10.2307@650443

The Past and Present Society
Holiness and Society

Review by: John Bossy
Past & Present, No. 75 (May, 1977), pp. 119-137
Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of The Past and Present Society
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REVIEW ARTICLE
HOLINESS AND SOCIETY *
IT IS NICE TO FIND AN ACADEMIC CONFERENCE JUSTIFYING ITSELF.
The Pursuitof Holinesscontainsthe deliberationsof a group of
theological,social and culturalhistorianswho met at the University
of Michiganin April 1972 to tryto make some progresswiththe
problemofwhathappenedto EuropeanChristianity in thetransition
from"medieval"to "modern"' (or "early-modern").xThey were
lookingfor a way of describingit which would freeus fromthe
tyranny of"Renaissance-and-Reformation", fromframesofreference
imposedby ecclesiastical
traditionsand their secularcounterparts.
Many will share theirconcern. A degree of historical
nominalism,
as CharlesTrinkaussuggestsin his preface,seemsa usefulframeof
mindin whichto approachtheproblem;thefirstpartofthevolume
takesthe pointliterally, suggestingon the wholethatnominalism as
a philosophicalor theologicalmethodmay be takenas a keyto the
gates of religiousmodernity. I shall touch on the point only
tangentially, not because I thinkit can be rejectedout of hand,but
becausein the coreof thevolumethe contributors are searchingin a
direction whichmaybe morecongenialto readersofPast andPresent;
it is also, I think,wherethe moreurgentproblemslie. The area is
the social historyof Christianity.The problemsare: what do we
meanby "social"? Whatdo we meanby "religious"and by various
relatedwords? What are the relationsbetweenreligiousand social
experience? How are alterationsin one of these fieldsrelatedto
alterationsin another? The contributors to the centralpartof the
volume are tryingto re-pose these problemsd propos of the
transitionfromlate-medievalto early-modern Christianity.Some
ofthemseemto me to be goingtherightwayaboutthis,othersnot.
Betweenthemtheyinviteus to takeanotherlookbothat our history
and at ourterminology.I proposefirstto investigate whattheyhave
to say about the social historyof westernChristianity duringthis
period,and thento offera generalhypothesisintendedto account,
byreference to thishistory,
forsomefeatures ofthetransitionbetween
* I ammostgratefultoMargaretAstonforhercomments onan earlierversion

of thispiece.
1
CharlesTrinkausand HeikoA. Oberman(eds.), ThePursuitofHolinessin
Late MediaevalandRenaissance (Studiesin MediaevalandRenaissance
Religion
Thought,x, Leiden, 1974; hereafter
PursuitofHoliness).
120 PASTANDPRESENT NUMBER75
traditionaland reformedChristianity,in particularforthosewhich
had a bearingon the idea of the holy.
I
I startwithtwo quotations,one froma twentieth-century British
anthropologistquoted by a contributor,the other from a
seventeenth-century Swedish statesman. "Religion can be looked
upon as an extensionof the fieldof people's social relationships
beyond the confinesof purelyhuman society". Religion"is the
greatvinculum communis affectus et societatishumanae;and thereis
no strongernexusconcordiae ac communitatis thanunitasreligionis".2
They describethe relationship in questionfromopposingpointsof
view, but with an equally refreshing precision,and both come to
mindwhenyouread one ofthemostsubstantialcontributions to the
volume,a description by A. N. Galpernof the socio-religious nexus
in sixteenth-century Champagne.3 Undistinguishedby either
unorthodoxy or enthusiasm, theregiondoes,as Galpernclaims,offer
an excellentvantagepointfor surveying whatthe commonman or
woman meant by Christianitybefore the Reformation.He
distributesthe religiousbehaviourof the Champenoisunder the
headings: mutualityin salvationby prayersand masses; funerals;
saints,godparentsand pilgrimages;fraternities; processions. The
sequence sounds arbitrary but is not: at the risk of forcinghis
expositiona little I would claim that it revealsa firmlogic. The
Champenoistook for grantedthat salvationwas not the resultof
individualeffort (whichis a pointto bearin mindwhenone comesto
assess the historicalimportanceof some late medievaltheology)4
nor, evidently,of gratuitousgrace, but of mutual assistanceand
collective collaboration. A social analysis of their piety must
therefore begin withthe primarycells withinwhichmutualitywas
feltas an obligation,whichwillalso be the primary unitsof society.
With the cases of Jeanne Pirche, depositedin a nunnerywith
an annual pension so that she would "be more inclined to
pray ... forthe salvationof... her late relativesand friends",or
2
Robin Horton,"A Definition
of Religion,and Its Uses", fl. of theRoy.
Anthropol. Inst., xc (1966), p. 2II (cf. Pursuit of Holiness, p. 148); Axel
quotedin MichaelRoberts,"The SwedishChurch",in Michael
Oxenstierna,
Roberts (ed.), Sweden's Age of Greatness,1632-I718 (London, 1973), P. 132.
On "religion",see notes35 and 51 below.
3
PursuitofHoliness,pp. 141-76; the descriptionis worthcomparingwiththat
of Gabrielle Bras,"Etat religieuxet moraldu diocesede Chilonsau XVIIIe
sidcle", Etudes de sociologiereligieuse,i (1955), pp. 54-68. See now A. N. Gal-
pern, The Religionsof thePeople in Sixteenth-Century Champagne(Cambridge,
Mass., 1976).
4 For example,Heiko A. Oberman, "Facientibusquodin se estDeus nondenegat
gratiam:RobertHolcot,O.P., and the Beginnings
of Luther'sTheology",in
Steven E. Ozment (ed.), The Reformationin Mediaeval Perspective(Chicago,
1971), PP. II9-4I.
HOLINESS AND SOCIETY 121
of Maitre Garlache Sonyn layingupon his widow the charge of

arrangingfor an adequate volume of masses and prayersfor his
soul,"prayingand callinguponherto do herdutyin thisas shewould
wishthe said testatorto do forherin a similarcase", we are surely
at some kind of bedrockof social obligation.5 From kinshipand
friendship we proceedto the quasi-kinrelationwithgodparentsand
withsaints: Galpernremarksthattheserelationships are connected
and similar,sincethegodparents namethe child,and bothsaintand
godparenthave an obligationto provideit withaid and protection.6
The saintis a "moredistantbutmorepowerful godparent",and may
be addressedas such. In goingon pilgrimage to, say,the shrineof
St. Claude in the Franche-Comte,one may be visitingone's
relations(it wouldfollowthatin knockingdown a statueone might
be committing parricide). These relationships
were on the whole
not a matterof choice,but individualsmight,and commonlydid,
choose to enter the parallel or supplementarysystem of the
fraternity.Wider than the kin, freeof its gerontocratic structure,
an association of confreresand consoeurssometimes at least
breachingthebarriersof status,thefraternitypractisedtheritualsof
togetherness in thisworldand procuredthesalvationof itsmembers
in the next.
Since the meansof salvationwerenot in principlesubjectto the
laws of supplyand demand,theremayseem no reasonwhyall these
groupsshouldnot have existedhappilyside by side; yettheyrarely
did. Friendshipentailedenmity,and brotherhood - to borrowa
phrase from Benjamin Nelson's The Idea of Usury- otherhood.7
Hence the effortto constructa collectiveand territorial solidarity
whichoccupiedso muchofthevisiblemanifestation oflate medieval
Christianity.The pointhas recentlybeen made in different ways
by BerndMoellerforGermanyand by CharlesPhythian-Adams for
England.8 Like Phythian-Adams, Galpern draws attentionto the
1Pursuitof Holiness,pp. 147, 153; cf. howeverPhilippeAries,Essais sur
de la morten Occident
l'histoire (Paris,1975),P. 5o, trans.PatriciaM. Ranum,
Western AttitudestowardDeath (Londonand Baltimore,1974),p. 63, forthe
viewthatsuchtestamentary dispositions indicateda lackof confidence in the
instinctualbenevolence offamilymemberstowardsone another.
6 On godparents, see some remarksof my own in "Blood and Baptism:
Kinship,Community and Christianityin WesternEuropefromtheFourteenth
to the Seventeenth Centuries",in DerekBaker(ed.), Sanctityand Secularity :
The Churchand the World(Studies in Church History,x, Oxford,1973),
pp. 129-43,at pp. 132if.;and P. Chaunu,Le temps desRdformes (Paris,1975),
pp. 178-9,wheregodparenthood as a mode of patronageseemsto me over-
emphasized.
7 Benjamin Nelson,TheIdea ofUsury,2ndedn.(LondonandChicago,1969).
8 B. Moeller,
ImperialCitiesand theReformation, trans.H. C. E. Midelfort
and M. U. Edwards(Philadelphia,1972), pp. 41-115; C. Phythian-Adams,
"Ceremonyand the Citizen:The CommunalYear at Coventry, 1450-1550",
in PeterClarkand Paul Slack(eds.), Crisisand Orderin EnglishTowns,ISoo-
in
1700oo Essays UrbanHistory (London,1972), pp. 57-85.
122 PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER 75
role in this effortof the public procession,and especiallyof the

Corpus Christiprocession,on whichhe retailsa finepassagefrom
the diaryof Claude Haton of Provinsin the mid-sixteenth century;
what was symbolically representedin the processionwas expressly
enacted in a concluding ritual of neighbourhoodeating and
festivity, intendedto promote"peace, concordand amity". It is
likelyenoughthat by such means the spiritof enmitywas not so
much exorcisedas translatedfromthe innerto the outer enemy:
Galpernnotesthe transference in the Peasants'Revoltin England,
and mighthavenotedit,nearerhome,intheprocessions oftheLeague
or Holy Union whichcirculatedaroundthe townsof Champagnea
couple of decadeslater.9
It seemsa signoftheconceptualdegradation withwhichthesubject
is threatenedthat Galpernshould accompanythis finedescription
withthe dreariestof interpretations; he claimsthatthe structure of
collectivesalvationwas built in responseto economicand political
crisesin the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,and continuedby
culturallag into the more prosperoussixteenth. The malicious
reader,lyingin waitby his banana-skin, will see it steppedon with
an aplomb worthyof Lucien Febvre at his worst- "the saints,
thoseindependentpowerbrokersin an age of bastardfeudalism".'0
As Natalie Davis remarks,in an essay whichconcludesthe central
part of the volume,"the historyof confraternities mightbetterbe
related, not to economic contractionand short-rangepolitical
disorder, butto themoreslowlychanging features oflifethatinfluence
people's sense of community, of boundaries between the self and
others,and of the characterof social relationships"."1Words of
gold, I suggest,and a timelyinvitationto distinguishsociety,
meaninghumanrelations, from"society",meaningthingsin general,
or "everybody,consideredas dividedinto classes", or "everybody
somewhere,consideredas forminga whole for some reason other
than commonsubmissionto a politicalauthority". Such usages
I Pursuit of Holiness,
p. 169, and cf. R. Mandrou, Introductiona la France
moderne(Paris, 1961), p. 131, where the passage fromHaton is also noticed;
Natalie Zemon Davis, "The Rites of Violence: Religious Riot in Sixteenth-
CenturyFrance", Past and Present,no. 59 (May 1973), PP. 51-91, esp. pp. 66,
73 ff.; there is some relevant matter, mainly concerning Reims, in my
"Elizabethan Catholicism: The Link with France" (Univ. of Cambridge
Ph.D. thesis, 1961), pp. 73-6, 89. For England, see Phythian-Adams,"Cere-
mony and the Citizen", pp. 65 ff.,quoting John Stow on bonfires.
10 Pursuit
of Holiness,p. 168.
x Natalie Davis, "Some Tasks and Themes in the Study of Popular
Religion", in Pursuit of Holiness,pp. 307-36, at p. 318. One might however
compare Galpern's explanation with the description in E. le Roy Ladurie,
Les paysans de Languedoc (Paris, 1969 edn.), pp. 34-42, of the extension of
familybonds, the vogue of affrairamentum, the "v6ritable d61irede fraternit6"
(p. 40) in this region at the same period, for which a similar explanation is
offered;also J. Gaudemet, Les communautesfamiliales (Paris, 1963), pp. 84-131,
esp. p. 97.
maylead to a degradation ofargument, and havedoneso in Galpern's

case. What,forexample,does he meanby "social" when,referring
to Keith Thomas and Alan Macfarlaneon witchcraft, he says that
the Corpus Christi processionin sixteenth-century France "may
perhapsreflectan attemptto revivethe spiritof community which
sixteenth-century socialchangeswereprogressively undermining"?12
I do notthinkhe can meansocial changesproperlyspeaking,or the
statementwould seem tautologous;I suspecthe means economic
changes. It seems to me most importantto unscramblethis
confusion.
Of MarvinB. Beckerand RichardC. Trexler,and Gerald Strauss
and Lewis W. Spitz, who explore socio-religiouschange in
RenaissanceFlorenceand Reformation Germanyrespectively, only
Beckerseems partlyopen to this objection. Like Brian Pullan in
his work on Venice,13 he discusses the shiftin the theoryand
practiceof charityfromthe statusof a personalrelationto thatof a
public service,arguingbroadlythat what took place in Venice in
the sixteenthcenturytook place in Florencein the fifteenth.His
starting-point,likeGalpern's,is theBlackDeath and associatedevents
in theeconomy,but his influences are morevarious. Growingstate
supervisionof charitableactivitiesand institutions;a humanist
emphasison "extendedsociability"and generalratherthanparticular
philanthropy; anxietyon thepartoftheurbanlaityto findthemselves
a niche in "religion"whileretaininga secularway of life- these
combine,in his exposition,to inspirethe beliefthat "a Christian
community locatedin a moreamplesocialspacegeneratedbybroader
human concernscould be realisedin historicaltime".14 Hence a
"new ideal" of Christianbrotherhood.Having been reasonably
convincedso far,at this point I began to wonder. I wondered
whetherColuccio Salutati'shuman concernswere reallyso much
broaderthan,say, Dante's or Aquinas's. I wonderedwhetherSt.
Bernardino ofSiena wasaccurately describedas a prophetofChristian
modernism. I also wonderedwhether,by tryingtoo hard to give
somegenuinesocialchangesa foundation Becker
in economichistory,
had not got himselfinto a jam about real fraternities, whose
positionin theprocessstruckmeas unclear. Werethey,as he seemed
to imply early in his piece, a constituentof the old world of
particularistcorporations("kinshipgroups,juridicallydefinedsocial
cadres, consortiumsof nobles and commoners...") which was
losing its vitality,he says, duringthe centuryafter1340o? This
12
Pursuit of Holiness,p. 170.
13 Brian Pullan, Rich and Poor in Renaissance Venice(London, 1965).
1" Marvin B. Becker, "Aspects of Lay Piety in Early Renaissance Florence",
in PursuitofHoliness,pp. 177-99; a view expounded at greaterlengthin Becker's
Florencein Transition,2 vols. (Baltimore, 1967-8).
would be hard to reconcilewith the chronology, since they were

boomingin thisperiod. Or weretheythe vehicleof a new ("bour-
geois"?) dispensation of Christianbrotherhood?This seemedto be
themajorthesis,and I confessI foundit impossibleto swallow. The
fraternalimpulse was surelya traditionalone, and the humanist
emphasesboth on the importanceof the domesticunit and on an
extended(and perhaps ratherabstract)sociabilityseem designed
to providesubstitutesforan ideal of particularbrotherhood which
looksdistinctively non-humanist.15
Perhaps thereis a middle way betweenthese alternatives:it is
certainlytruethatthefraternity was a sufficiently
flexibleinstitution
to adapt itselfto a varietyof milieux. Pullan's scuolewould be an
exampleof this,and so would the subjectof the longestand most
ambitiouspaperin the book,Trexler's"Ritual in Florence:Adoles-
cenceand Salvationin the Renaissance".16 Trexlerbeginswiththe
factthatabout1400 a newphenomenon, theyouthfraternity, appeared
on the Florentinescene; it increasedin importance and in its rolein
Florentinepublic ritualuntilit reachedits peak at the end of the
centuryduringtheregimeof Savonarola. Here we are in ratherthe
same territoryas has been explored by Natalie Davis in her
"Reasons of Misrule":"7 bothare concernedwiththe appearanceof
specificorganizationsofyouth,and bothhaveapparently beeninspired
by Aries to abandon the traditionof an economy-based"social"
historyfora notionofsocietywhichhasthefamilyat itscore. Three
separateschemesseemto be involvedin Trexler'sexplanationofhis
phenomenon.Scheme one: what is happeningis a transferof the
15
Contrast the following: "By the mid-fourteenthcentury [the] corporate
world was losing much of its vitality. While the confraternities and guilds
remained at the centre of philanthropiclife, the part they played was largely
administrative" (Pursuit of Holiness, p. 18o), with: "The centralityof the
confraternityoccurred at a historical moment [late fourteenthand early
fifteenthcenturies] when older forms of sociability were in decline" (ibid.,
p. 192). Becker's position seems to me to be partly clarified and partly
complicated by two furtherpassages. One is in his Florence in Transition,
ii, p. 253: "The amplitude of social constructions,wherein mediaeval ideas
of pervasive love assisted the generalisation of emotionality until they
["constructions",I take it] became increasinglylateral,was on the decline [in
favourof an affectionchannelled withinthe nuclear family:precise dating not
indicated]". The other is in his Comment on "Heresy in Medieval and
Renaissance Florence", Past and Present,no. 62 (Feb. 1974), pp. 153-61, at
p. 159: "[It] may well be that unrest among the city's poor was at its height
duringthe second half of the fourteenthcenturybecause the corporateimpulse
for charitywas ebbing, while the new communitalimpulse had not yet taken
hold". The debate between Becker and John N. Stephens, ibid., pp. 153-66,
turns on an issue similar to that raised here.
16 Richard C. Trexler, "Ritual in Florence: Adolescence and Salvation in the
Renaissance", in Pursuit of Holiness,pp. 200-64.
17 Natalie Zemon Davis, "The Reasons of Misrule: Youth Groups and
Charivarisin Sixteenth-CenturyFrance", Past and Present,no. 50o(Feb. 1971),
PP. 41-75.
functionof savioursof the community frombodies of "incorporated
holy men" to a sortof holyage-group,whichin his viewsupersedes
the traditionalkind of youth-groupdescribedby Davis, with its
ruraloriginsand disorderly habits.xs Schemetwo: on the basis of
David Herlihy'saccountof Florentineage- and marriage-structure
in the fifteenth century,he claims that there was at this time a
"crisis in the structureof the Florentinefamily",withlater male
marriageand increasingextra-marital whichbecause
sexual activity,
of femaledominancein the home tendedtowardshomosexuality.19
Hence the searchfor new agentsof indoctrination for the young,
fraternal or educational;these,by theirsuccessin manufacturing and
displaying,in public processionor theatricalperformance, a docile
and beautifulyouth,providedthe new salvation-figures whichthe
Florentinesrequired(and also, I should imagine,a good deal of
pleasureforhomosexuals). "The success of Savonarolasealed the
the convictionthatthe youngwere the salvationof the world,that
withoutan institutionally indoctrinated adolescenceonlya revolution
of the corruptcould await a sinfulsociety".20 Scheme three: in
the long perspectiveof the development of the familyas expounded
by Ariks, the Florentine youth fraternitiesmarka transitional stage
betweenthe old corporateand public societyand a futuresociety
wheretheconstruction ofan area of social(thatis, domestic)privacy
permittedthe public domainto fall into the grasp of the absolute
monarch. "At a stage when public manifestation still seemed a
naturalpart of politicalactivity,the confraternities of adolescents
stepped into the breach betweenthe traditionalpublicityof the
republic and the familialprivacyof the new world of political
authoritarianism".21
I hopeI havenotleftoutanycrucialelementin Trexler'sexposition:
it arouseda greatdeal of interestat the time,as it deservedto do.
Threecomments seemin order,mostofthemalreadymadebyothers.
First,the factrevealedseemsimportant, and makessensein relation
to much thatwe knowabout the attentionbeing givento the up-
bringingof youthfromthe fifteenth centuryonwards. Secondly,I
have some doubtsabout the correctness of Schemetwo and about
whetherit is speciallyapplicableto fifteenth-century Florence. A
risingage of marriagehas recentlybeen made responsiblefor a
remarkablevarietyof behaviouraldevelopments in this period(the
rise of masturbation,the witch-craze,not to mention the
l. Trexler, op. cit., pp. 200ooff.

19 '
David Herlihy, "Vieillir Florence au Quattrocento". Annales. E.S.C.,
xxiv (1969), pp. 1,338-52.
20
Trexler, op. cit., p. 232.
21 Ibid., p. 264.
Reformation);22 I do not thinkwe should place more burdenson

its back until we can date it with some degree of exactness.
Thirdly,thereseems to be a difficulty about the relationbetween
Scheme one and Scheme two, whichpointin oppositedirections.
It is not clear whyFlorentinepatriots,if theywere lookingforan
age-groupto pin theirsalvationto, should have plumpedfor this
one. I can see that they mightbe inclinedto treatsexual mis-
behaviourin adolescentsas a civicratherthanan exclusivelymoral
problem,but I have thefeelingthatTrexleris tryingto forceintoa
mould of civic experiencesome ratherrecalcitrant material. The
constantemphasis in the constitutionsof these fraternities, in
humanisteducatorsand in Savonarolaon purity,innocence,chastity,
on avoidingoccasionsof license like the carnivaland on frequent
confessionand communion,does not seem to have the civic lifeof
Florenceas its propercontext. As Natalie Davis remarks,it looks
morelike an anticipation of the Counter-Reformation, and I should
associateit witha new sensitivity to sexualityin childrenof which
JeanGersonseemsto havebeentheprophet."3 Altogether, Scheme
threeseemsthemostsatisfying: theidea of a shiftat the closeofthe
middle ages fromthe corporateto the domesticembodimentsof
societyseemsconvincing in itselfand in accordwiththe evidenceof
othercontributors, and one ofthelikelierconsequencesofthispassage
wouldbe to leave the wayopen formoreauthoritarian political,and
indeedecclesiastical,structures.In this processa youth-fraternity
wouldcertainly seemto bearthemarksofa transitional institution.
At thispointthevolumepasses,naturally enough,to investigate the
educationalaimsand achievements ofthe Reformation, on whichthe
massivecorpus of Lutherancatecheticalmatterprovidesas rich a
materialas could be desired. Gerald Straussappraisescatechisms
and Schulordnungen in the light of modernAmericaneducational
theory,with which, as may be imagined,they have little in
22
J.-L. Flandrin, "Mariage tardif et vie sexuelle", Annales. E.S.C., xxvii
(1972), pp. 1,351-78; H. C. Erik Midelfort, Witch-Huntingin South-West
Germany, 1562-i684 (Stanford, 1972), pp. 184 ff.; Chaunu, Le temps des
Rdformes,pp. 56-77. All these depend on J. Hajnal, "European Marriage
Patterns in Perspective", in D. V. Glass and D. E. C. Eversley (eds.),
Population in History (London, 1965), pp. 101o-43. The event is variously
ascribed to the late-fourteenthand fifteenthcenturies(Chaunu), the fifteenth
or sixteenthcenturies (Midelfort) and the seventeenthcentury: Roger Mols,
"Population in Europe, ISoo-1700", in Carlo M. Cipolla (ed.), The Fontana
EconomicHistoryof Europe, 6 vols. in 9 (London, 1972-6), ii, p. 70. On my
reading of it, Hajnal's evidence gives little credibilityto any of these datings
except the last; and neitherFlandrin nor Chaunu seems to take much notice
of Hajnal's point (op. cit., p. 134) that what is primarilyat issue is the age at
marriageof women, not of men (cf. Herlihy, op. cit., p. 1,346).
23 Pursuitof Holiness,p. 322; cf. my own "The Social Historyof Confession
in the Age of the Reformation",Trans. Roy. Hist. Soc., 5th ser., xxv (1975),
pp. 36 ff.;Philippe Aries, Centuriesof Childhood(London, 1973 edn.), pp. 10o4ff.
common.24 His emphasis on the imposition of unity and
uniformity in the educationalsystem,and of the importanceof this
forunityand uniformity in the community and the stateis whatone
wouldhaveexpected. His denialthatthecreatorsofreformed educa-
tionalsystemspaid anyattention to theindependenceofthedomestic
unit and found Luther's ideal of the parentas religiouseducator
impractical and indeedsuspectis moreofa surprise,thoughit tallies
withwhatothershave said about the priesthoodof believershaving
littleplace in Lutheranpractice.25 If true, it removeswhat had
seemed one of the clearersignpostson the road to domesticity.
SomemaywonderwhetherStrauss'sbanefulcompoundofindoctrina-
tion,Zucht,rote-learning and "socialization"by guiltcan reallytell
thewholestory. Spitzseemsto doubtit,buthis tacticis to turnthe
positionby showinghow muchof the groundforthe catechismsof
the sixteenthcenturyhad been prepared by the confessional
manuals of the fifteenth.26 His observationthat at this time the
seven deadly sins were tendingto give way to the ten command-
mentsseemsimportant, surelyevidencefora growthofinstructional
ambitionson the partof thoseconcernedwiththe administration of
thesacrament, and perhapsalso forthedeclineamongthemofsocial
concernsproperlyspeakingforwhichI have arguedelsewhere. Is
this,though,quite to provethat "in the fifteenth century... the
childrenweretaughtin the confessional whatin the sixteenththey
weretaughtin the catechisms"?27 It mightbe more exact to say
that,once confession(ratherthan the confessional, whichdid not
thenexist)had been seriouslythoughtof as a mediumofinstruction
for children,it fatheredcatechismby its own inadequaciesas an
educationalinstrument, amongthemthe factthatnormallyit only
happenedonce a year.
I wonderwhether thehistorical
understanding ofconfessionis much
advancedby Thomas F. Tentler'spiece on the late-medievalcon-
fessionalsummasas an "instrument of social control".28 What he
meansby a systemof socialcontrolis an institutional and ideological
structurewhichimposeson a population, non-forcibly, a hierarchically
determinedset of behaviouralnormsand prohibitions to whichit
secures interiorassent by means which may or must includethe
2" Gerald Strauss,"Reformation and Pedagogy:EducationalThoughtand
Practicein theLutheranReformation", in PursuitofHoliness,
pp. 272-93.
25 Ibid., p. 278; cf. Gerald Strauss,"Success and Failurein the German
Reformation", Past and Present,no. 67 (May 1975),PP. 30-63,at pp. 34-6;
Roberts,"The SwedishChurch",p. 144.
26 Lewis W. Spitz, "Further Lines of Enquiry", in Pursuit of Holiness,
pp. 294-306.
27 Ibid.,pp. 295, 297.
28 Thomas F. Tentler,"The Summa forConfessors as an Instrumentof
Social Control",in Pursuitof Holiness,pp. I03-26. See now his Sin and
Confessionon the Eve of the Reformation(Princeton, 1977), to which my
commentdoes not apply.
128 PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER75
of guilt;it is implied,I think,thatthereal objectis not to

instilling
promotethe behaviourin questionbut to entrenchthe positionof
the hierarchywhichimposesit. As an accountof the functionof
thesacrament ofpenancebetweenthefourthLateranCouncilof 1215
and the ReformationI have three objectionsto this. First, by
workingwitha degradedsense of the word "social" he has failed
to noticethingshe mighthave noticedif he had used a betterone:
that the sacramentwas a sacramentof reconciliation(which he
notices,but dismisses),and thatits objectwas not in the firstplace
to secureconformity to abstractnormsof behaviourbut to restore
damaged relations between the sinnerand otherparties(God, the
church,the neighbour). Why else would the writersof advice to
confessors havespentsuchan immoderate amountoftimediscussing
restitution?I can onlythinkit a tributeto theobfuscating powerof
loose languagethat Tentlershould be preparedto claim this fact,
at some length,as evidence for his conceptionof the "social"
significance of confession.2"Secondly,Tentleradduces Lutheras
a classiccase of the effects systemof control,and
of a guilt-inducing
ofthecreativerejectionofit embodiedin his burningoftheworksof
such confessionalwritersas Angelusand Prierias. This is a not
unattractive description of Luther'spersonalhistory,but I see little
reason for generalizingit. I do not underestimate the force of
Tentler's suggestionthat, during the half-centurybefore the
Reformation, the inventionof the printing-press had diffusedthe
worksof confessional writersto an extentwhichmayhave led to an
increase in inquisitorialpressure on the laity. But Luther's
confessionswerethoseofa particularly scrupulousreligious,and it is
far-fetched to takethemas representative ofthoseoftheaverageman.
Luther evidentlydid not thinkthey were, for while he rejected
monkeryhe ratherapprovedof confession,whichhe saw in very
traditionalterms as a sacramentof reconciliation.30Thirdly,in
arguingexpresslythattherewas no difference betweenthe "social"
functionof confessionin the pre-Reformation and the Counter-
Reformation churchTentlerhas adopteda positionwhichI do not
findveryhelpful. I havedefendedtheoppositeviewelsewhere, and
herewillsimplyappeal to thegrowthafter1400 of a concernforthe
confessionof children,to Spitz's evidenceforthe penetration of the
sacramentby catecheticalambitions,and to the post-Reformation
introduction of the confessional as implyingimportant modifications
in thesocialfunctionofthesacramentwhichseemnaturally to relate
to thekindof socialchangeswhichhavebeen envisagedby theother
contributors.31
"2 Ibid.,pp. 124, 119-22.
30 Ibid.,
pp. 124 ff.
31 Ibid.,
p. 126; cf. my "Social Historyof Confessionin the Age of the
Reformation".
I have already drawn at various points on Natalie Davis's
concludingcomments:they also include a number of general
thoughtsaboutthestudyof popularreligion. She gentlychidesthe
French school of "sociologiereligieuse"as over-bureaucratic, the
English(or Oxford)school as over-functionalist or over-rationalist.
Her recommendation is thatcomplexesof popularfeelingand ritual
be acceptedas comprehensible anddevelopingsystems in themselves,
thatin lookingforan exteriorcontextwe rangeas freelyas possible,
and thatwe envisagereligiousfeelingas sociallycreativeas well as
"socially"derived.32 She illustrates it witha discussionof a sector
of the populationwhosesituationin the socialuniverseundoubtedly
wentthrougha profoundchangein the age of the Reformation -
the dead.33 Her proposal,whichis broadlythat the dead ceased
to be a generaland active"age-group"and becamea property ofthe
patriarchalfamily instead, may be too strong,but in raising issue
the
ofa sociologyofthedead she seemsto haveput herfinger on a valu-
able instrument forimprovingour descriptive language. The dead
are certainlyparticipants in society,in thattheyare an object,and
have commonlybeen considereda subject,of human relations;I
do notthinktheyarepartof"society"as envisagedby,say,Raymond
Williams. One recipeforkeepinga shineon our senseofthe social
to thinkas muchaboutthedead as peopleactuallydo.
is,as historians,
II
So farwe havenotheardmuchaboutholiness,whichis partlymy
faultand partlythefaultofthevolume. Holinessdoesnotfigure very
much in thatpart of it withwhichI have been chieflyconcerned,
despitetheimplausibleclaimon thejacketthat"everywhere, in many
forms,a powerful urgetowardstheachievement ofsanctityis seen as
assertingitself as the highest concern of all elements of the
population". This is notreallysurprising, sinceholiness,an objec-
tive conditionof thingsor places or people or institutions
conveyed
to thembyderivation fromthegodhead,entailingseparation fromthe
normal,inviolability,
immunity, is a notiondifficult
to introduceinto
social history.34 The quotation,and some of the authors,seem to
confuse it with religion,which I understandas a subjective
conditionofresponding correctly to thepresenceoftheholy,or with
32
Pursuit of Holiness,p. 314; in so faras her criticismsare directedtowards
Keith Thomas's Religion and the Decline of Magic (London, 197I), they
should be compared with his own reconsiderationin his "An Anthropologyof
Religion and Magic, II", Jl. Interdisciplinary Hist., vi (1975), PP. 91-o19.
88 Pursuit of Holiness,pp. 326-35; to the referencesgiven one may add that
Philippe Aries's contributionsto the subject are now collected in Essais sur
l'histoirede la morten Occident(Paris, 1975).
84 There are helpfuldiscussions of the idea in R. Otto, The Idea of theHoly,
2nd edn. (London, 195o), and Janet Nelson, "Royal Saints and Early
Medieval Kingship", in Baker, Sanctityand Secularity,pp. 39-44.
piety,whichmay be treatedas a synonymforreligionbut in the

strictsenseis primarilya conditionof recognizing and responding to
an elementof the holy in our social relations.35Perhaps it is
naturalthatthe onlycontributor to grapplewiththe subjectdirectly
is a historianof theology,Heiko Oberman,who sees in the perioda
"closing of the gap between the sacred and the secular", an
abandonmentof metaphysical hierarchiesin favourof a directand
covenantal partnershipbetween God and man. His primary
referenceis to nominalisttheology,but he sees this as common
groundwithhumanists on theone handand Reformers on the other,
and in a fairlystrongsense,if I understandhim,as a pre-condition
for both.86 This looks at firstsight an impressiveconception,
but I am surethereis somethingthe matterwithit as a statement
abouttherealitiesof the socialhistoryof Christianityin thisperiod.
It is defendedby reference to the claimmade by thehumanists, and
by Luther,that all Christians,not just a special few, should be
considered"religiosi". They certainlydid claim this, and the
claim had importantconsequencesin the "social" and in the
politicalworld;but to say thatit broughtclosertogetherthe sacred
and the secularseemsto me to confusethe holywiththe religious.
To hold that all Christianswere entitledto be "religious" was
preciselyto hold that neitherany Christianindividually, nor any
Christianestate,northewholecollectivity in whichtheyparticipated,
was entitledto claiman objectiveconditionof holiness.
To get some idea of the significanceof thisaffirmationforsocial
historyproperlyspeaking,thereadermayconsideran important fact
to whichObermandrawsattentionand judge betweentwo contra-
dictoryinterpretations of it. He cites a series of representative
writersfromSt. Bernardto theearlyLutherfortheviewthatin the
85Cf.themostimportant discussionin W. CantwellSmith,TheMeaningand

EndofReligion (New York,1964),ch.2. Herethemeaningofreligio is rescued
fromthe "reification" whichhas fallenupon the wordsincethe seventeenth
century, its almosttotalabsence(exceptin thesenseofreligiousorder)in the
medievalchurchremarked on,anditsreintroduction ascribedto thehumanists,
originallyFicino,thencevia Zwinglito Calvin. For themitmeansthesameas
"piety" (Institutioreligionischristianaemeans "An Instruction in Christian
Piety",not"The Institutions oftheChristian Religion"),and so forCantwell
Smith; but this seems to be a humanistaberration, withlittlesupportin
classicalLatin,wherethedistinction is as in thetext,and contrary to medieval
usage,wherepietasnormally meanscompassiontowardsothers(C. du Cange,
Glossarium mediaeetinfimae vi,ed. L. Favre,Niort,1886,pp. 315if.);
latinitatis,
hencethesculptedPieta,wherethepietasis towardsChristas man,notas God.
Augustine, Civitasdei,x. I (quotedin CantwellSmith,op. cit.,p. 197note49)
arguesthatneitherreligionor pietasis a satisfactory word to describethe
Christian'srelationto God, since each means ties betweenmen as well as
betweenmanand God. I am mostgrateful to KeithThomasforintroducing
me to CantwellSmith'sbook.
I" HeikoA. Oberman,"The Shape of Late MedievalThought:The Birth-
pangsoftheModernEra", in PursuitofHoliness, pp. 3-25,esp. pp. 6, 15ff.,25.
HOLINESS AND SOCIETY 131I
old dispensationthe holinessof the Churchand its governorswas
made manifestby theirpowerto transmit to the bodyof Christians
the conditionof peace, and conversely thatthe absenceof peace was
an indicationoftheirfailureto be holy. For himthisis a case ofthe
separationof the sacred and the secular,and the implicationsof
"that hierarchyof being wherepeace and justicein the worldare
derivedfromthesacred,fromsanctification and legitimationthrough
the sacramentsand the jurisdictionof the Church" are exclusively
transcendental.37This does not seem to me to accord with the
practiceof late medievalChristianity as a social system.
Peace in mostmedievalthinking is notan abstractconditionbut a
stateof social relations. To followthe expositionof Otto Brunner,
it is the equivalentof "friendship",the opposite of enmityor
(loosely) of feud.38 It can thereforenot simplybe imposed or
transmitted fromabove; it requiresactionand collaboration on the
partofindividualsor groups,a processofarbitration or reconciliation
in which jurisdictioncommonlyconsists,and whichis needed to
accompanythe operationof the sacramentitself,as in the Corpus
Christiprocessionor thesacrament ofpenance. In eithercase,to be
sure, there is a distinctionbetween the sacred and the secular:
formally, peace is notholyin itselfbuta diagnosticsignor congruous
conditionof the holy. Those who, in the pax-ritualof the mass,
"receivethe bond of peace and charity"are made "apt forthe most
holymysteries of God".39 Yet therearecertainly somelatemedieval
authoritiesfor whomthis borderis permeable:San Bernardinois
87 Ibid., pp. I6, I8.

S Otto Brunner, Land und Herrschaft: Grundfragender territorialen
Verfassungsgeschichte imMittelalter,4th edn. (Vienna and Wiesbaden,
Osterreichs
1959), pp. I-IIo, "Friede und Fehde"; cf. my own "Blood and Baptism",
pp. 138 if. The various concepts of peace, and their origins, are discussed
in J. M. Wallace-Hadrill,
"War and Peace in theEarlyMiddleAges", Trans.
Roy. Hist. Soc., 5th ser., xxv (I975), PP. 157-74, at forexample p. 16I, but the
one describedin thetextseemsto predominate
in latemedievalEurope,as in
Erasmus, Querela pacis, trans. in The Essential Erasmus,ed. J. P. Dolan (New
York, 1974), PP. 177-204. For practical evidence of its long-standing
relationshipwith the idea of holiness,see Peter Brown,"The Rise and
Functionof the Holy Man in Late Antiquity", RomanStudies,lxi (I97I),
pp. 80-IoI; H. Mayr-Harting, "Functionsof fl.
a Twelfth-CenturyRecluse",
History,lx (1975), PP. 340 ff.; and cf. Iris Origo, The Worldof San Bernardino
(London, 1963), pp. 131-58, and my own "The Counter-Reformationand the
People of Catholic Ireland, 1596-1641", Historical Studies [Dublin], viii (I974),
pp. 158 ff. A comparable in medievalEurope,betweenthesacred
association,
and the bringingof peace is describedin FriedrichHeer, The Holy Roman
Empire, trans.JanetSondheimer(London,1968),pp. 6, 13 ff.,78 ff.,83, 125;
butthepeacein questionseemsusuallyto be theRomanpax whichis associated
withvictory. See also the textsprintedby Louise Cuyler,"The Imperial
Motet",in PursuitofHoliness,pp. 488,493. JanetNelson'sdistinction ofthe
"sacral"fromthe"sacred"in her"RoyalSaintsandEarlyMedievalKingship",
seems relevanthere,and the firsttermwould applymoreobviouslyto the
imperialpax.
3O"Blood and Baptism", p. 141.
one of them,40 and anothermay be Queen Isabella, for whom

the body whichkeeps the peace in her kingdomis a holybrother-
hood. And fortheaveragemanI do notthinkit can be said to have
existedat all. Justas theholinessoftheEucharisthad rubbedoffon
to thepax whichwas intendedto prepareforit, untilthisbecamean
acceptablesubstitute;justas theprogressofthefraternity had tended
to confusethe line of distinctionbetweenthe sacrumconvivium
and the straightforward fraternal
beanfeast;41 so the public rituals
of social peace had acquired in the common understanding an
intrinsicholinesswhichwas exposed to view,in sixteenth-century
France,by the outragewhichattendedthe refusalof Protestants to
participatein them, and fuelledtheindignation with which Catholics
united to exterminatethe sacrilegiousbody from their midst.42
A studentof mine,broughtup in a Catholicquarterof Belfast,tells
me that his family,as Protestants,was invited to take itself
elsewhereon the groundsthatit was, verbatim, "spoilingthe peace
of the parish".
I thinkwe haveto understand twothingsabouttheframeofmind
of the averageman on theeve of the Reformation.The firstis that
peace is holy,notsimplybecauseit is an effect ofthepresenceof the
sacraments and mostspecificallyofthesupremephysicalembodiment
of the holinessof the God of Christians, the Host, but also because
it is whathe willnotexpectto prevailin the ordinarycourseof life.
It is other,the blessingof days set apartand markedoffby ritual.
It carriesin his mindthe aura of objectivitywhichPeterBrownhas
placed among the social of
characteristics the holy,and whichis in
stark contrast to the partisan subjectivityof everydaysocial
experience.43 The second is thatthe ritualwhichachievesit is an
essentialpartof the processby whichhe is saved. The traditional
man is also a federaltheologian,a man in possessionof a covenant;
buthisfoedusis morelikea covenantofpeacethana covenantofgrace.
What his betterstold him entitledhim to believethatthis was so.
To quotea thirteenth-century Englishsynod:"Since onlybytemporal
peace and by peace of the heart can we come to the peace of
eternity...". To follow Erasmus: "There can be no peace where
God is not present,nor God wherepeace is not to be found". To
followthemagistratesofthetownof Schwiibisch Gmundin theearly
sixteenth
century, thepeace of the cityis theconditionof theeternal
40Origo,op. cit.,pp. 155ff.- "holy"peaceand unity,ti proposof Siena.

41Cf.my"Blood and Baptism",p. 141; andmy"The Counter-Reformation
and the People of CatholicEurope", Past and Present,no. 47 (May 1970),
PP. 51-70o.
42 Davis, "The RitesofViolence",pp. 66, 73 ff.
,S Brown,"The Rise and Functionof the Holy Man in Late Antiquity",
PP. 91-3.
salvationofitsmembers.44For all ofthemthereconciliation ofman
to man is the conditionof the reconciliation of man to God, and for
the faithfulto whomtheyspoke it would seem clear thatit was a
condition. Those who sabotagethe ritualby whichpeace
sufficient
is secured among men are obstructingthe communityin the
fulfilment of its partin a social contractwithGod, and threatening
the eternaldamnationof all. The unionof Catholicsin the French
wars of religionis therefore a Holy Union forwhatmay seem the
paradoxicalreasonthatpeace, to the commonman, is substantially
and not derivatively holy; it not simplyreveals but compels the
presenceof God, it is inviolable,and it is also the meansof his own
salvation.
If then we are consideringthe qualified representatives of
unreformed Europe, we are I believe entitledto find Oberman's
diagnosisof a "separation"of the sacredand the secular,exceptin
thepurelyformalsensethattheholyis by definition alwaysseparate,
exaggeratedand misleading;in social as in politicaltheory,thereis
an ascendingas well as a descendingtheme,whichis nowhereso
clearlystated as in the late medieval brotherhood.45If we are
consideringthe mass of the Christianpopulation,I believe thatit
is thereverseofthetruth. I believealso,speakingpurelyofthesocial
dimensionof Christianity, thatwhenwe come to the Reformers we
are met, in the firstplace, not with the introductionof a new
covenant,but withthedissolutionofan old one. Luther'sexclama-
tionin thesis92: "Away,then,withthoseprophetswhosayto Christ's
people, 'Peace, Peace', where thereis no peace", modelled as it
mayhave been on St. Bernard,looksto me likethe end of a road.46
In the fieldwe have surveyed,Luther's achievementwas to have
separatedthecocklefromthewheat:histheologyofsalvationsevered
a bond betweenthe holyand actual statesof humanrelations;the
"sacred society" of Moeller's late medievalcity was dissolved,"
the religiouscommunityand the particularfraternity abolished,
charityexcludedfromits partin the machinery ofsalvation,pietyin
the sense describedabove (a main issue in the argumentabout
indulgences)eliminatedfromamong the obligationsof religion.48
"4F. M. Powickeand C. R. Cheney(eds.), Councilsand Synods[of] the
EnglishChurch, i, 1205-1265(Oxford,1964),p. 64 (synodalstatutesofSalisbury,
1217-19);Erasmus,Querelapacis, p. 183; Moeller, ImperialCitiesand the
Reformation, p. 62 note39.
41 Cf. P. Michaud-Quantin, Universitas:Expressions du mouvement com-
munautaire dansle moyen-dge latin(Paris,1970),p. 268.
48 MartinLuther: Selections fromhis Writings, ed. J. Dillenberger(New
York,1961),p. 5oo; PursuitofHoliness, p. 16. The originalsourceis Jeremiah,
vi. 14.
47 Moeller,op. cit.,pp. 46, 90, etc.
48 See Tetzel,in R. H. Bainton, HereI Stand(New York,1955edn.),p. 61;
and GabrielBiel, in E. Iserloh,The TheseswerenotPosted: Lutherbetween
Reform and Reformation, trans.J. Wicks(London,1968),p. 12.
134 PASTANDPRESENTNUMBER 75
Upon the Christianity of the averagecontemporary soul, his grand
affirmation that"I, you, the Church,the city,the people are holy,
not by our own but by an alien,not by an activebut by a passive
sanctity"49descendedas a drasticdislocationofa partnership between
the sacredand the secular;in the social universe,it seemsto me to
justifytheclaimof Guy Swanson,howeverincautiously phrasedand
crudelyexecuted,thatthe issue in the Reformation was immanence
versustranscendence.50One might well express the difference
throughthetwo quotationscitedat the beginningof thisdiscussion:
the anthropologist'sview of religionas an extensionof the fieldof
people's given social relationshipswould seem to correspondfairly
well to the stateof mindof the pre-Reformation Christian,though
exceptin one particularcase he wouldnothavedescribedthisexten-
sion as "religious"; Oxenstierna'sclaim thatreligionitselfis what
creates social relations, so that people must have the same
"religion"(by whichhe could have meantcult but probablymeant
belief) if they are to maintainsociety with each other, seems
characteristicof the post-Reformation world.s1 (It would be
possibletotreatthefirst halfofOxenstierna'sformulation as tradition-
alist ratherthanmodernist;whichis perhapsan indicationof the
traditionalistcharacterof SwedishProtestantism.)We can see the
transitionfromone to the otherin the townsof sixteenth-century
Germany, and in thoseof sixteenth-centuryFrancea savageconflict
betweenpeople whose instinctslay on eitherside; thoughthe fact
of confessionaldivisionwould soon imprintthe secondview in the
mindsofnearlyeveryone, as wellas Protestant
Catholictraditionalists
iconoclasts.52
WhatI have calledthe covenantof peace maythenbe regardedas
a casualtyofthe periodof Christianhistorywe are considering. Its
enfeeblement would seem to be illustratedby the passage, which
Obermandescribesas "decisive",fromtheviewof Gersonthat"love
has the natureof unitinghomogeneousthings"(includingamong
theseman and God, as spiritualbeings),to Luther'sassertionthat
49 Quoted in Karl Barth,ChurchDogmatics: iv, The DoctrineofReconciliation,

i, trans.G. W. Bromiley(Edinburgh,1956),p. 693. I hope I have followed
correctly of theproblem,pp. 685-701.
Barth'sexposition
1oGuy Swanson, Religionand Regime(Ann Arbor, 1967), pp. r-39.
"xCf. Thomas,"An Anthropology of Religionand Magic,II", pp. 96, IoI
note 24, and Cantwell Smith,Meaning and End ofReligion. Language verylike
Thomas's is used by Becker(Pursuitof Holiness,p. 186) in describingthe
religiousatmosphere oftheBrancaccichapelfrescoes - "thesepious gestures
servedto createa network ofinter-personal thatwas at thecenter
relationships
of this sacral community";whichconfirms my feelingthat Masaccio was
expressing religiousemotionratherthana novelone. "Pious"
a traditional
seemsprecisely in note 38
the correctwordhere;"sacral", if thedistinction
aboveis correct, shouldread"sacred".
52
Cf. Cantwell Smith, op. cit., pp. 38-44.
"this lifeis not the habitationof righteousness
(justitia)".53 If we
are to agreethatthe age of Renaissanceand Reformation was a time
whenpeoplewereengagedinthepursuitofholiness,it willbe because
duringthis time holinesswas withdrawing fromcontactwith the
social, as with the physical,world. True, the new forms of
Christianity were to breed visiblesaints,whose sanctitywould be
embodied in their society; but with a degree of stress which
indicatesthe fissilepower released in its segregationfromcrude
togetherness, pure goodwill,or the vulgarneed to make friendsin
superiorplaces. Their societieswouldbe worksofartor giftsfrom
above,.and theywouldtakea considerably stifferview of whatwere
homogeneousthings.54
The finalsectionofthevolumeenablesme to maketwoconcluding

points,one to illustrate
the changeI have been describing,
the other
to suggesta possibleline of explanation. Two culturalhistorians
discuss problemsin the relationof sacred and secular in their
respectivefields. Louise Cuyler offersan example of the inter-
penetration of "sacred" and secularelementsin the musicalpractice
of the late medievalworld,and drawsattentionto the segregation
between them which was effectedby the Council of Trent.55
CreightonGilbert'sdiscussionof the relationbetweenpaintingsof
the Last Supperand the social settingsforwhichtheywerepainted
goes a good deal deeper,and is extremely pertinenthere,sincethe
rituals of collectiveeating forma criticalarea of our subject.56
On the face of it, his distinctionof a series of non-sacramental
Last Suppers which were painted for fifteenth-century monastic
refectoriesfromthe properlyeucharisticsceneswhichwerepainted
as altar-pieces
pointsin a directioncontrary
to theone whichhas been
takenhere. He associatesthe appearanceof the firstgenre,about
1450,withthe emergenceof the religiousthemeof the imitationof
Christ, of a feelingfor Christianitywhere the ethical element
preponderated overtheritual. His studyseemsa ratherconvincing,
and certainly mostattractive,demonstration of how muchthe social
historyof Christianity can receivefroma perceptivestudyof art.
It seemsto indicatesomething underwayinthehistory ofthereligious
lifewhichwastoterminate beforelonginthefoundation oftheSociety
S3 Pursuit of Holiness, p. 20 note 2; Steven E. Ozment, Homo spiritualis

(Leiden,1969),pp. 77, 179ff. Some confusionmaybe causedbya misplaced
commain Oberman'squotation.
"4 I am thinking
hereofGeoffrey Nuttall,VisibleSaints: The Congregational
Way, z640o-66o (Oxford,I957); one mightperhapsalso thinkof the Society
ofJesus.
"6 Louise Cuyler,"The ImperialMotet",in PursuitofHoliness, pp. 483-96.
"5CreightonGilbert,"Last Suppersand theirRefectories", in Pursuitof
Holiness,pp. 371-402.
I36 PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER 75
ofJesus. All thesameit seemspossibleto overdoitsdeparture from

traditionalassumptions. Gilbertshows some respectforan inter-
pretationof thesepaintings,contrary to his own,whichclaimsthem
as "sacramentaland eucharistic"in intention,and as tendingto
turnthe refectory into "a sortof oratoryor chapel". He mustbe
rightto insistthatthe kind of confusionof social eatingwiththe
eucharistwhichwe mightexpectto findin a ruralfraternity wouldnot
prevailamong a body of theologically expertFlorentinereligious.
Still,whatthevieweris beingaskedto imitateis Christat a meal,and
the occasionmustsurelybe presumedto have some ritualvalue in
itself. It seems worthremarking that most examplesof his other
kindoftreatment ofthesubject,thosedesignedforaltar-pieces, seem
to havebeen commissioned forwhomthisritualvalue
byfraternities,
wouldcertainly go withoutsaying. In short,whileitwouldbe foolish
to claimthatnothingnewwashappeningin a genreofpaintings which
culminatedwithLeonardo'sLast Supper,I cannothelpreadingthem
in the lightof what a canon-lawhistorianhas told us, that "the
convivium ... is the centralact of everymanifestation of solidarity
in the middleages".57 As such it possessesa holinessof its own.
This bringsme to myexplanatory suggestion. Convivium, as the
same authority has pointedout,is a possiblesynonym forfraternity,
and the two concepts are intimatelyrelated.58 A decline in
conviviality is a declinein brotherhood,and wouldbe an illustration
of somethingwhichmanyof the contributors to the volumehave
indicated,a transfer of potencywithinthe societasChristianaaway
fromthelateralgroup,fromformswhichincludedthe"incorporated
holymen" ofthereligiouscommunity and theassociationsofartificial
andnaturalkinship. Thereseemstobe a goodcaseforsupposingthat
the beneficiary of thistransferwas the verticalgroupof whichthe
visibleembodimentwas the nuclearfamilyand the domesticunit:
that what was going on was a passage froman ideal of Christian
brotherhood to one of Christianfatherhood.We cannotbalancethe
two termsexactly:if the idea of a flightof the holyfromthe social
scene is exact,thenwe shouldhave to expressthe changeas a shift
froma brotherhood whichwas ormightbe holyto a fatherhood which
could be no morethanreligious. Yet this disparity, whateverelse
may explainit, will admitof a social interpretation.A fraternally
constituted community maycall foran elementof objectiveholiness
in its midst because its constituentsare mutuallyexclusiveand
engenderconflict oftheirnature;a paternally constitutedcommunity,
whoseunitsare not inherently in conflictwitheach other,can make
do with a holinesswhichis not of this world. I fear this is an
excessivelyabstractanalysis,and will therefore referto threetexts
6 Michaud-Quantin,
Universitas,
p. 91.
58Ibid.,p. 198.
which may seem to supportit, or parts of it. The firstis the
FlorentinecardinalGiovanniDominici's Regoladel governodi cura
familiare, dating from the early fifteenthcentury and cited
independentlyby several of the contributorsto this volume;
Dominici insistson the overridingreligiousobligationof parents
and childrento one another,shows a fiercehatredof the larger
"amiciziae parentado",and assertsso strongly thatmembershipof
sects and partiesis incompatiblewith salvationas to make barely
tolerablethe survivalof particular"religious"communities.The
secondis Thomas More's Utopia,on whosepatriarchal implications
J. H. Hexterand D. B. Fenlon have somethingto say. The third
is Calvin's celebrated exegesis of Deuteronomyxxiii. 19-20:
"Thou shaltnotlend upon usuryto thybrother",withitsreflections
on the differencebetween the "conjonctionfraternelle"which
obtainedamongthe ancientHebrews,and the "conjunction"which
was appropriateto sixteenth-century Christians.59Calvin's breach
oftheusurytaboomayhavehad littleeffect on the economichistory
of Europe; as evidencein the social historyof Christianityit seems
extremely significant.
If mydescription ofwhatwasinvolvedin thetransition ofChristian
societyfrom"medieval" to "modern" is in any degreecorrect,it
wouldbe naturalto lookforan explanationofthe transition in facts
affectingfatherhoodand brotherhood, motherhoodand sisterhood,
duringthe period. Some, like the receptionof Romanlaw"0 or the
fourthcommandment, seem strongcandidates;others,like the age
of marriage,have as yetto provetheircredentials. Whateverthey
are,it wouldbe sillyto jumpto conclusionsaboutthem,or to assume
thatthehistoryofthefamilyis theonlydirectionin whichit is worth
looking. A reconsideration ofthetheme"religionand society"need
not entailexchangingone totalismforanother.
Queen'sUniversity,
Belfast JohnBossy
59Giovanni Dominici, Regola del governo di cura familiare, ed. D. Salvi

(Florence, I86o), pp. 62 ff.,98 ff.,126, 138 ff.,149, 158, 178; cf. David Herlihy,
"Some Psychological and Social Roots of Violence in the Tuscan Cities", in
L. Martines (ed.), Violenceand Civil Disorderin Italian Cities (Berkeley,1972),
p. 129; J. H. Hexter, in The CompleteWorksof St. Thomas More, iv, Utopia,
ed. Edward Surtz and J. H. Hexter (Yale Edn., New Haven, Conn., 1965),
pp. xli tf.;D. B. Fenlon, "England and Europe: Utopia and Its Aftermath",
Trans. Roy. Hist. Soc., 5th ser., xxv (1975), PP. 120-3; Nelson, The Idea of
Usury,pp. 78 ff.,141 ff.
'0 On which,see Gaudemet, Les communautis familiales,pp. 121-31, 180.

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The Past and Present Society

Holiness and Society

* I ammostgratefultoMargaretAstonforhercomments onan earlierversion

of Maitre Garlache Sonyn layingupon his widow the charge of

role in this effortof the public procession,and especiallyof the

maylead to a degradation ofargument, and havedoneso in Galpern's

would be hard to reconcilewith the chronology, since they were

l. Trexler, op. cit., pp. 200ooff.

Reformation);22 I do not thinkwe should place more burdenson

of guilt;it is implied,I think,thatthereal objectis not to

piety,whichmay be treatedas a synonymforreligionbut in the

85Cf.themostimportant discussionin W. CantwellSmith,TheMeaningand

87 Ibid., pp. I6, I8.

one of them,40 and anothermay be Queen Isabella, for whom

40Origo,op. cit.,pp. 155ff.- "holy"peaceand unity,ti proposof Siena.

49 Quoted in Karl Barth,ChurchDogmatics: iv, The DoctrineofReconciliation,

The finalsectionofthevolumeenablesme to maketwoconcluding

S3 Pursuit of Holiness, p. 20 note 2; Steven E. Ozment, Homo spiritualis

ofJesus. All thesameit seemspossibleto overdoitsdeparture from

59Giovanni Dominici, Regola del governo di cura familiare, ed. D. Salvi

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