Early Modern Quotes

“Heresy no longer existed within religion; it
was founded in the state.”
― Reinhart Koselleck, Futures Past: On the Semantics of Historical Time

“His Majesty [James VI & I] did much press for my opinion touching the power of Satan in matters of witchcraft; and asked me, with much gravity, if I did truly understand why the devil did work more with ancient women than others? I did not refrain from a scurvy jest, and even said (notwithstanding to whom it was said) that we were taught hereof in scripture, where it is told that the devil walketh in dry places... More serious discourse did next ensue...”
― Sir John Harrington

“And new Philosophy calls all in doubt,
The Element of fire is quite put out;
The Sun is lost, and th'earth, and no mans wit
Can well direct him where to looke for it ...
'Tis all in peeces, all coherence gone;
All just supply, and all Relation.”
― John Donne, An Anatomy of the World: Wherein, by Occasion of the Untimely Death of Mistris Elizabeth Drury ...

“The fourteenth-century preacher, John Bromyard, used to tell the story of the shepherd who, asked if he knew who the Father, Son and Holy Ghost were, replied, 'The father and the son I know well for I tend their sheep, but I know not that third fellow; there is none of that name in our village.”
― Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century England

“Catholic gossip and folklore, as one might term it, contributed to this demonizing legend around the conflict with the Protestants. At Geila in Brabant it was reported that the demons suddenly left all the possessed people, so that they could attend Luther's funeral[...] At St. Medard's Church in Paris the Calvinist iconoclasts allegedly broke all the winfows except that 'in gratitude' they left one which showed a red devil. In several other places, including St. Paul's in London, iconoclastic mobs left only depictions of devils untouched.”
― Euan Cameron, ENCHANTED EUROPE:SUPERSTITION, REASON & RELIGION 1250-1750 PAPER: Superstition, Reason, and Religion 1250-1750

“but now I muſt recant and confeſſe that our Normane Engliſh which hath growen ſince William the Conquerour doth admit any of the auncient feete, by reaſon of the many poliſillables euen to ſix and ſeauen in one word, which we at this day vſe in our moſt ordinarie language: and which corruption hath bene occaſioned chiefly by the peeviſh affectation not of the Normans themſelues, but of clerks and ſcholers or ſecretaries long ſince, who not content with the vſual Normane or Saxon word, would conuert the very Latine and Greeke word into vulgar French, as to ſay innumerable for innombrable, reuocable, irreuocable, irradiation, depopulatiõ & ſuch like, which are not naturall Normans nor yet French, but altered Latines, and without any imitation at all: which therefore were long time deſpiſed for inkehorne termes, and now be reputed the beſt & moſt delicat of any other.”
― George Puttenham, The Arte of English Poesie