HI266 Deviance and Non-conformity
The Chronology of
Deviance
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/c
hronology/
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)
Pope Innocent III (11611216)
•
Regulated relations with
Jews, Muslims, Lepers etc.
•
The Crusades (1095 – 1291)
•
Gregory IX established the
Inquisition in 1233
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)
Consequences of the
C11th and C12th Reforms
“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”
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.
13th Century England
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 Expulsion
Edward I of England (1272-1307)
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 – Württemberg
Cathedral (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 (CounterReformation) following Council of Trent
between 1545 and 1563
Consequences of the Reformation
The Anabaptists siege Münster 1534
John of Leiden (c.1509-1536)
Bernard Knipperdolling (c.1495-1536)
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 Reformation
17th 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 Nederman
Beyond 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 Jews
Anon., 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’
• Municipal brothels:
Venice 1360
• ‘Office of Decency’
(Onesta) in Florence
Saint Thomas Aquinas
(1225-1274)
Pre-modern Prostitutes
Expert witnesses
Key debates/ideas
Michel Foucault
Discipline 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