The Popularity of Magic in Renaissance Europe

The 15th and 16th centuries were full of people both commoners and nobility who had a fascination with magic.  The superstitious era of the Middle Ages, and the propaganda of the Inquisition eventually gave way to the Renaissance combining intellectual and spiritual pursuits with a reverence for classical antiquity. 

The magic of the medieval period was filled with faeries, fantastic beasts, and the denizens of the natural world.  Natural magic was considered the highest form of natural philosophy.  A form of early science, natural magic dealt with natural forces directly.  To the Renaissance philosopher magic was a spiritual science, reliant on the occult properties of material things and the elements.  Natural magic was supported by the proto-sciences of astrology and chemistry.  However, the majority of common people were still illiterate.  While the nobility sought out the more sophisticated practices of learned or ceremonial magic there was an existing body of magical practice passed on orally among the working class. 

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