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Magic had many names and meanings. The Church condemned some magic and denoted it as magia. Magia consisted of sortilegi (lot casting to foretell the future),3 incantaio (incantations to place power into objects), and astrologia (foretelling the future from the stars), just to name a few. Some of the forms accepted by the Church were miracula (miracles). Miracles were supernatural acts by powers given from God.4 Even the meaning of demon changed in this period, from meaning just any spirit, to an evil malicious spirit.5 In this paper, magic will be what was considered as supernatural events and magia as what the Church condemned.
Magic was derived from ancient pagan religions, folk traditions, and Greco-Roman sources.6 The pagan customs that su
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Even the prophet and founder of Islam, Muhammed, had dealings with magic and demons. rvived among the Christian lower classes were enchantment, magical knots, talismans, the use of herbs, stones, and poisons, spells, incantations, etc. The miracles included prophesies of the future, control of the weather, providing protection against fire and flood, heavy objects transported without human aid, raising the dead, and bringing relief to the sick.
Russell, Jeffrey Burton, Witchcraft in the Middle Ages, Ithaca; Cornell University Press, 1972.
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