Early Modern Ghosts: Proceedings of the Conference held at St John's College, Durham, on

24th March 2001 by John Newton

Review by: Jacqueline Simpson
Folklore, Vol. 116, No. 1 (Apr., 2005), p. 101
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises, Ltd.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30035244 .
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BookReviews 101

Early Modem Ghosts: Proceedingsof the Conferenceheld at St John'sCollege,

Durham,on 24thMarch2001.EditedbyJohnNewton.Durham:CentreforSeventeenth-
CenturyStudies,Universityof Durham,2002. 138 pp. No priceinformation
available
(hbk). ISBN 0-9531-3001-0

The firstfourpapers in thiscollectionare concernedwithliterary texts,fromdrama

and poetryof the period,and althoughtheyhave a bearingon the fundamental
questionof the effectof Protestantism upon beliefin ghosts,theydo not directly
concernthe folklorist. The mostcloselyrelevantis Anna Linton'saccountof certain
GermanLutheranpoems intendedas religiousinstruction forbereavedparents,in
whichthe dead childis represented as speakingto themin edifyingterms.This,she
shows, is a rhetoricaldevice, with no implicationthat the dead can actually
communicate.
The second sectionopens with JohnNewton's surveyof three"readings"that
seventeenth-century commentators could apply to the narrativeof an apparition
resembling a dead person: demonic counterfeit, human trickery, or actual ghost.
The contemporary recordsoccasionallygive glimpsesof beliefsand actionsat the
popular level among all the learned debate: a bishop in 1564 complainingthat
"everyone"in Blackburn believesa youngman claimingto have spokenwitha ghost,
for"thesethingsbe so commonhere";or Lavatarremarking thatit is quiteusual for
"young men merrilydisposed" to trick fellow-guests inns by hiding under
at
theirbeds or pullingthebedclothesoffwithcords,"and so counterfeiting themselves
to be spirits."Protestants also alleged thatCatholicpriestsand monkscreatedfake
ghosts.
JoBathexplorestheconfusionsand compromises in popularbeliefaftertheofficial
abolitionofPurgatory in Anglicandoctrine. Themainpurposeascribedtoghostswas no
longerreligiousadmonition, but the righting of wrongs;the conceptsof "devil" and
"ghost" could blend, especiallywhere poltergeist activityoccurred,and house-fairiesand
boggartsmight also be drawn into the mix, as people struggled "to reconcile the
irreconcilableand understand taleswhichcouldnotbe pinnedwithcertainty to anyone
theologicalperspective."
BelindaLewisexaminesa similartopic,therelationship betweenbeliefin ghostsand
the conceptof Providence.She too findspopularreligionto be eclecticin combining
fragments ofold Catholictraditions withan Anglicanframework; theconceptoftheghost,
she argues,fulfilledimportant functions (e.g.deterringmurderand fraud),whichcould
not be lightlydiscarded,and which would be destroyedif everyapparitionwere
construedas a deceitful demon.
Peter Marshall's paper is a close study of testimony concerning the
apparitionsof Old MotherLeakey at Mineheadin 1634-7,whichwere investigated
by a group of magistrates; theyconcludedthatit was "an imposture,device,and
fraud,forsome particularends"-the ghost'smain messagewas thata certaingold
chain, currently in the possessionof her daughterin Ireland,belonged rightfully
to her son in Minehead. Nevertheless,the accounts of witnesses in the case
give insight into popular beliefs and the conflictsbetween various possible
interpretations.
This group of papers picks up themesset out in KeithThomas'sReligionand the
DeclineofMagic(1971)and TheoBrown'sTheFateoftheDead (1979),showinghow these
can be tracedin individualcases.The bookis a usefuladditionto thecorpusofstudies
on EarlyModernreligiousand folkloric beliefs.

JacquelineSimpson,TheFolkloreSociety

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