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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 5 page analysis of Eamon Duffy's The Stripping of the Altars and Keith Thomas' Religion and the Decline of Magic. The writer argues that Duffy differs from the standard view of this period and the causes of the Reformation, while Thomas, essentially, supports the standard view. No additional sources cited.
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5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_90medrel.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
points about the nature of English religion at that time. Both authors demonstrate that there was a magical element to formal religious practice within the Church that was highly popular
with the English people. They do, however, disagree on points of emphasis. Duffy, for example, sees the church liturgy was a "principal reservoir from which the religious paradigms
and beliefs of the people were drawn" (2) and Thomas hardly mentions the liturgy at all. Additionally, Thomas tends to ignore the connections between the elite strata of society and
the people at large while Duffy shows that all levels of English society shared in a religious faith that had the same characteristic magical element. Both books demonstrate the
intrinsic role that magic played as an everyday component of religious belief. Where they differ concerns, for the most part, their personal slant on the topic. Thomas sees magic in
medieval religion as basically a response to the inadequacies of the scientific and medical knowledge of the time, which succeeded in allaying the anxieties of the populace toward the tribulations
of everyday life. As more scientific and practical solutions came along, magical remedies and practices lost their appeal. Duffys point of view, on the other hand, is quite different.
Duffy sees the magical element as part of an overall religious system that was flexible, vibrant and fulfilling the needs of the people at that time. His outlook is more
positive and respectful towards the medieval religious practice. Duffy states, "I do not believe it is helpful or accurate to talk of the religion of the average fifteenth-century parishioner as
magical, superstitious, or semi-pagan" (2). This dichotomy of opinion goes to the very heart of how this period in history has been traditionally regarded. The generally accepted modern view,
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