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Discussion Questions1. What part did books play in shaping opinion
and at what point in the process of conversion and opinion forming were they most likely to be influential? (See Pettegree, p. 156.)
2. In what ways do we see “an active commitment” (p. 187) to Protestantism? Does this activism belong to the “culture of persuasion”? How?
3. Does “the power of the crowd” (p. 214) help explain the success or failure of the Reformation? Consider examples from Pettegree’s book and other assigned readings in the course.
Discussion Questions4. Now that you have completed Pettegree’s
book, where do you think he belongs in the debate over the success or failure of the Reformation?
5. Pettegree's idea of “new solidarities” is not merely relevant to Protestantism. It is also evident in Holt’s article. How does it figure in the failure of Protestantism in Dijon?
6. In evaluating the success or failure of the Reformation, can or should we separate social forces from religious identity? What does Holt’s article suggest?
Reformation and the Culture of Persuasion Our purposes in reading the book:
1. to assess the effectiveness of various media to present and gain acceptance of the religious message of the Reformation
2. to supplement our investigation of the debate about the success / failure of the Reformation. Can you find connections between the book and the assigned articles and MacCulloch’s Reformation?
Questions to keep in mind:1. How do we assess effectiveness?2. Does effective presentation of the Reformation
message necessarily mean acceptance of the message?
Pamphlets and Persuasion Why did people buy books?
Not just to read from cover to cover. “as a badge of identity…as a
memento…as a mark of professional status…to signal social aspiration…as a fashion statement…for reassurance…through a sense of obligation, to honour someone we admire. …out of idle curiosity…as gifts” (157)
Pamphlets and Persuasion: The Crowd Made Text “Why did people buy pamphlets in the sixteenth
century?” (159) Those who bought large books also bought
small books: true of France and Low Countries where Protestant books forbidden.
pamphlet wars in 1520s: ca. 6,000 editions x 1,000 copies each = 6,000,000 copies2,000,000 copies in Paris, 1589-90, in support
of Catholic League collections of pamphlets often bundled
together in printer’s shop: pamphlets valuable as individual works and as ensembles
Pamphlets and Persuasion: The Crowd Made Text domestication of the literature of protest
“created an impression of cacophony and irresistible pressure. They were the crowd made text” (162). the work of educated writers
but collective dimension “created the impression of an overwhelming tide, an unstoppable movement of opinion. …Their force lay in the power—or the appearance—of collective, irresistible might” (163)
Pamphlets and Persuasion: Pamphlet Moments 1518-1526 in Germany = ca. 6,000,000
copies for first time book market dominated by small
books in German (not Latin)Protestants dominated book market Luther dominated but 2,500,000 copies by
other authors in support of Luther before 1546
Flugschriften = pamphlets
Pamphlets and Persuasion: Pamphlet Moments Luther benefited from simplification
supporters emphasized clerical corruptionGhent baker Lieven de Zomere owned at
least two books by Luther a local cleric read him some of Babylonian
Captivity of the Church (1520) de Zomere did not understand
sola scriptura a powerful doctrine, reinforced by Luther’s New Testament in German (1522)manifested “in the pulpit, on stage, in the Bible
itself”(170)
Pamphlets and Persuasion: Pamphlet Moments pamphlet literature of the Lutheran
Reformation: provided the frisson of danger, a taste of the forbidden, disapproved or controversial, without, in fact, being dangerous” (170)
1560s in Northern Europe
Pamphlets and Persuasion: Proxy Evangelists vigilance re: vernacular books; rules against
printing works of forbidden authors; pre-publication censorship by university
France: “public support for the Reformation was, from the first, rendered impossible” (172) re: pulpit.
discreet / disguised publications; but still dangerous
rise of publication of Bibles in 1540s and 1550s: “an economic lifeline for printers” (175)
Pamphlets and Persuasion: Proxy Evangelists “How effectively had books been able to
function as proxies for evangelism in a climate of hostility and repression?” (175)
control of dissemination successful to a pointbooks “still proved most effective when they
played a supporting role among other media of evangelical agitation” (176)
books help sustain faith of small secretive groups.
Pamphlets and Persuasion: Proxy Evangelists “How effectively had books been able to
function as proxies for evangelism in a climate of hostility and repression?” (175) “The proxy evangelism of clandestine
literature kept the Reformation alive, but at a price, since many self-trained adepts arrived at views that could not be contained within the developing orthodoxies of the new movement” (176) exile churches important re: proper formation
of future leaders
Pamphlets and Persuasion: Two Tribes
“How do we judge the contribution of books to this vast turbulent movement of protest and religious renewal?” (277)second pamphlet moment, Northern
Europe, 1560sintense, prolific, printing inside France;
printers used Genevan emblems to attract interest
Pamphlets and Persuasion: Two Tribes
“What can we say of the role, tone, and content of the printed polemic of Protestantism in this new period of opportunity?” (179)print part of “a broad, cross-media movement
of public agitation and debate” (179) intermingling of religious and political
themes; in France: attack on Guise family
Pamphlets and Persuasion: Two Tribes
Catholic pamphlets on counter-attack “Between 1560 and 1565 the polemical
battle between Catholics and Protestants was waged with an unprecedented ferocity in France. Never before in the Reformation century had two contending parties made their case to the reading public with such force, or with evident lack of mutual sympathy” (182-83).
Davies’ rules of propaganda: simplification, disfiguration, transfusion, unanimity, transfiguration
New Solidarities
weakness of confessionalization paradigm: not all change imposed from above
Pettegree’s focus: “an active commitment to a form of religion” (187)
New Solidarities: Schools of Christ Bible: “In this book the print culture of the
sixteenth century was displayed in all its technical sophistication” (191). 5,000,000 vernacular copies in the
sixteenth century also in the godly home: music sermons, catechism service, communal
singing: inculcated “values of the new religion” (193).
New Solidarities: Schools of Christ
“Even in the towns, of course, the most zealous instruction could not guarantee agreement among the citizens who brought their own increasingly autonomous readings to what they heard in the pulpit, or read in their books at home. Empowerment of a theologically informed laity brought its own dangers.” (193-94)
New Solidarities: Battles half won French Huguenots create separate culture: dress,
names for children, marriage, business practices 1572 massacres: destruction, dislocation, sense
of embattlement, moral rigour of Huguenot ministers
Netherlands: consistorial discipline allowed by authorities only for those who freely submitted themselves to it; two types of adherents: full confessing members and sympathizers who did not communicate
England: vestiarian controversy; gentry patronage of godly preachers; but godly not separatists
New Solidarities: Godly kin & godly nation creation of Protestant community beyond
local worship practice: Protestant histories, martyrologies, calendars cleansing of Catholic calendar, promotion of
Protestant calendar with new days of commemoration
biblical events, contemporary martyrsnew commemorations could not be easily
imposed from above
New Solidarities: Godly kin & godly nation Protestant identity:
narrow in focus, exclusive and limited, common heritage and broad fellowship
incubated at school, home, everyday commerce of sociability
most potent when under threat from Catholicism
Culture of Belonging “the urgent tone of conflict and call for
activism best conveyed by the oral means of articulating the new teachings: by preaching and by song” (212)
extent of Protestant success or failure: prejudiced by “gloomy reflections of the reformers themselves” (213) disjunction between reformers’ aims and
process of church building transmitting knowledge vs. “culture of
belonging.”
;
Culture of Belonging “The essentials of faith were mediated—or
possibly only inferred—around the constant enactment of the religious life as sharing: a parish religion, a civic culture, a familial experience embracing generations past” (213).
“In order to succeed, the Reformation had to replace institutions and associations damned by evangelical criticism with a new complex of loved, lived solidarities (213).disjunction between reformers’ aims and process of church building” (213).
;
Culture of Belonging the importance of the crowd, the counter-
community symbols: “badges of belonging” (215)
medals, tokens woodcut as “badge of identity” pamphlets too, hence punishment for
possession
;
Wine, Community and Reformation In evaluating the success or failure of the Reformation,
can or should we separate social forces from religious identity? What does Holt’s article suggest?1. What view of the Reformation does Holt’s article
imply?2. Can we safely label as Counter-Reformation the
events as well as the social and cultural forces that prevented the establishment of Protestantism in Dijon?
3. The articles by Scribner, Goodale, and Holt all direct attention to “social forces” when considering the success or failure of the Reformation. Do you notice any similarities or differences in interpretations and methodology among the three articles?