Playing Cards and Religion

Wherever in Western Europe man turned his eyes, he was confronted by the majesty of the church. Everything he did was approved or disapproved, blessed or cursed, interpreted and solemnised by the Church. He was baptised by it, married by it and buried by it. He called on angels, saints and martyrs for help, visited shrines and holy wells, made oaths on sacred relics. The Church dominated men's minds and imagination.

Generally-speaking, all the different religions prohibited what they saw as sinful games, idolatory, alcohol, etc but people got around it privately. For example the situation in Muslim Spain seems to have been the same as in Far Eastern countries, in that gambling games were officially forbidden but were enjoyed in private, and so weren't documented in history because the scribes were devout observers of the religious injunctions.

When playing cards arrived in Europe in the late 14th century, the Church took a strict, prejudicial view on what it saw as lewd, frivolous, fickle or dishonest behaviour. Members of the clergy would certainly not approve of card playing if it had anything to do with gambling or fortune telling. Moralising tracts were published expressing disapproval of gambling as a mortal sin which might offend God and destroy lives, sometimes reaching the invective of fundamentalism.

The early engravers and print makers made devotional images for pilgrims as a cheaper alternative to paintings or books. Many of these craftsmen also turned their hand to manufacturing playing cards to earn extra income. Stock images from the repertoire of devotional imagery might be adapted to serve as playing card symbols. However, playing cards have not always been amicable bedfellows with the church.

Scandalous moral corruption

Above: a Dominican monk disturbing a party of card players and upsetting their table in moral disapproval; painting by Giuseppe Turchi (Florence) 1785-1845 (?). The players, accompanied by their families, are portrayed as carelessly slouched around a table with cards and money scattered on the floor. Onlookers watch in dismay. © The Trustees of the British Museum • number 1858,0626.215►

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Left: Unter of Acorns, Unter of Leaves and the Deuce of Acorns from The Spiritual Deck of Cards published in Germany as a book, c.1545. The suit suits and values are related to spiritual interpretations: "Abimelech / son of Gidion / crowned to be King under an oak tree", and on the Unter of Leaves, which suit is also called 'Green' in German: "The prophet Jonas below a green tree of pumpkins", or in the third example, the Deuce of Acorns: "The lost son who came into extreme poverty because he left his father, so that he desired to eat the swill from the sows' trough together with the pigs… as a warning for all bad children to behave properly for their parents". The pictures are not always sensitive, and the sermon book also contains bad anti-semitism, as the Deuces, with a sow on all cards, give reason to make comparisons with the "Jewish People in the New Testament". On the Deuce of Bells, a sow, the 'Jewish Sow', is butchered, and the comment is "Hasn't deserved anything else".

If we search on the Internet for topics such as “the devil's bible” or “the devil's picture book” there will be many pages expressing a wide range of opinions and viewpoints concerning dangers of playing cards, including in some instances false information without any factual basis. We hear about religious groups holding intense emotional beliefs regarding their chosen faith; playing cards or tarot cards can antagonise or anger some people.

More religion decks on this site:   Geistliche Karten • Russian Anti-Religions • Master of the Banderoles • Tarot Cards • Cartomancy • The Church Game • Grace Scripture cards