, suggesting that Weber’s approach needs some nuancing. The use of magical and alchemical language appears to have remained acceptable within English Puritan circles, suggesting that these had not been eliminated quite as thoroughly as Weber suggested.
Religious Democratization: The Use of the Vernacular
One of the lessons that Martin Luther learned from Erasmus of Rotterdam was the importance of the printing press in projecting his intellectual influence within society. In 1520, Luther began to advance the cause and extend the reach of his program of reformation by appealing directly to the German people through the medium of print, over the heads of clerics and academics. Many of Luther’s early reforming works during the 1520s were short pamphlets written in the German language, aimed directly at an intelligent lay readership. It was a tactic that would be imitated throughout Europe, as the power of the vernacular pamphlet became obvious to all. Luther realized that using the vernacular as a means of theological communication was essential if he was to secure popular support for his reforms.
Why was this development so important? The language of the academy, the church, and the state in western Europe throughout the Middle Ages was Latin. There was an obvious need for a common language to allow communication across this vast and diverse region of the world. Latin was the language of the great Roman poets, rhetoricians, politicians, and philosophers, and of highly influential Christian theologians such as Augustine of Hippo, Ambrose of Milan, and Tertullian. Luther knew that anything he wrote in Latin would be understood by the educated elite across Europe.
Yet Luther wanted to reach beyond an academic readership, and touch the hearts and minds of ordinary people. The decision to publish in German was iconic, making a statement about the inclusive nature of the reformation that Luther proposed to pursue. To publish in Latin was to exclude the ordinary people. To publish in his native German was to democratize the debate about the future of the church, by including those who were traditionally marginalized by the use of the ancient scholarly language. From that moment onward, one of the hallmarks of Protestantism would be its use of the vernacular at every level. The Latin liturgy of church services would be replaced with vernacular alternatives. Most importantly of all, the Bible would also be translated into the language of the people.
An example will help illustrate the importance of both printing and the use of the vernacular to the propagation of the ideas of the Reformation. A crucial turning point in the French Reformation was marked by the publication of the French-language edition of Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion in 1541. The work had originally been published in Latin in 1536. Calvin, who was French, realized the importance of explaining his ideas in everyday language. Suddenly, coherently expressed and carefully justified radical reforming doctrines were available within France in a language which most could understand (see pp. 274–6).
This development caused near panic in Paris. On July 1, 1542, the Parisian authorities directed that all works containing heterodox doctrines, especially Calvin’s Institutes, were to be surrendered to the authorities within three days. Calvin’s Institutes were seen as the spearhead of a Genevan assault upon the French Catholic church, mediated through the printed word in French. The reaction from the booksellers of Paris was immediate: they protested that they would face financial ruin if they were prohibited from selling such books. There was a popular demand for works which were considered to be dangerously unsound by the authorities – further evidence of the importance of a literate and affluent laity in promoting the ideas of the Reformation. Indeed, the bookseller Laurent de Normandie, a friend of Calvin, found the contraband book trade so profitable that he emigrated to Geneva, in order that he could publish such books rather than just sell them.
This naturally leads us to consider the importance of the new cultural environment which arose through the use of movable type in printing, widely regarded as transforming western European culture.
The Importance of Printing
Recent technological developments in the field of data processing and transfer – such as the Internet – have revolutionized many aspects of modern life. It is important to realize that a single technological innovation destined to have an enormous influence over western Europe was developed on the eve of the Reformation. This innovation was, of course, printing. It would have a very substantial impact on the development and propagation of the ideas