Demons Only Virgins Can See: Divination with Child-Mediums as a Medieval Type of Clerical Child Abuse
This article examines the use of child-mediums in divination and magic as a specific medieval understanding of child abuse. Medieval authors believed that children were used in this way by learned men, particularly churchmen. They believed the practice was abusive, causing physiological and psycholo...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2024
|
| In: |
The journal of ecclesiastical history
Year: 2024, Volume: 75, Issue: 1, Pages: 15-40 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Child abuse
/ Clergyperson
/ Medium
/ Magic
/ Purity
/ Virginity
/ History 1100-1400
|
| IxTheo Classification: | CB Christian life; spirituality KAE Church history 900-1300; high Middle Ages KAF Church history 1300-1500; late Middle Ages NCF Sexual ethics RB Church office; congregation |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This article examines the use of child-mediums in divination and magic as a specific medieval understanding of child abuse. Medieval authors believed that children were used in this way by learned men, particularly churchmen. They believed the practice was abusive, causing physiological and psychological harm. Many also thought, for different reasons, that it could produce revelations. This topic provided medieval authors with an opportunity to theorise about a specifically clerical form of child abuse, and it is an example of the kind of ritual magic extant in clerics’ own social worlds that fuelled paranoid conspiratorial fantasies, such as witchcraft. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1469-7637 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The journal of ecclesiastical history
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1017/S0022046923000581 |
