Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- FRONTISPIECE
- Contents
- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
- SECTION I LAND AND FOLK
- SECTION II BIRTH AND NURTURE
- SECTION III AUTHORS, SCRIBES AND READERS
- SECTION IV CHURCH AND CHURCHMEN
- SECTION V KINGS, KNIGHTS AND WAR
- SECTION VI MANOR AND COTTAGE
- SECTION VII TOWN LIFE
- SECTION VIII RICH AND POOR
- SECTION IX HOUSE, DRESS AND MEALS
- SECTION X SPORTS AND PASTIMES
- SECTION XI WAYFARING AND FOREIGN TRAVEL
- SECTION XII WOMEN'S LIFE
- SECTION XIII ARCHITECTURE AND THE ARTS
- SECTION XIV MEDICINE AND JUSTICE
- SECTION XV SUPERSTITIONS AND MARVELS
- INDEX
- SOCIAL LIFE IN BRITAIN FROM THE CONQUEST TO THE REFORMATION
- Plate section
SECTION XV - SUPERSTITIONS AND MARVELS
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2010
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- FRONTISPIECE
- Contents
- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
- SECTION I LAND AND FOLK
- SECTION II BIRTH AND NURTURE
- SECTION III AUTHORS, SCRIBES AND READERS
- SECTION IV CHURCH AND CHURCHMEN
- SECTION V KINGS, KNIGHTS AND WAR
- SECTION VI MANOR AND COTTAGE
- SECTION VII TOWN LIFE
- SECTION VIII RICH AND POOR
- SECTION IX HOUSE, DRESS AND MEALS
- SECTION X SPORTS AND PASTIMES
- SECTION XI WAYFARING AND FOREIGN TRAVEL
- SECTION XII WOMEN'S LIFE
- SECTION XIII ARCHITECTURE AND THE ARTS
- SECTION XIV MEDICINE AND JUSTICE
- SECTION XV SUPERSTITIONS AND MARVELS
- INDEX
- SOCIAL LIFE IN BRITAIN FROM THE CONQUEST TO THE REFORMATION
- Plate section
Summary
The marvellous and the intangible so filled men's minds in every department of medieval life, that it is only necessary here to give a few illustrations complementary to the extracts in the preceding sections. Perhaps the most interesting single document relating to witchcraft is the trial of Dame Alice Kyteler, of Kilkenny, edited by T. Wright for the Camden Society (1843), from which the following extracts are taken, with considerable abridgment of superfluous details. Wright, in his Introduction, gives a very interesting collection of English causes célèbres in sorcery during the later Middle Ages.
Bishop Richard of Ossory, the Franciscan friar who is in one sense the hero of this Kyteler story, had a stormy career; see Wright's note, p. 42. About 1329, he himself was accused of heresy, and fled from Ireland for nine years; on his return, he was accused of abetting Thomas Fitzgilbert in slaying Hugh le Poer and plundering his castle. He regained the king's favour, however, and “passed the remainder of his life in great tranquillity. He obtained the king's leave for demolishing three churches without the walls, and employed the stones in building an episcopal palaoe near the Cathedral.” He died at a great age in 1360, after an episcopate of about 42 years. At this distance of time, it will probably never be known how far the accusations against the lady on the one hand, or the Bishop on the other, were due to personal grudges or family feuds.
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- Social Life in Britain from the Conquest to the Reformation , pp. 521 - 540Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1918