Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T03:11:13.741Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 7 - Magic in Medieval Byzantium

from Part III - Parallel Traditions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2015

David J. Collins, S. J.
Affiliation:
Georgetown University, Washington DC
Get access

Summary

In Byzantium, magic was consistently categorized as body of non-Christian knowledge and practices. The chapter first evaluates the definition of magic in the civil and canon law of the middle Byzantine period, as well as that of related terminology in other textual genres. Middle Byzantine legislation provides definitions of unsanctioned activities, and these sources offer useful guidelines for understanding the position of the Byzantine State and the Orthodox Church regarding what constituted magic. Material evidence for the combination of Christian and magical imagery is found in a sizable corpus of middle Byzantine amulets. Another important textual source for middle Byzantine conceptions of magic is saints' lives, in which the supernatural machinations and moral weakness of sorcerers and their clients are sharply contrasted with virtue and spiritual strength of Christian holy people and their followers. Women also appear as the practitioners of magic, often in the form of the drunken old woman who peddles false prophecies or who manufactures illicit amulets.
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of Magic and Witchcraft in the West
From Antiquity to the Present
, pp. 209 - 234
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2015

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×