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Latitudinarians , or latitude men , were initially a group of 17th-century English theologians – clerics and academics – from the University of Cambridge who were moderate Anglicans (members of the Church of England ). In particular, they believed that adhering to very specific doctrines, liturgical practices, and church organizational forms, as did the Puritans , was not necessary and could be harmful: "The sense that one had special instructions from God made individuals less amenable to moderation and compromise, or to reason itself." Thus, the latitudinarians supported a broad-based ( sensu lato , with "laxitude") Protestantism. They were later referred to as broad church (see also Inclusivism ).

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67-872: Examples of the latitudinarian philosophy underlying the theology were found among the Cambridge Platonists and Sir Thomas Browne in his Religio Medici . Additionally, the term latitudinarian has been applied to ministers of the Scottish Episcopal Church who were educated at the Episcopal-sympathizing universities at Aberdeen and St   Andrews , and who broadly subscribed to the beliefs of their moderate Anglican English counterparts. Today, latitudinarianism should not be confused with ecumenical movements, which seek to draw all Christian churches together, rather than seeking to de-emphasize practical doctrine. The term latitudinarian has taken on

134-447: A paradigm , or gave out a grand narrative . In those terms, a so-called Yates paradigm (sometimes Yates Thesis ), her work is contested freely. This is a view that Wouter Hanegraaff has put forth, starting with Yates as the scholar first to treat Renaissance hermeticism, integrated with Rosicrucianism , as a coherent aspect of European culture. He has stated it as an attractive paradox, the autonomous esotericism helping give birth to

201-622: A prisca theologia / philosophia perennis . Levitin notes that of the Cambridge Platonists, only More saw himself as a philosopher rather than a philologist or theologian and he faced criticism from others, including Cudworth, for his lack of attention to historical detail. Moreover, philosophers not traditionally deemed "Cambridge Platonists" took an historical and philosophical interest in Platonism and ideas of ancient science. Based on these conclusions Levitin rejects any categorization of

268-561: A biography of Florio, John Florio: The Life of an Italian in Shakespeare's England , which Cambridge University Press published in 1934; they agreed to the publication on the condition that it be shortened and that Yates contributed £100 to its publication. The book gained positive reviews and earned Yates the British Academy 's Mary Crawshaw Prize. Having previously relied on self-taught Italian, in summer 1935 she spent several weeks at

335-503: A close latitudinarian follower. Their understanding of reason was as "the candle of the Lord", an echo of the divine within the human soul and an imprint of God within man. They believed that reason could judge the private revelations of Puritan narrative, and investigate contested rituals and liturgy of the Church of England. For this approach they were called "latitudinarian". The dogmatism of

402-707: A concept of "Plastic Nature". Though coming later and not generally considered a Cambridge Platonist himself, Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury (1671–1713) was much influenced by the movement. Frances Yates Dame Frances Amelia Yates DBE FBA (28 November 1899 – 29 September 1981) was an English historian of the Renaissance , who wrote books on the history of esotericism . After attaining an MA in French at University College London , she began to publish her research in scholarly journals and academic books, focusing on 16th-century theatre and

469-672: A course in the language held for scholars at Girton College , University of Cambridge ; here she developed lifelong friendships with Nesca Robb and Linetta de Castelvecchio , both fellow scholars of the Renaissance. Yates's second book was A Study of Love's Labour's Lost , an examination of Love's Labour's Lost . It was published by Cambridge University Press in 1936. Through her research into Florio, Yates had become intrigued by one of his associates, Giordano Bruno . She translated Bruno's La Cena de la ceneri ( The Ash Wednesday Supper ), and added an introduction in which she argued against

536-402: A man named Leonard, although there is no evidence that they had a relationship. There is no evidence that she was ever sexually involved with another person, although her journals are filled with references to a personal struggle against temptation, which may refer to sexual thoughts. For years, she was a chain smoker. In 2017, she featured in a conference, London's Women Historians , held at

603-496: A more general meaning, indicating a personal philosophy that includes tolerance of other views, particularly, but not necessarily, on religious matters. In the Catholic Church , latitudinarianism was condemned in the 19th-century document Quanta cura . Pope Pius IX felt that, with its emphasis on religious liberty and the freedom to discard traditional Christian doctrines and dogmas, latitudinarianism threatened to undermine

670-624: A newly-built house in which Yates lived until her death. Her sisters had moved away, leaving Frances to care for her ageing parents, although she also regularly took the train to central London, where she spent much time reading and researching in the library of the British Museum . In the early 1920s she began an undergraduate degree in French at the University College, London . Enrolled as an external student , she devoted herself to her studies, and did not socialise with other students. She

737-543: A number of other key figures, can be traced back at least to the 1730s in continental Europe, and still earlier in English texts." The Cambridge Platonists used the framework of the philosophia perennis of Agostino Steuco , and from it argued for moderation. They believed that reason is the proper judge of disagreements, and so they advocated dialogue between the Puritan and Laudian traditions. The orthodox English Calvinists of

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804-531: A number of other scholars who had begun to recognise the role of magic and mysticism in Renaissance thought: French historian of science Pierre Duhem , American historian Lynn Thorndike , and Renaissance studies scholar Francis Johnson. Yates's biographer Marjorie Jones suggested that this interpretation was partly influenced by her own religious views, which – influenced by the Romanticists and Pre-Raphaelites – adored Catholic ritual and were critical of

871-526: A nursing home, before embarking on a lecture tour of the U.S. Ruby died in May 1980, leaving Yates as the last surviving member of her immediate family. In 1980 Yates was elected a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences . In summer 1981, Yates traveled on a lecture tour of Hungary, coming to believe that Anglophone scholarship had neglected Central Europe. Her final lecture

938-456: A positive position, the latitudinarian view held that human reason, when combined with the Holy Spirit , is a sufficient guide for the determination of truth in doctrinal contests; therefore, legal and doctrinal rulings that constrain reason and the freedom of the believer were neither necessary nor beneficial. At the time, their position was referred to as an aspect of low church (in contrast to

1005-633: A year. She also lectured on the subjects of her research at various different universities across Britain; during the 1950s she lectured on the subject of espérance impériale , which would later be collected and published as Astraea: The Imperial Theme in the Sixteenth Century (1975). In 1954, Gertrud Bing became Director of the Warburg, overseeing the move from South Kensington to a specially constructed building in Woburn Square , Bloomsbury . Bing

1072-468: Is entirely unconvinced by the thesis. Yates's scholarship was often criticised for using what she termed her "powerful historical imagination"; she put forward scenarios that could not be proved using documentary evidence, something that many other historians saw as a flaw in her methodology. But she "dealt with traditions whose remoteness she could not eliminate, even while she made them more understandable." John Crowley drew extensively on Yates for

1139-622: Is only writing left. So I will write." In 1914, the First World War broke out; her brother joined the British Army, and was killed in battle in 1915. As a result, she asserted that the "war broke our family... As a teenager I lived among the ruins." Deciding to pursue a university education, she unsuccessfully sat the University of Oxford entrance exam, hoping to study History. The family subsequently moved to Claygate, Surrey , settling into

1206-590: The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , notes that the term "Cambridge Platonists" was given in the 19th century and can be misleading. There is no clear distinction between the group and latitudinarians in general. The categorization and interpretation of the Cambridge Platonists has changed over time. Frances Yates interpreted them as scholars who engaged with the Christian Kabbalah but rejected Hermeticism following Isaac Casaubon 's redating of

1273-649: The Convocation , there was very little internal Church power to either sanction or approve. Thus, with no Archbishop of Canterbury officially announcing it, nor Lords adopting it, latitudinarianism was the operative philosophy of the English church in the 18th century. For the 18th-century English church in the United States (which would become the Episcopal Church after the American Revolution ), some are of

1340-511: The Hartlib circle , in particular). These related to paths, and how actual influence on science was effected. Brian Vickers identifies Rattansi, A. G. Debus and Peter J. French as on the side of the Yates thesis, with M. B. Hesse , Edward Rosen, Paolo Rossi, and Charles Trinkaus on the other side. He notes that the debate (up to 1984) was not conducted by close reading of texts and evidence; he himself

1407-684: The Oxford Movement and sympathetic to the Catholic Church . Frances was christened in February 1900 at St. Anne's Church in the dockyard , although from an early age had doubts about Christianity and the literal accuracy of the Bible . In 1902, James was transferred to Chatham Dockyards , and then in December 1903 he relocated to Glasgow to become superintendent of shipbuilding on the River Clyde . There,

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1474-526: The University of Pisa awarded her the Premio Galileo Galilei for her contribution to the study of Italian history. In March 1979, the British Academy awarded her a £2000 grant so that she could continue to travel from her home to London in order to conduct research. In 1974, an academic conference was held at UCLA 's Clark Library in Los Angeles, California , that debated and discussed what

1541-600: The hermeticism within Renaissance culture, and spoke of the interest in mysticism, magic and Gnosticism of Late Antiquity that survived the Middle Ages. Yates suggested that the itinerant Catholic priest Giordano Bruno was executed in 1600 for espousing the Hermetic tradition rather than his affirmation of cosmic eccentricity. Her works drew attention to the role played by magic in early modern science and philosophy, before scholars such as Keith Thomas brought this topic into

1608-601: The high church position). Later, the latitudinarian position was called broad church . While always officially opposed by the Anglican church, the latitudinarian philosophy was, nevertheless, dominant in 18th-century England. Because of the Hanoverian reluctance to act in church affairs, and the various groups of the religious debates being balanced against one another, the dioceses became tolerant of variation in local practice. Furthermore, after George I of Great Britain dismissed

1675-470: The 16th century. However, when it came to party politics, she was largely apolitical. In 1942, she commented that "I am an Anglican who takes the historical view that the Nazi [i.e. Protestant] revolution of 1559, and all the miserable complications which ensued, deprived me of part of my natural and native inheritance as an English Catholic." Yates's journals only allude to one potential romantic attachment, to

1742-512: The 1960s and 1970s, when she also became a regular book reviewer for The New York Review of Books . In 1961, Yates authored Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition , which has come to be widely regarded as her masterpiece. In her diary, she wrote that she now "saw Hermeticism as the clue to Bruno and the whole view of Renaissance magic in relation to him." She had been encouraged to adopt this view by her friend, D.P. Walker. The book

1809-627: The British Empire for services to Art History . In October 1973, she was awarded a £5000 Wolfson Award for her wider oeuvre, and in January 1974, Yates delivered four Northcliffe lectures at University College London (UCL). They would subsequently be published by Routledge in 1975 as Shakespeare's Last Plays: A New Approach . She was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1975. That same year also saw

1876-612: The Cambridge Platonists as a cohesive group in terms of philosophical views as historically unfounded. More recently, David Leech has argued that while Levitin makes some important points "it would be a mistake to assume that the category of Cambridge Platonism is a retroprojection of nineteenth century historiography. This is because earlier practices of referring to a group of primarily Cambridge-based 'Platonists', invariably including Ralph Cudworth (1617–1688) and Henry More (1614–1687), usually Benjamin Whichcote (1609–1683), and (more variably)

1943-419: The Cambridge Platonists, religion and reason were in harmony, and reality was known not by physical sensation alone, but by intuition of the intelligible forms that exist behind the material world of everyday perception. Universal, ideal forms inform matter, and the physical senses are unreliable guides to their reality. In response to the mechanical philosophy , More proposed a "Hylarchic Principle", and Cudworth

2010-591: The Federation's Committee on International Relations on "How will History be written if the Germans win this war?" At the Warburg, her intellectual circle included Anthony Blunt , Margaret Whinney , Franz Boaz , Ernst Gombrich , Gertrud Bing , Charles and Dorothea Singer , D. P. Walker , Fritz Saxl , Eugénie Droz , and Roy Strong . At this time, she also developed lifelong friendships with Jan van Dorsten and Rosemond Tuve , both scholars. Upon Britain's victory in

2077-467: The French Social Drama in the Sixteenth Century", and in it she argued that the plays of this period could be seen as propaganda aimed at the illiterate population. Although authored for a degree in French, it was heavily historical, and showed Yates's interest in challenging prior assumptions and interpretations of the past. Supervised by Louis M. Brandin and F. Y. Eccles, she was awarded her MA on

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2144-609: The Hermetic corpus. She argues that Cudworth and More perpetuate certain Renaissance Neoplatonic ideas , including a broad syncretism of early forms of Hermeticism, in a new scholarly context. Dmitri Levitin has challenged any categorization of the Cambridge Platonists as a cohesive philosophical group. While he admits that the group "existed as a loose set of acquaintances linked by tutorial relationships ," he argues that they were not exclusive in their interest in Platonism, nor did most of them believe in any syncretism or

2211-742: The Protestant Reformation. One of Yates's friends, the historian and fellow Bruno scholar Dorothea Singer, introduced her to Edgar Wind , Deputy Directory of the Warburg Institute , at a weekend house party in Par, Cornwall . At Wind's invitation, Yates contributed a paper on "Giordano Bruno's Conflict with Oxford" for the second issue of the Journal of the Warburg Institute in 1939, which she followed with "The Religious Policy of Giordano Bruno" in

2278-506: The Puritan divines, with their anti-rationalist demands, was, they felt, incorrect. They also felt that the Calvinist insistence on individual revelation left God uninvolved with the majority of mankind. At the same time, they were reacting against the reductive materialist writings of Thomas Hobbes. They felt that the latter, while rationalist, were denying the idealistic part of the universe. To

2345-411: The Renaissance and its influence on Christian Neoplatonism . It did not prove as successful as her books published in the 1960s. It was during the early 1970s that she began writing an autobiography, inspired by E. M. Forster 's biography of Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson ; it was left unfinished on her death, although portions were published posthumously. In March 1979, Yates moved her sister Ruby into

2412-459: The Renaissance understanding of the natural world. Yates's biographer Marjorie Jones asserted that Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition "galvanized Renaissance historiography" by illustrating how mysticism and magic had played a role in Renaissance culture and the scientific revolution. She further asserted that the book "brought [Yates] to the forefront of Renaissance studies." Historian of religion Henrik Bogdan asserted that Yates's work

2479-615: The World . Her next book, published by Routledge in 1972, was The Rosicrucian Enlightenment , in which she looked at the influence of the Rosicrucian manifestos in 16th century Europe. In 1971, Yates was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of East Anglia , which was presented to her by Angus Wilson , and in the New Year Honours 1972 Yates was appointed an Officer of the Order of

2546-763: The basis of it in 1926. From 1929 to 1934, Yates taught French at the North London Collegiate School , but disliked it as it left little time for her to devote to her research. While rummaging through the London Public Record Office , she learned of John Florio in a 1585 testimonial. Intrigued by him, she devoted her third scholarly paper to the subject of Florio: "John Florio at the French Embassy", which appeared in The Modern Language Review in 1929. She proceeded to author

2613-537: The church. (See Syllabus of Errors ) The latitudinarian Anglicans of the 17th   century built on Richard Hooker 's position in Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity . Hooker (1554–1600) argues that what God cares about is the moral state of the individual soul. Aspects such as church leadership are " things indifferent ". However, the latitudinarians took a position far beyond Hooker's own and extended it to doctrinal matters. As

2680-615: The family began attending the Scottish Episcopal Church of St. Mary. James retired in 1911, although continued to offer his advice and expertise to the dockyards. The family moved regularly over the coming years, from a farmhouse in Ingleton , Yorkshire , to Llandrindod Wells , to Ripon , to Harrogate , and then to Oxton in Cheshire . They also took annual holidays to France each summer. Throughout this period, Yates's education

2747-434: The historiographical mainstream. Thomas references Yates, alongside Piyo M. Rattansi, for the basic point that hermetic thinking fed into the foundations of modern science, before being dispelled later. The seminal studies of Michel Foucault and Frances Yates, even if not fully persuasive in every aspect, have made it impossible for historians ever again to ignore the role of various forms of magical thinking and practice in

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2814-461: The history of imagery and symbolism." Connected to this, she believed that school education should focus on pan-European, rather than simply British history. The Warburg Institute published Yates's third book in 1947 as The French Academies of the Sixteenth Century . She described this as "an ambitious effort to apply the Warburgian modes of work, to use art, music philosophy, religion" to elucidate

2881-518: The life of the linguist and lexicographer John Florio . In 1941, she was employed by the Warburg Institute in London, and began to work on what she termed "Warburgian history", emphasising a pan-European and inter-disciplinary approach to historiography. Her most acclaimed publication was Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition (1964), in which she emphasised the role of Hermeticism in Bruno 's works and

2948-437: The natural state of affairs, which would continue for ever (though in a less severe and easier form). It was not, of course, a golden age for all, but for me it was a time of perfect safety and happiness when I first put down roots of experience and inquiry in a world which made sense. — Frances Yates, on her childhood Frances Amelia Yates was born on 28 November 1899 in the southern English coastal town of Southsea . She

3015-511: The occult motifs in Little, Big (1981) and the Ægypt series (1987–2007) in which she briefly appears as a character. Philip Pullman was influenced by Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition for the design of the alethiometer in the His Dark Materials series (1995–2000). Yates's biographer Marjorie G. Jones described the historian as a "deeply emotional, even passionate" woman, who

3082-467: The opinion that latitudinarianism was the only practical course because the nation had official pluralism, diversity of opinion, and diffusion of clerical power. Cambridge Platonists The Cambridge Platonists were an influential group of Platonist philosophers and Christian theologians at the University of Cambridge that existed during the 17th century. The leading figures were Ralph Cudworth and Henry More . Mark Goldie , writing in

3149-409: The past importance and later loss of mnemotechnics as a human power, where he argues that she overstated the occult or " Jungian " aspect; and the subsequent marginalization of the area, which he considers valid and of wider applicability. Frances Yates and the Hermetic Tradition by Marjorie G. Jones, the first biography of Yates, was published in 2008 by Ibis Press. It is now said that Yates founded

3216-637: The poetry of the Romantics and Pre-Raphaelites , in particular that of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Keats . She also began to write; in March 1913, Yates published a short story in the Glasgow Weekly Herald . Aged 16 she began writing a diary, in which she stated that "my brother wrote poems, my sister writes novels, my other sister paints pictures and I, I must & will do something. I am not much good at painting, I am no good at all at music, so there

3283-459: The prevailing view that Bruno had simply been a proponent of Copernicus ' Heliocentric theories; instead she argued that he was calling for a return to Medieval Catholicism. She offered the book to Cambridge University Press, who declined to publish it, and later commented that it was "the worst of my efforts ... it was lamentably ignorant of Renaissance thought and Renaissance magic." In reassessing Bruno's thought, Yates had been influenced by

3350-609: The publication of Astraea: The Imperial Theme in the Sixteenth Century , which collected together lectures that she had presented in the 1950s. In February 1976, Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts offered Yates the Kennedy Professorship, which she declined. Yates was promoted in the Queen's Birthday Honours 1977 to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to Renaissance studies . In 1978,

3417-529: The role that magic and mysticism played in Renaissance thinking. The Art of Memory (1966), and The Rosicrucian Enlightenment (1972) are also major works. Yates wrote extensively on the occult or Neoplatonic philosophies of the Renaissance , which she is credited with making more accessible. It seems to me now the Golden Age, in which the security and stability of the Victorian era were still intact and seemed

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3484-427: The scientific mentality that will be dismissive of its parent. But, it is now said, there was no unitary esoteric tradition and that view is only tenable on a selective reading of the evidence. The arguments surrounding this questioning of Yates include Lodovico Lazzarelli and the rival views of Antoine Faivre , who has proposed a clearer definition of esotericism. Hanegraaff argued that the reception of Yates's work

3551-619: The subject. The following year, she began to contemplate writing a book on Bruno, and spent September 1951 in Italy, visiting places that had been associated with his life. By 1948, both Yates sisters had moved back to the family home in Claygate; however, in March 1951 Hannah died of leukemia , and Yates's mother died in October 1952. Despite the problems in her personal life, she continued her scholarship, typically publishing two or three scholarly papers

3618-582: The third issue. In these articles, she did not yet associate Bruno with Hermeticism. In 1941, the Warburg's Director Fritz Saxl offered Yates a job at the institute, then based in South Kensington ; she agreed, taking on the post which revolved largely on editing the Journal but which also gave her much time to continue her independent research. By this time, Britain had entered the Second World War against Nazi Germany , and Yates involved herself in

3685-405: The time found in their views an insidious attack, by-passing as it did the basic theological issues of atonement and justification by faith . Given the circle's Cambridge background in Puritan colleges such as Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge and Emmanuel College, Cambridge , the undermining was intellectually all the more effective. John Bunyan complained in those terms about Edward Fowler ,

3752-514: The war effort, being trained in first aid by the Red Cross and volunteered as an ARP ambulance attendant. In 1941, her father died during an air raid, although the cause of death is not known. Yates herself continued to battle with depression, and was deeply unhappy. In 1943, Yates was awarded the British Federation of University Women 's Marion Reilly Award . She also gave an address to

3819-475: The war, Yates was among a number of Warburg scholars who emphasised the need for pan-European historiography, so as to reject the nationalisms that had led to the World Wars; this approach, she believed, must be both international and interdisciplinary. She described this new approach as "Warburgian history", defining this as the "history of culture as a whole – the history of thought, science, art, including

3886-452: Was "depressive, moody, [and] frequently unhappy", as well as being fiercely determined and hard working. Jones noted that Yates remained a product of Victorian thought and value systems throughout her life. She was highly critical of nationalism , seeing it as the cause for the European wars of the early 20th century, and sought to find a solution to Europe's conflicts in history, particularly

3953-492: Was "instrumental in changing the attitude of historians of science and philosophy toward esotericism." Although some of her conclusions would later be challenged by other scholars, Yates remains one of the major scholars of hermeticism in Renaissance Europe; and her book The Art of Memory (1966) has been named one of the most significant non-fiction books of the 20th century. Paolo Rossi identified two key points in it:

4020-554: Was a close friend of Yates, and they often went on holidays together. Yates's fourth book, published in 1959, was The Valois Tapestries , in which she discussed the eponymous tapestries in the Uffizi in Florence , Italy. She offered a novel interpretation of the tapestries, approaching them as if they were "a detective story" and arguing that they were meant as portraits of the French royal family. Yates's scholarly productivity increased in

4087-402: Was awarded her BA with first-class honours in May 1924. She published her first scholarly article in 1925, on "English Actors in Paris during the Lifetime of Shakespeare", which appeared in the inaugural issue of The Review of English Studies . She then embarked on an MA in French at the University of London, this time as an internal student. Her thesis was titled "Contribution to the Study of

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4154-503: Was coloured by the Zeitgeist . An extra assumption, that the magus had a point of view that could be recovered, was fashionably added. Further he argues that essentialist rather than nominalist use of the very term "esotericism" has vitiated succeeding work. The "Yates paradigm", in his view, dominated in the 1970s but fell by the wayside in the 1980s for scholars. Hints on the "Yates thesis" were left as sketches in works of Yates herself ( Francis Bacon in relation to hermeticism, and

4221-430: Was delivered at Manchester Cathedral , and was on the subject of John Dee , whom Yates was taking an increasing research interest in. Shortly after, she fell over at home, and was hospitalised with a cracked femur . She recovered and returned home, where she died in her sleep. Her body was cremated in an Anglican memorial service. With the publication of Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition Yates highlighted

4288-409: Was haphazard. In her early years, she was home schooled, being taught to read by her sisters before her mother took over her education as they moved away from home. When in Glasgow she briefly attended the private Laurel Bank School, but wouldn't attend school for two years after leaving the city. Despite a lack of formal education, she read avidly, impressed by the plays of William Shakespeare , and

4355-405: Was published in 1964 by Cambridge University Press. The work brought her international scholarly fame, and in 1965 she went on a lecture tour of the United States. Her next publication was a part-sequel to Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition , being published as The Art of Memory in 1966. In 1967, she was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA). In 1969 she published Theatre of

4422-403: Was termed the "Yates thesis". The last decade of her life saw her critics become both more numerous and more outspoken; however, she gained a champion in the form of historian Hugh Trevor-Roper , who positively reviewed her works and became a personal friend. In 1979, Yates published The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age , in which she discussed the place of the Christian Cabala during

4489-403: Was the fourth child of middle-class parents, James Alfred and Hannah Malpas Yates, and had two sisters, Ruby and Hannah, and a brother, Jimmy. James was the son of a Royal Navy gunner, and occupied a senior position, overseeing the construction of dreadnoughts . He was a keen reader, ensuring that his children had access to plenty of books. James was a devout Anglican Christian, influenced by

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