The Early Modern Angel - Blog Overview

Pieter Bruegel’s Fall of the Rebel Angels (1564), from the book Angels in the Early Modern World.

My blog is about angels and angel belief in the Early Modern/Renaissance period in England. In class, the topic came from studying Milton’s Paradise Lost. Researching angels has been difficult for a few reasons such as the 1640s attempt to remove angels from the church and the fact that at the same time, a coin was made under Elizabeth’s rule, known today as “the Renaissance angel.” Despite that, I found many resources chronicling people who saw angels and those brave enough to publish their own ideas and opinions on angels’ existence.

This first topic I addressed in my blog was those whose mission was to prove the existence of angels. This topic focused on John Dee, court astrologer to Queen Elizabeth, particularly his famous “angelic conversations.” The conversations occurred through the help of a mediary, and were recorded in Enochian, the language of the angels. I found this language especially alluring because of its uniqueness apart from any other known language man has ever spoken or recorded. Because of this, I feel that despite his expulsion from the church for blasphemy and accusations of dark magic, Dee has found something unlike anything else on this planet. Perhaps these are true accounts of angels, and perhaps the translation of their conversations may reveal what is in store for the Earth and God’s people.

I then found Laurence Claxton’s “Paradisical Dialogue betwixt Faith and Reason.” In this, I found it most interesting how Claxton’s independent beliefs and rejection of traditional approaches allowed him to publish something so controversial. The dialogue has minimal references to scripture or even to other intelligent thought. It is completely a work of faith and reason as the name suggests, in which he asks unanswerable questions about religion, and in turn answers them with what he feels in his heart to be the truth.

When I had done my initial research for my in-class presentation, I had come across the story of Dr. John Pordage. Pordage claimed to have had conversations and visits with angels. When he taught of their revelations, he was accused of blasphemy and ejected from the church in a terribly prejudiced trial. After reading both sides of the story, I saw the unfairness of the trial as well as the passionate cause behind those who expelled him.

The basis for the highly conservative radical reformists was in the recent history. At the end of the medieval period, Christians had been led astray due to certain beliefs in angels. There were cults that worshiped angels and even had leaders who were supposed to be angels in human form. Of course, they weren’t really angels, but corruption of the belief in angels. The Church was willing now to do anything in its power to remove the potential for false idolatry, which included removing and forbidding all imagery of angels within the church. It is because of this that few images exist relating to angels in England’s Early Modern Period.

With no imagery allowed of angels, I was curious as to what people believed the angels looked like. Through research, I found many accounts suggesting that angels do not appear to humans. These people believed that the only “angels” we could see were devils in disguise. Others such as John Salkeld believed angels could and did appear to people. These angels came in the bodies made of air. I particularly liked his account on how they communicate to us, that they have no tongues to speak, but rather convey their message through the heart. His “Treatise of Angels” posed many interesting questions that I would like to read more of in the future.