Dying, Death, Burial and Commemoration in Reformation Europe

Elizabeth C. Tingle, Jonathan Willis

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781472430144
• eBook ISBN: 9781317147480
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Early Modern History

In recent years, the rituals and beliefs associated with the end of life and the commemoration of the dead have increasingly been identified as of critical importance in understanding the social and cultural impact of the Reformation. The associated processes of dying, death and burial inevitably generated heightened emotion and a strong concern for religious propriety: the ways in which funerary customs were accepted, rejected, modified and contested can therefore grant us a powerful insight into the religious and social mindset of individuals, communities, Churches and even nation states in the post-reformation period. This collection provides an historiographical overview of recent work on dying, death and burial in Reformation and Counter-Reformation Europe and draws together ten essays from historians, literary scholars, musicologists and others working at the cutting edge of research in this area. As well as an interdisciplinary perspective, it also offers a broad geographical and confessional context, ranging across Catholic and Protestant Europe, from Scotland, England and the Holy Roman Empire to France, Spain and Ireland. The essays update and augment the body of literature on dying, death and disposal with recent case studies, pointing to future directions in the field. The volume is organised so that its contents move dynamically across the rites of passage, from dying to death, burial and the afterlife. The importance of spiritual care and preparation of the dying is one theme that emerges from this work, extending our knowledge of Catholic ars moriendi into Protestant Britain. Mourning and commemoration; the fate of the soul and its post-mortem management; the political uses of the dead and their resting places, emerge as further prominent themes in this new research. Providing contrasts and comparisons across different European regions and across Catholic and Protestant regions, the collection contributes to and extends the existing literature on this important historiographical theme.

CHAPTER 1

The Pursuit of Power:
Death, Dying and the Quest for Social Control in the Palatinate, 1547–1610

Ruth Atherton

Death was a powerful and emotive force in the early modern period, with large amounts of literature, art and music devoted to the processes of dying, death and burial. Whilst the ars moriendi have received attention from scholars, there remains much work to be done on the social, cultural and political impact of the Reformation on death in local areas. With its focus on how the spiritual ministry of the dying and bereaved was handled in the Electoral Palatinate, this chapter offers an exploratory examination of how such care fits into the ‘top-down’ approach of confessionalization and the social disciplining activities of rulers.¹ It does so through an analysis of the church orders (Kirchenordnungen) published by the Palatine Electors between 1547 and 1601. The chapter contributes to a broader understanding of how the processes of dying, death, burial and commemoration were addressed in early modern Europe.

After the first Lutheran church order appeared in the Empire in 1525, there was a rapid increase in numbers during the 1530s and 1540s and the first church order to appear in the Palatinate was in 1547 during the rule of Friedrich II (r.1544–56).² Church orders were drawn up by leading theologians who aimed to encourage the reform of worship, doctrine and education and were endorsed – indeed, often commissioned – by the local ruler. They included varying degrees of instruction on the many duties and occasions that pastors would be required to undertake and participate in on a regular basis; for instance, there were instructions on how to conduct baptisms and weddings, holy day services, how to minister to prisoners, and they occasionally contained catechisms. Church orders offered suggestions for daily prayers, sermons with relevant Bible readings, and some even provided specific scripts to be read to the congregation or to individual parishioners at specific junctures in life. Though religious in context, church orders were fundamentally political documents because, despite being drawn up by leading Reformers, they only became legally binding when issued by the secular ruler in his name.³ Further, church orders provided the legal framework for the new faith and included rules regarding poor relief, marriage and so on. Traditionally, historians have attempted to group church orders into ‘families’ with a shared original source, although recent research has questioned both the number of such ‘families’, and even whether this type of grouping is possible.⁴

Regardless of any familial links, church ordinances became important vehicles for religious and moral education and also for promoting confessional uniformity. At the same time, they reveal clashes between the aims of the authors and their secular patrons as well as exposing the ways in which author and patron attempted to overcome popular resistance to religious change. Essentially, the Protestant authors (both Lutheran and Reformed) wanted the rudiments of their faiths to be absorbed into society. Yet, mindful of their reliance on secular authorities whose patronage and support was vital, as well as the reluctance of the general populace to forgo the often dramatic rituals they associated with piety, they were forced to temper their reforming zeal.⁵ For their part, the temporal elite were keen to extend their territorial power and encourage obedience from their subjects, including the Church; but again, there was only so much the ruler could try to force onto an unreceptive populace through a potentially unwilling and unlearned local pastor. Palatinate church orders represent the joint efforts made by both the Church and Elector to create a confessionally united, devout and obedient populace and the careful analysis of their content allows us to infer the perceived grassroots level responses to the religious upheavals that occurred throughout the territory.

The processes of dying and the subsequent funeral were excellent opportunities for teaching and instruction. They offered reformers the chance to impress key tenets of the faith onto the laity as well as the clergy, but they also demonstrate the ways in which entrenched social customs could collide with the new teachings. Concomitantly, while the authors of church orders saw the pastoral care of the sick and dying as a way to root out the superstitious and pagan practices which they believed the Catholic Church had allowed to flourish, the priority for temporal rulers was to exert control and implement confessional uniformity among their subjects.⁶ Finally, the Protestant Reformation collided with – and encouraged – a cultural shift which gradually saw greater emphasis being placed upon the laity to be responsible for their own salvation. The sensual piety of late-medieval Catholicism was challenged with the onset of the Reformation, which stressed that God was present spiritually but was not ‘approachable physically or susceptible of manipulation by humankind’.⁷ Thus dramatic displays of devotion were discouraged and the traditional methods of ritual consolation were declared inadequate either to secure salvation or reassure one of it. The laity therefore expected their pastors to be able to console them with words and sacraments as well as rituals (such as the Lord’s Supper) and the church orders attempted to arm the clergy with clear directions on how to console appropriately.⁸

As a research topic, Ronald Rittgers surmises that scholars have mainly focused on the importance of church ordinances ‘in the eventual hegemony of temporal rulers over the Protestant Church and the concomitant promotion of confessional uniformity, moral discipline, and a reinvigorated patriarchalism’.⁹ Jeffrey Jaynes has argued that ‘adopting a church order represented a critical aspect of confession building, or confessionalization’.¹⁰ Church orders have been used to advocate aspects of the confessionalization paradigm but, as Lincoln Mullen recently appraised, there is scant work analysing in depth the confessional documents themselves.¹¹ This present work will add to the growing body of literature on forms of confessionalization, social control, pedagogy and indoctrination.¹² Drawing on the theme of the importance of the spiritual care of the dying, this investigation will bolster the arguments of Marc Foster, Ute-Lotz Heumann and Marjorie Elizabeth Plummer that the ‘top-down’ approach advocated by proponents of the confessionalization paradigm does not adequately take into account how the people helped influence religious and political developments in their localities.¹³ Yet, whilst acknowledging the importance of popular agency, this work also recognises the validity of Susan Karant-Nunn’s assessment that the emphasis placed by ruling bodies on the importance of preparing for death was not just for the good of an individual’s soul but that ‘it was a mechanism used by the church and state for achieving that intensely sought order within the body politic’.¹⁴ Essentially, church orders reveal a conflict between popular agency and regulation of the populace that forced a form of compromise which is visible in each of the Palatine ordinances from 1547 to 1610.¹⁵ Of course, Church orders present historians with the same limitations as other vehicles of indoctrination (such as sermons and catechisms), because whilst they offer an insight into the available means of attempting to create confessional uniformity and improve education, they cannot offer a gauge of success. The prefaces of the ordinances perhaps hint at the perceived assessment of the religious, educational and moral fibre of society, but accurately appraising the mentality of the general populace remains largely beyond our grasp.¹⁶

Bestowed on the Wittelsbachs by Emperor Frederick II in 1214, the Palatinate was divided between the elder and junior branches of the family, with the former (Palatine Wittelsbachs) taking possession of the Rhine territories (Lower Palatinate) and the North Bavarian territories (Upper Palatinate). The junior branch (Bavarian Wittelsbachs) ruled the remaining Bavarian districts. There was fierce rivalry between the two branches over the coming centuries, and by the early sixteenth century the Bavarian Wittelsbachs had won a major victory over their Palatine relations in the Landshut War of Succession (1503–5), which enabled them to take possession of a number of Rhenish holdings. The territorial weakening of the Palatine Wittelsbachs, along with the danger posed by their Bavarian kin to the Electoral title, meant that the Electors were acutely aware of the political dangers of conflict and wanted to maintain good relations with the Habsburgs.¹⁷ Additionally, Elector Ludwig V (r.1508–44) had designs on episcopal benefices for his younger brothers and was thus keen to remain on good terms with Rome.¹⁸ Consequently, despite the infiltration of Lutheranism into the Palatine lands beginning in the 1520s, it was not until 1545 that positive signs of a move towards Lutheranism can be seen, with Elector Friedrich II (r.1544–56) and his wife, Dorothea, receiving communion in both kinds at Easter.¹⁹

Lutheranism was formally recognised in the Palatinate in 1546 when, after seeking approval from his nobles in April, Friedrich II published a series of edicts legalising the new faith. The first Palatine Lutheran church order was published the following year; significantly, however, without Friedrich’s name.²⁰ Irrespective of his own personal allegiance to Lutheranism, Friedrich was mindful of the political ramifications of publically embracing the new faith. During the Schmalkaldic War (1546–47), Friedrich had been guilty of assisting the Protestant Duke of Württemberg causing the Catholic Emperor, Charles V, to view him as an enemy. Upon the Emperor’s victory, Friedrich had to beg for mercy to prevent the loss of his Electoral status and was forced to support Charles at the Diet of Augsburg. The resulting Interim of Augsburg (1548) required the restoration of Catholic practices, yet despite Friedrich’s acceptance it was not actively implemented in his lands. Even after the Emperor’s defeat in the Princes’ War in 1552 and the subsequent Treaty of Passau’s de facto legalisation of Protestantism, Friedrich did not publicly reinstate Lutheranism as the official religion of the Palatinate. Equally, however, he did not revoke the church order or publish an edited version, suggesting that he remained keen to see the advancement of Lutheranism in his lands. The lack of a firm direction left the Palatine churches in chaos with ‘every priest doing what was right in his own eyes, or what his congregation would suffer him to do’.²¹ It has been suggested that Friedrich was wary of Charles’s wrath and did not want to risk losing his Electoral status as nearly happened in 1547. Regardless, his hesitancy in adopting an outright Lutheran policy has seen him marked out by historians as being more concerned with political considerations than his own personal convictions.²²

The succession of Ottheinrich (r.1556–59) witnessed a far more determined step towards Lutheranism.²³ The visitation conducted at the end of 1556 revealed a church in turmoil with inadequate clergy and ‘considerable remnants of the old faith’.²⁴ It is unsurprising, then, that his church order (1556) lamented that ‘knowledge of the correct true worship, pure teaching and the guiding principles of salvation have unfortunately been lacking for a long time’.²⁵ Fritz Hauß asserted that Ottheinrich’s church order helped shape the Reformation in both the court at Heidelberg and throughout his lands, although a priest from Kleinalfalterbach in Deining reported as late as 1562 that ‘the old papist...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Notes on Contributors
• Introduction: Dying, Death, Burial and Commemoration in Reformation Europe
• 1 The Pursuit of Power: Death, Dying and the Quest for Social Control in the Palatinate, 1547–1610
• 2 ‘At the hour of our death’: Praying for the Dying in Post-Reformation England
• 3 Death, Music and the Appropriateness of Emotions in Reformation England: Humanist Portrayals of Burial and Mourning in Musica Rhetorica
• 4 Catholic Burial and Commemoration in Early Seventeenth-Century Lancashire
• 5 Fraternal Commemoration and the London Company of Drapers c.1440–c.1600
• 6 Faith and Fury: Funerary Monuments in Reformation France
• 7 From Fire to Iron: Martyrs and Massacre Victims in Genevan Martyrology
• 8 Ghost Stories: Noël de Taillepied’s Psichologie ou apparition des esprits (1587) and the Rehabilitation of Purgatory in Late Sixteenth-Century France
• 9 The Prodigious Garment: A Relic Becomes Real in Early Modern Spain
• Index