Magic and Society

Abstract

In this chapter we will examine the ways in which the systematic campaign of repression that the trials for witchcraft and beneficent magic alike were part of affected the place of magic in early modern society and culture. We will start by looking more directly than heretofore at the social position of practitioners of beneficent magic, then consider the range of repressive mechanisms that were in place in early modern society and conclude by examining the changing pace of prosecutions for various magical activities in relationship to the intertwined evolution of elite and popular culture. The upshot of this process, as we shall see, was that while the duchy’s elite did not succeed in eliminating all unauthorized magical practices, as it had hoped, its systematic campaign of repression, along with other changes in society and culture, did alter reality to the point that the elite’s concept of reality could be altered in turn, consolidating the gains (and losses) of the early modern period by putting in place crucial cultural constraints on perception and cognition that are central to our enlightened modern sensibility.