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Medicine and Religion in the Magical Gems The magical gems (2nd-4th CE) are engraved semi-precious stones showing both various types of iconography deriving from different traditions and inscriptions of a « magical » type in the conventional meaning of this term. The study of ancient lapidaries, medico-astrological treatises, and magical papyri discloses the religious universe from which the gems emanated. It deals with an ideology relied upon the notion of "sympatheia". In a high-structured cosmos, domined by the movements of the stars and semi-paralyzed by the Necessity's law, magic was not only a defensive means against the troubles deriving from such situation, but also a way to know the cosmic machine and its ruling powers.

« Sharing the table of the gods » Julian the Emperor and the sacrifices Sacrifice is the central rite of Roman paganism because, through consecration, the city « is allowed to share the table of the gods ». Julian the Emperor remains famous for having celebrated the whole range of sacrifices available to the Roman religious tradition. However, he kept his freedom to act in the face of the gods' will. His passion for ritualistic forms of religion is the key to his respect for Judaism and to his aim at rebuilding the Temple of Jerusalem. His attitude is based on a spiritualised conception of the relationship to the divinity that does not nevertheless contradict his maniac ritualism. It is rooted in his double religious training : his neoplatonist education and his previous Christian teaching, which spread the spiritualisation of the cult.

The Hundred « Voiceless » of Quintanar. The Castilian pattern of Marranism (II) Marranism, even if taken only in the strictest sense of the term (crypto-judaism) , is multi-faceted and complex. The model which is delineated here, from the collated testimonies of about one hundred « voiceless » prisoners of the Inquisition, is that of La Mancha in late sixteenth-century New Castile in Spain. Having traced back a particularly instructive example of persecution, their rites and practices are reconstituted « from the cradle to the tomb » (first article), and also their prayers, transmitted orally through the generations, and their culture, fashioned by militant readings (second article). The conclusions drawn are, first, that despite what contemporary historiography might sometimes maintain, crypto-judaism in its specifically Spanish form was still alive, even thriving one century after the expulsion of the Jews ; second, it becomes clear that the archives of the Inquisition are reliable, so long as the critical approach is one that befits religious history.