innovative, refined levels.
The main dispute that erupted with the reformation was primarily concenred with the
idea of purgatory. Purgatory is as a belief that when a person dies, if they deemed not
fit enough for heaven yet not dissolute enough for hell they are faced with a gradual
consecration process which will sanctify them the purification needed to enter Gods
solace in Heaven. Catholics accept as true that when we die it is unattainable that we
die perfect; therefore, we can be given a chance to obtain our sanctification just before
we enter Heaven. The only way we can do this is to ask for the help of the living, as
until we have help to be sanctified our lives are not yet complete. The medieval period
was regularly occupied with accounts of ghostly figures that appeared to a person of
the living need of assistance to be ascended to Heaven.
If souls were unstable, ghosts would visit the living for a number of different reasons,
whether it be to give out warnings or advice. For example in the year 1612 in
England, a young Catholic woman received a visit from the ghost of a local priest
who received money for taking masses, but unfortunately died before he could say
them. The visit was simply to ask the woman to rearrange the mass for him. When she
completed the task she was said to have watched the priest form into a child whilst
entering a challis which transmitted him to heaven to rest.
The protestant faith however, viewed purgatory as one of the Roman Churches most
obsolete traditions. Leading an attack on any traditional catholic beliefs, Protestants
helped to place Europe into a visually paradox state when it came to visions and
apparitions. In 1569 Ludwig Lavater, in Von Gespaenstern, agreed that yes there
maybe true sightings of apparitions but they are not what they seem. Instead of them
being troubled souls visiting from another world, he claimed they were “priests or
other bold men” claiming to be spirits but actually forgeries from the Catholic Church
sent to trick people into accepting the force claims of Rome. Therefore Spirits by no
means could be confirmed to be true apparitions as they were actually false, invented
in order to encourage beliefs such as saints and pilgrimages being means of affecting
life in the hereafter. The protestant church, by contrast, stressed that the matter of
what happened to us when we died was dictated by our actions on earth, we did not
get any second chances.
As well as the problem of the Protestants attack on the Roman Catholic Church
concerning force hopes of purgatory, the dilemma of distinguishing true and false
visions continued with even more attack and claims from the Protestant church as to
reasons why purgatory does not exist. As we have gathered from the young Catholic
woman from England’s apparition of the priest in 1612, with the reformation there
were still many reports of individuals communicating with the dead. The Catholic
Church gallantly refused to give up the doctrine of purgatory. Martin Del Rio hit back
at Lavater’s claim by declaring it was “consistent with the tenets both of the Catholic
faith and of genuine philosophy” to teach that the souls of the dead can appear to the
living.” Historian Keith Thomas, suggests that “although men went on seeing
ghosts after the Reformation, they were assiduously taught not to take them at their
face value.” Indeed, as there were also other explanations regarding the validity of
apparitions being thrown around, Protestants claimed that apparitions may
certainly be real, but false in perception. Lavater explained that ghosts did not derive
from spirits of the dead, but could be explained as “either a good or evill angell, or
someother forth warning sent by God.” Lavater goes on to give details “it is no
difficult matter for the devil to appeare in diuers shapes, not only of those which are
alive but also of deade men…and in the forme of beats and birds and…also to bring
incredible things to passé.” As we have seen, the view that the devil could initiate
himself into a vision or an apparition was one that had been around for many years.
Yet Protestants, through propaganda writings raised their confessional attack by
explaining that those without proper religious order were most susceptible to be
played by the devil. This type of discourse is most apparent in the work of Jean Wier
in his work Cinq Livres de l'Imposture et Tromperie des Diables: Des Enchantements
et Sorcelleries(1569). In his writing, Wier also points to other reasons that led to
difficulty in deciding between true and false apparitions. For example he suggests that
not only “those who mistrust the Lord” are prone to devil dissolutions but also "the
malicious, those who are curious about illicit things, those who are poorly instructed
in the Christian religion, the envious, the malfaiteurs, the elderly who have almost lost
their mental faculties, and all manner of women." The debate then was somewhat
confused further as Weir pointed out that not only can reasons such as deceitful priest
and devil intrusion explain visions and apparitions but explanations such as overactive
imaginations and primarily those suffering from melancholy played a part too. He
goes on to point out that “Apparitions oftentimes appear to little children, to women,
to the fearful, to the delicate, and to the sick who are incessantly tormented and
persecuted by fear.” Subsequently, what we can gather is that in order to prove that
visions and apparitions were not the product of signs from the dead, protagonists were
using methods similar to what the Catholic church had adopted many years
previous, to distinguish between true and false illusions. Psychological reasoning was
adapted as early as the days of St Augustine, therefore it was clear that both the
confessional and the protestant church were both sharing certain views to add even
more confusion to the matter of true or false apparitions.
Some scholars argue that the ghost in Hamlet represents
somebody speaking from purgatory, although it is never actually made clear. Lily
Campbell argues, “Shakespeare chose rather to throw out suggestions which might
satisfy those members of his audience who followed any one of the three schools of
thought on the subject.” Written in around 1601 it would have been likely that
Shakespeare would not have anted to get caught into theological debate, therefore
leaving the question unknown would have been a great advantage.
Yet to add to more difficulty in deciding between true or false visions in early modern
Europe a further attack from another direction appeared one that disputed religion in
any sense. In early modern Europe, there was a rise in the beliefs of some natural
philolosophers, those who denied the existence of souls and spirits alike. The actual
reality of visions altogether began to be questioned. Pietro Pompanazzi in his first
book immortalitate animi (On the Immortality of the Soul) (1516), described a whole
new way of dealing with the visions and senses alike. He wondered about apparitions
and asked if Gods face is there, then surely you can see it. It is not naturally possible
to sense a face as surely that would be a vision. Pompanazzi goes on to dismiss any
sort of ghost or spirit and claims that in all cases the classic example of imagination
that can deceive the eyes to explain any kind of revelation. Subsequently, the Catholic
Church, naturally angry at the article, called for it to be burned in Venice. A century
Later, Vanini offered his accounts of the debate offering a new example into what can
be mistaken for an apparition or vision. In his chapter Deadmiranid naturae deaeque
mortalium arcanis libri quatuor, atheist Vanini echoed most of Pompanazzi’s work
controversially stating, “There is only one law of nature, for nature is God.” Vanini,
again uses examples of the imagination to describe how visions and apparitions are
seen such as vapours produced in places like graveyards can be interpreted by humans
as something reserved in the memory. As well as this, he also takes the opportunity to
explain how vapours could be used as mirrors. It was not uncommon that apparitional
armies that have been reported to have been seen in the sky, Vanini, using this
example explained how condensation and vapours could act as mirrors and what was
actually happening was people were seeing a reflection of a real army fighting on the
ground. Vanini, due to his ostracized thesis was executed in 1619. Vanini and
numerous other materialists of the time, suggested that priests exploit a natural human
fear, which convinced people into believing that apparitions and visions were real.
This is also the case with Philosopher Thomas Hobbes. Hobbes suggested, “that is in
fear of ghosts, will not bear great respect to those who can make the holy water that
drives them from him.” Deciding between true and false vision or apparitions
became yet harder to determine as now it was being taught that no religious view is
correct, and that unbelievably both the Catholic and the Protestants with their
teachings of demonology and other apparitional thought were gaining power through
peoples ignorance.
Against the theological, supernatural and natural debates, again another explanation
into visions and apparitions came into the equation. Early modern Europe began to
witness a rise in scientific revolutions; man made optical illusions were now being
used to explain apparitional occurrence. In an era of the unknown, it was becoming
clearer that optical devices could create imprecise apparitions. Cornelis Drebbel, for
example was notorious for his inventions, in particular a microscope with two convex
lenses in 1619, was also known to invent something similar to that of the magic
lantern. In a letter in 1606, Drebbel described how he was able to appear as an animal
such as a lion, horse or cow and change the appearance of his clothes whilst standing
in the middle of the room. Just to what extent of uncertainty people were now faced
with can be seen in the case of Drebbels’ good friend and colleague, Constantijn
Huygens’ father. Huygens father, not happy about his sons relationship with Drebbel,
warned his son that Drebbles magic may very well come from the devil,
demonstrating that there were many agendas faced with whilst looking into true or
false apparitions.
By the late 1700’s the art of necromancy was in full swing with the rise of the magic
lantern. Its fist appearance was in 1659 and throughout the eighteenth century it was
being used as an instrument to present magic manifestoes, set in a dark room
projecting spectres usually in the form of ghosts or the devil. In 1798, Belgian
showman Etienne Gaspard Robertson, presented the magic lantern together with
special effects at a show called the Phantasmagoria. At first it was reported that the
optical illusions scared watchers so much that some were reported to have run out of
the show screaming. The magic lantern shows are just another example of anxieties
that people in early modern Europe were faced with. No longer was it just religious
issues that made a premonition suspicious, but human science had also pushed itself
into the equation.
During the Middle Ages, society was not advanced enough but to look to the church
for explanations regarding the questions of visions and apparitions. With the
reformation and the breaking away of the conventional church arguments began as to
what qualifies to actually be classed as reality. This then paved the way for atheists
and sceptics to state their view on what they thought was possible. All this added to
much confusion and in the case of visions and apparitions, there were so many
explanations flying around it was understandably difficult to decide between what
was real and what was false. On top of this, the advances in technology assured that
even more confusion was to be added to the matter as with equipment such as the
magic lantern, showmen were playing with peoples fears and casting devils and spirits
from the ground-the very things that had led to the publics confusion n the first place.
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