Michael Bailey Lecture: "Was Medieval Magic a Religious Movement?"

The Medieval Institute presents a lecture by Michael Bailey, Professor and Interim Chair of the Department of History at Iowa State University. His research focuses on late medieval religious history, particularly magic, witchcraft, and superstition. Most recently he has published Fearful Spirits, Reasoned Follies: The Boundaries of Superstition in Late Medieval Europe (2013) and has edited a multi-volume collection, Magic and Witchcraft: Critical Concepts in Historical Studies (2014). His current research project, tentatively titled Religious Falsity in an Age of Faith, examines multiple forms of religious “error” from the Gregorian Reform to the Reformation. He has served as interim chair of the Iowa State History Department and is currently Director of Iowa State’s Center for Excellence in the Arts and Humanities.