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doi: 10.1353/mrw.2022.0007pmid: N/A
The medieval philosopher Albert the Great (ca. 1200-1280) dealt with the topics of revelatory dreaming and prophecy in a number of his works. The aim of this paper is to show how Albert worked to develop a "grand unified theory" of prophecy, drawing together naturalized ideas of foreseeing possible to human cognition with the faculty of prophecy as he knew it from the Bible and the Church fathers. This article shows how Albert treats revelatory dreaming in tandem with prophecy; he relies on natural features of light and "species" to explain how prophets saw the future in the "mirror of eternity," structuring a unifying theory of prophecy depicted especially in his commentary on the Pseudo-Dionysius corpus and De somno et vigilia (On sleep and waking).
doi: 10.1353/mrw.2022.0008pmid: N/A
Histories of the Devil in the Scottish witch trials have often focused on the confessions of accused witches and have tended to center on notions of practical demonology, that is beliefs about the Devil and witches that surfaced during the interrogation process. But the Devil of practical demonology was only one permutation of wider Christian demonic belief. Drawing on Christina Larner's idea of "the new popular demonic," recent studies of English and German witchcraft confessions, and several overlooked anecdotal narratives in manuscript and printed Scottish witchcraft confessions, this article argues that the doctrines of total depravity and mental temptation extended to the legal environment of the interrogation, and even influenced some accused witches' understanding of the Devil. By exploring Protestant spirituality in accused witches' confessions, this article works to develop a better understanding of how ordinary parishioners expressed orthodox Christian knowledge about the Devil.
doi: 10.1353/mrw.2022.0009pmid: N/A
This article looks at a score of English and American records from the early 1700s to the early 1800s involving Bible weighing. This was an ordeal by which a suspected witch was weighed against a church Bible: if the suspect proved heavier than the Bible he or she was judged to be innocent; if lighter guilty. Taken together, our sources allow for a reconstruction of the mechanics of a test which was kinder to accused witches than swimming or other ordeals.. Despite taking place after the end of the British and American witchcraft trials, Bible weighing sometimes involved the guiding hand of the local authorities – secular or ecclesiastical. Indeed, it is argued that Bible weighing was well-suited to the period after the end of the legal persecution of witches. The origins of Bible weighing are not known: England, Germany or the Lowlands are suggested as possibilities..
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