The Chronology of Deviance
Chronologies
Medieval – c.500–1500
Early Modern – c.1500–1800
Moore thesis – C11th–C13th
Renaissance – c.1300–1650 depending on location and context
Enlightenment – c.1650–1800
Pre-modern encompasses all
Key medieval events
Moore thesis:
 Church reforms of the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries – papal authority; canon (church)
law; papal court
 Fourth Lateran Council (1215) established by Innocent III – regulation of relations
with Jews and Muslims
 The Crusades (1095–1291) and the Inquisition (1233) in response to perceived
threat of ‘heretics’ – especially rise of Cathars in S. France and N. Italy
C12–C15th – consolidation of state power:
 C12th France – Inquisition to combat spread of religious sectarianism
 C13th England – increasing regulations to control Jews, esp. under Edward I:
1275 – Jews prohibited from lending money at interest, subject to high levels
of taxation and forced to wear a ‘marking’ badge
1290 – Edict of Expulsion
 C15th Spain – reforms of Isabella and Ferdinand > expulsion of the Muslims from
Spain (1480)
Key early modern developments
C16th – Religious changes/upheavals:
 The Reformation – begins with Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses in 1517
 The Catholic Reformation (Counter-Reformation) begins with Council of Trent >
consolidation of Catholic power and new Inquisitions against deviant groups
 1534–1535 – Siege of German town of Münster by the Anabaptists
 1562–1598 – French Wars of Religion
C17th – New groups of deviants
 1618–1648 – Thirty Years War
 ‘Witchcraze’ – partially caused by Protestant rejection of ‘superstition’
 Social and economic problems > increased regulation, e.g. poor, vagrants, gypsies,
religious minorities.
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Early modern toleration
Laursen and Nederman – Early modern Europe symbolic more of increasing toleration,
rather than increasing persecution.
Continuity and Change
Religious deviants, e.g. Jews:
 1348–1350 Black death > accusations that Jews (along with Muslims and Lepers)
were poisoning wells to spread the disease
 1349 Strasbourg Massacre of the Jews
 C16th and C17th Jews are still lumped together with other religious deviants –
believed to be part of greater conspiracy to overthrow the Church
 1650 – emergence of the Quakers – heavily persecuted between 1650 and 1680
Sexual deviants, e.g. Prostitutes:
 Based on pre-modern notions of women as ‘weaker sex’ and more prone to sin
 C13th regulations across Europe to control movement
 Late-medieval and early modern Sumptuary Laws to control what they wore
 C14th > municipal brothels (first in Venice in 1360)
 Often called upon as ‘expert’ witnesses in the courts
Historiography
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Michel Foucault (Discipline and Punish) state regulation > prison and sanatorium of
C19th
Max Weber – importance of agents and officials who enforce persecution
Nirenberg – historians should avoid generalisation, especially when focusing on a
specific group
Conclusions
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Not clear-cut – more helpful to view history of deviant groups as ‘pre-modern’, rather
than symptomatic of particular periods
Key difference between medieval and early modern = huge increase of state power
and role of states, rather than the church, in defining standards > new groups of
deviants
BUT continuity and change depending on case-studies – groups can at once be
regulated, tolerated, institutionalised and even called on as ‘experts’
Chronology of Deviance provided on module website:
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/students/modules/deviance/chronology/
Naomi Pullin
n.r.wood@warwick.ac.uk
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