Emotions in Europe, 1517-1914

Volume I: Reformations,1517-1602

Katie Barclay, François Soyer, Katie Barclay, François Soyer

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000395419
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Geschichte
• Subtopic: Weltgeschichte

This volumeof primary sources focuses on the history of emotions in Europe and its empires between 1517 and 1602. The Reformation in 1517 was a key transformative moment in European history that required people to rethink the self, belief, and scientific knowledges – all of which shaped and were shaped by emotion. The study examines the subjects of the self, family and community, religion, politics and law, science and philosophy, and art and culture.

Sources include letters, diaries, legal papers, institutional records, newspapers, science and philosophical writings, literature and art from a diversity of voices and perspectives. Accompanied by extensive editorial commentary, this collection will be of great interest to students of history and literature.

INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME I: REFORMATIONS

Katie Barclay and François Soyer

Pinpointing a precise date at which the Middle Ages ended and Modernity began is a fraught exercise. The date of 1500 CE is often used by those seeking to delimit these two ‘historical periods’ but there is actually no consensus among historians. Indeed, nothing particularly remarkable occurred in the year 1500. Depending on the nationality of the modern historian involved, or alternatively the thematic focus of their research (cultural history, economic history, political history, art history and religious history, to name only a few possibilities), many dates have been selected as turning points that brought about the end of the Middle Ages and heralded ‘early’ Modernity. Since the nineteenth century, numerous historians of European culture, art and literature have pointed to the Renaissance as the starting point of Modernity. The Renaissance created a community of European intellectuals, the humanists, who developed an interest in the languages and cultures of ancient Greece and Rome and increasingly critiqued texts that had, hereto, always been held to be authoritative. From the fourteenth to the sixteenth century, these thinkers emphasised the individuality of human beings by noting that humans were capable of dignity, physical and moral beauty, and full of potential. This ‘re-birth’ of European culture through the reclamation of Greco-Roman culture and art began and occurred gradually, over a long period of history that precedes the sixteenth century and continued well into that century. The editors of this volume, however, have selected 1517 as its starting point both for reasons of practicality, since it limits the sources included in this volume to the sixteenth century, but also to highlight the significance of the Reformation, which is reflected in many of the texts contained in this volume.

The sixteenth century certainly witnessed other key developments beyond the Reformation. These included the establishment of the first European global empires by the Spanish and Portuguese crowns, the rise of complex and increasingly centralized state bureaucracies in some parts of the continent and the start of what has been termed the ‘Scientific Revolution’ with the publication of the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus’s pivotal work on the heliocentric theory, On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres, in 1543. The century’s endpoint, the establishment of the Dutch East India company in 1602, was also chosen to help contain the sources in this volume to the sixteenth century but also because that event, so critical to the economic history of Europe (and the world), heralded a new age of competing European global empires.

It is important to emphasize that early modern European society was not homogenous. Politically, hereditary monarchies in western Europe existed alongside elective monarchies such as the Holy Roman Empire as well as city-states and republics in the Italian Peninsula, where the head of the Catholic Church also ruled as the secular overlord of the ‘Papal States’ in central Italy. Religiously, the population of Europe was divided after 1517 into Catholics and followers of the various Protestant denominations, with significant Muslim and Jewish populations living in parts of the Iberian Peninsula, Germany, Poland and Italy. In the Balkans, the expanding Islamic Ottoman Empire ruled over Christian and Jewish populations. Finally, political and ethnic boundaries were often blurred, especially in the Holy Roman Empire, and regions with strong cultural and political identities existed within most early modern European political entities.

The Protestant Reformation arguably has its roots in Renaissance Humanism. The humanists and their movement were religious and often railed against abuses and corruption within the Church. Their concern with revising the Church’s translation of the Scriptures led to the questioning of some religious dogmas. It is within this wider social and cultural context that the northern German monk Martin Luther published his Ninety-Five Theses (objections to official church teachings) and publicly called for theological reforms in 1517. His refusal to back down and recant led to his excommunication by Pope Leo X in January 1521. Enjoying the support of powerful secular princes in northern Germany, and benefitting from the many distractions faced by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Luther’s movement survived, developed and inspired other reformers (such as the Frenchman Jean Calvin), leading to the emergence of various distinct Protestant denominations (most notably Lutherans, Calvinists, Anabaptists and Anglicans). In response to the rise of the Protestant threat, significant reforms took place within the Catholic Church as a result of the Council of Trent (1545–1563). Europe was gradually split between two rival religious blocs, sometimes coexisting uneasily (such as in the Holy Roman Empire after the Peace of Augsburg in 1555) but often plunged into deadly civil conflict (particularly in France during the second half of the sixteenth century). In many European kingdoms, the church and secular authorities sought to impose religious conformity through oppressive laws or by actively policing religious beliefs and disciplining their subjects. It is against this background of cultural, political and religious upheaval that this volume seeks to offer primary sources on emotions.

Derived from the Latin verbs moveo and emoveo, meaning ‘to move’ or ‘to stir’, the term “emotion” only began to appear in English and other European languages to refer to mental states in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The term esmotion appeared in French during the fifteenth century but it was used to refer to political disturbances or popular movements or uprisings rather than mental states. This is certainly the meaning that the word had in sixteenth-century France, and the famous French philosopher Montaigne referred to the Catiline conspiracy in Ancient Rome as l’émotion de Catilina.¹ Likewise, the first recorded use of the term in English dates from the sixteenth century, when the English writer and politician Geoffrey Fenton rendered the Italian word moto into English as emocion in his translations of Italian texts. Nevertheless, by the end of the sixteenth century the word was starting to adopt some of the meaning that we assign to it today in English. The Italian-English dictionary of John Florio, for example, translated the Italian word moto as “a motion, a moving, a gesture, a wagging, a motion or cause of stirring of anything, a passion of a man’s mind”. Sixteenth-century writers preferred to use other terms – most notably motions and passions – to signify what we would presently describe as emotions. The impact of ancient Greek and Roman writers continued to be felt as sixteenth-century authors largely used a variety of language-specific terms derived from classical authorities, such as passion, affection, affect, disturbance, movement or perturbation.²

The dissemination of the technology of the printing press across Europe meant that editions and translations of seminal texts from Antiquity and the Middle Ages that discussed the nature and significance of human emotions became widely available in the sixteenth century. These texts included those of Greek and Roman authors, among them Aristotle, Cicero and Seneca, as well as early and medieval Christian authors such as Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. Consequently, the impact of the Renaissance and of the humanist movement on the intellectual approach to understanding and debating mental states (i.e., emotions), in sixteenth-century Europe was enormous. The Catholic priest Desiderius Erasmus (1466–1536), for example, extensively used both Scripture and ancient authorities to examine the role of emotions in preaching in his 1535 Ecclesiastes: On the Art of Preaching. Likewise, the writer Juan Luis Vives (1493–1540) explored a huge variety of Greco-Roman, early Christian and medieval sources to write a comprehensive analysis of the physiological and psychological effects of emotions in his influential 1538 work De anima et vita. Later in the sixteenth century, the French philosopher Montaigne also owed a huge intellectual debt to Greek and Roman writers when he discussed emotions in his Essais.

The Protestant Reformation also affected the way that emotions were discussed and presented in sixteenth-century European texts and artworks. Leaders and thinkers on both sides of the religious divide wrote texts about the place of emotion in faith. Whilst some emotions were perceived as dangerous to the human soul – most notably melancholy and anger – others such as fear, love and sadness could facilitate an individual’s religious experience. In sixteenth-century Catholicism, considerable emphasis was placed on the shedding of tears as evidence of a genuine religious experience, and religious artwork emphasised the humanity and sufferings of Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary and saints through their emotions in order to awaken the empathy of the viewer and facilitate a heartfelt religious experience. Moreover, the textual and visual propaganda produced by both Protestants and Catholics clearly sought to exploit visceral emotional reactions of anxiety, anger and hatred to accounts and images of massacres perpetrated or the threat supposedly presented by demonized ‘others’ whilst at the same time seeking to provoke laughter through grotesque humorous caricatures.

To convey the richness and variety of sixteenth-century emotional life is no simple task, and this sourcebook seeks to offer a body of diverse sources: from works of political theory to theological treatises; from legal records and private correspondence to artworks and literary texts. This diversity seeks to highlight that emotions were not just discussed in theoretical works but also experienced by people in everyday life, from the monarch of a world empire to more humble men and women. A comparison of some of the documents in this sourcebook offers evidence of similar emotions felt by very different individuals. Sorrow at, and fear of, the death of a loved one, especially a child, emerges as a theme in Thomas Platter’s heartbreaking account of the death of his infant son, in the private letters of the mighty King Philip II of Spain to his daughter and in the representation of a child’s death in Hans Holbein’s art. Within a legal context, spontaneous emotional outbursts could lead an individual to face the scrutiny of Iberian inquisitors or the Genevan consistory, but emotions could also be deployed in attempts to secure the sympathy of judges or to mitigate the severity of an offence.

In selecting sources for this volume, we have emphasised those that offer insights into some of the more mainstream ideas about emotional life, and also those where emotions are more easily accessible to the non-expert reader. That has meant choosing sources that use emotion words (love, hate, anger), use persuasive rhetoric or describe events where the emotional worlds of those involved are more easily identified. For a sourcebook, this seemed appropriate, but we would encourage readers to reflect on how this shapes the evidence provided. A focus on emotion words relies on the historian’s capacity to identify them, and so perhaps disguises emotions that are less familiar to the modern reader. It also encourages us to consider emotions as discrete entities (love, hate), rather than complex experiences that involve social practices, behaviours, gestures and mixed feelings. As traces of human investment, most historical sources tell us something of emotion, and readers are encouraged to look for emotions in less obvious places, as well as those that are more familiar.

No sourcebook can cover everything, but we particularly note that there is considerable space for more work on marginal cultures and ideas. In hoping to give some geographical range across Europe and its empires, there has been limited opportunity to explore multiple perspectives within particular cultures or societies, and especially to include the wide range of minorities who lived in Europe and its domains. We have hoped to give some range of voice in offering perspectives across social class, gender and race, and the life course, but there is significant scope to extend these perspectives and room for future research. An issue that is common across the four volumes has been the question of translation, not least for emotion words that do not easily transfer across cultures. For many sources, we have used early modern translations with the goal of providing insight not only to the source culture but to how such texts were interpreted by other people during the period. Modern translators may make different choices, but this is part of the history of emotions too.

A final note of warning is that a volume that engages with European encounters with non-European people reflects the attitudes and values of the period; some sixteenth-century people, like the missionary Las Casas, spoke positively of those they encountered; others were patronising and racist. The emotions of historic people reflected their prejudices and beliefs, but also their aspirations and ethics. This volume provides some opening insights into sixteenth-century feelings.

Notes

1 Nicole Hochner, ‘Le corps social à l’origine de l’invention du mot “émotion”’, L’Atelier du Centre de recherches historiques 16 (2016), http://journals.openedition.org/acrh/7357 accessed 25 November 2020.

2 Susan Broomhall, ed., Early Modern Emotions: An Introduction (London: Routledge, 2017), 36–37.

Part 1
THE SELF

Part 1
The Self

The ‘self’ is a relatively new concept that historians use to explore the human as a sensate and thoughtful creature. Whilst private journals and diaries are relatively rare in the sixteenth century compared to the following centuries, sources written by individuals in which they recorded their emotional experiences do survive. The following documents offer examples of men and women writing about their emotional experiences in a variety of contexts or, in the case of the poems, reflecting on how emotions can affect the individual.

1
EXCERPTS FROM THE SPIRITUAL DIARY OF SAINT IGNATIUS DE LOYOLA (1491–1556)

In Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Personal Writings, Trans. and ed. Joseph A. Munitiz and Philip Endean (London: Penguin, 1996), pp. 73–75 (2 February–10 February 1544) and 89–91 (2 March–4 March 1544)

Ignatius of Loyola (canonized as a Saint in 1622) was the founder of the Society of Jesus, better known as the Jesuits. Born in the Spanish-ruled Basque country, Ignatius experienced a religious conversion following a severe injury suffered in 1521 during a siege. He subsequently travelled to the Holy Land on pilgrimage and studied in Paris. Gathering a small number of followers, Ignatius decided to found a new religious order, the Society of Jesus, dedicated to active evangelization and apostolic ministry. The new religious order was approved in 1540 by Pope Paul III and Ignatius became the first Superior General of the Society of Jesus until his death. The ‘spiritual diary’ of Ignatius, written in his own hand in 1544–5, was not a diary in the sense that we might understand today. Instead, it was a series of daily notes and reflections that Loyola penned when he was wrestling with important questions affecting the future of the newly created Jesuit Order. Nevertheless, it offers a unique window into the mind of the founder of the Jesuits and the emotional turmoil and tensions that he suffered in his spiritual life as head of the Jesuit Order. These tensions were particularly acute from 2 February to 12 March 1544 as Ignatius deliberated about the kind of poverty that the new order would embrace in its constitutions. The diary is replete with references to emotions: from tranquillity to uncontrollable tears and sobs caused by love for God.

…

+ Mass of Our Lady

Chapter 1st. Saturday [2 Feb. 1544] – Great devotion during mass, with tears, with increased trust in Our Lady, and more inclined both then and during the whole day to choose complete poverty.

Chapter 2nd. Sunday [3 Feb.] – The same; and more inclined both then and during the whole day to choose complete poverty.

Mass of Our Lady

Chapter 3rd. Monday [4 Feb.] – The same; also other feelings and a greater inclination to complete poverty; and at night a close drawing-near to Our Lady with great confidence.

Mass of Our Lady

4th. Tuesday [5 Feb.] – Great devotion before, during and after mass, with tears so abundant that my eyes ached; I saw the Mother and Son ready and willing to intercede with the Father; both then and during the day I was set on poverty and still moved to it; in the afternoon it was as if I felt or saw Our Lady was ready and willing to intercede.

Mass of Our Lady

5th. Wednesday [6 Feb.] – Devotion, not without tears, before and during mass, and more inclined to complete poverty. Later I realized with considerable clarity, or in a way differing from the usual, that to have some income would raise complications, and to have a complete income would cause scandal and help to tarnish the poverty so praised by God Our Lord.

Mass of the Trinity

6th. Thursday [7 Feb.] – Very great devotion and tears before mass; I felt throughout the day a warmth and a remarkable devotion, remaining myself ever more convinced and moved to poverty. While celebrating mass, I seemed to have easy access and felt, with much devotion, an interior impulse to implore the Father; it seems to me that the two mediators had made supplication and I received some impression of seeing them.

Mass of the Holy Name of Jesus

7th. Friday [8 Feb.] – After experiencing remarkable devotion and tears while I prayed, from preparing for mass and during mass very great devotion, also tears; only at times could I retain the power of speech; resolution fixed on poverty. After mass, devotion not without tears, while I considered the choices in the election for an hour and a half or more. When I ...