foolish said:
what i am basing my opinion on is the fact that sermons like the one above should indicate that there was a general sentiment among people at the local level, at which the priest responded to.
That's where the problem lies. Are you assuming that the priest is just quoting the opinions of the general public, or is he a relatively lone voice preaching against a game that is generally accepted by the public? He appears to have been more of a lone voice protesting something that others enjoyed (to his dismay).
For the most part, Tarot was
not banned and playing cards, in general, went in and out of banned periods depending on where the 'powers that be' wanted to direct people's attention. Often card games were allowed during holidays (like Christmas) because then they didn't interfere with work—so it wasn't always a religious ban.
thanks for your interpretation of the cards. what this shows me is that there really isn't one theory of the tarot that passes everyone's approval.
The summary I gave is a very rough outline of something that I think you'll find is close to what's proposed by a great many people who are familiar with the history of the period. Sure there are differences depending on which regional Trump order you are considering and whether there were originally only 14 Trumps, and whether you are speaking for those who scorn the Trumps or those who enjoyed them, but the sentiments are generally quite similar.
However, within the first hundred years or so, one of the games played with the cards was for poets to make up verses to tell a variety of tales especially about the people they might represent. It was called
tarocchi appropriati. The card's originial purpose may have been such a playful one, in which the cards, like letters in scrabble, were supposed to be arranged in a variety of creative ways.
There's this poem from Teofilio Folengo’s 1527 work Caos del Triperiuno (written under the pseudonym Merlini Cocai), which considers the Trumps in terms of a dialog between Love and Death. [Note: Death is the feminine voice: La Morte.]
Love, under whose Empire many deeds (6, 4)
go without Time and without Fortune, (9, 10)
saw Death, ugly and dark, on a Chariot, (13, 7)
going among the people it took away from the World. (21)
She asked: “No Pope nor Papesse was ever won (5, 2)
by you. Do you call this Justice?” (8 )
He answered: “He who made the Sun and the Moon (19, 18 )
defended them from my Strength. (11)
“What a Fool I am,” said Love, “my Fire, (0, 16)
that can appear as an Angel or as a Devil (20, 15)
can be Tempered by some others who live under my Star. (14, 17)
You are the Empress[Ruler] of bodies. But you cannot kill hearts, (3)
you only Suspend them. You have a name of high Fame, (12)
but you are nothing but a Trickster.” (1)