The Chronology of Deviance

HI266 Deviance and Non-conformity

Naomi Pullin

n.r.wood@warwick.ac.uk

Structure

1. Medieval and Early Modern Europe – some key changes

2. Medieval and Early Modern Europe – case-studies (religious and sexual deviants)

3. Conclusion – A pre-modern society?

Aims of today

• Understanding ‘pre-modern’ as a conceptual term

• Understanding pre-modern periodization –the key changes and their impact on deviant groups

• Also looking at the continuities in the treatment of specific groups of deviants

Pre-modern society

Key periods:

Medieval (c.500-1500)

Early Modern (1500-c.1800)

Other important sub-periods:

Moore thesis (c.1050-1300)

Renaissance (1300-1650 (?) depending on location and context)

Enlightenment (c.1650-1800)

Module website - chronology of Deviance

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/students/modules/deviance/chronology/

Part 1

The key changes of our period

Can we make a distinction between the treatment of deviant groups in these different periods?

Moore’s Persecuting Society

• Gregorian reform movement of the 11th century

• Development of canon law (church laws and regulations)

• Papal court (dignitaries assisting the Pope in carrying out ceremonies)

• Approved the establishment of groups of monks/friars (the Franciscans)

The Fourth Lateran Council (1215)

• Regulated relations with Jews, Muslims, Lepers etc.

• The Crusades (1095 – 1291)

• Gregory IX established the Inquisition in 1233

Pope Innocent III (1161-1216)

Cathars

• Prominent in S France and N Italy

• Reform movement seeking to assert the purity of the Church

• Persecuted heavily during the Albigensian (Cathar) Crusade (1209-1229)

“persecution had become habitual. That is not simply to say that individuals were subject to violence, but that deliberate and socially sanctioned violence began to be directed, through established governmental, judicial and social institutions”

Consequences of the C11th and C12th Reforms

R. I. Moore, The Formation of a Persecuting Society

Other important medieval changes

Consolidation of state power:

• France (12th century onwards)

• England (esp. 13th century)

• Spain (15th century)

12th Century France

• First Inquisition to combat ‘heresy’

• Cathars, Waldensians, Hussites, Franciscans etc.

Legal discrimination against the Jews in England – peaks in 13th century

• 1275 – forced to wear a marking badge and subject to high levels of taxation

• 1290 – Edict of ExpulsionEdward I of England (1272-1307)

13th Century England

15th Century Spain

1480 - Expulsion of the Muslims from Spain under Ferdinand and Isabella’s reforms

Key changes in the Early Modern Period

• Huge consolidation of state power > closer regulation of society

• Early Modern period = often seen as highly intolerant of marginal groups

Key changes in the Early Modern Period

The Reformation 16th century

Martin Luther (1483-1546)

Luther’s reforms:

Sola fide – faith alone (the individual not the church determining salvation)

Ninety-Five Theses – WürttembergCathedral (1517)

Consequences of the Reformation

• Rise of nation-states independent of Rome > new groups of ‘deviants’ depending on national religion

• New religious groups (e.g. Calvinists, Zwinglians, Anabatists)

• The Church of England – following Henry VIII’s divorce to Catherine of Aragon

• The Catholic Reformation (Counter-Reformation) following Council of Trent between 1545 and 1563

Consequences of the Reformation

The Anabaptists siege Münster 1534

Bernard Knipperdolling (c.1495-1536)John of Leiden (c.1509-1536)

Consequences of the Reformation

Religious Conflict:• French Wars of Religion (1562 and

1598)• Persecutions of Protestants in

England during reign of Mary I (1555-1558)

• Thirty Years War (1618-1648) – affects the whole of Europe

Consequences of the Reformation17th century ‘witchcraze’

Other Early Modern changes

Poverty and vagrancy:• Overpopulation > English

population doubles from 2.3 million to 5 million

• Increasing fear of mobility• Elizabethan Vagrancy Acts (1601)

- Idle poor and vagrants sent to a House of Correction or prison

Laursen and NedermanBeyond the Persecuting Society

Early modern period not a time of increasing persecution

BUT a period of increasing tolerance

Part 2

Moving beyond periodization to a ‘pre-modern’ society

1. Religious deviants (Jews)

2. Sexual deviants (Prostitutes)

Pre-modern Jews

Black Death (1348-1350)

Accusations of Jews (and Muslims and

lepers) poisoning wells and spreading disease

Pestis manufactura (disease made by

human agents)

Strasbourg Massacre of the Jews(1349)

Early Modern anti-semitism

Martin Luther:• On the Jews and their

Lies (1543)• Admonition (1546)

Accuses the Jews of ritual murder, black magic and

well-poisoning

Pre-modern JewsAnon., The Quaker

Turn’d Jew (1675 )

Quakers:• Believe in universal

‘inner light’• Permit female

preachers• Many very wealthy

merchants

Pre-modern Prostitutes• Attitudes towards prostitutes determined by

attitudes towards women (remains the same for most of the period)

Control of behaviour:• Toulouse 1201 – forcible removal of

prostitutes from city walls• Late-medieval and early modern ‘Sumptuary

Laws’ (regulating what prostitutes could wear)

Pre-modern Prostitutes

‘The lesser evil’

Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)

• Municipal brothels: Venice 1360

• ‘Office of Decency’ (Onesta) in Florence

Pre-modern Prostitutes

Expert witnesses

Key debates/ideas

Michel FoucaultDiscipline and

Punish

Conclusions

Significant moments of change that make the medieval and early modern periods distinguishable

Early Modern period = much more state driven > new groups of deviants

Conclusions

Not a clear-cut process – more helpful to view ‘pre-modern’ society as a whole

Case-studies show us not only marginalization, but also acceptance