To study the medieval roots of the experience of apparitions, William Christian analyzes direct accounts of appearances of Mary and other saints in rural Spain from 1399 to 1523. Drawing on verbatim testimony from children, farmers, shepherds, and servants, in addition to his own visits to the villages and his presence at a number of contemporary visions, he reveals people's experience of both the world of daily life and the world of images in their minds. Using notarized investigations of the apparitions by church and village authorities in parish, diocesan, and national archives, Dr. Christian also describes the reactions of skepticism and devotion the visions provoked in the local community and the reasons why the seers' accounts were accepted or rejected. The author first examines visions in Castile and Catalonia and their antecedents in monastic lore, sermon stories, and shrine legends. He then discusses the prosecution of visionaries by the Inquisition at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Finally, he compares the church's criteria for verifying these apparitions with those applied in France to the visions of Jeanne d'Arc. An appendix contains the original Castilian and Catalan texts. -- from dust jacket.

The description for this book, Apparitions in Late Medieval and Renaissance Spain, will be forthcoming.

Recording the history of the belief in the existence of Satan, this book draws from the Bible, the poetry of Dante and Milton, the legend of Faust, and from modern novels and plays such as the works of Mark Twain and G.B. Shaw, and the spiritual writing of C. S. Lewis. Fintan Lyons O.S.B. chronicles the decline of that belief through the centuries as well as the attempts to treat the problem of evil philosophically, using the insights of thinkers such as Karl Barth. At the heart of this book is the attempt to synthesise or reconcile traditional belief with contemporary concern or even alarm regarding evil in the world. Lyons argues that evidence for the persistence of evil has been striking in modern times in wars and atrocities, while phenomena such as Satanic Cults and possible or real diabolical possession have continued to increase. The Catholic Church reacted to this situation in 1998 with a revision of the 1614 Rite of Exorcism, analysed in this book from both theological and psychological standpoints. By arguing that the transition from belief in Satan to personification of evil in historical regimes and characters brings contemporary culture into sharp focus, this book chronicles the history of humanity's attempt to understand the disturbing and mysterious reality of evil.

"Based on thorough archival research combined with stunning visual analysis, Maya Stanfield-Mazzi demonstrates that Andeans were active agents in Catholic image-making and created a particularly Andean version of Catholicism. Object and Apparition describes the unique features of Andean Catholicism while illustrating its connections to both Spanish and Andean cultural traditions"--Provided by publisher.

This collection demonstrates the range of approaches that some of the leading scholars of our day take to basic questions at the intersection of the natural and human worlds. The essays focus on three interlocking categories: Reason stakes a bigger territory than the enclosed yard of universal rules. Nature expands over a far larger region than an eternal category of the natural. And history refuses to be confined to claims of an unencumbered truth of how things happened.

This book breaks with three common scholarly barriers of periodization, discipline and geography in its exploration of the related themes of heresy, magic and witchcraft. It sets aside constructed chronological boundaries, and in doing so aims to achieve a clearer picture of what ‘went before’, as well as what ‘came after’. Thus the volume demonstrates continuity as well as change in the concepts and understandings of magic, heresy and witchcraft. In addition, the geographical pattern of similarities and diversities suggests a comparative approach, transcending confessional as well as national borders. Throughout the medieval and early modern period, the orthodoxy of the Christian Church was continuously contested. The challenge of heterodoxy, especially as expressed in various kinds of heresy, magic and witchcraft, was constantly present during the period 1200-1650. Neither contesters nor followers of orthodoxy were homogeneous groups or fractions. They themselves and their ideas changed from one century to the next, from region to region, even from city to city, but within a common framework of interpretation. This collection of essays focuses on this complex.

Pilgrim shrines were places of healing, holiness, and truth in early modern France. This book explains how this came about.