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← ExitThe Anatomy of Melancholy

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♊ Religious Melancholy. Section 4

♊ Religious melancholy. Section 4

Sections: 3.4.

In excess: among those who do what is not required. Member 1. Proof that there is such a kind of melancholy; its name; God as its object; what his beauty is and how it attracts; the part and people affected—the superstitious, idolaters, prophets, heretics and so on. Subsection 1.

Sections: 3.4.1.1.

Causes. Subsection 2. From others: The devil’s enticements, false miracles, priests seeking profit; politicians seeking to keep people obedient; bad teachers and blind guides. Or from themselves: Naivety, fear, ignorance, solitude, melancholy, prying curiosity, pride, vanity, the impaired image of God.

Sections: 3.4.1.2.

Symptoms. Subsection 3. General: Zeal without knowledge, obstinacy, superstition, strange devotion, mental dullness, self-assurance, stubborn defence of their beliefs, love among themselves and hatred of other sects, belief in incredible and impossible things. Or particular: Among heretics: pride, defiance, contempt for others, wilfulness, vanity, insistence on being different, extraordinary paradoxes.

Sections: 3.4.1.3.

Among the superstitious: blind zeal, obedience, strange works, fasting, sacrifices, offerings, prayers, vows, false martyrdom, mad and ridiculous customs, ceremonies and observances. Among false prophets: visions, revelations, dreams, prophecies, new doctrines and so forth—among Jews, Gentiles, Muslims and others.

Sections: 3.4.1.3.

Prognosis. Subsection 4. New doctrines, paradoxes, blasphemies, madness, mental dullness, despair, damnation. Treatments. Subsection 5. Medicine if necessary, discussion, good counsel, persuasion, compulsion, correction, punishment. Question: Should they be coerced? Affirmative.

Sections: 3.4.1.4; 3.4.1.5.

In deficiency, as in Member 2. Complacent, without grace or fear: Epicureans, atheists, magicians, hypocrites, those with seared consciences or depraved understanding, secure in worldly things, some philosophers, unrepentant sinners. Subsection 1.

Sections: 3.4.2.1.

Or distrustful, or excessively fearful, as those in despair. Despair, Subsection 2. In despair consider: Causes. Subsection 3. The devil and his enticements; harsh preachers who wound their consciences; melancholy, contemplation, solitude. How melancholy and despair differ; distrust, weakness of faith. A guilty conscience for an offence committed; misunderstanding Scripture.

Sections: 3.4.2.2; 3.4.2.3.

Symptoms. Subsection 4. Fear, sorrow, mental anguish, extreme torment and horror of conscience, frightening dreams, imaginings, visions and so on. Prognosis: blasphemy, violent death. Subsection 5. Treatments. Subsection 6. Medicine as needed, discussion, avoiding idleness and solitude. Good counsel, good company, every comfort and source of contentment, and so on.

Sections: 3.4.2.4; 3.4.2.5; 3.4.2.6.

8126.The outline prints “Med. 1,” rendered as Member 1 in context. Excess means religious practice beyond what Burton regards as required; deficiency means too little or impaired religious assurance. These are the author’s theological classifications.

8127.“Gentiles” here denotes non-Jewish peoples, especially pagans; “Mahometans” is rendered Muslims. Burton groups these communities under his own polemical categories. “Observations” means observances.

8128.“Secure” means complacently free from spiritual fear. “Epicures” is the polemical label for people governed by pleasure, not a precise account of Epicurus’ philosophy. “Cauterised” conscience evokes 1 Timothy 4:2; a “reprobate” understanding evokes Romans 1:28. In the following despair branch, the body gives definition as 3.4.2.2, causes as 3.4.2.3, symptoms as 3.4.2.4, prognosis as 3.4.2.5 and treatment as 3.4.2.6. The modern outline supplies the definition’s locator and adjusts the remaining numbers to match; the source outline’s 2–5 sequence remains on the left.