Disenchantment
“When Lads and Lasses merry be,
with pessets and with lunkets fine,
Unséen of all the company,
I eat their Cakes and sip the Wine,
and to make sport,
I fart and snort,
And out the Candles I do blow,
the Maids I kiss,
they shrick, who’s this,
I answer nought but, ho ho ho”
Anon. Robin Good-fellow, his mad prankes and merry jests (London, 1639). British Library, C.57.b.55. (CC Public Domain Mark 1.0).
Enchantment
In the early modern period creatures from the supernatural world were widely believed in. Robin Good-fellow (or ‘Puck’, as he is known in A Midsummer Night’s Dream) was a popular figure, believed to be a hobgoblin — a good, yet mischievous creature. If you were lucky he might pay you a visit in the night and complete your housework or chores, expecting gifts such as bread and milk in return. A lack of reward, however, could result in the invisible sprite playing the kind of small tricks described in the ballad above. Many took such beliefs seriously and would leave fairies and hobgoblins gifts, such as clothing or shoes. These sought to encourage the good-will of the sprite and to avoid the possibility of nasty tricks such as changelings, whereby a fairy might steal an infant and replace them with a more malicious fairy child.
Detail from Martino di Bartolomeo. Exchange and Abduction. ca. 1390. © Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main.
Disenchantment
In 1904, Max Weber proclaimed in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism that the Reformation was the disenchantment (entzauberung- ‘de-magic-ation’) of the world. He argued that the cultural rationalisation and modernisation brought about by the Protestant aim of ‘root[ing] out all superstition’ led to a decline in supernatural beliefs, causing almost a removal of magic from the world. He suggests that this encouraged enlightened thinking, the scientific revolution and, in turn, the move to secularisation. Without certain supernatural beliefs — such as the fairies, magic, spirits and saints which were found in Catholicism, diabolism or folklore — people needed new explanations for the world around them, and instead looked towards reason, logic, and science. Although reformers initially aimed at removing popish superstitions — such as the use of indulgences, purgatory, or transubstantiation — the belief in the supernatural, as Hobbes’ Leviathan (1651) explained, was soon, too, conflated with the superstitions of Rome.
The Debate
Weber’s notion of disenchantment has been debated ever since, with many claiming that his broad, sweeping argument leads, through its binary terminology, to oversimplification, reductionism, and a caricature of popular belief in the early modern period. Although it is clear that the Reformation certainly changed many aspects of life and was a factor in the development of enlightened and scientific thought, it did not wipe out all elements of superstition and supernatural belief in popular society. Historians such as Robert Scribner and Ulinka Rublack have discussed this, revealing how during the mid-seventeenth century people actually witnessed a partial intensification of superstitious belief, even alongside Protestant and reformed belief. For example, there was the strange case which Scribner refers to as the ‘incombustible Luther’, where rumours and myths circulated around Germany which stated that images of Luther were found as the only surviving items from fires. People believed there to be an unseen force protecting Luther’s iconography, almost treating him as a saint (which was ironic considering the Lutheran desire to reform the popish idea of saint veneration).
Furthermore, across post-Reformation Europe, things associated with magic were still common, as shown by high numbers of witchcraft trials and cases of alleged diabolism. Although Protestants may have officially condemned the use of spells and superstition, many Protestant lay folk were not prepared to give up their access to magical powers. And in Catholic countries ‘magic’ could still be found; the Italian inquisition found that many people continued to believe in the use of love potions and charms. Rather than a disenchantment of the world, then, and following the wider enlightenment theories of Jürgen Habermas, Alexandra Walsham argues that the Reformation, instead, brought magic and superstitious folk belief out of the public sphere and into peoples’ private lives.
Issues with Disenchantment
First, it is important to note that Weber’s notion of the Reformation as ‘the disenchantment of the world’ is actually highly Eurocentric and can only be applied to western history. Not only was the Reformation solely a western Christian phenomenon, but the ‘enchantment’ that he argues was removed is a strikingly European understanding of magic and superstition. It cannot be accurately applied to religious and folk belief held by cultures in other parts of the world.
In addition to this, whilst the term disenchantment may be emergent in the early modern period, its use is more metaphorical during this time, almost synonymous with words such as disheartened. By comparison, ‘enchantment’ was always used to to describe the ‘magical’. Weber’s concept therefore is decidedly modern. Although the term can be a helpful way of understanding the early modern world, it is important to understand that our modern preconception of magic and modernity may be very different to historical understandings.
Disenchantment Today
Although it may not outwardly appear so, S. A. Smith and Alan Knight, in their 2008 edited collection, point out that a higher percentage of the world’s population believe in witchcraft today than during the witch crazes around 1600, suggesting that at least one sense of ‘enchantment’ may have actually increased. In England today, it is not common to believe that we are surrounded by hobgoblins and fairies or visited by Robin Good-fellow — but does that mean that we are living in a ‘disenchanted’ world?
Perhaps, instead, we live in a re-enchanted world formed through creativity which allows us to get lost in the escapism of the fantasy worlds of literature or film? Or maybe the fact that modern science allows us a greater understanding and appreciation of the wonders of nature means that we remain enthralled and enchanted by the mysticism of the universe?
Do you consider the modern world to be disenchanted? Or does magic still prevail despite the Reformation?
Amber Burbidge is an MA Student on the Early Modern History MA at the University of York.
Selected Bibliography.
Fumerton, Patricia (dir.). English Broadside Ballad Archive. Accessed 28 July 2021.
Shribner, R. W.. ‘Incombustible Luther: The Image of the Reformer in Early Modern Germany’, Past and Present, 110 (1986), pp. 38-68.
Smith, S. A. and Knight, Alan (Eds). ‘The Religion of Fools? Superstition Past and Present’, Past and Present, vol. 199, Issue suppl_3 (2008), pp. 7-350.
Walsham, Alexandra. ‘The Reformation and 'The Disenchantment of the World' Reassessed’, The Historical Journal, 51:2 (2008), pp. 497-528.
Weber, Max. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. trans. Stephen Kalberg (Chicago, 2001).
28 July 2021.