Lore Keeper Press – History: Just the Facts

Religion and the Decline of Magic: How England Stopped Explaining Life Through the Supernatural

March 13, 2026 Lisa Martin Carter

Witchy Phenomena When we consider the supernatural beliefs of those in Tudor and Stuart England, the creak of church doors, whispered charms, ominous comets, and the ever-present dread of witchcraft, they become something more than just explainable earthly phenomena. Keith Thomas’ Religion and the Decline of Magic is one of the best guides to help you understand magical beliefs in early modern England. Religion is a sweeping study of how ordinary English people from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries relied…

Major Problems in the Italian Renaissance: The Significance of Civic Humanism

March 23, 2022 Lisa Martin Carter

Hans Baron argued that from Salutati to Ficino, humanists in Florence were identified with the wealthy ruling families, shared the interests of those families, and developed a positive evaluation of social activity. Such a development was only possible in a republic; humanists who patronized the courts of despots were contemptuous of the business enterprises of the Florentine burgher and extolled the life of leisure. Thus, civic humanism cannot be separated from Florence’s republican political tradition, for it could have developed…