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Old 11-09-2021, 10:15 AM   #12
Inky
 
Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: UK
Default Re: Pre-Enlightenment Horror, Urban Fantasy, et cetra

Very much so, judging by things I've heard. There's a book called "The Mixenden Treasure", by John Billingsley, that tells the story of a real-life attempt at magical treasure-hunting in Yorkshire in the 16th century. I recommend it, it's a remarkable bit of history.
The author had particularly detailed original documents to refer to - because the whole thing fell acrimoniously apart and the would-be magicians were hauled up before the ecclesiastical courts to explain themselves, and ended up being publicly whipped as a penance for heresy. (It was before the time of the real witch-hunting mania, when they'd have been lucky to escape with their lives.)

The treasure-hunters included three priests (moonlighting of this sort seems to have been fairly common), one or more well-off friends who were bankrolling the expedition, and a professional "cunning man".
The priests' knowledge of magic seems to have been more of the scholarly/hermetic kind, including astrological and numerological talismans and the legendary 72 "spirits of Solomon's brazen vessel" and the symbols used to command them. Also some extra-curricular use of Christian rituals - verses from the Mass were to be used if the spirit turned dangerous, and one of the witnesses accused another, who denied it, of planning to promise the spirit "a Christian soul" and then baptise an animal and give it that.
The cunning man's approach may have been more of the "everything but the kitchen sink" style. He was questioned about a previous occasion when he treated a man with "a vexation in his mind", claimed to have used mainly herbs, diet and verses from the Gospels and had some success, denied allegations that he used astrology and that he had three "things like bumble bees" as familiars. No mention of fairies this time.
The cunning man seems to have disagreed with everyone else about whether staying inside the magic circle was important, and one of the priests in his statement said about the cunning man, "but he could do naught, he is not so cunning as we are". There may have been a bit of professional snobbery between the two sides.

There's a brief bit about the story, with some quotes, here. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vc...vol3/pp205-208
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Last edited by Inky; 11-09-2021 at 10:22 AM.
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