Cultures in Conflict 

*To Yvonne Maria Werner − with gratitude*

Johannes Ljungberg / Alexander Maurits / Erik Sidenvall (eds.)

# **Cultures in Conflict**

**Religion, History and Gender in Northern Europe c. 1800–2000** 

#### **Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek**

The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available online at http://dnb.d-nb.de.

#### **Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data**

A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress.

Cover illustration: © Blue Planet Studio / Shutterstock

ISBN 978-3-631-82986-8 (Print) E-ISBN 978-3-631-84731-2 (E-PDF) E-ISBN 978-3-631-84732-9 (EPUB) E-ISBN 978-3-631-84733-6 (MOBI) DOI 10.3726/b18041

Open Access: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 license. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ©Johannes Ljungberg / Alexander Maurits / Erik Sidenvall, 2021.

Peter Lang – Berlin ∙ Bern ∙ Bruxelles ∙ New York ∙ Oxford ∙ Warszawa ∙ Wien

This publication has been peer reviewed.

www.peterlang.com

*To Yvonne Maria Werner − with gratitude*



# **Foreword**

The aim of this volume is to offer an overview of the main conflict areas in modern Western societies where religion is a central element, ranging from popular movements and narratives of opposition to challenges of religious satire and anticlerical critique. Special attention is paid to political struggles and gender troubles. With this theme, we want to provide an applicable and elaborate compilation on religious conflict areas in modern European religious history.

We are grateful that a number of esteemed colleagues and friends from Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, United Kingdom and Sweden have agreed to contribute to this volume. This has enabled us to draw together a volume characterised by exceptional research and the thorough knowledge of its contributors. The chapters in this volume analyse historical conflicts and conflicts within the field of historiography from various perspectives. Particular emphasis is placed on the impact of religious conflicts on various political struggles and vice versa. Themes covered include anti-Catholicism, gender, popular piety and memory. Chronologically, the chapters cover the period from *c*. 1650 until the present day. Dealing with different periods and different geographical locations within Northern Europe, this volume reaches over a variety of confessional contexts, thus reflecting the religious plurality in Western Europe.

In addition to the contributing authors, we are indebted to the editorial team at Peter Lang for all their efforts, especially Commissioning Editor Ute Winkelkötter. Finally, we would like to express our deepest gratitude to the Gunvor and Josef Anér Foundation, the Hilda and Håkan Theodor Ohlsson Foundation, the Pleijel Fund, and the Lund University Book Fund for financially supporting the publication of this book.

> *Johannes Ljungberg, Alexander Maurits & Erik Sidenvall Copenhagen, Lund & Växjö April 2021*

# **About the Authors**

OLAF BLASCHKE is professor of history at Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster. He has published several works on Catholicism in Modern Germany, launching a contested theory on the long nineteenth century (1830–1960) as a 'second confessional age'. Most seminal is his dissertation on Catholicism and anti-Semitism (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1997). Recently he has published *Die Kirchen und der Nationalsozialismus* (Reclam 2014, 2. edition: bpb, Bonn 2019) and together with Francisco Javier Ramón Solans *Weltreligion im Umbruch: Transnationale Perspektiven auf das Christentum in der Globalisierung* (Campus 2019).

ANDERS JARLERT is senior professor of church history at Lund University and director of the Archives of Ecclesiastical History at Lund University. He has published numerous books and articles on early modern and modern church history, among them *Piety and Modernity: The Dynamics of Religious Reform in Northern Europe, 1780–1920* (Leuven University Press, 2012). He is the editor of *Kyrkohistorisk årsskrift* [Swedish Yearbook of Church History], a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities, and the president of the Commission Internationale d'Histoire et d'Études du Christianisme (CIHEC).

INGER LITTBERGER CAISOU-ROUSSEAU is a reader in literary history. Her publications include *Ulla Isakssons romankonst* [The Fiction of Ulla Isaksson] (1996), *Omvändelser: Nedslag i svenska romaner under hundra år* [Conversions: One Hundred Years of Swedish Novels] (2004) and *Över alla gränser: Manlighet och kristen (o)tro hos Almqvist, Strindberg och Lagerlöf* [Breaching the Boundaries: Masculinity and Christian (Un-)belief in Almqvist, Strindberg and Lagerlöf] (2012).

JOHANNES LJUNGBERG is a postdoc in history at the Centre for Privacy Studies at the University of Copenhagen. He received his doctorate at Lund University with his dissertation *Toleransens gränser: Religionspolitiska dilemman i det tidiga 1700-talets Sverige och Europa* [The Limits of Toleration: Swedish Pietist conflicts in a European perspective c. 1700–1730]. For his postdoctoral research, Ljungberg is funded by the Danish National Research Foundation within a major research program exploring notions of privacy and the private in eleven cities of early modern Europe. Ljungberg is a part of the interdisciplinary case teams working with Helmstedt and Altona.

ALEXANDER MAURITS is a senior lecturer in church history at Lund University. In his research, Maurits has primarily dealt with the role of the churches in Western and Northern Europe, especially the Church of Sweden, modernity and gender. He is one of the editors of *Kyrkan och idrotten under 2000 år: Antika, medeltida och moderna attityder till idrott* [Church and Sports over 2000 years: Antique, Medieval, and Modern Approaches to Sport] (Universus Academic Press 2015) and *Classics in Northern European Church History over 500 Years* (Peter Lang Verlag 2017).

HUGH MCLEOD is a professor emeritus of church history at the University of Birmingham and the former president of Commission Internationale d'Histoire et d'Études du Christianisme (CHIEC). In 2003, he received an honorary doctorate at Lund University. His research mainly investigates the social history of religion in Western Europe, not least the topic of secularisation. Among his publications are *The Religious Crisis of the 1960s* (Oxford University Press 2007). He was editor of *World Christianities c. 1914–c. 2000* (Cambridge University Press 2006).

FRANZISKA METZGER is professor of history at the University of Teacher Education Lucerne, and since 2011 chief editor of *Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Religions- und Kulturgeschichte*. She has published extensively on memory culture in relation to politics, religion and culture in the nineteenth century. Her publications include *Religion, Geschichte, Nation: Katolische Geschichtsschreibung in der Schweiz im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert* (Kohlhammer 2010), as well as the co-edited volumes *Ausdehnung der Zeit: Die Gestaltung von Erinnerungsräumen in Geschichte, Literatur und Kunst*, ed. with Dimiter Daphinoff (Böhlau Verlag 2019) and *Sacred Heart Devotion: Memory, Body, Image, Text - Continuities and Discontinuities*, ed. with Stefan Tertünte (Böhlau Verlag 2021).

DENNIS MEYHOFF BRINK is an adjunct professor at the Danish Institute for Study Abroad (DIS) in Copenhagen. In his research, Brink investigates the themes, tropes and devices of religious satire in modern Europe. Among his publications are 'Affective atmospheres in the House of Usher' in *Journal of the Short Story in English* (2016), 'Fearing Religious Satire: Religious Censorship and Satirical Counter-Attacks' in *Comics and Power* (Cambridge Scholars Press 2015), and *Løgn og Latin: Spot, spe og religionssatire 1500–1900* (Storm P. Museet 2014).

newgenprepdf

ERIK SIDENVALL is adjunct professor of church history at Lund University, where he also received his doctorate in 2002 with his dissertation *Change and Identity: Protestant English Interpretations of John Henry Newman's Secession, 1845–1864*. In his research, Sidenvall analyses gender in religion and confessional identities. His publications include *After Anti-Catholicism? John Henry Newman and Protestant Britain, 1845–c. 1890* (T&T Clark 2005) and *The Making of Manhood among Swedish Missionaries in China and Mongolia, c. 1890–c. 1914* (Brill 2009).

TINE VAN OSSELAER is research professor in the history of spirituality, devotion and mysticism at the Ruusbroec Institute of the University of Antwerp. Among her publications are *The pious sex: Catholic constructions of masculinity and femininity in Belgium, c. 1800–1940* (Leuven University Press 2013) and *Christian homes: Religion, family and domesticity in the 19th and 20th centuries* (Leuven University Press 2014). She was the principal investigator of 'Between saints and celebrities. The devotion and promotion of stigmatics in Europe, c. 1800–1950', a project financed by the European Research Council.

Johannes Ljungberg, Alexander Maurits & Erik Sidenvall

# **Interconnected Conflicts: Religion, History, and Gender**

Conflicts are often the given starting-point in historical research. Sources of various kinds, to be interpreted and contextualised by the present-day scholar, not infrequently emerge from within conflicts. The memory of past clashes − social, political or ideological − are often kept alive within any given society for an extended period of time, a fact which adds both urgency and a surprising complexity to the study of conflicts in history.

Since the Second World War, the international community of historians have increasingly adopted an overall interpretative framework inspired by Marxist theory. Conflicts are understood to be adjacent to, and a necessary ingredient of, social change. However fruitful such a perspective has proven to be, it has tended to direct the scholarly gaze towards particular kinds of conflicts while leaving others aside. Given the alignment of conflicts and social change, research inspired by Marxist theory of conflict has tended to focus on contests on a collective, societal level.

Within the field of religious history, studies inspired by a Marxist understanding of conflict have given valuable insights into the role of churches and other religious organisations in aiding or opposing movements of change and liberation. Some scholars, most notably E.P. Thompson,1 have also seen religion as a major explicatory force. Yet the overall impact of Marxist theory has been to downplay the role of religion in understanding social change. This tendency has been most clearly seen in studies dealing with the so-called modern era.

In recent years, however, there has been a renewed interest in studying religion as a major cultural force and the origin of identity formation. This tendency is notable even in the studies dealing with supposedly 'secular' societies. Even though this gradual shift of attention cannot solely be explained by recent political events, the wars in former Yugoslavia, the terrorist attack of 9/11, the rise and fall of ISIS, and its tragic aftermath, have further underscored the need not to leave religion altogether out of the equation.

<sup>1</sup> E.P. Thompson, *The Making of the English Working Class*, New York 1964.

Indeed, from a variety of perspectives religion is a tangible factor in many conflicts. We need only think of issues associated with freedom of religion and freedom of speech. Such conflicts often highlight the relationship between minority religious groups and majority culture (both secular and religious). We can also see how controversy follows in the wake of popular religious movements, often advancing notions that run counter to what is understood as dominating values of society. The role of religion also becomes visible when we consider the encounter between various identity constructs in both past and present societies. Clashes between such formative expressions can be seen in virtually every part of the globe. Far from being a mere remnant of the past, religion has shaped, for better and for worse, our ways of understanding ourselves and the society we live in. To a considerable extent we find religion at the very roots of our mindset.

With increasing recognition of how religion has contributed (and still contributes) towards the shaping of modern societies, the need to understand the ways in which churches, or other religious organisations, interact with society at large has gained a renewed sense of urgency. Focusing on Europe, we see clearly how the rise of industrialism, nationalism, secularism, liberalism and democracy triggered complex and radical reactions within the dominating churches, a majority of which were moulded to suit the needs and desires of an *ancien régime*. On the part of the churches alternative strategies had to be explored and developed in order to find a suitable place within rapidly changing societies. These responses by the churches had both profound cultural and political repercussions.

An increasing number of historians have focused on how escalating interconfessional rivalry and an often heightened sense of contention between religious and supposedly secular values became a feature of modern Europe. Contention and opposition can be seen as integral parts of a peculiar understanding of society according to which divisions along confessional and/or denominational lines were seen as lying at the root of the social order. These conflicts can sometimes be understood within a paradigm infused with Marxist theoretical thinking; at other times such a framework tricks the contemporary scholar to leave certain peculiarities aside. With the inevitable idiosyncrasies of an edited volume, this book hopes to shed new light on a period during which religious strife and contention were not only seen as unwanted remnants of a trouble past, but as central expressions of identity and way of life.

## **Catholic – Protestant – Secular: Interconnected Conflicts**

Anti-Catholicism, nationalism and secularism belong to the interconnected conflicts treated in this volume. As a consequence of the internecine religious controversies that arose during the era of Reformation and the subsequent religious wars that were to haunt the European continent until the first half of the seventeenth century, aggression and a widespread suspicion towards the Roman Catholic church came to be dominating features among the Protestant nations. Such notions were often sharpened by the fierce condemnations of all brands of Protestantism issued by the Catholic hierarchy; fears of Catholic *coups d'état* triggered even more violent responses on the part of Protestant political elites. In countries such as Denmark, Sweden and England, anti-Catholicism was to be an integral part of nascent early-modern national sentiment. In these countries Catholics were often seen as alien elements threatening the fabric of society. Legal measures were put in place that severely restricted Catholic faith and practice within Protestant domains; to secede from Protestant national religion and to enter the Roman Catholic Church was an act that seemed similar to treason. Among the clergy, an anti-Catholic attitude was seen as a vital part of the Protestant creed. Sermons became a vehicle for the propagation of anti-Catholicism among the people at large. To a considerable extent, the fear of Catholicism often to be found among both political and ecclesiastical elites was echoed among the lower ranks of society, even though a later strand of research has demonstrated how fierce rhetoric did not exclude a peaceful interconfessional coexistence on a day-to-day basis. 2

In predominantly Protestant countries enlightenment ideas of religious toleration and of natural law led to a gradual mitigation of rather severe religious legislation during the eighteenth century. 3 The vision of the Catholic foe gradually receded into the background and, especially after the tumultuous events of 1789, new enemy images emerged. When it came to new measures of social outreach a new spirit of inter-Christian collaboration became visible in many religiously divided regions of Europe. Yet, increased religious toleration and further political reforms during the first half of the nineteenth century triggered conservative reactions. Measures that seemed to compromise

<sup>2</sup> For a useful introduction, see Benjamin J. Kaplan, *Divided by Faith: Religious Conflict and the Practice of Toleration in Early Modern Europe,* Cambridge, MA, 2007, pp. 15−124.

<sup>3</sup> Kjell Å. Modéer & Helle Vogt (eds), *Law and the Christian Tradition in Scandinavia: The Writings of Great Nordic Jurists*, London 2021.

the Protestant nature of society were often met with verbally ferocious expressions of 'no Popery'. The rise of Roman Catholic triumphalism in the form of Ultramontanism only added to the ire of Protestant publics.

To be sure liberal-minded reformers themselves were not immune to the lure of anti-Catholicism. For them Catholicism often seemed to be a symbol of the bigoted, hierarchical society they struggled to overcome. However, the luring dangers of Catholicism were not only to be found within the Papal Church. Even in countries of a manifest Protestant character, anti-Catholicism easily turned into a hostile attitude to everything associated with clerical, 'priestly', powers. Hence there are links between anti-clericalism and anti-Catholicism. For example, British anti-clericalism, originating from within the mental universe of Protestant dissent, could offer a scathing criticism of the tenets and position of the established Church. 4 In contrast, in countries with a strong Catholic presence the struggle for a secular constitution often became imbibed with expressions of anti-clericalism and bitter opposition towards the power of the Roman Church. In France this resulted in the long-lasting conflict between two markedly different visions of society: secular republicanism and royalist Catholicism. In the end a radical separation of church and state ensued. The ideal of *laïcité* has been in the forefront of French religious politics since the Third Republic. 5 Another well-known example of a similar kind of confrontation is to be found in the German *Reich* of Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898). Measures imposed to reduce the influence of the Roman Catholic Church within the recently unified German nation, especially during the pontificate of Pius IX (1792−1878), are still known under the heading *Kulturkampf*. 6 In the Netherlands the opposition between Protestants and Catholics (and indeed the more liberal-minded) resulted in the emergence of separate, parallel, societies divided along politico-religious lines, so-called pillarisation (*verzuiling*). 7 Inspired by scholars like Urs Altermatt, Karl Gabriel and Olaf Blaschke,8

<sup>4</sup> Nigel Aston & Matthew Cragoe (eds), *Anticlericalism in Britain: c. 1500–1914*, Sutton 2000; J.A.I. Champion, *The Pillars of Priestcraft Shaken: The Church of England and Its Enemies, 1660–1730*, Cambridge 1992.

<sup>5</sup> See Emile Poulat, *Liberté, laïcité: la guerre des deux Frances et la principe de la modernité*, Paris 1987.

<sup>6</sup> See Michael B. Gross, *The War Against Catholicism: Liberalism and the Anti-Catholic Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Germany,* Ann Arbor 2004.

<sup>7</sup> See J.C.H. Blom & J. Talsma (eds), *De verzuiling voorbij: Godsdienst, stand en natie in de lange negentiende eeuw*, Amsterdam 2000.

<sup>8</sup> Urs Altermatt, *Katholizismus und Moderne: Zur Social- und Mentalitätsgeschichte der Schweizer Katholiken im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert*, Zürich 1989; Karl Gabriel,

Swedish historian Yvonne Maria Werner has adopted and further developed the concept of counter-culture to understand the position of above all the Roman Catholic Church within Nordic societies. In her research, Werner has successfully applied this concept to analyse the situation of growing, albeit marginalised, Roman Catholic communities in the Scandinavian countries. 9 In her research she dealt with both a religiously motivated female counter-culture as well as so-called processes of 're-masculinisation', in relation to nineteenthcentury and early twentieth-century confessionalisation. 10

Yet there were groups of people who did not easily fit into such a polarised framework or suffered severely from the antagonism that lay at its root. Anders Jarlert looks to the east of Europe in his chapter included in this book. The fate of the Masurian Lutherans in eastern Poland belong to the tragedies of modern Europe. This chapter monitors the various, and often contradictory, attempts to transform a group that many times escaped attempts at cultural and political classification.

In spite of attempts to mobilise popular hostility towards the Roman Church, or to resort to images of a lurking Catholic danger, there is ample evidence to suggest that anti-Catholicism was receding or losing some of its former strength during the last decades of the nineteenth century. The secularisation of politics in most formerly Protestant nations rendered the language of anti-Catholicism increasingly out of date. Twentieth-century Christian ecumenism together with the more open accepting attitude that was demonstrated during Vatican II (1962−1965) effectively made formerly accepted expressions of inter-church vitriol seem like the slightly embarrassing remnants of a troubled ecclesiastical past. This is not to say that all expressions of anti-Catholicism have vanished,

*Christentum zwischen Tradition und Postmoderne*, Freiburg 1994, pp. 127−202; Olaf Blaschke (ed.), *Konfessionen im Konflikt. Deutschland zwischen 1800 und 1970: ein zweites konfessionelles Zeitalter*, Göttingen 2002.

<sup>9</sup> Yvonne Maria Werner, *Världsvid men främmande: den katolska kyrkan i Sverige 1873–1929*, Uppsala 1996.

<sup>10</sup> Yvonne Maria Werner, *Kvinnlig motkultur och katolsk mission: Sankt Josefsystrarna i Danmark och Sverige 1856–1936*, Stockholm 2002, pp. 9−17; Yvonne Maria Werner, 'Between Secularization and Milieu Catholicism: Danish Converts and Scandinavian Catholicism in a Comparative Perspective', in Ulf Görman (ed.), *Towards a New Understanding of Conversion*, Lund 1999; Yvonne Maria Werner, *Katolsk manlighet: det antimoderna alternativet – katolska missionärer och lekmän i Skandinavien*, Göteborg 2014; Yvonne Maria Werner (ed.), *Christian Masculinity: Men and Religion in Northern Europe in the 19th and 20th Centuries*, Leuven 2011.

or have been relocated to a Protestant lunatic fringe. In the political landscape of today other fundamental divisions, lacking clear denominational connotations and divisions (such as those illustrated by the GAL-TAN scale), seem to be more relevant when trying to grasp underlying conflicts. Yet, anti-Catholic sentiment has a tendency to lay dormant in formerly Protestant nations. The election of John F. Kennedy (1917−1963) to the U.S. presidency was probably not the last occasion when anti-Catholic rhetoric was heard in public in a, so-called, Western country once again. With the rise and subsequent global dissemination of a militant conservative Evangelicalism, anti-Catholicism may once again reappear as a political force to be reckoned with. 11 Hugh McLeod's contribution to this volume gives another testimony to the continued importance of religious/religious-secular conflicts. He argues that there are repercussions of religious conflicts still visible within the field of historiography. His chapter offers a historiographical overview of recent research addressing the relationship between religion and the rise of modern sports. Historians have tended to put forward contradictory lines of argument when trying to explain their many times complex relationship. His analysis of this field of research reveals how the interpretation and evaluation of historical events is often influenced by the historian's political or religious convictions.

# **Historiographical Perspectives**

Protestant anti-Catholicism constitutes in itself a vast field of research. We will here offer some national perspectives. For an overview of the secular-Catholic conflicts in nineteenth-century Europe a collected volume, edited by Christopher Clark and Wolfram Kaiser, remains the authoritative guide. 12 Studies of British anti-Catholicism have been produced since the late 1960. The works of E.R. Norman, D.G. Paz, John Wolffe, Colin Haydon, Walter Ralls, C.Z. Wiener, Erik Sidenvall and others have revealed the varied nature of British anti-Catholicism. 13 Even though British anti-Catholicism took various cultural

<sup>11</sup> Philip Jenkins, *The New Anti-Catholicism: The Last Acceptable Prejudice*, New York 2003.

<sup>12</sup> Christopher Clark & Wolfram Kaiser (eds), *Culture Wars: Secular−Catholic Conflict in Nineteenth-Century Europe*, Cambridge 2003.

<sup>13</sup> Edward Robert Norman, *Anti-Catholicism in Victorian England*, London 1968; Dennis G. Paz, *Popular Anti-Catholicism in Mid-Victorian England*, Stanford, CA, 1992; John Wolffe, *The Protestant Crusade in Great Britain, 1829−1860*, Oxford 1991; Colin Haydon, *Anti-Catholicism in Eighteenth-Century England, c. 1714−80: A Political and Social Study*, Manchester 1993; Walter Ralls, 'The Papal Aggression of

expressions (in art, literature and popular festivities), present-day research tends to emphasise its importance in periods of political uncertainty. It is also evident that anti-Catholicism rose to the surface during times of perceived Roman Catholic 'advances'. The political scene of what was to become Germany was of course radically different when compared to Britain, and hence anti-Catholicism came to have different subtexts. In particular the *Kulturkampf* of the Bismarck era has remained a particularly elusive phenomenon with different and overlapping meanings. Valuable studies are found in the works of, for example, Michael B. Gross, Olaf Blaschke, Claudia Lepp and Helmut Walser Smith. 14 When it comes to the solidly Lutheran Nordic countries, studies of anti-Catholicism have been relatively sparse. Above-mentioned Swedish historian Yvonne Maria Werner has explored the nature of Nordic anti-Catholicism in a number of articles, thereby adding to our knowledge of the intersection between Protestant identity and nationalism. 15

Scholars dealing with the *Kulturkampf* have also mapped out transnational processes of anti-Catholicism, anti-clericalism and secularism across the European continent. Manuel Borutta and Lisa Dittrich offer comparisons and transnational studies involving *Bismarckian* Germany and states with a predominantly Catholic population – France, Spain and Italy. Borutta focuses our attention on how papal power became an international anti-symbol of modernity and paved the way for a discursive narrative of secularisation. Dittrich demonstrates how Vatican I (1869–1870), together with peculiar scandals in the Vatican, triggered a circulation of anti-clerical motives and images across

<sup>1850:</sup> A Study in Victorian Anti-Catholicism', *Church History* 43:2 (1974), pp. 242– 256; Carol Z. Wiener, 'The Beleaguered Isle. A Study of Elizabethan and Early Jacobean Anti-Catholicism', *Past & Present* 51 (1971), pp. 27–62; Erik Sidenvall, *After anti-Catholicism?: John Henry Newman and Protestant Britain, 1845–c. 1890*, London 2005.

<sup>14</sup> Gross 2004; Blaschke 2002; Claudia Lepp, *Protestantisch-liberaler Aufbruch in die Moderne: Der deutsche Protestantenverein in der Zeit der Reichsgründung und des Kulturkampfes*, Gütersloh 1996; Helmut Walser Smith (ed.), *Protestants, Catholics, and Jews in Germany, 1800−1914*, Oxford 2001.

<sup>15</sup> Yvonne Maria Werner, 'Liberal theology and anti-Catholicism in Sweden', in John Wolffe (ed.), *Protestant-Catholic Conflict from the Reformation to the 21st Century: The Dynamics of Religious Difference*, Basingstoke 2013, pp. 226−254; Yvonne Maria Werner, '"The Catholic Danger": The Changing Patterns of Swedish Anti-Catholicism 1850−1965', in Yvonne Maria Werner & Jonas Harvard (eds), *European Anti-Catholicism in a Comparative and Transnational Perspective*, Amsterdam & New York 2013.

national borders and fostered a largely shared European perception of anticlericalism. 16 In his contribution to this volume, Dennis Meyhoff Brink discusses in a similar way how anti-clerical satire, from the age of reformations to the nineteenth century, was connected to a discourse on citizenship. Such issues have a direct bearing on current conflicts evolving around the legitimate use of satire in European society.

Anti-Catholicism was also related to the dynamics and extension of popular Catholicism. Olaf Blaschke and Tine Van Osselaer have contributed with several studies, including their contributions to this volume, on the popular movements that took form around pilgrimages and new saints in mid-nineteenth-century Europe. These movements contributed to the coordination and homogenisation of Catholic believers that seemed to confirm the opinions and fears of their opponents. 17 As Blaschke mentions in his contribution to this volume, Ultramontanism was first formulated as a pejorative term, but was from the mid-nineteenth century proudly employed by Catholics belonging to these popular movements. As Van Osselaer shows, these collective movements, seemingly contradictory, often managed to connect to the then current focus within Catholicism on subjective and emotional experiences, for example, though the cult of the Sacred Heart, within Eucharistic piety and as demonstrated in popular visits to stigmatics. Just as was the case with secular movements, they were transmitted and propelled across national borders by new media. A reflection of this devotional universe is found in Alexander Maurits' contribution to this volume. In the Protestant tradition, the trade and commerce that surrounded different aspects of Catholic spirituality was regarded as something obnoxiously alien. In Lutheran Sweden the criticism of these aspects of Catholicism became an essential component of anti-Catholic rhetoric during the final decades of the nineteenth century. To Swedish Lutheran theologians such aspects of Catholic spirituality were regarded as superstitious and as ways for the Catholic clergy to deceive ordinary people.

<sup>16</sup> Manuel Borutta, *Antikatholizismus: Deutschland und Italien im Zeitalter der europäischen Kulturkämpfe*, Göttingen 2010; Lisa Dittrich, *Antiklerikalismus in Europa: Öffentlichkeit und Säkularisierung in Frankreich, Spanien und Deutschland (1848–1914)*, Göttingen 2014.

<sup>17</sup> Blaschke 2002; Tine Van Osselaer, *The Pious Sex: Catholic Constructions of Masculinity and Femininity in Belgium, c. 1800−1940*, Leuven 2013; Tine Van Osselaer, 'Reform of Piety in the Southern Netherlands/Belgium', in Anders Jarlert (ed.), *Piety and Modernity: The Dynamics of Religious Reform in Northern Europe 1780−1920*, Leuven 2012.

A gender perspective adds dimensions to our understanding of both devotional practices and the religious strife of modern Europe. Gendered language permeated the religious conflicts of the era. As is often the case, gendered language provides the means to rehearse, allocate and negotiate notions of power within any given society. As has been demonstrated by several of the scholars involved in the project *Christian Masculinity – a paradox of modernity?*, headed by Yvonne Maria Werner, to defend one's faith was seen as an expression of 'masculinity'; opponents, on the other hand, were portrayed as 'feminine'. This overall pattern was repeated with endless variations. For example, towards the end of the nineteenth century notions of Swedish Lutheran masculinity were strongly associated with the act of overcoming religious/philosophical doubt and uncertainty. Men who withstood such a test were able to recast themselves in the form of a religious hyper-masculinity. 18 Yet, the period also knew various expressions of 'gender-bendering'; religion could provide the means with which boundaries of sex and of gender could be challenged and transgressed, temporarily or more long-lastingly. Van Osselaer's chapter in this volume points at the alleged 'gender shift' that has often been linked to the stigmatic's imitation of the body of the suffering Christ. The theme of going beyond traditional notions of gender returns in Inger Littberger Caisou-Rousseau's study of nineteenth-century Swedish artist Therese Andreas Bruce (1808–1885).

During the past 200 years, motives deriving from Christianity have transformed into non-religious discourses through sacralisation of language, ritual practices and narrative plots. In the last contribution to the volume, Franziska Metzger demonstrates how discourses of apocalyptic memory were expressed in times of crises during the nineteenth century in art and popular novels. Chronological continuity, teleological narratives and synchronisation of different historical times were constructed on the basis of widely recognisable examples. Metzger's contribution encapsulates something essential for this volume.

In order to improve our understanding of topical issues relating to freedom of expression, nationalism, revivalism, gender issues and various antimovements, it is clarifying to study their historical roots in the often interconnected conflicts. This is not least essential in a historical time that still seems to

<sup>18</sup> David Tjeder, 'Crises of Faith and the Making of Christian Masculinities at the Turn of the Twentieth Century', in Yvonne Maria Werner (ed.), *Christian Masculinity: Men and Religion in Northern Europe in the 19th and 20th Centuries*, Leuven 2011, pp. 127–145.

be governed by continuously accelerating change, but nevertheless is built on the historical experience of generations.

## **Sources**


*the 21st Century: The Dynamics of Religious Difference*, Basingstoke 2013, pp. 226−254.


# Olaf Blaschke

# **Types of Pilgrimages in Germany between Early and High-Ultramontanism: The Examples of Trier (1844) and Marpingen (1876)**

**Abstract:** Ultramontanism had a gradual, transforming, impact on Catholicism during the nineteenth century. This article traces its influence through an in-depth study of its multiform impact on pilgrimages. It is argued that ultramontanism contributed to an increasing control of the devout masses, but also that its shifting political ambitions altered the character of pilgrimages.

# **Introduction**

For the debates about the ultramontanization of Catholicism in the course of the nineteenth century the contrast of an early example of pilgrimages and a later case during the heyday of ultramontanism can be revealing. Though similar in social and gender aspects there are differences on the level of organization, inherent ultramontanism and transnational traits. The phenomenon of pilgrimages is approached in three steps. Firstly, the issue should be embedded in the context of scholarly debates concerning German Catholicism in the nineteenth century, secondly a system of in sum fourteen variations of pilgrimages can be unfolded, and finally the two prominent examples of Trier (1844) and Marpingen (1876) should find a place in this framework.

# **1. Scholarly debates and context**

Pilgrimages have been studied long before the phrase 'religious turn' in history was coined and later was also adapted to a 'religious turn' in gender history.1 For Germany, the phenomenon is embedded in four major academic contexts: 1) in the 1970s, the social history of religion asked about the social and political function of pilgrimages; 2) in the 1980s the discussion about the modernity of

<sup>1</sup> Sue Morgan, *Women, Gender and Religious Cultures in Britain*, London 2010, p. 2, quoted in Linda Woodhead, 'Wie der Feminismus die Religionsforschung revolutioniert hat', in Kornelia Sammet, Friederike Benthaus-Apel & Christel Gärtner (eds), *Religion und Geschlechterordnungen*, Frankfurt 2017, pp. 37−48, 40.

Catholicism was taken up again, although pilgrimages were but a small element of this question; 3) parallel to this the structures of Catholic self-exclusion, among them patterns of self-representation such as pilgrimages, were analysed; and 4) the debate about ultramontanism, of which centralized pilgrimages were a part, was enriched with new perspectives, among them transnational dimensions.


<sup>2</sup> Wolfgang Schieder, 'Kirche und Revolution: Sozialgeschichtliche Aspekte der Trierer Wallfahrt von 1844', in *AfS*, Vol. 14, 1974, pp. 419−454; Michael N. Ebertz, 'Die Organisierung der Massenreligiosität: Soziologische Aspekte der Frömmigkeitsforschung', in *JVK*, Jg. 2, 1979, pp. 38−72; Volker Speth, *Katholische Aufklärung, Volksfrömmigkeit und "Religionspolicey": Das rheinische Wallfahrtswesen von 1816 bis 1826 und die Entstehungsgeschichte des Wallfahrtsverbots von 1826. Ein Beitrag zur aufklärerischen Volksfrömmigkeitsreform*, Diss., Frankfurt 2008, pp. 13−32; Volker Speth, *Katholische Aufklärung und Ultramontanismus, Religionspolizey und Kultfreiheit, Volkseigensinn und Volksfrömmigkeitsformierung: Das rheinische Wallfahrtswesen von 1826 bis 1870. Teil 2: Die staatliche Wallfahrtspolizey im nördlichen Rheinland*, Frankfurt am Main 2011; Gottfried Korff, 'Formierung der Frömmigkeit: Zur sozialpolitischen Intention der Trierer Rockwallfahrten 1891', in *Geschichte und Gesellschaft*, 3 Jg. 1977, Heft 3, pp. 352−383; Gottfried Korff, 'Zwischen Sinnlichkeit und Kirchlichkeit: Zum Wandel populärer Frömmigkeit im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert', in Jutta Held (ed.), *Kultur zwischen Bürgertum und Volk*, Berlin 1983, pp. 136−148.

<sup>3</sup> Hans-Ulrich Wehler, *Deutsche Gesellschaftsgeschichte, Vol. 1: Vom Feudalismus des Alten Reiches bis zur Defensiven Modernisierung der Reformära 1700–1815*,

Loth in 1990, and Urs Altermatt in 1989 for Switzerland.4 They agreed that Catholics were very protective against modern challenges and distrusted modern times. In his encyclical 'Mirari Vos' Gregory XVI in 1832 condemned contemporary liberalism and religious indifferentism. Ultramontane Catholicism was anti-modern through and through but at the same time it used modern means to reach its anti-modern goals. Pilgrimages were seen as one marginal contribution and one manifestation of this attitude. They were ambivalent too. On the one side they revitalized traditional and premodern practices, on the other side they served as a modern instrument in the hands of the hierarchy fulfilling anti-modern purposes. Pilgrimages were important for those who could afford to join them and for the merchants in the places the pilgrims visited. But those who focus on the relevance of pilgrimges should at the same time realize that other things were of higher relevance. Much more important than organized pilgrimages, comprising many more people for many more years, were general assemblies, which happened regulary in Germany from 1848, furthermore political parties and exclusive associations for Catholics, Catholic newspapers and bookshops, missionary crusades, not forgetting the uniformization of Marian devotions. Pilgrimages requiring a long journey were usually an activity people undertook once in a lifetime, whereas the participation in Catholic associations could happen weekly, the consumption of Catholic newspapers even daily. The minor relevance of pilgrimages – though certainly of huge importance for places of pilgrimage like Santiago de Compostela or Lourdes – has to be seen in relation to the general picture and other sorts of commitment of and influence on Catholics.5

3) These strategies to erect a Catholic micro-cosmos seemed not to be really suitable for integrating Catholics into civil Protestant and secular society; on the contrary, they were aiming to separate them from the majority,

München 1987; Hans-Ulrich Wehler, *Deutsche Gesellschaftsgeschichte, Vol. 2: Von der Reformära bis zur industriellen und politischen 'Deutschen Doppelrevolution' 1815–1845/49*, München 1987.


especially in countries where Catholics formed a minority as in Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland, and thus tended to establish a parallel society, a *milieu* of its own. Catholic parties and Catholic trade unions, Catholic forms of piety – and among them organized pilgrimages – served as tools to protect the believers against the impositions of modernity. They had the effect of social disintegration, and in the end they even led Catholics to build a milieu; in Switzerland they talk about sub-society, while in Austria the key-word is camp and in the Netherlands it is pillar and pillarization, a phenomenon also observed in Belgium where three pillars (Catholics, Socialist, liberal bourgeoisie) bore up the house of the nation. This phase of social and anti-modern disintegration ranged from the 1850s to the 1960s, when the pillars started to tumble and the milieus eroded rapidly. The debate about the fatal political effects of milieus in Germany, unable to find a compromise in the Weimar Republic, was triggered off by a now classical article, written by the sociologist M. Rainer Lepsius in 1966.6

4) The three debates mentioned – about mass-manipulating priests, about modernity, and patterns of milieu inclusion and exclusion – were always closely linked with the ongoing debate about the nature of *ultramontanism*. After the eighteenth century this term came in use to describe those Catholics north of the Alps who were loyal to the Pope in Rome beyond the Alps (*ultra montes*). The pope who nourished ultramontanism and anti-liberalism was Gregory XVI (1831−1846), paving the way for the most prominent ultramontane pope, his successor Pius IX (1846–1878). The term ultramontanism was first an ascription used by those who were against the authoritarian developments, but since the mid-nineteenth century it was also proudly employed by Catholics in order to emphasize their allegiance to Rome, especially since the risorgimento, the Italian movement to unite

<sup>6</sup> M. Rainer Lepsius, 'Parteiensystem und Sozialstruktur: zum Problem der Demokratisierung der deutschen Gesellschaft [1966]', in M. Rainer Lepsius, *Demokratie in Deutschland: Soziologisch-historische Konstellationsanalysen*, Göttingen 1993, pp. 25−50; 'Arbeitskreis für kirchliche Zeitgeschichte (AKKZG), Münster, Katholiken zwischen Tradition und Moderne. Das katholische Milieu als Forschungsaufgabe', in *WZ* 43 (1993), pp. 588−654; Olaf Blaschke & Frank-Michael Kuhlemann (eds), *Religion im Kaiserreich: Milieus, Mentalitäten, Krisen (= Religiöse Kulturen der Moderne Vol. 2)*, Gütersloh 1996; 2. Ed. 2000; Wilfried Loth, 'Milieus oder Milieu? Konzeptionelle Überlegungen zur Katholizismusforschung', in Othmar Nikola Haberl & Tobias Korenke (eds), *Politische Deutungskulturen: FS Karl Rohe*, Baden-Baden 1999, pp. 123−136.

the nation and to decimate the Papal States, which succeeded in 1861 and made Rome the capital of Italy in 1871. At the same time ultramontanism reached its boiling point when in 1870 to the first Vatican Council dogmatized the infallibility of the pope. In addition, the hierarchical aspect ultramontanism included an ideological component (against the dominance of the modern state and of liberalism), a strong culture of homogenized piety (Heart-of-Jesus cult, pilgrimages), and finally an organizational dimension (tightening the structures of the Church and its mechanism of control; Catholic associations and media).7

Like other concepts of the saddle time (Reinhart Koselleck's 'Sattelzeit'), the term and the phenomenon of ultramontanism was contested from its very beginnings. Liberals identified all Catholics with sweeping stereotypes, insinuating that their capital was Rome instead of Berlin or Paris. They suspected Catholics of trying to lead society back into the Middle Ages. The concept of ultramontanism remained contested in the twentieth century: Scholarly controversies find their starting point in the book of Hans Buchheim, who in 1963 claimed ultramontanism to be the pioneer of Christian democracy. In 1991 Christoph Weber prominently refuted the ultramontane potential for democracy and even argued that ultramontanism was nothing other than fundamentalism. Recent debates have a rather transnational perspective and take up the question of whether ultramontanism come from the periphery or whether it

<sup>7</sup> Heribert Raab, 'Zur Geschichte und Bedeutung des Schlagwortes "Ultramontanismus" im 18. und frühen 19. Jahrhundert', in *Historisches Jahrbuch der Görres Gesellschaft*, 81, 1962, pp. 159−173. Klaus Schatz, 'Ultramontanismus', in *Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche*, Bd. 10, Freiburg 2006, pp. 360−362; Victor Conzemius, 'Rom und nicht nur Rom, Papsttum, Volksfrömmigkeit und Moderne im 19. Jahrhundert', in *Renovatio* 52, 1996, pp. 201−207; Victor Conzemius, 'Ultramontanismus', in *Theologische Realenzyklopädie* vol. 34, Tübingen 2002, pp. 253−263. Gisela Fleckenstein & Joachim Schmiedl (eds), *Ultramontanismus: Tendenzen der Forschung*, Paderborn 2005. Francisco Javier Ramón Solans, 'Le triomphe du Saint-Siège (1799−1823). Une transition de l'Ancien Régime à l'ultramontanisme?', in *Siècles: Cahiers du Centre d'histoire 'Espaces et Cultures'*, 43, 2016: Transferts culturels et politiques entre révolution et contre-révolution en Europe (1789−1840), p. 1-12: https://journals.openedition. org/siecles/3047. Austin Gough, *Paris and Rome: The Gallican Church and the Ultramontane Campaign 1848−1853*, Oxford 1986; Olaf Blaschke, 'Der Aufstieg des Papsttums aus dem Antiklerikalismus: Zur Dialektik von endogenen und exogenen Kräften der transnationalen Ultramontanisierung', in *Römische Quartalschrift für Christliche Altertumskunde und Kirchengeschichte*, Bd. 112, 2017, pp. 60−73.

was a clever strategy originating in Rome – or whether this vertical perspective should rather be complemented with a transnational perspective taking into account border-crossing circulations of ideas.8 Taking the examples of pilgrimages for the purpose of understanding ultramontanism better, it is suitable to present the two most prominent cases of mass pilgrimages in Germany: the eminent example of the Holy Robe in Trier in 1844 and the case of Marpingen in 1876, located about 50 kilometres south-east of Trier.

Both situations have been very well analysed by specialists interested in pilgrimages. This does not mean that there were no other locations – on the contrary, there were thousands of them in Germany and other European countries. Most historians focus on the three 'peregrinationes maiores', Rome, Jerusalem, and Santiago de Compostela, but also on other highlights like Fátima and Lourdes.

### **2. A typology of pilgrimages**

It is possible and useful, though the simple amount of pilgrim places remains unclear, to approach the field in a systematic way. Based on the criteria of the content of pilgrim places, three categories are usually distinguished: Mary, Holy Cross and others. For our purpose another systematic approach seems more appropriate, because we wonder what was modern about pilgrimages in the nineteenth century. If we, accordingly, try to classify forms of nineteenthcentury pilgrimages, in the end we might distinguish 14 different variations of them, and then we might see whether and where our examples fit in. We can distinguish individual pilgrimages, group and mass pilgrimages. None of these phenomena was new or genuinely modern. Mass pilgrimages already occurred in medieval times.9 The first pilgrimage to the Holy Robe in Trier in 1512 attracted 110,000 pilgrims in 23 days. For pre-modern times – given the

<sup>8</sup> Karl Buchheim, *Ultramontanismus und Demokratie: Der Weg der deutschen Katholiken im 19. Jahrhundert*, München 1963, pp. 9, 108; Christoph Weber, 'Ultramontanismus als katholischer Fundamentalismus', in Wilfried Loth (ed.), *Deutscher Katholizismus im Umbruch zur Moderne*, Stuttgart 1991, pp. 9−45; Vincent Viaene, *Belgium and the Holy See from Gregory XVI to Pius IX (1831−1859): Catholic Revival, Society and Politics in 19th-century Europe*, Leuven 2001; Olaf Blaschke & Francisco Javier Ramón Solans (eds), *Weltreligion im Umbruch: Transnationale Perspektiven auf das Christentum in der Globalisierung*, Frankfurt 2018. Cf. Fleckenstein & Schmiedl (eds) 2005.

<sup>9</sup> In the year 1064, between 7,000 and 12,000 believers followed Archbishop Siegfried of Mainz and other bishops on their pilgrimage to Jerusalem. RI III,2,3 n. 351,

low population of Europe and the complicated circumstances for long-distance pilgrimages – these numbers are enormous. The participants had to be able to afford such a long journey. In the nineteenth century, not only bishops, priests and aristocrats could join an extensive pilgrimage. Mass pilgrimages were becoming a phenomenon of the lower classes.10

Furthermore, we should separate unorganized pilgrimages from those meticulously organized by the Church. Still, in the case of group and mass pilgrimages, many – families for example – kept making their way autonomously. Even mass pilgrimages consisted of uncontrolled numbers of people independent from Church leadership and from clerical control, as we shall see later. The organization of pilgrimages could be centrally managed by the heads of a diocese, or the organization was decentralized, in the periphery of a parish Church. So far we have seven variations of pilgrimages: individual (1), group not organized (2), group organized de-centralized (3) and centralized (4), masses not organized (5), organized de-centralized (6) and centralized (7). Since all of these seven variations could be judged and can be judged as premodern, archaic, traditional practices and at the same time as renewed and modern ways to articulate piety, and as in fact we find traditional and modern ways of individual and group pilgrimages, in the end we have fourteen variations (7x2) of pilgrimages as can easily be recognized at the bottom of the graph on the next page. Some individuals, for example, arrived at the pilgrim place on foot in the traditional way people have done for hundreds of years, while others combined a comfortable journey by train with the pleasures of modern tourism. Given that there were always mixtures of modern and pre-modern elements, we should even add a further seven variations, but the scheme tries to draw ideal distinctions.

Every variation was manifest in the nineteenth century and can be distinguished by the form in which people accomplished their journey. Did individuals or groups take the traditional way, by foot or by horse-drawn coach, or did they use modern means of transportation like steamships or trains, buses or cars? One can say that these distinctions are of little importance. If people use telephones or trains they are not modern per se. On the other hand, some

in: Regesta Imperii Online, URI: http://www.regesta-imperii.de/id/1064-11-00\_1\_ 0\_3\_2\_3\_351\_351 (Accessed on 9 June 2017).

<sup>10</sup> Richard Laufner, 'Logistische und organisatorische, finanzielle und wirtschaftliche Aspekte bei den Hl-Rock-Wallfahrten 1512 bis 1959', in Erich Aretz et al. (eds), *Der Heilige Rock zu Trier: Studien zur Geschichte und Verehrung der Tunika Christi*, Trier 1996 (2. Ed.), pp. 457−481, 458.

**Table 1:** Typology of Pilgrimages.

Catholic contemporaries were critical that the traditional character of pilgrim journeys was violated. Trains were contested, even though the Church promoted them. The cloister in Einsiedeln (canton Schwyz) could be reached directly by train in the 1870s. Anti-clerical voices in Einsiedeln complained that it is unfair to reduce the tariff for tickets for pilgrims, which was perceived as being against the law.11 Modern means of transportation opened the space for a much wider participation. Were the mass pilgrimages of the nineteenth century a result of modern transportation alone? As we shall see in the example of Trier in 1844, they were not.12 The Trier pilgrimage was modern because the flow of pilgrims was perfectly organized top-down, and all that without railways, all that in the early nineteenth and not the late nineteenth century.

<sup>11</sup> 'Die kirchlichen Wallfahrten – der Staat und die Eisenbahnen', in *Neue Zürcher Zeitung*, 18. 8. 1873, quotation from Karin Kälin, *Schauplatz katholischer Frömmigkeit: Wallfahrt nach Einsiedeln von 1864 bis 1914*, Fribourg 2005, p. 44, 105. Cf. Altermatt 1989, p. 255.

<sup>12</sup> About the tendencies: Klaus Herbers, 'Unterwegs zu heiligen Stätten – Pilgerfahrten', in Hermann Bausinger et al. (eds), *Reisekultur: Von der Pilgerfahrt zum modernen Tourismus*, München 1999, pp. 23−31.

Marpingen, on the contrary, in the last quarter of the century, was more of a bottom-up phenomenon, fairly chaotic and hard to control by clerics. But it still was a manifestation of ultramontane traits and hopes.

# **3. Trier 1844 and Marpingen 1876**

Among thousands of more or less prominent pilgrim places in Germany none was so vehemently brought into focus as Trier in 1844 and Marpingen in 1876. Both events offer the chance to illustrate the patterns about pilgrimages in the nineteenth century and allow us to draw conclusions of the questions concerning pilgrimages in the context of the social history of religion, the modernity and milieu structures of Catholicism and the nature of ultramontanism.

## **1) Trier 1844**

In 1844, there was no ralilway station in Trier, located on the river Mosel and close to the border of Luxembourg. People had to come either – if they could afford it – by steamship from the city of Koblenz, where the Mosel meets the Rhine, or by carriage, or, as most of them did, on foot.13 The first train in Germany went from Nuremberg to Fürth in 1835. Trier was only connected to the railway network heading south towards Saarbrücken in the year 1860, to Luxembourg in 1861, to Cologne in 1875, the line leading to Koblenz just under construction. Coming to Trier for the first two mass pilgrimages in 1810 and 1844 was nearly as exhausting as in the preceding 2000 years, while for the third mass pilgrimages in 1891 Trier could be comfortably reached by train.14

The Holy Robe in Trier represents the tunic Jesus Christ wore on his last day (John 19, 23–24), and the legend from the twelfth century says that it was brought from Palestine around the year 327 or 328 by Helena, the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great. Alongside the shroud in Turin, the

<sup>13</sup> Bernhard Schneider, 'Wallfahrt, Ultramontanismus und Politik: Zu Vorgeschichte und Verlauf der Trierer Hl.-Rock-Wallfahrt von 1844', in Erich Aretz et al. (eds), *Der Heilige Rock zu Trier: Studien zur Geschichte und Verehrung der Tunika Christi*, Trier 1995, pp. 237−280, 240; Bernhard Schneider, 'Die Hl.-Rock-Wallfahrten von 1810 und 1844', in Bernhard Schneider & Martin Persch (eds), *Geschichte des Bistums Trier, Vol. 4: Auf dem Weg in die Moderne 1802–1880,* Trier 2000, pp. 567−580; Laufner 1996, p. 468.

<sup>14</sup> Martin Persch, 'Die Hl.-Rock-Wallfahrten 1891, 1933 und 1959', in Bernhard Schneider & Martin Persch (eds), *Geschichte des Bistums Trier, Vol. 5: Beharrung und Erneuerung 1881−1982*, Trier 2004, pp. 720−730, 724.

#### 36 Olaf Blaschke

Robe is one of the most important relics of Christianity. It was exposed publicly for the first time in 1512, and, in order to commemorate this, for the last time 500 years later in 2012. The year 1810 was the first time in 155 years that the Robe was shown again. The occasion was that the Robe came back to Trier in 1810 after having been protected against French revolutionary troops and hidden in Bamberg and Augsburg. The pilgrimage, well organized by Bishop Charles Mannay (1802–1816), attracted about 100,000 believers and demonstrated the capacity to reorganize the Church, whose aristocratic character was smashed in the secularization.

The great sensation happened in 1844. It turned out to be the biggest mass event in pre-revolutionary Germany. Every day, thousands of pilgrims passed through the Cathedral in order to see the Holy Robe. Under the conditions of restoration and censorship it was not easy to bring together any crowd of people. The other and more famous mass event of the period was the Hambach Festival in 1832, when about 30,000 people in the Palatinate demonstrated for more freedom and a united Germany, and for a united Europe against the ruling aristocracy. In the light of this oppositional event it was important for any mass gathering to avoid a similar impression. Nevertheless, a dozen years later, the mass meeting in Trier was allowed by the authorities and was able to mobilize more than twenty times as many participants as the Hambach Festival. Contemporary statistics counted over one million people in only seven weeks, while careful estimations of the 1970s claim about half a million people because some of them might have gone into the Cathedral twice so they were counted twice,15 though it was strictly forbidden to come more than once, and the priests led their people straight out of the church to another church and back home. Recent studies estimate between one million and more than 500,000 pilgrims, so that something like the number of 700,000 seems quite plausible.16 While in 1810 about 100,000 people were mobilized, with a daily average of more than 10,530, in 1844 the daily average amounts to 14,000. This daily flood of pious people was nearly equal to the population of the city of Trier which had

<sup>15</sup> Schieder 1974, p. 421 f. Rudolf Lill, 'Die Länder des Deutschen Bundes und der Schweiz', in Roger Aubert et al. (eds), *Die Kirche in der Gegenwart. Erster Halbbd.: Die Kirche zwischen Revolution und Restauration* (= Hubert Jedin (ed.), *Handbuch der Kirchengeschichte*, Vol. VI/1), Freiburg 1971 (ND 1985), pp. 392−408; Schneider 1995.

<sup>16</sup> Schneider 1995, p. 268 f., methodologically holds the counting of 1 million pilgrims plausible, though some went twice into the Cathedral, and comes to the conclusion that there were 'clearly more than 500,000'.

15,064 inhabitants (incorparating the outskirts and villages it counted 25,000 inhabitants).

Bishop Wilhelm Arnoldi (1842–1864) planned the event meticulously with the organizational talent of his general vicar Johann Georg Müller and the intellectual support of Jakob Marx, professor of theology in Trier.17 Their blueprint was the pilgrimage of 1810. Both cases choreographed pilgrimages from above. Before that, in the seventeenth and eighteenth century, pilgrimages were primarily organized by religious fraternities, not by the Church itself. This changed dramatically in the early nineteenth century, and the events of 1810 and 1844 opened the door for the Church hierarchy to exert a concerted influence on the masses, an influence they scarcely enjoyed before.18 In the preparatory phase of organizing the pilgrimage, Arnoldi used a newspaper in Luxembourg to campaign for the pilgrimage, because the Prussian censorship was quite restrictive. Arnoldi himself was even behind the foundation of this newspaper, the *Luxemburger Zeitung,* in July 1844.19 Each mass pilgrimage was accompanied by written and iconic propaganda from both sides: the Church and its opponents.20

The famous image painted in 1847 by August Gustav Lasinsky shows pilgrims within reach of Trier but does not reveal that nearly 60 per cent of the pilgrims in the nineteenth century were women.21 The feminization of piety is widely discussed in the literature. In this picture, though, the relationship between male and female is 50:50.22

<sup>17</sup> About Müller: Laufner 1996, p. 469.

<sup>18</sup> Schieder 1974, p. 432.

<sup>19</sup> Schieder 1974, p. 438; Schneider 1995, p. 256; Bernhard Schneider, 'Presse und Wallfahrt: Die publizistische Verarbeitung der Trierer Hl.-Rock-Wallfahrt von 1844', in Erich Aretz et al. (eds), *Der Heilige Rock zu Trier: Studien zur Geschichte und Verehrung der Tunika Christi*, Trier 1996 (2. Ed.), pp. 281−306.

<sup>20</sup> Georg Patiss, *Die Wallfahrten in ihrer providentiellen Bedeutung für unsere Zeit*, Mainz 1875; Schneider 1996.

<sup>21</sup> Wallfahrt zum Heiligen Rock im Jahr 1844, Painting of August Gustav Lasinsky, 1847, Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Trier im Simeonstift, Inventarnr. III, 67; Speth 2011, p. 244 f.

<sup>22</sup> Bernhard Schneider, 'Feminisierung der Religion im 19. Jahrhundert: Perspektiven einer These im Kontext des deutschen Katholizismus', in *Trierer Theologische Zeitschrift*, Vol. 111, 2002, pp. 123−147; Bernhard Schneider, 'Feminisierung und (Re-)Maskulinisierung der Religion im 19. Jahrhundert: Tendenzen der Forschung aus der Perspektive des deutschen Katholizismus', in Michaela Sohn-Kronthaler (ed.), *Feminisierung oder (Re-)Maskulinisierung der Religion im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert: Forschungsbeiträge aus Christentum, Judentum und Islam*, Wien 2016, pp. 11−41;

**Fig. 1:** Wallfahrt zum Heiligen Rock im Jahr 1844, Painting by August Gustav Lasinsky, 1847.

Source: Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Trier im Simeonstift.

How did Arnoldi channel the masses to Trier? Everything was exactly planned, the project a logistic masterpiece. First, the Catholics from Trier, parish after parish, were allowed to see the relic when the exposition started on 18 August 1844. Then the parishes in each deanery of the diocese were allowed to come, on two different days remote from each other. They had to register in advance and received some sort of ticket. They arrived, always under the tutelage of a priest, at certain meeting points in Trier, had to walk a prescribed way

Olaf Blaschke, 'The Unrecognised Piety of Men: Strategies and Success of the Remasculinisation Campaign around 1900', in Yvonne Maria Werner (ed.), *Christian Masculinity: Men and Religion in Northern Europe in the 19th and 20th Centuries*, Leuven 2011; Norbert Busch, 'Die Feminisierung der ultramontanen Frömmigkeit', in Irmtraud Götz von Olenhusen (ed.), *Wunderbare Erscheinungen: Frauen und katholische Frömmigkeit im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert*, Paderborn 1995, pp. 203−220.

to the Cathedral and, passing the Robe, out of the Cathedral and out of town back home.23 The exposition ended on 6 October 1844.

The enlightened absolutistic state saw pilgrimages as a waste of time. Pilgrims were widely banned and then again suppressed in the 1820s and 1830s. During the restoration after 1815 the dukes of the states were sceptical about crowds of people. Even the bishops raised in the enlightened times were afraid of euphemistic pietists out of control. Arnoldi's predecessor, Bishop Joseph Hommer (1824–1836), tried to prevent Catholics from wild pilgrimages. The Archbishop of Cologne, August Graf von Spiegel, had warned his flock in a pastoral letter in 1826 against neglecting their work duties. He forbade pilgrimages which took several days.24 Also the bishop of Münster prohibited pilgrimages in 1826. Moral and economic arguments from the eighteenth century were accompanied in the early nineteenth century by anti-revolutionary political arguments. The result was that in fact the Rhine area experienced a decrease in pilgrimages between 1826 and 1835.25 When Bishop Arnoldi in 1844 initiated the pilgrimage, he made a complete U-turn against the policy of his predecessors and counterparts. He felt the need of the believers but wanted to take personal control of the situation. Arnoldi discussed the re-vitalization of the Trier pilgrimage personally with Klemens Wenzel Lothar von Metternich in 1842 and had to ask the president of the Prussian Rhine province for permission.26 From his ultramontane position and in the context of states trying to bring the Church under tutelage, Arnoldi wanted to show the state the autonomy of the Church, which had no intention of any revolt against the state but to cooperate with it on equal terms.

For liberals, the whole theatre was archaic, a giant leap back into medieval times. They mocked the superstition of stupid Catholics going on a pilgrimage and adoring an old undergarment. The historian Heinrich von Sybel amused himself at the expense of the Holy Robe in Trier and the other twenty Holy Robes – in Galatia, Safed and Jerusalem, Argenteuil, Lateran, Bremen and Loccum, Stantiago, Ovideo, Westminster and Mainz, Gent, Flines, Corbie and Tournus, Cologne, Frankfurt, Friaul and Thiers, Constantinople, Georgia and

<sup>23</sup> Schieder 1974, p. 444; Laufner 1996.

<sup>24</sup> Schieder 1974, p. 435; Speth 2011. Cf. Nicole Priesching, *Maria von Mörl (1812– 1868): Leben und Bedeutung einer 'stigmatisierten Jungfrau' aus tirol im Kontext ultramontaner Frömmigkeit*, Brixen 2004.

<sup>25</sup> Schneider 1995, p. 245. Speth 2011, p. 99.

<sup>26</sup> Schieder 1974, p. 441.

**Fig. 2:** The other twenty Holy Robes, according to the table of contents of Johann Gildemeister / Heinrich von Sybel, *Der heilige Rock zu Trier und die zwanzig andern heiligen ungenähten Röcke: Eine historische Untersuchung*, Düsseldorf 1844.

Moscow.27 In a caricature from 1844 Rome is the spider in the ultramontane web thrown over Europe. It is all about profit, gained from naive and uneducated poor people who are blind marionettes in the hands of the priests.

<sup>27</sup> Johann Gildemeister & Heinrich von Sybel, *Der heilige Rock zu Trier und die zwanzig andern heiligen ungenähten Röcke: Eine historische Untersuchung*, Düsseldorf 1844; for the confessional context of conflict: Wolfgang Schmid, 'Die Wallfahrt zum Heiligen Rock (1844) und die evangelischen Gemeinden im Rheinland (Bonn, Koblenz, Trier, Winningen)', in *Rheinische Vierteljahrsblätter*, 77 (2013), pp. 86−117. For anti-clericalism in Europe cf. Manuel Borutta, *Antikatholizismus: Deutschland und Italien im Zeitalter der europäischen Kulturkämpfe*, Göttingen 2010; Lisa Dittrich, *Antiklerikalismus in Europa: Öffentlichkeit und Säkularisierung in Frankreich, Spanien und Deutschland (1848–1914)*, Göttingen 2014; Wolfram Kaiser, '"Clericalism – that is our enemy!" European anticlericalism and the culture wars', in Wolfram Kaiser & Christopher Clark (eds), *Culture Wars: Secular-Catholic Conflict in Nineteenth-Century Europe*, Cambridge 2003, pp. 47−76.

**Fig. 3:** Der Heilige Rock zu Trier (1844). Source: Bildarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz, image no. 30028996.

Was the mass event of 1844 a manifestation of the growing piety of the people, an indicator for the religious renaissance of the early nineteenth century? Or can the mass pilgrimage be considered as opposing the Prussian police state, as Joseph Görres interpreted it already in 1845?28 Or was it rather a sign of the alliance between altar and throne in times of monarchical restoration? This was the heated debate that broke out in the 1970s between Wolfgang Schieder and Rudolf Lill. Schieder, a social historian at the University of Trier, did not want to view the event in the traditional line of interpretation as an expression of religious custom, old or renewed. The mass event was not spontaneous but thoroughly organized with certain interests of the Church hierarchy. For Schieder, it was more than an instrument for inner-ecclesiastical renewal but rather a calculated political demonstration of the Church, representing itself as a bulwark against revolutions. It was the staging of the

<sup>28</sup> Joseph Görres, *Die Wallfahrt nach Trier*, Regensburg 1845; cf. Jon Vanden Heuvel, *A German Life in the Age of Revolution: Joseph Görres, 1776–1848*, Washington 2001, pp. 337−339; Schneider 1995, p. 468.

#### 42 Olaf Blaschke

revolutionary slogan *liberté, égalité, fraternité* but with a counterrevolutionary intention. *Liberté* for the Church confronted with the state, *fraternité* among the priests and the pilgrims, and *égalité*, suggesting a prevailing harmony of different classes, genders and generations united before the Holy Robe, as the painting of Lasinsky illustrated impressively. The fact is, not all the classes were there. The unity that Görres tried to demonstrate in 1845 was incomplete. The pilgrims were mostly poor, stemming from the lower classes, more women than men, accompanied by some bishops, plenty of priests and some noble women and men, while the educated bourgeoisie was largely missing. The ultramontane unity was only simulated. Schieder emphasizes that the notion of *égalité* was mere propaganda. In the end, the event of 1844 deepened the ultramontane connection between Catholics, priests and bishops on a very hierarchical level.29

Rudolf Lill, by this time professor of history in Cologne, reacted rigorously. He accused Schieder of having made many mistakes and of being no real expert.30 Schieder concentrated on 'peripheral aspects' of the pilgrimages, ignoring the religious and emotional dimension of the issue, an image which has been fostered during the Enlightenment. Bishops did not manipulate pilgrimages, Lill insinuated, on the contrary, they have suppressed pilgrimages in the years before 1844. And why did they suppress them? Because they knew of the emotional need of the believers. The growing ultramontanism and awakening devoutness were more important than social-historical facts. The religious inclination of the people was the 'primary motivation' of the pilgrims, 31

In recent decades, scholars have tended to see both sides, the manipulative and the religious, the social and the pious. But in the 1970s the social approach was still too new for many historians.32 The next pilgrimage in 1891 under

<sup>29</sup> Schieder 1974, p. 425.

<sup>30</sup> Rudolf Lill, 'Kirche und Revolution: zu den Anfängen der katholischen Bewegung im Jahrzehnt vor 1848', in *AfS*, Vol. 18, 1978, pp. 565−575, 572, footnote 31, where Lill contrasts Schieder with experts in the field (Fachkreise).

<sup>31</sup> Lill 1978, p. 568, 572

<sup>32</sup> Schneider 1995; Andreas Holzem, 'Religiöse Orientierung und soziale Ordnung: Skizzen zur Wallfahrt als Handlungsfeld und Konfliktraum zwischen Frühneuzeit und Katholischem Milieu', in Reinhard Blänkner & Bernhard Jussen (eds), *Institutionen und Ereignis: Über historische Praktiken und Vorstellungen gesellschaftlichen Ordnens* (Veröffentlichungen des Max-Planck-Instituts für Geschichte, Vol. 138), Göttingen 1998, pp. 327−354; Andreas Holzem, *Kirchenreform und Sektenstiftung: Deutschkatholiken, Reformkatholiken und Ultramontane am Oberrhein (1844–1866)*, Paderborn 1994.

**Fig. 4:** Souvernir Plate, 1891, from Villeroy Boch

Bishop Felix Korum (1881–1921) was a political demonstration against trade unions and socialism. As in the case of 1844, we find pictural manifestations of both interpretations, affirmative and critical: the pious side of the 1891 pilgrimage is manifest in the souvenir plate. In contrast to this the image, 'Auf nach Trier' in the *Kladderadatsch* dwells on the topos of ecclesiastical materialism and people's stupidity. The priests are luring the masses to Trier, while, as the poem says, the offertory box is filled with more and more money from dull believers. The other caricature about the 'Gimpelfang', a few weeks later, plays with the same motive but this time the hotels and taverns are those who make the profit. The bullfinch (*Gimpel*) was easy to catch and had the reputation of being naive. The bird *Gimpel* in German is also called *Dompfaff,* which means priest of a cathedral. Both caricatures have this reproach of materialism in common and both show very disciplined mass movements towards Trier.

**Fig. 5:** Franz A. Jüttner & Gustav Brandt, 'Auf nach Trier', in *Kladderadatsch*, 44, No. 30, 26. 7. 1891, p. 120

After the end of the culture war and after the revocation of the anti-Socialist laws in 1890, this pilgrimage of 1891 was a signal for Catholic workers to stay loyal to the Church instead of joining the Socialist Party. So, each pilgrimage had its core function besides the mere religious one. In 1891 again, they used the organizational concept of the previous pilgrimage of 1844, with a scheme for each parish and with prescribed ways to enter and to leave Trier. People could come by train now. No wonder that the numbers grew from 700,000 to 1.9 million.33

The graph of pilgrims to the Holy Robe in Trier 1810–2012 shows the total number of visitors (indicated on the left side) and the daily average (on the right). The all-time record of visitors was achieved in July 1933. After this, the attraction of this sort of event declined. Each pilgrimage had a slightly different

<sup>33</sup> Laufner 1996, pp. 472−474.

**Fig. 6:** Franz A. Jüttner (1865−1926): 'Der große Gimpelfang in Trier', in *Kladderadatsch*, 44, No. 33, Beiblatt, 16. 8. 1891.

**Table 2:** Pilgrims to the Holy Robe in Trier 1810−2012.

content because of its different historical contexts. The number of visitors depended only partly upon the transport possibilities at the time. The decline in the number of visitors in 1959 is therefore all the more conspicuous, since it was so much easier to reach Trier than in 1844, now also with one's own car, but nevertheless the numbers kept falling and falling. Even the length of time this pilgrimage of 1959 was open – a record of two months – did not help. Once again: pilgrimages are not a matter of modern vehicles and not a result of modern means of transport. Finally, in 2012, less than a third of the number of people of 1959 made their way to Trier.

Parallel to the enormous rise of total numbers of visitors from 1810 to 1933, the average number of *daily* visitors increased, from over ten thousand in 1810 to about 43,000 in the first months of Adolf Hitler's regime. Then they fell after World War II. In 2012 only 18,000 people arrived per day. The average-per-day curve is important because the pilgrim events comprised different lengths of time and it would be unfair to compare the 19 days of 1810 with the 44 days of 1844 and the 64 days of 1959. Nevertheless, the form of both curves – total and daily – is that of a parabola, and the curve covers the space from approximately the beginning to the end of the second confessional era and the age of Marian devotion.34 The next example is clearly located in this Marian context.

<sup>34</sup> Cf. Olaf Blaschke (ed.), *Konfessionen im Konflikt: Deutschland zwischen 1800 und 1970: ein zweites konfessionelles Zeitalter*, Göttingen 2002; Olaf Blaschke, 'Le XIXe

#### **2) Marpingen 1876**

Marpingen was a small village of 1,600 inhabitants in the middle of the 1870s, located close to the French border, about 25 kilometres north of Saarbücken and twice as far away from its episcopal city of Trier in the north-west. The definitive book about Marpingen, by David Blackbourn, appeared in 1993. Everything we ever wanted to know about Marpingen can be found there, but twenty-five years ago historians did not explicitly ask transnational questions.35

What happened at dusk on 3 July 1876 in the forest east of Marpingen? Three girls thought they saw a woman in white. After returning to the village, they shared their experience. Communication with female adults encouraged them to believe it was the Virgin Mary. After that, Mary appeared frequently to them and miraculous cures happened. Within days, Catholics from neighbouring locations were informed, pilgrims from the Saarland and from places much further away visited Marpingen. They came with their sick people in carts, hoping for grace and cure. Some spoke of 20,000 people in the first week, exceeding the numbers at Lourdes in 1876. It took a few days before the authorities became aware that it was time to react. Ten days after the first apparition, armed infantry invaded the village, expelling the pilgrims by force. But Mary and the pilgrims were unstoppable. The parish priest Jakob Neureuter was under great stress because he remained sceptical about the authenticity of the apparitions. They needed to be approved by the authority, but there was no bishop in the diocese in those years because of the culture war. Catholic and liberal newspapers in all Germany reported the events from different angles.

siècle: un deuxième âge confessionnel ou un deuxième âge du confessionnalisme?' in Catherine Maurer (ed.), *La coexistence confessionnelle en France et dans les mondes germaniques du Moyen Âge à nos jours*, Paris 2015, pp. 301−308; Martin Schulze Wessel, 'Das 19. Jahrhundert als "Zweites Konfessionelles Zeitalter"? Thesen zur Religionsgeschichte der böhmischen Länder in europäischer Hinsicht', in *ZS f Ostmitteleuropa-Forschung* 50, 2001, pp. 514−530.

<sup>35</sup> The following is based on David Blackbourn, *Marpingen: Apparitions of the Virgin Mary in a Nineteenth-Century German Village*, New York 1993; David Blackbourn, *Wenn ihr sie wieder seht, fragt wer sie sei: Marienerscheinungen in Marpingen – Aufstieg und Niedergang des deutschen Lourdes*, Reinbek 1997. A more sophisticated version of my argument appeared as Olaf Blaschke, 'Marpingen: A Remote Village and its Virgin in a Transnational Context', in Roberto di Stefano & Francisco Javier Ramón Solans (eds), *Marian Devotions, Political Mobilization, and Nationalism in Europe and America*, Houndmills 2016, pp. 83−107.

**Fig. 7:** Marpingen and Trier in Stieler's *Karte von Deutschland in 25 Blatt*, Gotha 1875.

The parish priest and several villagers were arrested and put on trial for fraud and breaching public peace, while the three girls who started it all were subjected to intense interrogations. Nevertheless, the events extended into the next year. July and August of 1877 saw between 600 and 1,200 believers daily taking communion in the parish church. Finally, the apparitions stopped on 3 September 1877.

While Lourdes had been the blueprint for Marian apparitions since 1858, Marpingen tried to become the 'German Lourdes'.36 Because the French events were a big topic in the media during these years, especially since the

<sup>36</sup> Cf. Andreas Johannes Kotulla, 'Lourdes und die deutschen Katholiken: Über die frühe Rezeption eines katholischen Kultes im Deutschen Kaiserreich und die Anfängeder Wallfahrt bis zum Ersten Weltkrieg', in Bernhard Schneider (ed.), *Maria und Lourdes: Wunder und Marienerscheinungen in theologischer und kulturwissenschaftlicher Perspektive*, Münster 2008, pp. 139−165.

first organized German pilgrimage to Lourdes in 1875, France offered a role model for later events. The reference to Lourdes is a transnational aspect of the story. Marpingen was deeply immersed in Marian adoration, and the girls were familiar with the transnational text Lourdes had presented. People did not need to be in Lourdes personally but of course there were border-crossing movements. National pilgrimages to Lourdes, often on special trains, were organized from Belgium in 1873, from Poland, Italy, and Germany in 1875, from Spain and Ireland in 1876. When a statue in honour of the Virgin was consecrated, 100,000 Catholics were present in Lourdes, among them 35 bishops and 5,000 priests. This event happened on 3 July 1876 – on the very same day when, 894 kilometres away from Lourdes as the crow flies, three girls in the Härtel forest had a vision of a white figure in the early evening.

The second transnational aspect is that Marpingen happened at the peak of Marian apparitions in Europe, not as a local endemic phenomena but as a European tendency. A first wave started in the wake of the French Revolution, especially in the Vendée, followed by a set of weeping statues in Italy. A second wave happened during the pre-revolutionary times before 1848, but the strongest wave occurred during the Italian and German unification wars in the decade between 1866 and 1877. Mary appeared in times of crisis – just as she did later on in the Cold War.37

The third transnational dimension, ultramontanism, went along with the standardization of orthodoxy and orthodox practices. Ultramontanism was clearly a global movement, where the interest of Roman centralization met the needs for orientation among the Catholic flock.38

<sup>37</sup> Numbers: Bernhard Schneider, 'Marienerscheinungen im 19. Jahrhundert: Ein Phänomen und seine Charakteristika', in Hubert Wolf (ed.), *'Wahre' und ' falsche' Heiligkeit: Mystik, Macht und Geschlechterrollen im Katholizismus des 19. Jahrhunderts*, München 2013, pp. 87–110, 91, based on: Gottfried Hierzenberger & Otto Nedomansky, *Erscheinungen und Botschaften der Gottesmutter Maria: Vollständige Dokumentation durch zwei Jahrtausende*, Augsburg 1998 (probably not complete).

<sup>38</sup> This aspect is about to be analysed in the project 'Der Ultramontanismus als transnationales und transatlantisches Phänomen 1819–1914' within the framework of the Exzellenzcluster 'Religion und Politik' at the Westfälische-Wilhelms-Universität WWU Münster. Cf. already Vincent Viaene, 'Nineteenth-Century Catholic Internationalism and its Predecessors', in Abigail Green & Vincent Viaene (eds), *Religious Internationals in the Modern World: Globalization and Faith Communities since 1750*, Houndmills 2012, pp. 82−110; Vincent Viaene, 'International History, Religious History, Catholic History: Perspectives for Cross-Fertilization (1830– 1914)', in *EHQ* 2008, pp. 578−607. For a transnational approach cf. Thies Schulze

#### 50 Olaf Blaschke

**Table 3:** Marian Apparitions in Europe 1803−1917.

If we compare the pilgrimage to Trier in 1844 with the event in 1876/1877, three aspects are striking. While the pilgrimage to the Holy Robe in Trier in 1844 fits very well into the scheme, representing the type of strictly organized mass pilgrimage, Marpingen is about the opposite. It belongs to several types of individual and not organized group pilgrimages. The events were never approved by Church authorities, thus the conflux of pilgrims never was operated centrally. Single persons and families came, mostly unorganized and if organized then never centrally. Marpingen would contradict any teleological idea that the degree of organization was increasing during the nineteenth century.

The second comparative observation is that the enthusiasm in 1876 displayed even more ultramontane traits than the pilgrimage of Trier in 1844. While Trier exposed the specialty of the Holy Robe, an object nobody else should claim to have, Catholics in Marpingen – the village belonging to the same diocese – shared what Catholics around the world were sharing: Mother Mary. She had gained new prominence since the dogma of 1854, followed by

(ed.), *Grenzüberschreitende Religion: Vergleichs- und Kulturtransferforschung zur neuzeitlichen Geschichte*, Göttingen 2012; Klaus Koschorke (ed.), *Etappen der Globalisierung in christentumsgeschichtlicher Perspektive/Phases of Globalization in the History of Christianity*, Wiesbaden 2012.

the apparitions in Lourdes in 1858. Marpingen was more ultramontane considering this content but also considering the fact that the pilgrims had already inherited ultramontane values. They came on their own initiative and did not need to wait for a bishop to centrally orchestrate a mass maneuvre. Anyway, there was no bishop in Trier between 1876 and 1881. Other characteristics of the events in Marpingen underline the ultramontane traits. As in Trier thirty-two years before, it was mainly women who were involved and mainly poor, uneducated people. Marpingen's farmers were poor 'goat peasants', and the pilgrims flooding Marpingen represented a low social image. Again, the bourgeoisie was missing, though there were some prominent aristocrats like the mother of the Bavarian King.

The third aspect refers again to the transnational dimension of Marpingen. Globalization had been gaining momentum since the 1840s. The events of Trier in 1844 were observed in the newspapers in France, Belgium and even Ireland. They shared a transnational component.39 But only a few pilgrims from other countries could join the pilgrimage, most of them from Luxembourg. Marpingen was different. It manifested many transnational traits and allowed people even from Spain and Mexico to come to this tiny village in the Saar region.

### **Conclusion**

In the nineteenth century, pilgrimages as such were by no means modern. Parts of what made them modern in the nineteenth century, for instance mass transportation, were not essential characteristics or motivitations. What added a modern aspect to them was a centralized ecclesiastical organization, as had already happened in 1810 and most saliently in 1844 in Trier. But mass pilgrimages continued without being centrally organized. Marpingen in 1876 is one such example of 'wild' mass pilgrimage. The apparitions were never approved by the Church, the events were never centrally organized, but the attraction still lured thousands into this remote village. What we might call modern means of anti-modernity in pilgrimages are not the pilgrimage and not the masses, but rather the disciplined organization and control over the masses.

Ultramontanism changed its character, as the comparison between an early event of 1844 and those in the 1870s and 1890s reveals. Early ultramontanism in 1844 still tried to establish harmony between state and Church, while ultramontanism in the second half of the nineteenth century was increasingly involved

<sup>39</sup> Schneider 1996, p. 281.

in conflicts with the state during the culture wars. Pilgrims participated in each of these phases. After generations ultramontanism took deep root in the hearts even of the remotest Catholics in the remotest villages in Saarland.

# **Sources**


und Katholischem Milieu', in Reinhard Blänkner & Bernhard Jussen (eds), *Institutionen und Ereignis: Über historische Praktiken und Vorstellungen gesellschaftlichen Ordnens* (Veröffentlichungen des Max-Planck-Instituts für Geschichte, Vol. 138), Göttingen 1998, pp. 327−354.


# Tine Van Osselaer

# **Pain, Passion and Compassion. Writing on Stigmatic Women in Modern Europe\***

**Abstract** This chapter addresses the European stigmatics in the nineteenth and twentieth century and studies on the stigmatics' (public) suffering and the eye-witnesses of these events. Addressing pain as both a subjective experience and cultural construction, the focus here is on pain as religiously meaningful. The analysis of the published eye-witness reports indicates a 'productive' pain on three levels: that of the stigmatic, of the writer and of the reader. Including both physical and emotional pain, the exterior and interior, it becomes obvious that the stigmatics were presented as an inextricable combination of passion and com-passion: a combination that brings the alleged 'gender shift' that has often been linked to the stigmatic's imitating the body of the suffering Christ into question.

# **Interiority, Gender and Stigmata**

newgenprepdf

Why study inwardness and gender through the lens of stigmatics in nineteenthand twentieth-century Europe? Arguably, stigmata are one of the most external features, or effects, of Catholic piety. In this chapter, I will point out that studying exactly the 'interior' aspects of stigmatisation allows us to question the alleged 'gender shift' that has often been linked to stigmatics.1 Through an analysis of the stigmatics' contemplation of Christ's suffering, we get a more complex story than the (female) stigmatics 'imitating' the suffering (male) body of Christ.

<sup>\*</sup> This chapter was written within the context of the ERC-starting-grant project 'Between saints and celebrities. The devotion and promotion of stigmatics in Europe, c. 1800−1950' (grant number 637908). It was first published in Portuguese: 'Dor, paixão et compaixão: Mulheres estigmatizadas na Europa contemporânea (Pain, passion and compassion. Writing on stigmatic women in Modern Europe)', in J.L. Fontes, F. Andrade & T. Pires-Marques (eds), *Género e interioridade na vida religiosa: conceitos, contextos e práticas,* Lisboa 2017, pp. 169*–*188.

<sup>1</sup> Bettine Menke, 'Nachträglichkeiten und Beglaubigungen', in Bettine Menke & Barbara Vinken (eds), *Stigmata: Poetiken der Körperschrift*, München 2004, pp. 25−43, 32.

Stigmatics have been studied from a gender perspective before and, roughly summarised, two perspectives have dominated the analyses.2 A first line of research emphasised gender-confirmative aspects. The majority of the modern stigmatics were female (unlike Christ and Saint Francis, the first case of stigmatisation). This predominance of female stigmatics has been used by their contemporaries and the scholars who studied them, as an argument in the explanation of the phenomenon as something 'typically feminine'. The emphasis is thereby put on 'women's alleged feeble nature', their bodily disposition (ruled by their menstrual cycle) and concurrent tendency towards 'hysteria'. Such discourses are perfect examples of the nineteenth-century corporealisation, essentialisation, of gender norms and ideas. Supported by medical findings and anthropological research, ideas of femininity became biological destiny. In its most extreme forms (e.g. in anti-Catholic discourses of the late nineteenth century) this association of women's religion with hysteria has had a negative impact on the reputation of Catholicism and especially Catholic mysticism.3 A telling example is the following paragraph from the introduction to the psychiatrist Wilhelm Jacobi's book *Die Stigmatisierten* (1923). He claimed the following:

The higher number of stigmatized women is probably caused by woman's deeper emotional life, in her higher tendency towards religious rapture, in the special corporeal disposition of the female sex conditioned through menstruation and its greater disposition towards hysteria and similar nervous disorders.4

3 Elke Pahud de Mortanges, 'Irre – Gauklerin – Heilige? Inszenierung und Instrumentalisierung frommer Frauen im Katholizismus des 19. Jahrhunderts', in *Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Religions- und Kulturgeschichte* 100 (2006), pp. 203−225. Bernhard Gißibl, *Frömmigkeit, Hysterie und Schwärmerei: Wunderbare Erscheinungen im bayerischen Vormärz*. Frankfurt am Main 2004.

<sup>2</sup> For an overview, see Tine Van Osselaer 'Stigmatic women in modern Europe. An exploratory note on gender, corporeality and Catholic culture', in Michel Mazoyer & Paul Mirault (eds), *Évolutions et transformations du mariage dans le christianisme*, Paris 2017, pp. 269*–*289; Monique Scheer, 'Das Medium hat ein Geschlecht', in Hubert Wolf (ed.), *'Wahre' und ' falsche' Heiligkeit: Mystik, Macht und Geschlechterrollen im Katholizismus des 19. Jahrhunderts*, München 2013, pp. 169−192.

<sup>4</sup> 'Die größere Zahl der Stigmatisierten Frauen ist wohl begründet im tieferen Gefühlsleben der Frau, in ihrer größeren Neigung zu religiöser Schwärmerei, in der durch die Menstruation bedingten besonderer körperlichen Disposition des weiblichen Geschlechtes und dessen mehr zu Hysterie und ähnlichen nervösen Störungen neigenden Veranlagung […]': Wilhelm Jacobi, *Die Stigmatisierten*. Berlin 1923, p. 3.

Another approach within this rather gender-confirmative stand has a more positive take on the references to women's bodies. In particular, scholars have pointed out how stigmatics (and other mystics) could use their bodies to get a voice within a male-dominated culture. Within the Catholic Church women could not obtain authority through their office. They could, however, claim a certain authority by referring to their own (corporeal) religious experience − hence the importance of visible signs of this experience.5

Secondly, scholars have studied the stigmatics' non-confirmative potential. Paula Kane's work on visiting lay stigmatics at home is of particular importance here. She has noted that these women did not fit the dominant Catholic lay feminine ideal of domestic motherhood. Not only were they not married, they were not domestic, secluded, women either. On the contrary, some of them received thousands of visitors. While 'suffering' was perceived as women's natural role, the public setting of their redemptory suffering (I will return to this term later on) was hard to rhyme with the idealisation of the angelic mother, secluded from the world. Still, so Kane stresses, whilst these women seemed to claim via this 'redemptory suffering', 'masculine and spiritual power like Jesus, the man-God who triumphed over death' theologians made clear that 'victimhood did not convey any spiritual or sacramental authority upon women'.6

The focus of this chapter is also on the stigmatics' (public) suffering. More in particular, I study the experience of pain as a religious experience, thereby addressing pain as both a subjective experience and cultural construction. Or, physical sensations are only perceived as pain because we have learned to experience them as such. I follow Louise Hide, Joanna Bourke and Carmen Mangion who postulate that 'Pain has meaning, which is formed out of the complex interactions taking place between the body, mind and culture. As a result, it differs from person to person, social group to social group, and it changes over time and space. It is profoundly influenced by personal beliefs as well as social mores and temporal contexts.'7 The physical and emotional experience of pain

<sup>5</sup> Laurence Lux-Sterrit & Carmen Mangion, 'Introduction. Gender, Catholicism and women's spirituality over the longue durée', in Laurence Lux-Sterrit & Carmen Mangion (eds), *Gender, Catholicism and spirituality: Women and the Roman Catholic Church in Britain and Europe, 1200−1900*, New York 2011, pp. 1−18.

<sup>6</sup> Paula Kane, '"She Offered Herself up": The Victim Soul and Victim Spirituality in Catholicism', in *Church History* 71/1 (2002), pp. 80−119, 88, 112 and 115.

<sup>7</sup> Louise Hide, Joanna Bourke & Carmen Mangion, 'Introduction. Perspectives on Pain. 19', in *Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century* 15 (2012), pp. 1−8, 1; Joanna Bourke, *The story of pain: From prayer to painkillers*, Oxford 2014, pp. 6−8, 12: it is historically flexible and historically complex: 'Being-in-pain is a

cannot be studied apart from one another, nor the body apart from the soul.8 As we shall see, the stigmatics suffered physically *and* emotionally, and both types of pain were inextricably tied up and considered as meaningful suffering.

How pain is interpreted from a religious perspective depends on the historical context. For my analysis here, the nineteenth-century Catholic take on pain is of particular importance. In her book on the story of pain (2014), Joanna Bourke argues that within Catholic and Protestant versions of Christianity bodily pain is equipped with a divine purpose. She mentions, among the theological explanations she could trace, 'pain as the result of sin, a guide to virtuous behaviour, a stimulus to personal development, and a means of salvation'.9 As Xenia von Tippelskirch has noted, any such history of pain inevitably calls for a close analysis of the phenomenon of stigmatisation – if only because stigmata have only been reported since the thirteenth century and are almost exclusively tied up with Catholicism.10

It is important to stress here that the type of stigmata differed throughout the various centuries. In the seventeenth century, for instance, invisible stigmata seem to have set the tone with the stigmatics suffering through Christ's passion but not displaying physical marks on their bodies. In the modern era – an era eager for perceivable 'proof' − visible stigmata and the according suffering were 'en vogue'.11 Stigmatics displayed either imitative or figurative stigmata on

multifaceted sensory, cognitive, affective, motivational, and temporal phenomenon.' Rob Boddice, 'Introduction: Hurt Feelings?', in Rob Boddice (ed.), *Pain and Emotion in Modern History*, Basingstoke 2014, pp. 1−15, 2: '… what we make of pain – how we translate states of suffering – is also dependent on time and place'.


specific days (e.g. Fridays) or throughout their lives. As we shall see, this visibility could turn their religious experience also into a religious experience for those who witnessed their Passion episodes.

#### **Religious Context**

In order to understand the meaning attached to the experience of pain, several trends in the Catholic culture of the time need to be pointed out. As numerous scholars have argued, since the mid-nineteenth century Catholic culture was characterised by an increasing emphasis on and appreciation of the experience and expression of emotions. One of the important trends of the religious culture was a growing subjectivity and individualisation. The romantic enthusiasm for the Middle Ages not only resulted in a revitalisation of more external forms of piety like the cults of relics and saints and pilgrimages, but also in a renewed interest in medieval mysticism that resulted in a revalorisation of subjective and private prayer.12 This subjective trend was in tune with more general trends in society that suffered through the disappointment of the revolutions. However, it was also consciously cultivated in a pastoral strategy that opposed the perceived materialism of the era.13

Even though this era has been called the century of Mary (starting with the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception and ending with the consecration of the world to the Sacred Heart of Mary), Christo-centric devotions like the cult of the Sacred Heart also flourished. This devotion and the Eucharistic piety, which was on the rise as well, put a stronger emphasis on the suffering Christ than on the triumphing God.

While these reflections on the Sacrament of the altar initially focused primarily on the sins/piety and potential graces of individuals (the communion as religious nourishment), new emphases gradually developed. Under French impulse, the sins of society as a whole became the focal point and Eucharistic piety developed a strong apostolic character.14 Going to communion became

<sup>12</sup> Anton Mayer 'Die Stellung der Liturgie von der Zeit der Romantik bis zur Jahrhundertwende', *Archiv für Liturgiewissenschaft*, 3/1 (1953), pp. 1−77, 49−50.

<sup>13</sup> Oskar Köhler & Günter Bandmann, 'Formen der Frömmigkeit', in Roger Aubert et al. (eds), *Handbuch der Kirchengeschichte*, vol. VI/2, Freiburg 1985, pp. 265−315, p. 265. That piety grew more individualistic in nineteenth century was according to Roger Aubert partly due to Jesuits (e.g. the practice of silent prayer). Roger Aubert, 'Licht und Schatten der katholischen Vitalität ', in Roger Aubert et al. (eds), *Handbuch der Kirchengeschichte*, vol. VI/1, Freiburg 1985, pp. 650−682, p. 663.

<sup>14</sup> Aubert 1985, pp. 664−666.

a reparatory act, an attempt to atone and comfort the Sacred Heart suffering for blasphemies and sins others had committed. The reparatory character comprised in these Christo-centric devotions also shows in the idealisation of 'vicarious suffering'. These 'victim souls', frequently women, suffered voluntarily through illness, corporeal afflictions and ascetic practices in order to atone for the sins of others (or society as a whole). They stressed the Catholic view on the 'beneficial effects' of suffering, a 'mode of Catholic thinking about affliction that had flourished from the Council of Trent until Vatican II'.15 A 'victim soul' could suffer from 'illnesses or handicaps or self-inflicted forms of penance' to atone for the sins of others. A central feature was their obedient submission to suffering.16 This reparatory ideal also pervaded the discussions on the stigmatics, who as an *alter* Christ seems to suffer for society's sins.

There was no disenchanted modernity. Rather, the popularity of the stigmatics (and the related paramystical phenomena) shows the eagerness with which some of the faithful wanted to accept physical evidence of the divine intervention in the world.17 The Church, weakened by recent political skirmishes, was eager to support this lay enthusiasm yet remained critical and demanded extensive medical examinations.18 Reports on such stigmatics and other 'wonders' seem to have been more frequent in times of crisis. Niels Freytag and Diethard Sawicki have pointed out that in the context of crisis, magical practices and religious cult phenomena are always in conjuncture, either by attracting a lot of people or by getting into the view of ecclesiastical authorities.19

The combination of these factors influenced the perception of the stigmatics of that era. It prepared the visitors for what they were about to see and taught them how to cherish pain (as it could be sanctifying).

<sup>15</sup> Kane 2002, p. 82.

<sup>16</sup> Kane 2002, p. 83

<sup>17</sup> Niels Freytag & Diethard Sawicki, 'Verzauberte Moderne: Kulturgeschichtliche Perspektiven auf das 19. und 20. Jahrhundert', Niels Freytag & Diethard Sawicki (eds), *Wunderwelten: Religiöse Ekstase und Magie in der Moderne*, München 2006, pp. 7−24, p. 16.

<sup>18</sup> 'La multiplication des nouvelles stigmatisés alimentant un mouvement dévot international visant à soutenir les tentatives de l'Église Catholique pour regagner ses positions antérieures.' Gábor Klaniczay, 'Louise Lateau et les stigmatisés du XIXème siècle', in Gábor Klaniczay (ed.), Discorsi sulle stimmate dal Medioevo all'età contemporanea, *Archivio italiano per la storia della pietà* 26 (2013), pp. 279−319, p. 294.

<sup>19</sup> Freytag & Sawicki 2006, p. 21.

## **Visiting Modern European Stigmatics**

The nineteenth century was a 'golden era' for the stigmatics and they were reported all over Europe.20 A new trend developed and, as Paula Kane and Nicole Priesching have noted, in this period it became popular to visit the stigmatics at home. The stigmatics attracted visitors from far beyond their local village or town. As the means to travel had become cheaper and easier, all types of pilgrims (and no longer solely the happy few) could travel to see foreign, famous, stigmatics. The trend continued well into the twentieth century.

This popular enthusiasm, so the story often went, contributed to the stigmatics' suffering, and while they themselves would rather have passed their lives in the anonymity of their rooms, God had other plans. A telling example is this description of how Therese Neumann (1898–1962), a famous German stigmatic, allegedly perceived her popularity. In his book on the conversions triggered by Theresa Neumann, Dom Odo Straudinger left no doubt about the great sacrifice the German stigmatic made in renouncing a more secluded life. Neumann believed she had a religious mission when she allowed people to gaze at her during her religious experiences. The thousands of people who came to see her quite often published on the experience. 'The submission to God's will and the fervour for the souls also force Theresa to make that sacrifice that is so great for her, and that is to renounce the hidden life. She is convinced that God wants to employ her in the service of the souls.'21

The late nineteenth and early twentieth century were also the period during which the mass media developed as the production methods improved. While the religious press had always been available, we can see in this era a multiplication of religious periodicals and booklets aiming at a general audience (mixed lay and clerical). Among these books and periodicals were those focusing on stigmatics – both dead and alive. In the majority of the cases, these were put on a semi-saintly level by their supporters and without approval of the Catholic Church. Some of them were eventually, officially declared saints – but their stigmata played almost no part in that official approval, their beatification and

<sup>20</sup> Pahud de Mortanges 2006, p. 203.

<sup>21</sup> 'La soumission à la volonté de Dieu et le zèle des âmes déterminaient aussi Thérèse à faire le sacrifice si grand pour elle de renoncer à la vie cachée. Elle est convaincue que Dieu veut l'employer au service des âmes.' Odo Staudinger, O.S.B., *Le sauveur est bon! (Paroles favorites de Thérèse Neumann). Prières exaucées et conversions étonnantes par Konnersreuth* (traduit de l'Allemand, par L. Perrod), Editions Salvator Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin) 1932, p. 68.

canonisation.22 This lack of interest, however, stands in stark contrast to the lay periodicals and booklets in which even the illustrations indicate the prominence of the stigmata. The goals of these publications were very diverse. Those published after the demise of the stigmatic often intended to keep the memory of the stigmatic alive and support the (official) cause of the stigmatic. The goals of the books published during the lifetime of the stigmatic are more difficult to pinpoint. A list drafted by a contemporary of the types of publications on the Belgian stigmatic Louise Lateau (1850–1883) gives us an idea of their variety:

How can one pronounce the name Louise Lateau without recalling also the commotion that this provoked? Books of science and philosophy, official reports, academic discourses, reports of visits, feuilletons, conferences, pamphlets, journal articles, all literary genres were used to inform the public about the stigmatic of Bois d'Haine.23

Not all stigmatics drew as much attention as Louise did, but 'reports of the visits' ('comptes rendus de visites') – our focus here – have been preserved for several of them. Lay and clerical 'pilgrims' visited them, saw them suffer through Christ's passion, were edified by the experience and published what they saw. Attending the religious experience of these women was, in spite of its public setting (and visibility), an intimate enough experience to stimulate conversions and religious reflections. These were made public in diverse types of texts.

First of all, there were the self-reflective texts in which the authors related their personal experience of the visit and combined it with reflections on society as a whole. An example of this type of text is the book of the Catholic convert Lars Eskeland, *Mijn bezoek aan Theresia Neumann* (*My visit to Theresia Neumann*, 1932). Miscellaneous publications were published as well. These can best be described as a combination of self-reflective texts with information you

<sup>22</sup> Otto Weiß 'Stigmata. Legitimationszeichen von Heiligkeit?', in Hubert Wolf (ed.) *'Wahre' und ' falsche' Heiligkeit: Mystik, Macht und Geschlechterrollen im Katholizismus des 19. Jahrhunderts*, München: Oldenburg 2013, pp. 11−127; Waltraud Pulz (ed.), *Zwischen Himmel und Erde: Körperliche Zeichen der Heiligkeit*, Stuttgart 2012.

<sup>23</sup> 'Comment prononcer le nom de Louise Lateau sans se rappeler aussitôt tout le bruit qu'il a provoqué? Livres de science et de philosophie, rapports officiels, discours académiques, comptes rendus de visites, feuilletons, conférences, pamphlets, feuilletons, conférences, pamphlets, articles de journaux, tous les genres littéraires ont été mis à contribution pour entretenir le public de la stigmatisée de Bois d'Haine.' *Louise Lateau devant l'Académie Royale de Médecine de Belgique*, Mouscroun / Tourcoing: Augustin Boisleux, 1876, p. 3.

would expect in religious tourist guides. L. Parcot, for instance, included in his *Ce que j'ai vu à Konnersreuth* (What I saw in Konneresreuth, 1937) a map with travel information. A. Huybers elaborated in his *Naar en rond Konnersreuth* (To and around Konnersreuth, s.d.) on what trains to take. Finally, there were a series of periodicals that included conversion stories, stories about cures and lists of the visitors. Such periodicals were rather similar to those linked to authorised pilgrimage sites. A telling example is the *Chronique de Konnersreuth* (French translation of the German *Konnersreuther Jahrbuch*).

Our focus here is on the diverse publications about the visits to two wellknown stigmatics who were celebrities during their lifetime: the Belgian Louise Lateau and the German Therese Neumann. Both were lay women from a humble background and rural area, who went through Christ's passion (on Fridays) and displayed visible stigmata. Initially they could be visited by everyone who wanted to, and this tolerance could lead to large crowds (e.g. in the case of Neumann to 4,000 a day. The total number of visitors to Louise Lateau on Fridays has been estimated at circa 12,269).24 In a later phase, special permission was needed (e.g. in Neumann's case: from the bishop of Regensburg). While we do not want to create the impression that late nineteenth-century Belgian Catholicism and early-twentieth-century German Catholicism provide the same background, we do believe that the reports on these stigmatics display similarities that can be discussed together.

#### **Reporting on Religious Experience: The Publications**

Those lucky enough to gain access to the stigmatics wrote about their visits in books and periodicals. This leaves us with an extensive corpus of mediated, idealised, personal religious experience. The books often carry the *imprimatur* or *nihil obstat*, but also include the remark that the authors want to obey the final verdict of the Church in these matters. Being permitted to publish on stigmatics was not as self-evident as one might think. The archives of the archdiocese of Mechelen, for instance, contain a manuscript with a description of the life and saying of the Belgian stigmatic Lucie Schmidt-Klaer. The archbishop did not give his approval for the publication for 'There are in that exposition a lot of features – words and facts – that are either strange or hardly conform

<sup>24</sup> Archives of the Seminary of Tournay, Louise Lateau, K.4 box with the names of the visitors.

to the Christian sense, or even contrary to the Catholic doctrine.'25 Even after their revision of certain passages, Lucie's supporters did not manage to obtain the *imprimatur*.

The easiest way to trace the goals of these publications is to discuss the author's perception of the stigmatic and her suffering. Several of these books were published in series intended to improve the morality and knowledge of Catholic teachings of the audience (e.g. 'La bonne lecture'/'The good literature', 'Volksbibliotheek'/'People's library', 'Geloofsonderricht'/'Religious education'). The stigmatic and in particular the stigmatic's virtuous life are thereby held out as an example to the Catholic readers, an example of an interior life they might imitate (contrary to the exterior aspects, the stigmata). Henri Van Looy, for instance, focuses in his biography of Louise Lateau (1874) on the interior aspect as 'that is the principal part, that needs to serve for the edification of the fellow human, revitalise his faith and bring him to glorify the Lord, who always calls upon those who appear to be the humblest of the world when he wants to do great things.'26

Authors encouraged their readers to go to Communion frequently,27 to learn about the power of suffering28 and find their way back to God. Therese Neumann was described as a travel companion for the proletariat that had lost its religion. Just like them, she herself had been forced to gain her bread with hard work and in her, one could see Jesus − the son of the carpenter of Nazareth with a background similar to theirs.29 Other books list the author's intention explicitly

<sup>25</sup> 'Il y a dans cette relation beaucoup de traits– paroles et faits – qui sont ou bien étranges, ou bien peu conformes au sens chrétiens, ou bien même contraires à la doctrine catholique.' Archives of the Archdiocese of Mechelen, Van Roey, apparitions, 20; Lucie Schmit-Klaer, negative evaluation by Van Roey on 22 February 1927.

<sup>26</sup> '…c'est là le côté principal, qui doit server d'édification au prochain, ranimer sa foi et le porter à glorifier le seigneur, dont le propre est de se servir de ce qui paraît le plus humble dans le monde, lorsqu'il veut faire de grandes choses.' Henri Van Looy, *Biographie de Louise Lateau: La stigmatisée de Bois-D'Haine, d'après les documents authentiques, seconde édition améliorée et augmentée*, Paris/Leipzig/Tournai 1874, p. 7. Or on Therese Neumann: 'Because this literature mostly has a beneficent effect on the reader and may thus be called an apostleship of the first category.' 'Omdat zulke lektuur in de meeste gevallen heilwerkend inslaat bij den lezer, en daardoor een apostolaat mag geheeten worden van eerste gehalte.' R. Dewachter, *Therese Neumann*. Turnhout 1932, p. 10.

<sup>27</sup> Dewachter 1932, p. 54.

<sup>28</sup> Danemarie 1933, p. 227.

<sup>29</sup> For example, about Theresa Neumann: Anon. 'Konnersreuth – un message au prolétariat', in *Chronique de Konnersreuth* 1929, pp. 30−38, 31−32.

in the introduction. An anonymous French priest (E. de Meneval?30) linked it to the political circumstances. He noted in 1871 that he wanted to prove to his Catholic readers that the supernatural still had its place in the modern rationalist and materialist era.31 August Rohling on the other hand described the readers he had in mind in the title of his book published in 1874: 'Louise Lateau, the stigmatic of Bois d'Haine. According to authentic medical and theological documents for Jews and Christians of all confessions'.32 In his introduction, he formulated the hope that his descriptions of Louise's sufferings would lead to conversions among those readers.

## **Pain, Suffering and Compassion**

The pain of the stigmatics was not the only pain that was cultivated in these publications. In fact, the reports on these visits are a perfect illustration of what Jan Rhodes has called the performative character of the depictions of suffering: describing sufferings could trigger new suffering.33 In analysing the personal reflections published in these texts, we thus have to discuss three levels of 'suffering' as a religious practice: (1) that of the stigmatics who see Christ suffer and suffer with him (in mind and body), (2) that of the visitors (a suffering induced by contemplating the body of the stigmatic) and (3) that of the readers who were encouraged via explicit descriptions of the suffering to feel compassion. Apart from physical pain, emotional suffering is central to the religious experience. Mind and body are inextricably entwined and every emotional

<sup>30</sup> See the handwritten note on the cover of *Un pèlerinage à Bois d'Haine* (1871), the same text as *La stigmatisée de Bois d'Haine* preserved in the library of the Ruusbroec Institute.

<sup>31</sup> Anonymus, *La stigmatisée de Bois-d'Haine, par Mgr \*\*\**, Paris 1871, p. VI. Similarly, Anonymus, *Louisa Lateau of de kruiswonddragende van Bois-d'Haine in Henegauw gevolgd door de levensbeschrijving van Maria von Moerl de kruiswonddragende van den Tyrol*, Nieuwe vermeerderde uitgaaf, Gent 1869, p. 3−4. The Norwegian convert Lars Eskeland formulates a similar goal for his book on Therese Neumann. Lars Eskeland, *Mijn bezoek aan Theresia Neumann*, Mechelen1932, p. 101.

<sup>32</sup> August Rohling, *Louise Lateau: Die Stigmatisierte von Bois d'Haine. Nach authentischen medicinischen und theologischen Documenten für Juden und Christen aller Bekenntnisse*, Paderborn 1874.

<sup>33</sup> Summarised in Xenia von Tippelskirch, '"J'y souffre ce qui ne peut comprendre ni exprimer". Eine Mystikerin leidet unter Gottverlassenheit (1673/74)', in *Historische Anthropologie*, 23/1 (2015), pp. 11−29, 19, footnote 40.

suffering has a physical component – a historical body that has learned to feel and express via interaction with others (and thus historically contingent).34

For the two last levels of analysis, the visitors and the readers, we thus follow the lead of Rob Boddice who suggested, in the introduction to his edited volume on pain and emotion, looking into the processes of bearing witness to pain (of others) and its emotional component – 'the stimuli to pity, tenderness, compassion and sympathy, all of which historically and literally have denoted the emotional pain, some of it enjoyable, of the witness to pain.'35

## **Stigmatics**

On entering the room of the stigmatics on Fridays, any visitor could witness the various stages of the way of the Cross, at least, if that was the mindset with which he or she had decided upon a visit. Bodily movements like the contortion of feet and painful expressions indicated to the onlooker what part of Christ's passion the stigmatic was experiencing. However, the stigmatics also went through emotional pain − internal, spiritual, sufferings. In his biography of Louise Lateau, Henri Van Looy discussed these more elaborately: 'What to say about her interior suffering, produced not only by her mental despairs, but also by divine lights that strike her soul, or by the frequent recall that pulls her away from her union with God? That sort of suffering is incomprehensible also to Louise herself.'36 Half a century later, Therese Neumann suffered emotionally as well: 'She does penance for deceased souls. These are spiritual sufferings, an indescribable sadness, an ardent desire for the Saviour who distances himself.'37

<sup>34</sup> Monique Scheer, 'Verspielte Frömmigkeit: Somatische Interaktionen beim Marienerscheinungskult von Heroldsbach-Thurn 1949/50', in *Historische Anthropologie*, 17/3 (2009), pp. 386−405; Josephine Hoegaerts & Tine Van Osselaer, 'De lichamelijkheid van emoties: een introductie', in *Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis*, 126/4 (2013), pp. 452−465.

<sup>35</sup> Boddice 2014, p. 3.

<sup>36</sup> 'Que dire ensuite de ses souffrances intérieures, produites non-seulement par les désolations de l'esprit, mais par les lumières divines elles-mêmes qui frappent son âme, ou par le rappel fréquent qui l'arrache à son union avec Dieu? Ce genre de souffrances est incompréhensible pour Louise elle-même.' Henri Van Looy, *Biographie de Louise Lateau,* 1874, pp. 151−152.

<sup>37</sup> 'Elle expie pour les âmes défuntes. Ce sont alors des souffrances spirituelles, une indescriptible tristesse, un désir ardent du Sauveur qui s'éloigne.' Jeanne Danemarie, *Le mystère des stigmatisés: De Catherine Emmerich à Thérèse Neumann*. Epilogue de Georges Goyau de l'Académie Française, Paris 1933, p. 198; R. Dewachter,

Visitors interpreted the pain they witnessed from a Catholic perspective according to which 'suffering', and especially their obedient acceptance of it, was valuable. It implied going through pain for a greater cause. Stigmatics reminded those who saw them of Christ's sacrifice. Jeanne Danemarie (pseudonym of Marthe Pontet-Bordeaux), for instance, wrote in 1933 on her visit to Therese Neumann:

I have seen a living crucifix, sculpted, marked with the wounds of Christ, reminding the forgetful and ungrateful men of the Redeemer who wants deify them in his imitation. […] that recollection of the Passion of Christ on a living being, someone has called that one of the factors of the new offensive of Christ to attract to Him the love of the people.38

As he had done in his ultimate atonement, they suffered as a reparatory act for the sins of others, they were 'victim souls', 'vicarious victims'.39 Authors like Van Looy and A. Fox noted how in 1870 and 1871 Louise Lateau's suffering increased when the political situation in Rome and Paris got worse. A. Fox, a banned Prussian priest who found a shelter in Belgium, exclaimed in his book 'Here we have the expiatory victim for the crimes that are being committed at this moment in Rome and in Paris.' Louise always suffered more during those events when God, the Church, its Leaders or faithful servants were insulted.40

The suffering of the stigmatics was a reparatory act and while the above quotations primarily refer to the crimes and sins of society as a whole, the stigmatics suffered for more individual causes as well. They could be asked to suffer to provoke a conversion, or they 'took on' the illness of someone who wrote to them. As Bourke has noted, in this line of thinking, 'pain is restorative, not destructive'.41 However, even though Catholic visitors interpreted the stigmatics' pain

*Bekeerlingen von Konnersreuth*, Turnhout1935, p. 67: 'geestelijke ontsteltenis en leegte waren die Therese zoozeer kwelden.'


as redemptory and meaningful suffering, to some of their contemporaries their pain did not hold the same meaning. The Catholic authors under discussion here were well aware that the stigmatics' sufferings could be perceived as 'fits' by non-believers, as products of hallucination and hysteria.42 They took care to dissociate the stigmatics from such accounts by emphasising the stigmatics' healthy nature, the absence of a nervous disposition.43

Comparisons between stigmatics and hysterics, especially when their corporeal comportment was concerned, were widespread. A notorious example is Désiré Bourneville's book on Louise Lateau (1875) *Louise Lateau, ou la stigmatisée belge.* He picked the theme up again in his books with Paul Regnard (*Iconographie photographique de la Salpêtrière)*. 44 In these publications, Louise's contorted body and ecstatic trance were reduced to hysterical fits. The various movements were perceived as more or less fixed stages of a hysterical episode denoted with religiously inspired names such as 'crucifixion' or 'passion'.45

Half a century later, the supporters of Neumann still felt the need to reject the association. Jeanne Danemarie, for instance, tried to prove her point by comparing the ecstasies of Therese Neumann and those of mental


a punishment for personal misbehaviour, Christians could be cleansed of its stain through the experience of pain in this world, an intermediate world (for Roman Catholics), or the everlasting world of hell. To avoid the latter, purification through bodily suffering was necessary.'

patients: 'Concerning the ecstasies, false ecstasies observed in the Salpêtrière are marked with convulsive and repugnant movements, whereas the real ecstasy has an aspect of dignity and calmness.'46 In fact, as another visitor of Therese Neumann tried to explain, even though witnessing the events could be an emotionally moving experience, the ecstasies were not repugnant:

However shocking these ecstasies are, they are not repugnant, every movement is gracious, the hands are, in so far as they are not covered in blood, as if transparent, one almost senses their interaction with a purer, higher world.47

We have to note here that in the personal accounts of Louise and Therese on their ecstatic experiences, the stigmatics did not 'become' Christ in their visions, they 'only' witnessed his passion from close by. As Therese described it:

…during the vision, I contemplate. I am so exclusively occupied by the dear Lord that I do not have the time to think about myself. If, when I see the excessive suffering of Jesus, I undergo the same pain and suffer with him, at that moment, I hardly feel my personal pain. I start to feel the pains as my own, as belonging to me, immediately after the vision is interrupted and Jesus has disappeared from my eyes.48

So during their visions they contemplate the passion and crucifixion rather than undergo it even though the bodily 'signs' seem to suggest otherwise. Rather than suffering through the 'passion', theirs is a 'com-passion', they are commiserating. The stigmatics witnessing the passion rather than becoming Christ in their visions seem to suggest that they differed from their precursors of, for instance, the sixteenth century like Catherine of Sienna: 'presenting a

<sup>46</sup> 'Quant aux extases, les fausses extases observées à la Salpêtrière sont marquées par des mouvements convulsifs et répugnants, alors que la vraie extase garde à l'extatique un aspect plein de dignité et de calme.' Danemarie 1933, p. 224.

<sup>47</sup> 'So erschütterend diese Ekstasen sind, so haben sie doch nie etwas Abstoßendes, jede Bewegung ist edel, die Hände sind, soweit sie nicht von Blut bedeckt sind, wie durchsichtig, man spürt beinahe ihren Verkehr mit einer reineren, höheren Welt.' Odo Staudinger 1930, p. 42.

<sup>48</sup> 'Pendant la vision je contemple. Je suis alors si exclusivement occupée du cher sauveur que je n'ai pas le temps de penser à moi-même. Si en voyant la souffrance excessive de Jésus, j'éprouve aussi de la douleur et souffre avec lui, cependant, à ce moment, je sens peu ma douleur personnelle (litt.: ma douleur vient à peine à la conscience expresse). Je commence à éprouver directement les douleurs comme miennes, comme m'appartenant, quand la vision est interrompue et que Jésus a disparu à mes yeux.' L. Parcot, *Ce que j'ai vu à Konnersreuth: La stigmatisée Thérèse Neumann* (3de ed.), Paris 1937, p. 93.

saintly woman who was united to Christ in body and soul, and became one and the same as Jesus'.49

#### **Visitors**

The physical aspect of the stigmatics' suffering is not necessarily the central aspect, in fact a stigmatic could perfectly do without the visible stigmata, and several stigmatics were said to have prayed for the physical, visible signs of their sufferings to disappear. They could, however, not do without the suffering. Or as Jeanne Danemarie phrased it in 1933 'The stigmatisation without pain cannot be a true stigmatisation. One has to suffer, suffer together with Christ.'50

Having invisible stigmata was described as an ideal as it implied having the pain but not drawing the public's attention. Both Louise and Therese, however, had visible stigmata; and their bodies in ecstasy gave physiological signs (cramps, twisted feet, etc.) indicating the pain they were suffering through. This visible pain had an effect on those who witnessed it. Through this emotional effect, the visibility of the stigmata (in contrast to the 'more humble' invisible ones) became meaningful. The visitors needed to see the physical pain so they could be reminded of Christ's sufferings and touched by the intensity of His pain.51 The visit descriptions are thus a perfect way to study what Javier Moscoso calls the 'performative nature of pain': 'This long pain drama twists and turns between the central actor, who is the person in pain, and the sympathetic or impassive onlooker, as each seeks to inculcate pain with meaning and value.'52 In the cases studied here, the visit in itself became a painful, emotional experience. So the second level of pain we need to address is that of the beholders – their sorrow and sadness on witnessing this suffering. The reports

<sup>49</sup> Tamar Herzig, 'Stigmatized holy women as female Christs', in Gábor Klaniczay (ed.), 'Discorsi sulle stimmate dal Medioevo all'età contemporanea', *Archivio italiano per la storia della pietà*, 26 (2013), pp. 151−175, 157 and 173: their faces turning into that of Jesus for witnesses who doubted authenticity.

<sup>50</sup> 'La stigmatisation sans douleur ne peut pas être une stigmatisation véritable. Il faut souffrir, compatir avec le Christ.' Danemarie 1933, p. 134.

<sup>51</sup> On the interaction of physical pain and the affective component: Boddice 2014, p. 4: 'Put another way, physical pain is not meaningful without some or all of these things or without some other affective component (even pleasure, joy or ecstasy). Nor is pain, insofar as the experience is concerned, really conceivable without these affective components.' (Feelings hurt.) On the theatralisation of the Passion of Christ and educative function of the ecstatic experience, see Bouflet 1996, pp. 29−30.

<sup>52</sup> As summarised by Hide, Bourke & Mangion 2012, p. 2.

on their visits show how, for them, it was not the suffering of Louise or Theresa they witnessed, but that of Christ himself. Their pain is on an emotional level, a 'compassion'.

Seeing a stigmatic suffer incited feelings one should, ideally, also experience when contemplating the crucifix or praying the Stages of the cross. A telling example is the report of R.P. Dr Joh. Brinkmann, O.S.B. on his visits to Therese Neumann in a periodical dedicated to the German stigmatic, the *Chronique de Konnersreuth* (Chronical of Konnersreuth) in 1929:

…the sight of the patient has nothing repugnant; one sees on her face a compassion so dolorous that one forgets Therese of Konnersreuth and one believes one sees only the suffering of the Saviour on the Cross. The commiserating expression of her physiognomy, her eyes without sight and full of blood, the movement of her hands trying to give support, her bloody and convulsive body, all that brings the crucified Saviour so well to mind that one cannot but think: 'What stone do we carry in our chest where the heart should be, to see such suffering and still commit new sins?'53

In the words of Na'ama Cohen Hanegbi, we can describe the emotions the witnesses felt as an 'emotional pain', that is, 'a type of pain which can be defined as emotional, it is primarily felt in the psyche/soul and has either secondary or no physical manifestation.'54 This compassion was often tied up with feelings of shame, shame about what the Saviour had gone through for the benefit of mankind. The emotions felt on these occasions, quite frequently (so the publications suggest), led to conversions, or promises to mend one's ways, a moment of change. It was a productive (emotional) pain not seldom without the physically visible effects such as the visitors leaving the stigmatic's room in tears.

<sup>53</sup> 'Malgré cela l'aspect de la patiente n'a rien de repoussant; on voit sur son visage une compassion si douloureuse qu'on oublie Thérèse de Konnersreuth et qu'on ne croit voir que la souffrance du Sauveur sur la Croix. L'expression apitoyée de sa physionomie, ses yeux sans regard et pleins de sang, le mouvement de ses mains qui cherchent à porter secours, son corps ensanglanté et convulsé, tout cela met si bien sous vos yeux le Sauveur crucifié, que malgré soi on est obligé de penser: 'Quelle pierre portons nous donc dans notre poitrine à la place du cœur, pour voir une telle souffrance et cependant commettre de nouveaux péchés?'. R.P. Dr. Joh. Brinkmann, O.S.B. on his visits to Therese Neumann in 'Visites', *Chronique de Konnersreuth*, 1929, pp. 234−257, 246.

<sup>54</sup> She studied this type of pain in the fifteenth century. Na'ama Cohen Hanegbi, 'Pain as emotion: The role of emotional pain in fifteenth-century Italian medicine and confession', in *At the Interface/Probing the Boundaries*, 84 (2012), pp. 63−82.

#### **Readers**

Finally, by elaborating on their own emotional suffering and extensive descriptions of the stigmatics' physical suffering, the authors wanted to generate 'compassion' among their readers as well. 'May this message of suffering not pass by ineffectively, and let us suffer and pray together with Therese Neumann so we may come closer and closer to the divine love tragedy of Golgotha.'55 In this respect, publishing on visits fits what Monique Scheer has called 'mobilising' emotional practices.56 Ideally, the descriptions of these sufferings incited the readers to rethink their own capability to cope with suffering, to suffer through it with patience.57 For, as Dewachter noted in his book on Therese Neumann, 'as soon as the slightest disease tortures us, we run to every possible pilgrimage site, just to get healthy again, we do not think about enduring the suffering with patience, to see it as a gift, a favour.'58

On all three levels of suffering we have discussed here, thinking about Christ's passion incited compassion – in the case of the stigmatics this evolved into a corporealisation of the physical aspects of the passion. Contemplating Christ's passion ideally generated pain, an emotional pain of compassion and shame (and in the case of the stigmatics also a physical one). This pain, however, was always productive and brought the faithful to reflect on the states of their souls and come to a deeper understanding of Christ's sacrifice. Or, as Dewachter noted about the bloody tears of Therese Neumann:

<sup>55</sup> 'Laten we deze lijdensboodschap niet nutteloos voorbijgaan, en lijden en bidden wij met Therese Neumann om dichter en dichter te mogen naderen tot het goddelijk liefdedrama van Golgotha.' Dewachter, 1932, p. 32.

<sup>56</sup> Monique Scheer, 'Are Emotions a Kind of Practice (and Is That What Makes Them Have a History)? A Bourdieuan Approach to Defining Emotion', in *History and Theory*, 51 (2012), pp. 193−220.

<sup>57</sup> Moscoso 2012, p. 24: 'The physical resistance of these venerable beings determines how much our ailments may hurt and how exaggerated our lamentations can be. Compared with theirs, our hardships are meagre and our complaints out of proportion.'

<sup>58</sup> 'Van zoohaast de minste ziekte ons kwelt, loopen we alle mogelijke bedevaartplaatsen af, om toch maar weer gezond te worden, en we denken er niet aan dat lijden te dragen met verduldigheid, en het te aanzien als eene genade, een weldaad.' Dewachter, 1932, p. 11.

Tears of compassion, tears of sadness for one's own imperfection, tears of grief at the sight of the suffering master. Also this message does the simple farm girl bring to the modern world: the deeper experience and contemplation of the suffering Christ.59

In this respect the visitors' reports resemble the late-medieval 'pathopoiea' and affective piety studied by Herman Roodenburg. The nineteenth- and twentiethcentury sources seem to echo those of the thirteenth century when 'preachers sought to craft the emotions of the faithful through a range of devotional practices, all oriented to the humanity of Christ, his physical agony in particular, and encompassing both the body and the senses.'60 In fact, we can detect other thirteenth-century echoes as well, in particular the *Stabat Mater* theme reoccurs.

#### **Stabat Mater Dolorosa**

Notwithstanding the obvious Christocentric aspect of the stigmatic experience, this contemplative and commiserative aspect complicates our understanding of the stigmatic as *alter* Christ. It does help, however, to understand the references to the *Mater dolorosa* in the descriptions of both Louise Lateau and Theresa Neumann. They were Christ-like but for the visitors their female bodies do not 'disappear' completely during the ecstasies:61

There is nothing more moving than seeing the young girl unmoving and silent, permanently in ecstasy and some way showing the facial features of the mother of sadness, as she has been depicted by one of our greatest painters.62 (Louise Lateau)

<sup>59</sup> 'Tranen van medelijden, tranen van droefenis om de eigen onvolmaaktheid, tranen van smart bij 't aanschouwen van den lijdenden Meester. Ook die boodschap brengt dat eenvoudige boerenmeisjes aan de moderne wereld: de diepere beleving en kontemplatie van het lijden Christi.' Dewachter, 1932, p. 30.

<sup>60</sup> Herman Roodenburg, 'Empathy in the making: Crafting the believer's emotions in the Late Medieval Low Countries', in *Low Countries Historical Review*, 129/2 (2014), pp. 42−62.

<sup>61</sup> However, Therese's mother is also described in terms of the *Stabat Mater*: Fink, *Une visite chez Thérèse Neumann, la stigmatisée de Konnersreuth* (Traduit de l'allemand par P.R.), Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin) 1930, p. 16.

<sup>62</sup> 'Ook is er niets aandoenlijker dan het jong meisje onbeweeglijk en stilzwijgend, gestadig in opgetogenheid te zien en eeniger wijze de gelaatstrekken verbeeldende van die moeder van droefheid**,** gelijk zij door eenen onzer grootste schilders is afgemaald geweest., Anonymus, *Louisa Lateau of de kruiswonddragende van Boisd'Haine in Henegauw gevolgd door de levensbeschrijving van Maria von Moerl de kruiswonddragende van den Tyrol*, Nieuwe vermeerderde uitgaaf, Gent 1869 p. 8.

No one of us dares to breath. All are fixed with their gaze on that heavenly image of suffering: a living facsimile of the Master, an overly beautiful Mater Dolorosa.63 (Therese Neumann)

While we do not want to suggest that the *Mater dolorosa* description is the most dominant theme in the elaborations on the stigmatics' suffering, it does encourage us to have a more open view on the perception of the stigmatics *and* on suffering: Maria's suffering is a compassionate suffering and as *mater dolorosa* she is an inextricable part of Christ's passion. She is in pain – not inflicted by violence as her son's pain is, but by viewing his physical suffering, she suffers emotionally. In fact, her witnessing Christ's suffering recalled the words of the *Stabat Mater* (dolorosa). This thirteenth-century poem of Mother Mary's suffering at the bottom of Christ's Cross was cited at the start of Odo Staudinger's book on Therese Neumann. He encouraged his readers to call upon Mary:

May she, who even more than Therese Neumann has looked upon the pains of the Crucified and experienced them, grant every reader the grace we beseech in the Stabat mater…. Holy Mother, grant that the wounds of the Crucified drive deep into my heart ('Sancta Mater, istud agas: Crucifixi fixe plagas Cordi meo valide').64

Authors need a reference point to give their readers an idea of what they are seeing. In this case, the authors refer to either the pictorial rendering of the *Mater dolorosa* or her literary equivalent, the *stabat mater*. References to these images show how the visitors made sense of the experience by placing them in a Catholic culture of suffering, with the passion of Christ and suffering of Mary at its pinnacle. However, the identification of the Virgin with the stigmatic also seems to have worked the other way around. When Johannes Mayrhofer described his visit to Theresia Neumann in 1926, he compared her ecstasies to what he had seen at the Passion play in Oberammergau:

When I, in future, want to imagine this encounter on the way of the cross, this scene of a truly terrible tragic, I cannot picture it in another way, as when I give Mary the

<sup>63</sup> 'Niemand van ons durft te ademhalen. Allen hangen met hun blik vastgekluisterd aan dat hemelsch beeld van lijden: een leven fac-simile van den Meester, een overschoone Mater Dolorosa…', Dewachter, 1932, p. 121.

<sup>64</sup> 'Möge sie, die noch mehr als Therese Neumann die schmerzen des Gekreuzigten geschaut und empfunden hat, jedem Leser und mir die Gnade erbitten, um die wir im Stabat mater flehen: "Sancta Mater, istud agas: Crucifixi fixe plagas Cordi meo valide. Heilige Mutter, drück' die Wunden, die dein Sohn am Kreuz empfunden,Tief in meine Seele ein!"' (on strophe 11) P. Odo Staudinger O.S.B., *Die Leidensblume von Konnersreuth*, Kremsmünster 1930, p. 5.

characteristics of the suffering soul of Konnersreuth and the painful extended arms, and the hands locked together in the deepest compassion, as I have seen it there.65

More work needs to be done on this and we need to find out whether there are references to the *Mater dolorosa* in descriptions of older stigmatics as well. For our story here, may it suffice to say that the type of suffering described defined the gendered image that was adopted: in descriptions of the emotional, compassionate pain, the *Mater dolorosa* is the point of reference; in the passages on the physical horror, the suffering Christ is referred to. The pain of the stigmatic seems to have turned these women into ambivalent beings – symbols of Christ's and Mary's pain. There is no clear-cut gender shift as their pain is more complex than 'mere' physical suffering.

#### **Conclusion**

Everything was calm and still, everyone was moved, for in Louise one could see the suffering Saviour and the aching mother at the same time. O, what an image of suffering! I will never forget it.66

When the banned Prussian priest Fox tried to explain to his readers what he was seeing, he described Louise Lateau as a combination of the two, the suffering son and his suffering mother. In combining the two he turned the stigmatic into an ever stronger image of Catholic suffering, an inextricable combination of passion and com-passion. This dual image of the stigmatic only makes sense if we take into account their 'emotional' suffering as well – the reflective practice 'behind' the stigmata: that is, contemplating the passion and having compassion with Christ.

The pain this implied was evaluated in a positive way: it could encourage people to turn their lives around (the onlookers and readers), and it was

<sup>65</sup> 'Wenn ich mir jetzt in Zukunft wieder diese Begegnung auf dem Kreuzweg, diese Szene einer wahrhaft gewaltigen Tragik, vorstellen will, kann ich sie mir nicht anders ausmalen, als indem ich Maria die Züge der Dulderin von Konnersreuth gebe und die schmerzvoll ausgestreckten Arme, die in tiefstem Leid ineinandergeschlungen Hände, wie ich sie dort gesehen.' (sic) Johannes Mayrhofer, *Konnersreuth*, Regensburg 1926, p. 11.

<sup>66</sup> 'Alles war ruhig und still; jeder war ergriffen; denn in Louise sah man den leidenden Heiland und die schmerzhafte Mutter zugleich. O, welch'ein Schmerzensbild! Nie werde ich dasselbe vergessen.' A. Fox, *Louise Lateau, die wunderbar begnadigte Jungfrau von Bois d'Haine, zur Belehrung und Erbauung für alle Stände*, Regensburg 1878, p. 89.

cleansing and reparatory (at least that of the stigmatics). This positive take on pain also explains why visitors and readers were encouraged to imitate the stigmatics. Not physically, but emotionally. The 'suffering' of the stigmatics was a suffering that might be imitated by the visitors and their readers via their own, more 'traditional' religious practices. While not everyone could go and see the ecstatic episodes of a stigmatic, they could cultivate the same feelings via religious exercises like the contemplation of the crucifix and praying the stages of the Cross. Compassionate suffering was an ideal and an ideal that the readers could attain themselves.67

#### **Sources**

#### **Primary sources**


<sup>67</sup> 'Faire le chemin de la croix, honorer les souffrances du Christ, c'est aussi se procurer à soi-même soulagement et consolations dans les souffrances, les soucis et les peines. Car le Sauveur rend au centuple ce que l'on a fait pour lui.' Waitz, *Le message de Konnersreuth, La stigmatisée Thérèse Neumann*, Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin) 1930, p. 45.


#### **Secondary sources**


# Inger Littberger Caisou-Rousseau

# **'If I Am Not Allowed to Wear Trousers I Cannot Live.' Therese Andreas Bruce and the Struggle for a Male Identity in Nineteenth-Century Sweden**

**Abstract** This chapter approaches the issue of what it was to be a man in nineteenthcentury Sweden by studying the life of the 'gender-bender' Therese Andreas Bruce (1808–1885). It is here argued that masculinity was not about finding oneself but creating oneself. More than most other people Bruce created and invented a life of his/her own.

What was it like to be a man in nineteenth-century Sweden? Or rather: what was it like to be a man for someone who was not only born by a woman but also born to be a woman, but who nevertheless from the very beginning considered himself a man and was prepared to draw the consequences of that consideration to the furthest?

The topic of this chapter is a handwritten autobiography by someone who was born in 1808 as Christina Therese Isabelle Jeanette Louise Bruce and who died as Ferdinand Andreas Edvard Bruce in 1885. This entirely unique document was edited by me, together with a collection of letters from the years 1859– 1881 and a melodramatic verse narrative 'Hämnd och försoning' ('Revenge and atonement') from 1868–1869, written by the same person, in a book entitled *Therese Andreas Bruce: En sällsam historia från 1800-talet* (Therese Andreas Bruce: A Remarkable Story from the Nineteenth Century). The book also contains a long introductory chapter composed by me.1

By highlighting illustrative examples from the book, I will demonstrate how Bruce, from his very birth declared to be a girl, but from early on feeling like a boy and firmly resolved to live his life as a man, must struggle for a high

<sup>1</sup> Inger Littberger Caisou-Rousseau, *Therese Andreas Bruce: En sällsam historia från 1800-talet*, Göteborg/Stockholm 2013. All translations from this book that occurs in this chapter are mine. I am grateful to Yvonne Maria Werner who has not only inspired me in my research but also wrote a letter of recommendation when I applied for a printing grant.

standard of what he considers a male identity, characterised by entities such as courage, strength, power, and firmness. Certainly, Bruce's noble birth – his father Adam Bruce was a member of the armed forces and held varying offices at the royal court – initially may well have facilitated his norm-breaking activities, though his father's opposition was early on rigid and also other members of the family brought forward their objections.

Assuredly, Bruce, often called a 'disguised young lady', is a very special man, who later on gives birth to a child and who wants, but is not allowed, to marry a woman. Still he never depicts himself as a woman, not even a masculine or manly woman, but as a heterosexual man who wants to be respected as such by those around him. Therefore, it is the more urgent for Bruce to reject anything with a feminine touch and try to demonstrate that manliness in his case is not a temporary disguise but an integrated part of his personality. At the same time, he constructs his masculinity from the very bottom, and he has a constant readiness to defend it. To that extent Bruce's text illustrates how the apprehension of manliness in the nineteenth century directly and indirectly is discussed and negotiated and how manliness is a form of performativity; the clothes, but also gestures and one's conduct make the man!

Bruce wrote his autobiography at the end of his life and there are two overlapping versions, a draft and a fair copy, with small divergences between them. The handwriting of the fair copy is neat and easy to read. Surprisingly it ends in the middle of a page, whereas the draft goes on until an account of a crisis with religious implications when Bruce is about forty years old. It is scarcely probable that the narrative was intended to end in that way. Probably the author fell ill and died before the fair copy was completed, but why does the first version not continue right on to the writing Bruce's moment in time? Maybe the remaining part of the draft has disappeared or been destroyed. In any case, Bruce manifests his talent for literary writing. He knows how to create a narrative to keep the reader's attention alive. It is also evident that he envisioned an audience as he opens his narrative with an invocation to an imagined reader; in one passage he even employs a formulation like 'to confess to the whole world'.2 However, he never mentions in what way he intended to publish the narrative of his life.

What genre does Bruce's text belong to? I have called it autobiography, the concept Bruce makes use of is 'description of life', and it certainly has features of both autobiography and memoir, but could as well be designated a narrative of development or confession (of sin). Even if the author is eager to emphasise

<sup>2</sup> Littberger Caisou-Rousseau 2013, p. 228.

the veracity of what he writes his narrative is obviously, like any other autobiographical text, arranged, thereby manifesting fictive features. Moreover, Bruce's narrative is also a kind of apology. The author does not conceal his own faults and deficiencies, quite the reverse, one of his main aims is to warn the reader not to live such a sinful life as his. At the same time he constructs an image of himself as honest and honourable, a man worth the reader's sympathy rather than blame. One could also say that Bruce's narrative of his life functions as a kind of retrospective creation of his masculinity. In constructing a vividly longed for masculinity Bruce creates himself as a historical person and a man.

Research on different kinds of gender transformations is not very extensive so far. Yet Bruce's case is not unparalleled, and what makes it unique is the fact that he has written the narrative of his life. With the exception of Lars Molin's (called Lasse-Maja, 1785–1845) autobiography, though written from a different transsexual perspective, Bruce's is principally the only autobiographical narrative from this time written by a transsexual person hitherto known in Sweden.3 In Maria Lindeberg's travel book *Bref från Paris* (Letters from Paris) from 1827 one reads about a working-class woman aged about 50 who makes her living from mason work, always dressed as a man and who has totally adopted a man's manners and his way of walking. The remarkable thing according to Lindeberg is that no Frenchman makes fun of her, whereas a Swedish woman of the same predicament would be defamed and forbidden to work.4

An illustration to how Swedish society actually reacted to a woman who like this fictive French woman chose to live and act as a man, about a hundred years before Maria Lindeberg composed her text, is the story of a lieutenant colonel's daughter, called Ulrika Eleonora Stålhammar, from the province of Småland in southern Sweden. In 1713 she abandoned her female dress as it prevented her from succeeding, left for Stockholm and assumed the name of Vilhelm Edstedt. Later on she arrived in Kalmar, in south-eastern Sweden, where she enlisted in the artillery and got married to a young woman. The marriage was a happy one, but as Ulrika Eleonora later on was persuaded by her relatives to once again wear her female dress she was brought to court in 1729 because of her affair with a woman. The sentence was one month in prison. The male dress and the

<sup>3</sup> For example, Lasse-Maja, *Den beryktade Lasse-Majas äfwentyr: efter nyare upptäckter och anteckningar om denne stortjufs märkwärdiga stölder, äfwensom hans många äfwentyr, såwäl i karlkläder, som förklädd till qwinna, under hwilken förklädnad han utförde många djerfwa puts med både Herrar och Damer*, Stockholm 1887.

<sup>4</sup> Maria Lindeberg, *Bref från Paris af ett resande svenskt fruntimmer*, Stockholm 1827.

fascination for military life, as well as the love affair with a woman and problems with the authorities, all these are common factors for Stålhammar and Bruce.

Unique of its kind is an autobiography, with an introduction by Michel Foucault, written by the French hermaphrodite Herculine Barbin (1838–1868), who like Bruce had been allotted a female identity but chose to live as a man, however with a tragic outcome.5 In my book I compare Barbin's text with Bruce's. Suffering is a mutual guiding principle, but also the stoical and supposed masculine attitude to conceal one's pain at all costs.

# **Now the Gentleman Was Completed**

From Bruce's autobiography one can conclude that this person from early on clearly saw himself as a boy and therefore also wanted to dress like a boy. Already as a teenager the idea of wearing a pair of trousers and thereby marking a male identity was firmly rooted in Bruce: 'Now I had been confirmed, and I thought that I was really like a man if I could only dress in trousers, my fantasy was fully occupied by that idea.'6 It is evident from the epithet 'Little Miss Mr.' mentioned in the text that those around him apprehended his male features.7 However, that is not to say that anybody was prepared to allow for the putative girl to become a boy quite easily. Bruce narrates of his father's reaction when it came to his child's request to dress like a man. Adam Bruce declared that even if Bruce junior were a complete man he himself would never permit that his noble name would be stained. He would rather let his child have a mistress if there were no other options. A remarkable statement! The father apparently does not really care if his child is a 'complete man' or a woman, he can even accept the idea of a mistress. What is crucial for him is just the good name of the family, which must be saved at all costs. Therefore his child's idea to dress like a man revolts him. For him a putative lesbian affair is obviously less disgracing than an exchange of gender identity. The gender a child is assigned at birth may be arbitrary, but once determined nothing is allowed to modify it.8

<sup>5</sup> Abel Barbin, *Herculine Barbin: Being the Recently Discovered Memoirs of a Nineteenthcentury French Hermaphrodite* (introduction by Michel Foucault; translated by Richard McDougall) New York 1980.

<sup>6</sup> Littberger Caisou-Rousseau 2013, p. 122.

<sup>7</sup> Littberger Caisou-Rousseau 2013, pp. 112, 127.

<sup>8</sup> 'Do we truly need a true sex?' Michel Foucault asks in his introduction to Herculine Barbin's autobiography, adding that modern societies definitely have answered in the affirmative. See Abel Barbin 1980, p. vii.

Bruce's father, who will soon take up a post at the Customs in Sandhamn, an island in the province of Uppland, demonstrates his patriarchal authority in lingering over the near future when he will practically make a prisoner of his child on the island. Bruce realises that this is a trap and that his only option is to flee from his family. His exposition of his flight abounds in dramatic ingredients. Dressed like a man with pants, a pair of trousers and high boots, as well as a big knife as a weapon (!) the fugitive leaves home 'without other roof over his head than heaven, deprived of any earthly friend knowing his whereabouts and without a coin in his pocket', as Bruce expresses himself.9 His exposure is underlined, but at the same time no reader can doubt the purposefulness to force through his decision to live his life as a man. However, the escape fails and Bruce returns to family not without a certain relief.

One could imagine that order hereby was restored and that the protagonist called Therese by the family after the bold attempt to force 'her' way out would adapt to life as an unmarried daughter still living in her parents' house. However, that was not the case, on the contrary, the transformation now has a quick progress, this time without any opposition from the father. Once again the clothes are in the limelight when the old Bruce tells about his young alter ego's metamorphosis: 'My brother bought me a pair of blue trousers; a brown tail coat, red skin braces, a waistcoat striped in yellow, boots made black, and a little neat cap were obtained, by that the gentleman was completed.'10 However, putting on new clothes is not sufficient. A medical expert must be consulted and give his opinion. Therefore Bruce and his father go to Stockholm to visit a director-general, known by Adam Bruce. Bruce tells his future reader about this decisive visit:

My father then said that he could not know about his daughters' bodily constitutions, this my daughter declares to be a man, has passions like a man and has now dressed like a man, what is now needed is a certificate stating the true conditions which I hope that you Mr. Director-general my Lord Brother, will truthfully grant us! He [the doctor] escorted me to a separate room, investigated me in every possible way, I described how it was, he said nothing, but I said when he left me that if I am not allowed to wear trousers I cannot live. My father did not say a single word and when the director had written and sealed, we took leave of him. We did not know what he had written until we reached the place where we had left our horse, where my father read it [the text of the certificate] to me. We entered the carriage and drove out of town. There was an inn and we had some food and a glass of wine together. Then my father

<sup>9</sup> Littberger Caisou-Rousseau 2013, p. 126.

<sup>10</sup> Littberger Caisou-Rousseau 2013, p. 131.

said: Cheers my new son, see to it that you honour yourself, Andreas shall be your name that is the name of my grand-father.11

The scene at the director-general's is imbued with silence. The only words that are heard are the father's explanation for the visit and an appeal to the medical authority, also called 'my Brother' – here one glimpses a homo-social network – to issue a certificate stating his child's gender conditions. As to the rest, the father is as mute as the director-general. Certainly, the narrator tells the reader that during the examination he himself described 'how it was', but apart from that the investigation is left uncommented. That an obtrusive inspection of this kind was unpleasant for the one being examined is obvious. Moreover, Bruce was extremely sensitive in this respect. On another occasion he writes that it was a necessity for him not to let anybody get close to him and that he would rather die than not rebuke anyone touching him. In the light of the silence dominating the scene at the doctor's, Bruce's cry of distress when it comes to the unconditional claim to be allowed to wear trousers is all the more foregrounded. As to the rest one has the impression that Bruce and his father are infected by the doctor's muteness. Therefore they also wait to study the vital document until they have left his practice. Only does the father speak up, reading the certificate whose very wording Bruce abstains from citing in his text – another telling silence.

Consequently, Bruce keeps his future reader in suspense as to the actual wording of the document even if the continuation of the text gives the impression that the doctor had written that the person under examination was a man and nothing else. Because from this moment on the father treats his child as a son according to the narrative. Like two male partners they go to an inn and drink to one another and in a combined act of baptism and Holy Communion so to say – birth and growing to manhood in one – the father confirms his new son's existence and gives him his patrimonial name. Thereby Andreas is incorporated in the male community which is also confirmed when he is allowed to sit at his father's side next Sunday in the 'male' pew at church without anyone's objection: 'It was as if nothing had ever happened,' Bruce concludes.12

<sup>11</sup> Littberger Caisou-Rousseau 2013, pp. 131−132.

<sup>12</sup> Littberger Caisou-Rousseau 2013, p. 132.

# **To a Great Extent Hermaphrodite or Bisexual**

However, the doctor had not written that Bruce unambiguously was a man. Instead he certifies that he has found the examined person to be 'to a great extent hermaphrodite or bisexual, not owning complete reproductive organs of either of the sexes, even though the organs were more corresponding with the male sex'.13 The document never cited by Bruce is kept in the archive of the House of Nobility in Stockholm. It is signed by Anders Johan Hagströmer (1753–1830), who was a superior doctor and professor of anatomy and surgery. Accordingly, it was a highly qualified medical expert who was consulted to give his opinion on how Adam Bruce's child was constituted as regards gender.

Swedish historian Jonas Liliequist maintains that if a person's sex and behaviour in early-modern society were not in accordance that was interpreted either as a sign of social deceit or as a reflection of a bisexual body. In both these cases the uttermost truth of gender lay in anatomy.14 Furthermore, during the latter part of the eighteenth century medical experts were more and more interested in 'hermaphrodites' and doctors were summoned to settle judicial problems of bisexuality.15 Though Bruce is living in the nineteenth century, anatomy in his case settles the argument as well. Still Hagströmer as well as Doctor Eric Gadelius (1778–1827), author of a medical and legal handbook, seem not to have believed in the existence of a 'real', that is to say complete, hermaphrodite.16

<sup>13</sup> Littberger Caisou-Rousseau 2013, p. 34.

<sup>14</sup> Jonas Liliequist, 'Kvinnor i manskläder och åtrå mellan kvinnor. Kulturella förväntningar och kvinnliga strategier i det tidigmoderna Sverige och Finland', in Eva Borgström (ed.), *Makalösa kvinnor: Könsöverskridare i myt och verklighet*, Stockholm 2002, pp. 63–123.

<sup>15</sup> According to Swedish historian of ideas Maja Bondestam, the hermaphrodite is a variable and nuanced figure whose significance has been shaped in relation to various social and cultural contexts. Therefore human beings who today would be designated for instance homosexuals or transvestites were earlier on in history called hermaphrodites. Maja Bondestam, *Tvåkönad: Studier i den svenska hermafroditens historia*, Nora 2010.

<sup>16</sup> Before the middle of the nineteenth century, a system of different hermaphrodite categories was established. In the above-mentioned handbook from 1804, Doctor Eric Gadelius divided the hermaphrodites in four categories: real hermaphrodites, male and female hermaphrodites – who can be of different kinds – and human beings without a sex. However, he was dubious as to the first category and maintained that those individuals who in medical literature had been described as hermaphrodites probably had had a true but imperfect bisexuality, for instance, having testicles inside

Instead the examined individual is characterised as a hermaphrodite though more male than female, which is reminiscent of Gadelius' denomination male hermaphrodite.

Consequently, already at the age of fully sixteen (the certificate was issued in July 1825) Bruce was informed of the putative fact that he was not complete either as a woman or a man. To a great extent hermaphrodite, but yet neither one thing nor the other, that is to say neither complete hermaphrodite nor complete man or complete woman. Certainly it is not by pure chance that the word 'complete' later on occurs in Bruce's own text when he concludes that he was not 'a complete man and yet wanted to prove to the Professor that I in thoughts, words and deeds had the intention of bearing everything that other men could manage'.17 This awareness of not being 'a complete man' and the demand despite this to prove to himself and others that he was capable of managing all that 'a real man' is expected to achieve is a recurrent theme in Bruce's narrative.

Even if Hagströmer's certificate was all but unambiguous it was vital for Bruce. It made it possible for him to live the rest of his life as a man. Bruce's description of his first official appearance as a man gives the impression that it was all a painless and simple affair. However, the first version of the text testifies that this was not quite the case. Bruce writes that it was said that a distinguished lady, sitting in the same pew as Bruce's mother and sister, had fainted when she turned her head and caught sight of Bruce in the male pew. A fainting-fit is a strong reaction and a palpable sign of agitation. The noble lady loses her consciousness because young Bruce is sitting in the male pew. The fact that Bruce omits this colourful scene when making his fair copy is remarkable. Generally in his narrative he emphasises his suffering and all the hardships that his transformation of gender implied; here on the contrary he gives proof of a tendency to tone down the difficulties. Yet the lady's reaction is symptomatic. That those around him were taken aback by Bruce's gender transformation is obvious. Some people were horrified by what they called a scandal in High Society, whereas others found it quite spicy or actually tragic.

Later on in the narrative Bruce is living as a man in Stockholm. One day he receives a severe letter from his parents accusing him of having stained the whole family as every newspaper had discussed his metamorphosis and even a song dealing with the transformation had been written which they had to

the ovaries or a female bodily constitution and breasts excreting milk combined with growth of beard and male genitals.

<sup>17</sup> Littberger Caisou-Rousseau 2013, p. 151.

forbid. They declare that they will never forgive him and that all relatives are angry with him. Through the intervention of a clergyman reconciliation is finally achieved. Yet it is not his family that apologises for the hard-hearted words but Bruce himself who writes from the clergyman's dictation that he has done wrong without the intention of doing so, and without realising the devastating consequences of his conduct for his family. He refers to his certificate as an apology as it is impossible for him to wear a skirt and he also anticipates that everything will be forgotten when he returns home and nobody will be reminded of his person. As appears from Bruce's wording his self-effacement is total, he could as well apologise for being born and he principally promises to hide so that nobody will be reminded of his existence. Even the words are actually not his own, it is the representative of the church who prompts them.

# **Wimps, Hens, Cowards, and Other Poor Wretches**

Bruce's idea of what it means to be a man and how to conduct like one is clear. His ideal attaches to a stereotyped conception implying that physical and psychic strength, manifested in courage and self-control, are important components of a man's armour. In that respect he is the son of his father. Bruce narrates that his father was very fond of any evidence of bravery. He was happy when Andreas and his deaf-mute brother wrestled and he incited them in their fight calling out: 'My man the winner'.18 The ideal of the man of action is evident. For anyone who like Bruce is physically weak it is the more essential to compensate with agility and perseverance. Furthermore, Bruce declares that already as a youth he could tolerate strong tobacco and that he smoked a clay pipe. Later on in life he often appears with a cigar in his mouth, a typical male attribute at this time, and among other men he willingly drinks a glass of wine or punch.

Pierre Bourdieu maintains that virility is a highly relational quality, constructed before other men and against femininity for fear of the female potential inhabiting man himself.19 His thesis is to a great extent applicable to Bruce who points out the importance of inner strength and firmness of character maintaining that it is acceptable for 'a weak woman' not to dare contradict anybody, but that a man of such a character is embarrassing to deal with: 'they are wimps.'20 By bringing forward an integrated masculine identity he fights to

<sup>18</sup> Littberger Caisou-Rousseau 2013, p. 149.

<sup>19</sup> Pierre Bourdieu, *Masculine Domination*, Cambridge 2001.

<sup>20</sup> Littberger Caisou-Rousseau 2013, p. 187.

demarcate from the effeminacy that he dreads inhabits him. 'If I wanted to be a man I would certainly not act as a hen,' he concludes.21 Nothing is more contemptible than a man acting as a weak, stupid, and fearful woman, according to Bruce. However sometimes not even the best of intentions helps: 'You want to be a man, but you are a true hen of the very worst kind,' Bruce rebukes himself on one occasion when he has allowed himself to be intimidated by the imagined sight of a ghost.22 Yet he soon overcomes his fear and courageously confronts the danger. It could have been an anti-climax when the feared phantom appears to be the dog of the house, but that is not how Bruce presents the scene. Quite the reverse, the very mention of the dread that he has to overcome in hindsight serves to heighten his standing as a hero. Bruce demonstrates his ability in using literary devices to create himself as a dedicated masculine individual.

Wimp and hen – there are also other designations of this wretched variety of the male species, apparently not all too rare, such as poor wretches and cowards. On one occasion Bruce has a severe problem with his vehicle and according to himself his life is in imminent danger. The scene is watched by two quick young men who run away in fear of witnessing Bruce's death. Bruce compares their behaviour to his own, in spite of his weak constitution he has dared his life on several occasions for much less than this. His judgement is sharp when he asks if these two were actually men. Even if their bodies were of a male constitution their minds certainly were not. On the contrary, they were worse than many an old bag and from that day on Bruce regards them as cowards.

In 1829 the young Andreas Bruce went to the Swedish island of Gotland where he was employed by shopkeeper and shipbuilder Jacob Dubbe, owner of an estate called Rosendal in the parish of Follingbo. Not yet arrived at his future place of work the local customs inspector informs Bruce that his new employer is so severe and dreaded that nobody has had the courage to remain in his service. Bruce is not one to be discouraged that easily though. 'My future employer was so hard that he could have no servant, he even beat them, any other person than me would never had dared to go there, but as I had the intention to be a man I did not want to be afraid,' he resolutely declares.23 In that way he stresses that for anyone who wants to be a man in a qualified sense of the word it is not enough just to differ from weak women but also from other men who lack his own firm purpose to act as a real man. Such a cowardly man would

<sup>21</sup> Littberger Caisou-Rousseau 2013, p. 164.

<sup>22</sup> Littberger Caisou-Rousseau 2013, p. 195.

<sup>23</sup> Littberger Caisou-Rousseau 2013, p. 164.

have withdrawn – not so Bruce! That is Bruce's way of proving that after his gender transformation he has become even more masculine than most other men who have never been obliged to fight for or defend their male identity.

#### **Made for Military Life**

Not only rationality and reason but also aggressiveness, eagerness to fight, virility, and pugnacity have by tradition been considered as constitutive for a masculine way of acting. Even though Norbert Elias among others maintains that the scope for vehemence has been reduced ever since the fifteenth century, martial motifs were present in boys' physical education throughout the nineteenth century. Swedish historian Jens Ljunggren has demonstrated how gymnastics educator Pehr Henrik Ling's (1776–1839) exercises were means to recreate a lost masculinity by taking care of man's best capacities for being a man, though adapted to a modern society, appreciating not just strength and discipline but also spirituality and love of nature. A man should learn warfare, but he was also expected to conduct in a proper and balanced manner.24

Engaged and courageous participation in enlistment and exercise was therefore if anything a way for a gender-ambivalent person like Bruce to prove that he was a real man. He makes a bold start, stating that of course he should drill, as anyone anyone not capable of that was teased and Bruce certainly did not want to expose himself to derision. As a preparation for drill he purposefully trains under a captain and this coaching goes like clockwork, according to Bruce himself. After the successful enlistment, he declares himself to be delighted at being in the army.

When the military exercises starts, Bruce expresses his admiration for the masculine image of the officer in charge: 'We got a quick and capable lieutenant who was bold and daring, exactly what I had wished for.'25 When the manoeuvre has been accomplished the lieutenant praises his soldiers, saying that they look like real men. Bruce depicts himself as one of the foremost soldiers in the field. It is no wonder that the soldiers at the very back of the file are afraid, beginners as they are, but Bruce and 'a few other quick men' help them in firing all their shots for them.26 Military life suits him perfectly well and he declares that if circumstances had not been at times all too difficult for

<sup>24</sup> Jens Ljunggren, *Kroppens bildning: Linggymnastikens manlighetsprojekt 1790–1914*, Stockholm/Stehag 1999.

<sup>25</sup> Littberger Caisou-Rousseau 2013, p. 174.

<sup>26</sup> Littberger Caisou-Rousseau 2013, p. 176.

him he would have been made for a military career; 'at least I had the proper disposition, fearless, merry and pleased, punctual and taciturn when that was appropriate, no drunkard but not a total abstainer either, not begrudging anybody what appealed to myself.'27

In an old unidentified newspaper article headlined 'A Miss of Male Gender' an unknown writer maintained that Bruce was exempted from military service after county governor Hohenhausen's announcement in a powerful voice: 'No old bags in the army!' It is improbable that Bruce had invented the whole story of his military service, the details being too many and too rich in colour for that. There is also a plausible explanation for the rumour that he was exempted already at his first enlistment. Much later in the narrative Bruce mentions that the doctor of the hospital and regiment arrives at an enlistment wanting to buy a pair of small horses which Bruce does not want him to purchase as they are already sold to someone else. The doctor reacts with anger and influences the county governor so that after the enlistment is completed he declares to Bruce that he is released from bearing arms forever. Bruce maintains that it was the doctor who, as an act of revenge, had arranged this. He concludes that it was no great loss for him though the aim was to bother Bruce. It is remarkable that Bruce, who earlier in the narrative was so engaged in military life, now thinks that it was no great loss to be excused from it. Has growing age made him lose some of the young man's warlike mentality? Or does he not want to acknowledge his shame even to himself?

# **Sister and Brother, Father and Mother in One and the Same Person**

Obviously, the doctor had revealed Bruce's putative female identity to the county governor, and there was a special reason why he knew about Bruce's anatomical constitution. In autumn 1837, Bruce got pregnant and in July his

<sup>27</sup> Littberger Caisou-Rousseau 2013, p. 175. In his study *The Power of Character: Middle-Class Masculinities, 1800–1900* (Stockholm 2003), Swedish historian David Tjeder demonstrates that there was a discrepancy between especially many young men's apprehension that drinking and gambling were masculine activities and moralists maintaining that drinkers and gamblers were fallen, middle-class men and that gambling and drinking were pernicious passions. By emphasising that he is no drunkard but not a total abstainer either Bruce wants to prove that he is a proper man, not governed by his passions in an unmanly way, nor a fearful (and in that respect unmanly) total abstainer.

daughter was born. As he has promised himself to be truthful, Bruce has to coerce himself to mention this unexpected and uncommon event even if it is very painful for him to do so. How did it come about? An inspector named Lars Nyström stubbornly declared his love for Bruce and said that he knew for sure that Andreas was a disguised young lady. Bruce emphasises that he felt very embarrassed at Nyström's flirtation. Yet at an early stage there is a moment when he wonders whether it is not God's will that he shall live as a woman in a relationship with Nyström. This thought soon passes off, though, and Bruce declares that he could not be persuaded to change clothes.

Bruce comments on the circumstances when the foetus was conceived in the following way: 'One night when we had been on the spree together the inspector asked to stay as it was late and he had a long way home. I gave him permission and totally forgot to be careful.'28 There is no evidence in the text that Nyström forced himself on Bruce, even if it is not out of question that this was the case. The wording that Bruce forgot to be careful could be a hint that it was not the first time he went to bed with Nyström; whether or not that was the case is impossible to know. However, any indication that Bruce would play along and recognise a double gender identity is not congruent with the rest of the text. The fact that he was drunk could to some extent explain his action, yet Bruce does not highlight this, presumably because the very revelling is to him morally objectionable.

Bruce portrays the discovery of his pregnancy in terms of a catastrophe. The anxiety and distress are overwhelming, and Bruce finds it impossible to describe all the torments he undergoes at the same time as he has to be on duty. More than once the thought of committing suicide haunts him, but as he has his hope in God he wants to wait after all. When Nyström is informed about the pregnancy he abandons Bruce whose despair at this response is total as he sees himself as hopelessly lost. Even if he trusts in God he cannot bear it any longer when he feels the foetus move. At that moment he takes his gun, loads it and cocks the trigger to fulfil his suicide. Just then he hears an inner voice calling out a doctor's name whereupon Bruce makes up his mind to see this doctor and explain his situation to him.

That a pregnancy constituted a severe threat to Bruce's construction of a male identity is obvious. The conception of the child did indeed prove that Doctor Hagströmer was wrong: at least Bruce's female genitals must have been intact. But it was not that kind of 'completeness' he wanted to have confirmed. In this

<sup>28</sup> Littberger Caisou-Rousseau 2013, p. 228.

precarious situation the only thing left to do was to wait for the delivery and demonstrate his masculine bravery when the labour pains finally attacked him. Bruce relates that he had suffered for nine hours without anybody looking after him, apart from the doctor briefly exhorting him to cry out so that the pains would be reduced, but Bruce stubbornly remained silent, not letting out a single sound. Not to cry when one is giving birth is for Bruce the most extreme proof of masculinity. In truth a paradoxical situation! Presumably this is the very first depiction of a man giving birth in Sweden, maybe the first ever written.

Immediately after the birth, the girl Carolina is brought to a foster family. Yet Bruce is firmly determined to bring her back as soon as possible to take care of her himself. That is also accomplished when Bruce resigns his appointment at Dubbe's estate and moves to Öja, another locality on the island of Gotland. Carolina is brought up in a household consisting of Bruce and his partner Maria Lindblad and her illegitimate daughter.29 From Bruce's preserved letters to Carolina, published in my book, it is evident that he acted as her affectionate father.

The doctor's revenge did not stop with the participation in the act to prevent Bruce from bearing arms, thereby depriving him of a vital part of his male appearance. When Bruce wants to marry Maria Lindblad the doctor throws a new spanner into the works by telling the clergyman that Bruce is the mother of his child. By extension this results in the vicar's refusal both to absolve Bruce and according to an old ritual receive Bruce as a member of the clerical and social communion after his giving birth to the child. That implies that Bruce is also forbidden to partake of the Holy Communion for almost a decade; as he was an ardent believer that was a severe punishment. Moreover he had to endure the social disgrace that the prohibition implied.

Even if a personal act of revenge was the primary driving force it is not only the doctor who acted as a brake; a few others of society's mainstay, namely the county governor and the vicar also actively counteracted Bruce's ambition to live his life as a complete man.

Andreas and Maria did never marry. Besides being a man with an ambiguous gender identity he was a mother/father to an illegitimate child, and his stigmatisation was therefore double. It is nevertheless remarkable that what for a reader of today looks like a textbook case of masculine authorities' discrimination of

<sup>29</sup> Sexuality outside of marriage was a penalised act in Sweden until 1864 when it was permitted for unmarried persons. At this time, it was not socially acceptable to live as cohabitants.

a human being who violated sexual and gender norms already by lacking a clearly defined sex, is instead interpreted by the ageing Bruce in a Christian light which makes him blame himself as a wicked man who lived a sinful life with the woman he loved and who cursed, revelled, and sang obscene songs.30

∞∞∞

Swedish historian David Tjeder, who has investigated the fragile masculinity of nineteenth-century middle-class society, maintains that a key concept in this context was character. The male task was to realise his character from potentiality to actuality. What it was all about was not finding oneself but creating oneself. A man should be transparent with no flaw or discrepancy between his inner and outer self and his acts.31 More than most other men Bruce created and invented himself as a male individual. All his adult life he fought to prove to himself and others that he was a proper man in thoughts, words, and deeds. It is therefore ironic and regrettable that his tombstone was engraved with his female initials C.T. (Christina Therese), rather than his male initials F.A.E. (Ferdinand Andreas Edvard), in an act that was certainly not in compliance with Bruce's desires.

A Swedish version of this chapter has been published in *Tidskrift för litteraturvetenskap* 2013:3–4.

∞∞∞

#### **Sources**


<sup>30</sup> What is at stake here is no longer a happy medium between a drunkard and a total abstainer, rather it is an excess in masculine, and paradoxically enough therefore unmanly, behaviour that is portrayed.

<sup>31</sup> David Tjeder, 'Borgerlighetens sköra manlighet', in Jørgen Lorentzen & Claes Ekenstam (eds), *Män i Norden: Manlighet och modernitet 1840–1940*, Möklinta 2006, pp. 48−76.

*många äfwentyr, såwäl i karlkläder, som förklädd till qwinna, under hwilken förklädnad han utförde många djerfwa puts med både Herrar och Damer*, Stockholm 1887.


# Anders Jarlert

# **'Poland is Catholic, and a Pole is a Catholic.' The Oppressed Evangelical Masurians after the Second World War**

**Abstract** The fate of the Masurian Lutherans in eastern Poland is one of the tragedies of modern Europe. This chapter monitors the various, and often contradictory, attempts to transform a group that often escaped attempts at cultural and political classification. During the post-WWII era, various efforts to support this group were made by the part of European co-religionists. In this chapter is found a first history of the short-lived Swedish Church Masurian Aid.

## **'Poland is Catholic, and a Pole is a Catholic'**

In a letter from 1957, a bishop of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church in Poland wrote that the Masurians still were leaving, firstly because of the wrongs they suffered during and after the war, then due to their economic situation, losing their farms to newcomers and often having to work for them. Further, the loss of churches and church property 'played no small role' in turning Masurians against Poland. 'The still repeated watchword "Poland is Catholic, and a Pole is a Catholic" led the Catholic population to treat Masurians as Germans and to discriminate against them.'1

In 1916, the journal *Germania* had stated that nationality and religion were not so profoundly intertwined in any other people as with the Poles. They were long used to regarding the Catholic confession as the crucial feature of Polish identity.2 Recent research has observed that this autostereotype is being used as an instrument for national religious homogenisation, either for a national exclusion of other confessions or against the representatives of a secular, enlightenment-based cultural understanding as being un-national.3

<sup>1</sup> John J. Kulczycki, *Belonging to the Nation: Inclusion and Exclusion in the Polish-German Borderlands 1939−1951*, Cambridge, MA 2016, p. 298 (1957, June 25).

<sup>2</sup> *Germania* 8.11.1916.

<sup>3</sup> Hans Henning Hahn, 'Stereotypenforschung und Religion: Methodische Überlegungen', in *Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte* 32. Jg, Heft 1/2019, p. 25.

#### 102 Anders Jarlert

Before the First World War, the German authorities tried to claim the Masurian language was separate from Polish by classifying it as a non-Slavic language.4 In 1910, the German language was reported by German authorities as being used by 197,060, Polish by 30,121 and Masurian by 171,413. Roman Catholics generally opted for the Polish language, Protestants appreciated Masurian.5 On 11 June 1920, the League of Nations held a plebiscite to determine if the people in Southern East Prussia wanted to remain with Germany or to join Poland. Masurs supporting the Polish side were violently harassed, and at least 3,000 Warmian and Masurian activists for Poland fled the region. The results determined that 99.32% of the voters in Masuria proper chose to remain with the German Reich. Their traditional Evangelical belief kept them away from Polish national consciousness, dominated by Roman Catholicism. Almost only Catholics voted for Poland.6

# **The General Situation in Masuria after the Second World War**

Profound distress and comfortless poverty met me here. About 75 percent of the children are orphans. In most parishes, there were only children and aged ones. Fathers and adult sons have been in the war or in concentration camps, women between the ages of 20 and 40 have been deported to work camps. They lack both labour, machinery and cattle. I saw a 60-year-old woman digging on a field. She was alone planting potatoes over an entire acre. Moreover, I saw an even older woman, who walked behind a plough, drawn by underage children. Masuria's 42 parishes have only 7 pastors.

This quotation in 1946 from Polish Lutheran Bishop Jan Szeruda (1889−1962) gives a distinct and dark picture of the need in Masuria at the time.7

Out of 400,000 inhabitants in Masuria after the Second World War, the remaining Masurians were only about 75,000. Seventy-five per cent of the Masurians had fled in advance of the Red Army. Then, in summer, 1945, a typhoid fever proved fatal to many of the remaining ones. Free manifestations of regional and even national identities were not possible until after 1989, but this was too late for most Masurians. In 2011, only 1,376 Masurians identified

<sup>4</sup> 'German regions Prussia World War II', histclo.com. Retrieved 14 August 2018.

<sup>5</sup> 'German regions Prussia World War II', histclo.com. Retrieved 14 August 2018.

<sup>6</sup> 'Masuria', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masuria, retrieved 29 January 2020, and further sources, especially Andreas Kossert,'"Grenzlandpolitik" und Ostforschung an der Peripherie des Reiches: Das ostpreußische Masuren 1919–1945', in *Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte* 2/2003, p. 124.

<sup>7</sup> Jan Szeruda, 'Långväga lundagäster ha ordet', in *Kyrkor under Korset* 1946, p. 93.

themselves as such, when the Polish census for the first time allowed inhabitants to indicate one or two national-ethnic identities.8

The Masurians were a significant border region population. They appeared as neither Polish nor Germans, but something special: as Masurians. This situation could be compared to the Upper Silesians, the South Tyrolians, or the Slesvig population. They were of Slavonic descent, Evangelical since the Reformation, speaking a West Slavonic dialect, named Masurian, regarded as old-fashioned Polish, while they mostly used German as their devotional language. In writing, the Masurians used High German as opposed to the Low German used by most of East Prussia's German population. Their emigration had begun many years earlier. Shortly before the First World War, at least 180,000 persons, 36% of all Masurians, were already living in Westphalia in Western Germany.

In the early nineteenth century, almost all Masurians had spoken Masurian. Adolf Schimanski in 1921 characterised the Masurians by their 'Polish ancestry, their German schooling, their Slavonic customs and habits, their German tradition, their Polish family names and German given names, their Polish spoken language and German written language, their Polish proverbs, their German songs, their Slavonic religiosity, their Evangelical confession'.9 After 1918, the majority of Masurians could not write or read Polish, since the last generation with Polish school teaching left school in 1888. Nevertheless, Polish was still being spoken.

In local communities, pastors who spoke only German met protests. The language question obviously was a class matter, since Polish was associated with the poor people. In 1926, in the Ortelsburg diocese, only twelve pastors could preach in Polish without a script three read their own sermon, and six read printed sermons that they could not understand themselves. According to a report from Lipowitz in 1930, one German and one Masurian Church service were held each Sunday.10

The Masurians have been described as the best documented and least ambiguous case anywhere in Europe of national consciousness running counter to

<sup>8</sup> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masurians, retrieved 29 Jan. 2020. Cf. Kulczycki 2016, p. 299, stating that 'apparently, no Mazurs identified themselves as such when in 2011 the Polish census for the first time allowed inhabitants to indicate one or two national-ethnic identities.'

<sup>9</sup> Adolf Schimanski, *Die wirtschaftliche Lage der Masuren* (Phil. Diss.), Königsberg 1921, quoted from Kossert 2001, p. 202.

<sup>10</sup> Kossert 2001, pp. 177, 223.

#### 104 Anders Jarlert

language.11 However, from 1933, the Nazi regime directly suppressed the Masurian language. During the Evangelical Church struggle in the early years of the Nazi regime, many Masurian clergymen, while politically loyal to the regime, supported the Confessing Church, critical of the German Christians.12 The Nazis had believed that in future the Masurians, as a separate non-German entity, would disappear, while those who would cling to their 'foreignness', as one Nazi report mentioned, would be deported. In May 1945, the Polonization work started with the effort to register the Masurians as 'Masurian population of Polish descent'. However, these efforts were effectively sabotaged by the violence of Polish looting bands. Those who did not want to register were accused of pro-Nazi or pro-American propaganda. Not until 1949, after violent pressing, did the majority register.13 Despite this formal regulation, the majority of the Masurian population went into inner emigration, reacting against collectivization and Polish language.14

The Swedish relief workers in the late 1940s found a great difference between the old and younger generations. Old people liked to speak Masurian, mixed with German words, while the children could not speak any Polish, since this had been forbidden during the Nazi regime, especially in the so-called estate parishes, where the squire had been a party member, and actively tried to reduce Polish customs.15 Then the Red Army had treated them as Germans.

# **The Difficult Position of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Poland after the Second World War in Masuria**

After the end of the Second World War, the pastoral responsibilities for the resident Protestants from the Prussian Evangelical Church were taken over by the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession (EAC) in Poland. This church had as early as 1920 been engaged in the connexion of Masuria to Poland. After

<sup>11</sup> Richard Blank, 'When Germans and Poles lived together', in Keith Bullivant, Geoffrey Giles & Walter Pape, *Germany and Eastern Europe: Cultural Identities and Cultural differences*, Amsterdam 1999, pp. 37−55, quoted p. 44.

<sup>12</sup> Kossert 2001, p. 256.

<sup>13</sup> Kossert 2001, pp. p. 309 f., 312 f.

<sup>14</sup> Kossert 2001, p. 314.

<sup>15</sup> Viktor Almgren, 'Något om Masuriens land och folk', in *Kyrkor under Korset* 1947, p. 155.

the German invasion in 1939 many pastors, among them Bishop Julius Bursche (1862−1942), were murdered as renegades and Polonizers.16

Marked by an oppressive Catholic majority, when 'Evangelical' was equated with 'German', the EAC had to define and defend its position as a Polish Church. As a minority Church the EAC had to lean close to the state for protection against the overpowering Catholic Church. Therefore, the Church willingly accepted the Government's programme of Polonization. They had to win the Masurians for a national Polishness and simultaneously to strengthen the Evangelical influence in Polish society.17 The ideological use of *Re-Polonization* instead of *Polonization* made things still worse. A *Re-Polonization* presupposed an earlier national consciousness that never was the case. A pro-German attitude was explained as based on material interests only, and since the Poles believed in and tried to 'reactivate' a Polish national feeling, they were disappointed.18

After the Second World War, the Polish Lutheran Church (EAC) understood the Masurians as tragic victims of a forced Germanisation who needed to be re-Polonized. There was no suggestion of recognising a separate Masurian identity.19 As the Polish journalist Andrzej K. Wróblewski stated, the Polish post-war policy succeeded in what the Prussian state never managed: the creation of a German national consciousness among the Masurians.20

Most of the pastors who came to Masuria had themselves been prisoners in German concentration camps. Now they arrived in a formerly German region, where a vast majority of the population had actively supported the National Socialists. Their ideological view of their 'Polish' brethren clashed with the factual, chaotic situation. Andreas Kossert concludes that two worlds of experience could not encounter each other in a more extreme way.21 This is easily enlightened by Reinhard Koselleck's views on experience as horizon, where in this case two totally different experiences made it impossible to reach a common space of expectation.22

<sup>16</sup> Kossert 2001, pp. 321, 307 f.

<sup>17</sup> Kossert 2001, pp. 321 f.

<sup>18</sup> Kossert 2001, pp. 302.

<sup>19</sup> Kossert 2001, pp. 324, 321 f, Kulczycki 2016, p. 84.

<sup>20</sup> Andreas Kossert, *Ostpreussen: Geschichte und Mythos*, München 2005, p. 358.

<sup>21</sup> Kossert 2001, p. 322, Kulczycki 2016, p. 84.

<sup>22</sup> See, for example, Reinhart Koselleck, *Sediments of Time: On Possible Histories*, Stanford 2018.

#### 106 Anders Jarlert

The majority of the remaining population could speak Polish, but not read or write in this language. Furthermore, 'Poland' was associated with an engaging Catholicism, which the Lutheran Masurians under no circumstances wanted. In Gawrzyalken, the new pastor Jerzy Sachs experienced that only five Evangelicals came to the public church service, though about one hundred Protestants went to private devotions in private homes. Because of rumours also from Polish Catholics, the Masurians did not believe in the durability of a Polish Evangelical church and regarded its pastors as 'verdeckte Katholiken' (covert Catholics), who wanted to force their Polonization. That they continued to visit private devotions was in line with the old Masurian lay preaching tradition from the Pietist *Gromadki*. A few of these preachers had remained and could reactivate the traditions of Lay Protestantism, this time against the tendencies of Polonization. A special expression of this popular piety were the almost totally lay-organised Mission celebrations, that since 1951, in the peak period of Stalinism, were arranged everywhere, with church choirs, 'Posaunenchöre' and child groups from the EAC taking part.23

That the Masurians went to the *Gromadki* devotions instead of the Polish church services may seem unexpected, since the *Gromadki* earlier had been in conflict with the German authorities because of their Masurian language, but most of them had been loyal to the Prussian state.24 Still more surprising is that there were old bridges between the *Gromadki* − a *Gemeinschaftsbewegung* from the 1830s − and the Catholic piety. Like the Lithuanian Protestants, the *Gromadki* demonstrated an 'impressive outward piety', such as statues of saints in Masurian homes. Protestant Masurians had even participated in Catholic pilgrimages and observed Catholic holidays, though in the political struggle most of the *Gromadki* pleaded for 'a space in between'.25 This points to the need to distinguish influences of Catholic piety that could be combined with the Lutheran tradition from other Catholic traditions, and especially from the Catholic hierarchy.

The *Gromadki* protested rationalism in theology and church. Among the socalled Stundenhalter − the leaders of prayer meetings − were people from the

<sup>23</sup> Kossert 2001, pp. 323 f.

<sup>24</sup> Stefan Berger, 'Border Regions, Hybridity, and National Identity: The Cases of Alsace and Masuria', in Q. Edward Wang & Franz L. Fillafer (eds), *The Many Faces of Clio: Cross-Cultural Approaches to Historiography. Essays in Honor of Georg G. Iggers*. New York 2007, p. 377.

<sup>25</sup> Helmut Walser Smith, 'Prussia at the Margins' in Neil Gregor, Niels Roemer & Mark Roseman (eds), *German History from the Margins*, Bloomington, IN 2006, p. 75.

lower classes, where books of Johann Arndt were widely read. Another distinct feature was the lay preaching. The long distances in Masuria made them used to services without clergy.26

From 1946, the EAC severely criticised the attitude of Polish society. While supporting the Polonization politics, the Church criticised the insufficient protection of the Masurians against Polish looting bands as well as their treatment from the majority population. They emphasised how counter-productive it was to treat the Masurians as Germans. During the so-called verification actions in 1948−1949, the EAC found its influence too weak to shape a Polish mentality among the Masurians.

Those faithful to the Evangelical Church felt themselves alienated from the EAC. Pastors were sometimes regarded more as propagandists then as soulcarers. Another important aspect was that − contrary to the case in Pomerania or Lower Silesia − the pastoral care in the German language in Masuria was forbidden by the state. The pastors, too, wanted to treat the Masurians differently from the remaining ethnical Germans in Pomerania. However, with public services in German, the EAC would have been open to attacks from the Catholic Church as being 'German'. This was an unsolvable dilemma, since they as a Protestant Church were committed to preach the gospel in the native language.

In Ortelsburg, a Swedish priest preached in German, and was translated by the Polish pastor into Polish. A female participant said: 'Uns tat das Herz weh, denn wir waren ja nur Deutsche in der Kirche.' Sometimes, singing in German was allowed. Private devotions were almost exclusively held in German, and some pastors used the German language at funerals, the communion of the sick, and at house visits. The removal of German inscriptions on memorials, altars, and church windows (especially Bible quotations) were met with protests; and some subjects were kept secret for some years. Still after the political liberalisation in 1956, a layman, Emil Leyk, demanded the introduction of German services, since only the German language, and not Polish, reached the Masurians in liturgy and preaching. This he regarded not as 'anti-Polish', but as a 'matter of the heart'. The official Polish language had isolated the Masurian Christians from their Church.27

<sup>26</sup> Janusz Bogdan Kozłowski, 'O istocie gromadkarstwa mazurskiego', in *Komunikaty Mazursko-Warminskie: Kwartalnik* no. 2, p. 242.

<sup>27</sup> Kossert 2001, pp. 324 f.

The weak position of the EAC led to weak protests against the illegal occupation of Evangelical Church buildings by the Catholics. Though the EAC was deployed by the state as the legal successor of the Evangelical Prussian Church, it had no infrastructural possibilities to proceed against the attacks. For example, in the Neidenburg district, all the evangelical churches in 1946 were in Catholic hands, and the Protestants had to lurk in cemetery chapels and halls. This Evangelical−Catholic antagonism led to a stronger polarization, strengthening the German mentality in the Masurians.28

Later on, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski boasted Poland's acquisition of the German lands east of Oder-Neiße as 'the greatest Counter-Reformation in recent history'. Not only formerly Protestant churches in Masuria were taken over, but Catholics also staged 'ceremonial burnings of Protestant church books'. Addressing a large gathering in 1959, one priest said that 'there was once a large black stain of Lutheranism on the map of Masuria. Now there are only scattered spots; let us pray that these also disappear.'29

Still in the 1980s, the Roman Catholic Church mostly illegally occupied Evangelical church buildings. In Puppen in Ortelsburg, the small Evangelical congregation was beaten ('geprügelt') from their church during the service on 23 September 1979. This triggered a big wave of emigration that made the Evangelical communities in Masuria a disappearing minority in a formerly Protestant region.30

### **The Swedish Initiative of Rev. Daniel Cederberg (1908−1969)**

In the severe post-war situation, a Swedish clergyman, Daniel Cederberg, initiated and directed the Swedish Church Masurian Aid. Before the war, Cederberg had been a seamen's pastor in Danzig and Gdynia. He knew the area well and spoke both German and Polish. Among Polish Protestants, he was well known since the Wolosianka trial in 1937, where a Lutheran pastor in Volynia had been sentenced to eight years' imprisonment for unauthorised political activity, and to two years for defamation of the Mother of God. Much due to Cederberg's actions, Wolosianka was cleared of the political accusations. During the early war years in Gdynia, then occupied by the Third Reich, Cederberg had active contacts with

<sup>28</sup> Kossert 2001, p. 326.

<sup>29</sup> Richard Blanke, *Polish-speaking Germans? Language and National Identity among the Masurians since 1871*, Köln 2001, p. 296.

<sup>30</sup> Kossert 2001, p. 328.

the Polish resistance.31 However, his involvement in the Wolosianka trial did not strengthen his position in the eyes of the Catholic clergy.

On 9 September 1946, the Swedish national committee of the Lutheran World Convention met in Lund. Its decision was to form a special committee for church aid in Masuria with Rev. Cederberg as the representative of the national committee. When difficulties arose against a quick realization, Cederberg took the initiative to constitute a separate association, the Church Masurian Aid (*Kyrkliga Masurienhjälpen* or *Kościelna Pomoc Mazurom*). From its start up to its end in December 1948, Cederberg's eager impatience was both a strength and a weakness in the work. It was a strength, mainly because the help could start immediately, it was quickly organized locally, and it reached the persons in the deepest need. However, he did not wait for approval from ecclesiastical or civil authorities, and thus the work was several times disturbed by misunderstandings, both in Poland and in Sweden. He was supported by the Swedish Archbishop Erling Eidem, but another Swedish bishop, Torsten Ysander, acted against him.32

The Masurian Church Aid had ten 'active members', and a lot of 'passive members' who supported the organization. The active members elected the board, that is, themselves, and worked quite efficiently with Cederberg as their chairman and Mrs Gunvor Hammar as their treasurer. Most important was that the Swedish-speaking American Dr Clifford Ansgar Nelson, stationed at the Lutheran World Convent in Geneva, was one of these 'active members'.33

Dr Nelson visited Masuria in August 1946. He wrote:

The natives who are left live in a state of hopelessness. Many cities and villages have been completely burned and destroyed. We travelled through villages which were deserted, with ruins everywhere. The smiling and fertile lake area, once inhabited by a thriving agricultural population, is now unprotected, except for the little that can be done by the women, who even hitch themselves to the plough to try to grow a little grain. A riot of rats and mice has ultimately caused terrible damage to the insufficient grain stock. Wild boars ravage in the potato fields. Horses and cows are almost entirely missing. A whole parish of 800 people had only one cow and one goat. Food is in extremely short supply and a widespread famine in the coming months is inevitable, unless something can be done to help the situation. Medicine is very rare and diseases are being spread. Venereal diseases usually occur up to 50−60 percent in women, and

<sup>31</sup> Björn Ryman, *Lutherhjälpens första 50 år. 1947−1997,* Stockholm 1997, pp. 32−34.

<sup>32</sup> Ryman 1997, p. 38.

<sup>33</sup> LUB, Saml. Cederberg, Daniel (B:667), Konstituerande sammanträde för Kyrkliga Masurienhjälpen, Oct. 18 1946.

#### 110 Anders Jarlert

they get very little medical attention. Such an apparent need is hardly present anywhere else. The coming winter will lead to death if we cannot rescue them.34

Five days after the constitution of the Masurian Aid, it was reported that Pastor Allan Lind had gone to Poland on the 30th of September with the support of the Lutheran World Convention. Pastor Ragnar Fahlman from Vilhelmina in the far north of Sweden was sent out in October to give support in the food distribution and pastoral care. On the 11th of November, the new organization expressed its willingness to engage two deaconesses and a minister, already working in Masuria for the Swedish Church Aid. On the 2nd of December, Pastor Viktor Almgren was employed for three months, the resident chaplain Kjell Hagberg for three months, and the deaconess Kerstin Johansson, from Ljungby in Halland, also for three months. In February and March 1947, another four deaconesses, one clergyman, one student, and one female clerk were sent out. They stayed with local Masurian pastors' families.35

An early meeting with Zygmunt Robel, the provincial governor of the Olsztyn province, Bishop Szeruda, Senior Friszke, Pastors Hellqvist and Lind, as well as the treasurer, Mrs Hammar, had paved the way for the work.36

Bishop Szeruda expressed his 'joy for the work which the Church Aid had executed for renewal in the devastated Church province of Masuria. This organisation represented the only direct emergency assistance which had taken contact with his Church after the war and was considered by him indispensable for the nearest future.'37

The Polish deaconesses from the Tabita home in Skolimów near Warsaw had been serving before the war at the Evangelical hospital in Warsaw, which was destroyed in the war. They continued their work in Gdansk, but since only 1% of the inhabitants there were Evangelicals after the so-called population exchange, the authorities regarded the work of the sisters as superfluous, and they were told to leave. Instead they began serving in Masuria, visiting homes, taking part in the distribution of food, pastoral care, Bible studies, and, not least, in healthcare. A venereal ambulance was established, directed by Dr

<sup>34</sup> Clifford Ansgar Nelson, 'Ett besök i Masurien', in *Kyrkor under Korset* 1946, p. 139.

<sup>35</sup> LUB, Saml. Cederberg, Daniel (B:667), 1946, Oct. 23 §§ 6, 7; Nov. 11 § 10; Dec. 2 §§ 22−25; 1947, Feb. 9, § 45; March 25 §§ 60, 61.

<sup>36</sup> Dominik Krysiak, 'Szwedzka misja charytatywna a kvestia utworzenia domu dziecka w Mikołajkach (1946−1949)', in *Meritum, tom I*, Olsztyn 2009, pp. 163−177 (here used in a private English translation).

<sup>37</sup> 'Från hjälpverksamheten. Polen', in *Lutherhjälpen* 1948, p. 29.

Sylvia Chapman, a specialist in female diseases from New Zealand, who spoke some Polish. She was under administration from Geneva, and then from the Polish Ecumenical Reconstruction Committee.38

The Swedish Masurian Church Aid funded repairs of vicarages, parish houses, and church windows. Three totally destroyed organs were repaired, in Olsztyn, Mikołajki, and Giẑycko.39 Other projects included a reprint of Luther's Small Catechism in Polish, in 10,000 copies, and a provisional hymnbook for the Evangelical Christians in Masuria. This was printed in Lund, Sweden, but then forbidden in Masuria, because some words in Martin Luther's 'Ein feste Burg' from the sixteenth century were understood as criticizing the Soviets as enemies.40

In January 1947, the Masurian Aid was accused of narrow-minded confessionalism, but they replied that help was to be given to people in need without concern for confession or nationality. The help to the Masurians was especially warranted since confessional limits of *other* aid organizations had made the Masurians the most distressed group in need of help. This was not 'confessional help', though it should be declared that the donors were Lutherans. This open formulation marked a turning point in Lutheran relief work. It was a consequence of the first paragraph in the statutes of the Masurian Church Aid, speaking of help 'in spiritual and material terms, [to] provide assistance to the distressed population of the Polish province of Masuria, and to pay particular attention to our fellow Lutheran believers'.41

That the Lutheran relief work without confessional concerns worked also among settlers from the Ukraine is confirmed by a published letter in Russian, from 1947, to a woman in the Swedish county of Småland, starting 'Dear sister in Christ'. The man writes that his wife 'kisses your tender hands and your dear face, and we thank the dear Creator that he has given you the possibility and

<sup>38</sup> 'Från hjälpverksamheten. Masurien', in *Kyrkor under Korset* 1947, pp. 35*–*37.

<sup>39</sup> Viktor Almgren, 'Något om Masuriens land och folk', in *Kyrkor under Korset* 1947, pp. 158 f.

<sup>40</sup> 'Verksamhetsberättelse 1948*–*49', in *Lutherhjälpen* 1949, pp. 166 f.

<sup>41</sup> LUB, Saml. Cederberg, Daniel (B:667), 1947 Jan. 23, § 39; Statutes from 1946, Oct. 18, § 1: 'i andligt och materiellt avseende lämna hjälp åt den nödlidande befolkningen i den polska provinsen Masurien och att därvid särskilt gagna våra lutherska trosfränder.'

opened your heart and your soul.' Further, it says that 'our dear Jesus is preparing for us an everlasting kingdom.'42

In March 1947, plans for an orphanage were discussed. The orphanage in Mikołajki was to become a project of both hope and disappointment. In June, the Swedish Europe Aid promised 100,000 zloty for the repair of a building, and its representative, Major Hans Ehrenstråle, was positive to the orphanage project of Pastor Pilch, while Mrs Lisa Lind from Save the Children was critical of the suitability of the building for the purpose. When the Provincial Office in Olsztyn submitted the guidelines to appropriate executive institutions, a letter was sent to the Foreigners' Section of the provincial headquarters of the national police on 26 August 1948. Four days later, the head of the Section replied that since 26 April the Swede Margareta-Zenta Svensson had represented the Church Aid. She worked as superintendent of the future orphanage in Mikołajki.43

In spring 1948, the process practically stopped due to lack of funds. While the parish had no financial means to cover the costs for the orphanage, state policy did not allow such institutions to be run by religious organizations. Margareta-Zenta Svensson understood in October 1948 that they should have applied on behalf of the Masurian Aid, not on behalf of the Lutheran Church in Poland. She left Mikołajki in autumn 1949: 'Unable to carry out her mission, she saw no point in staying in Poland.' Instead of the orphanage, a home for elderly was established in Sorkwit, since the authorities raised no objections regarding elderly homes run by religious communities.44

In the Polish weekly *Przekroj* damaging articles appeared in September 1947, where the Swedish Church Aid organisation was accused of former pro-Nazi activities in the Ukraine. Such attacks were also launched by socialists in Sweden. Cederberg now realised that since the attacks on the Masurian Aid had taken on an unmitigated political character, it was necessary to prepare for the inevitable withdrawal of the field work.45

In November−December 1947, the Swedes had to cease handing out food and clothes, since they spoke German with the Masurians. Instead, the distribution

<sup>42</sup> 'Masuriskt tackbrev', in *Kyrkor under Korset* 1947, p. 217.

<sup>43</sup> LUB, Saml. Cederberg, Daniel (B:667), especially 1947, June 26 § 105, 1948, Feb. 16 § 253, Sept. 7 §§ 306, 309.

<sup>44</sup> LUB, Saml. Cederberg, Daniel (B:667), Zenta Svensson to Cederberg 1948, Oct. 29; 'Kyrkliga Polenhjälpen. Verksamhetsberättelse 1948−49', in *Lutherhjälpen* 1950, p. 166; 'Angreppen mot 'Kyrkliga Masurienhjälpen'. Akter och kommentarer.

<sup>45</sup> LUB, Saml. Cederberg, Daniel (B:667), Nov. 13 § 199 et passim.

was to be carried out by a Polish organization. This was a sudden change of attitude, but in line with the strong Polonization efforts.46

Towards the end of 1948, the funds of the Masurian Aid were handed over to the newly established Swedish Church Poland Aid. The work had to be changed from temporary emergency assistance to prolonged support.

# **Difficulties in Masuria during the Work**

As early as in October 1945, Bishop Szeruda perceived that collaboration between the Polish government and the Roman Catholic Church was marginalising the Evangelical Augsburgian Church. Lutherans were regarded as Germans, and the Catholics pressed many of them to convert. This, together with the pressure from the Polish authorities on the Masurians to register as Polish citizens, created a difficult situation. This continued, and still in the mid-1950s, local Masurians were called 'Germans' or even 'Hitlerists', reviving the negative attitude towards the settlers. Polish authorities later observed that Polish chauvinism was not a thing of the past, but widespread and growing because of the growth of pro-German options. The two chauvinisms increased each other.47

The Methodists were the first Protestants to undertake spiritual care in Masuria after the Second World War, in accordance with a Church conference in Olsztyn in mid-September 1945, where it was agreed that they should take care of the Lutherans during a time of need. The teaching should be given according to Luther's catechism, the liturgy should follow the traditions of the Evangelical Church, and pastors would wear the liturgical dress of the Prussian Union Church, but be subject to the Methodist superintendent. After the arrival of the Polish Lutheran pastors in autumn, 1945, the Methodists still stayed for a long time in Ełk and Ostróda. As late as in October 1948, Church Senior Friszke wrote about Methodist 'infiltration' in the Lutheran field in Masuria. A few years later, the Methodists were persecuted since their activities were

<sup>46</sup> LUB, Saml. Cederberg, Daniel (B:667), 'Rapport från Kyrkliga Masurienhjälpens verksamhet under november och december månader 1947'.

<sup>47</sup> Pjotr Madajczyk, 'Polen, die Vertriebenen und die in den Heimatgebieten verbliebenen Deutschen seit den fünfziger Jahren: Hilfen – Kontakte – Kontroversen', in Christoph Dahm & Hans-Jakob Tebarth (eds), *Die Bundesrepublik Deutschland und die Vertriebenen: Fünfzig Jahre Eingliederung, Aufbau und Verständigung mit den Staaten des östlichen Europa*, Bonn 2000, pp. 101−117.

assessed as harmful because of their competition with the re-Polonizing EAC, and because of their relations with the American Methodists.48

The settlers ('Ansiedler') constituted another difficulty. The inhabitants of Eastern Poland, taken over by the Soviet Union, had lost almost everything, and were forced to move westwards, many of them to Masuria. Since they were zealous Catholics and regarded the Masurians as Germans, many of them turned to the Evangelical villages to take over houses and lands. When an old Masurian tailor returned home after staying with his brother in Olsztyn over Christmas, he had no home. His house had been occupied by refugees from the East, who forced him out of his former home.49 One of the Swedish pastors reported in winter 1947 about nightly thefts of the few cows and horses left, and described how the Masurians had been plundered first by the Russians and then by the settlers. He even spoke about a 'Catholic terror' and hatred towards Evangelical Christians.50 Still worse were the relations between the Central Poles and the Masurians, who showed more understanding for the Ukrainians and East Poles.51

Yet another problem was the accusations of foreign involvement in Polish affairs, because of the American connection to Clifford Nelson in Geneva, and American food and money being sent to Masuria. This was necessary both for the quick start and for the continuation of the aid, but most suspicious in the eyes of the Communists. Neither the Red Army nor Polish Communists are mentioned in the public Swedish reports. This was of course due to fear of interruptions and persecutions. To Daniel Cederberg, the combined attacks from Polish Roman Catholicism, Communism, Swedish cultural radicalism, and bureaucratic relief work (i.e. Europahjälpen) formed the worst resistance.52

Around 1947 the Provincial Public Security Office in Olsztyn started a broad operation of surveillance of foreign aid organizations. In April 1947, a Masurian

<sup>48</sup> Janusz Małłek, 'Kosciól Ewangelicko-Augsburski na Mazurach w Pierwszych latach po II Wojnie Swatowej', in *Opera selecta. Reformacja i protestantyzm w Polsce i Pruscah (XVI–XX w.)*. Torun 2012; Ryszard Michalak, 'The Methodist Church in Poland in reality of liquidation policy. Operation 'Moda' (1949*–*1955)', in *Przegląd Narodowościowy / Review of Nationalities* 8/2018, p. 200.

<sup>49</sup> Viktor Almgren, 'Några rader från verksamheten i Masurien', in *Kyrkor under Korset* 1947, pp. 25 f.

<sup>50</sup> LUB, Saml. Cederberg, Daniel (B:667), Viktor Almgren to Daniel Cederberg 1947 Jan. 1.

<sup>51</sup> Kossert 2001, p. 320.

<sup>52</sup> Ryman 1997, pp. 36 f.

woman from Mikołajki who worked for the mission was recruited under the alias 'Swede'. She made friends with the Swedish deaconesses and provided a variety of information on the activities of Swedish guests, the Masurian community, Pastor Władysław Pilch, as well as other religious groups, such as the Mormon community in Zełwągi. Unfortunately, Pastor Almgren, who was a keen photographer, had taken a picture of the church in Baranowo, where the parsonage had been turned into a Civic Militia station. On 29 October 1948, Miss Zenta Svensson wrote to Daniel Cederberg that he should be extremely careful with what he wrote to her, since she thought that her post was being opened. There were even efforts to seize her as a spy, efforts that later were directed against Cederberg himself.53

# **The Spirituality of the Masurian Evangelical Christians**

The Swedish relief workers made some accurate observations on the liturgy and spirituality in Masuria. In the Eucharist service, the communicants came forward to the choir and knelt during their confession, after the sermon. The singing of hymns was especially moving. One report says: 'It was a cry from the depth of a suffering people's heart.' A Polish pastor together with his Swedish colleague could conduct the liturgy: the gospel and the creed were read in Swedish and in Polish. The Swedish pastor preached, interpreted to Polish. The congregation sang the hymn 'So nimm denn meine Hände' in German. It sounded like the roar of rushing waters. Masurians were found to preserve a layman's religion, and the Church elders in the villages really knew what Lutheranism was about. They were proud of their faith. The old Lutheran family devotions were common in the Masurian homes.54

After taking part in a Church service, Clifford Nelson wrote:

Every person could say with Job: 'The Lord took.' Yes, what did the Lord not take away from them? It cannot be described. Everything, everything had been lost. And yet, they could continue with Job, saying, 'The Lord gave; Blessed be the Name of the Lord!' We were torn by tears when we were told about the goodness and grace of the Lord. How often did we not hear one after another say: 'The Lord has kept me so wonderful'? And that was no phrase, but reality. The Lord is their part, their only part. But He is also the good part.55

<sup>53</sup> LUB, Saml. Cederberg, Daniel (B:667), Zenta Svensson to Cederberg 1948 Oct. 29.

<sup>54</sup> Allan Lind, 'I kyrkans gärning bland masurerna', in *Kyrkor under Korset* 1946, p. 193; Kjell Hagberg, 'Bland masuriska bröder', in *Kyrkor under Korset* 1947, p. 29.

<sup>55</sup> Clifford Ansgar Nelson, 'Ett besök i Masurien', in *Kyrkor under Korset* 1946, p. 139.

Many Masurians spoke in few words, in contrast to the flowing tongue of the Poles from the East. The Masurians lacked the light mind of the Polish, but they had the reverence for holiness in common, in contrast to the prosaic Germans. To the Masurian, as to the Pole, mysticism was important in religion. His reverence for the Church and the sacraments had something in common with the Roman Catholic's, but simultaneously their Lutheran faith in the vocation or calling was deeply rooted. They were uncommonly faithful to Lutheranism, while their piety showed some Catholic features.56

Some Masurians said about the Third Reich, that its fate was God's just judgement over human arrogance and a people that had turned away from God.57

In Pasym, one of the Swedish pastors took part in a very special solemnity. After a confirmation, the clergymen visited a small burial place far away in the woods, where eight Masurian women had buried their husbands on the spot where they had been shot. Now they wanted the place to be consecrated. When this was realized, after a speech by Pastor Otto Wittenberg from Pasym, the widows received Holy Communion on the graves of their husbands.58 Perhaps this was another example of a popular Lutheran inculturation of a sort of Catholic piety in an oppressed situation, where Catholics and Poles were being identified.

There are other European border regions, such as Slesvig or Alsace, where language, politics, and culture have been confronted or combined. In Silesia or Memelland (Klaipeda) the religious differences were also important. However, in Masuria, the construction of religious, political, cultural, and ethnic identities was more intricate than perhaps anywhere else in Northern Europe. In this, the watchword 'Poland is Catholic, and a Pole is a Catholic' played an important part.

#### **Sources**

#### **Periodicals**

*Germania*, 8.11.1916.

<sup>56</sup> Almgren 1947, p. 156 f.

<sup>57</sup> Almgren 1947, p. 157.

<sup>58</sup> Hedvig Larsson, 'En Masurienprästs arbetsdag', in *Kyrkor under Korset* 1947, p. 216.

## **Electronic Sources**

'German regions Prussia World War II', histclo.com, retrieved 14 August 2018. 'Masuria', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masuria, retrieved 29 January, 2020.

### **Unpublished Sources**

Lund University Library Saml. Cederberg, Daniel (B:667)

# **Published Sources**


# Dennis Meyhoff Brink

# **'Religion's safe, with Priestcraft is the War': Satirical Subversion of Clerical Authority in Western Europe 1650−1850**

**Abstract** Given the extraordinary dissemination of anticlerical satire in Europe, this chapter asks whether it may have had a formative influence on modern Europeans views of authorities, selves, values and rights. Has the long tradition of mockery of the church helped shape modern Europe? By examining some of the new ways in which the anticlerical satire of the enlightenment contested clerical authority, it is suggested that it paved the way for enlightenment in the Kantian sense, that is, as man's emergence from his selfincurred tutelage.

# **Introduction**

Europe has, by all accounts, had the most comprehensive tradition of anticlerical satire in the world. Already in the twelfth century, hundreds of anonymous anticlerical satires circulated in Spain, Italy, France, Germany, England, and many other European countries.1 By satirizing various kinds of clerical authorities, including the pope and the cardinals, the anonymous satirists of the twelfth century initiated a tradition that would last for centuries and become more widespread and common in Europe than anywhere else.

In the sixteenth century, anticlerical satire had its first great boom in Europe when the spread of the printing press and the outbreak of the Reformation turned a hitherto relatively insignificant tradition into a veritable mass phenomenon.2 While print culture evolved much later in other parts of the world, European printers published literary works and illustrated pamphlets and

<sup>1</sup> Rodney M. Thomson, 'The Origins of Latin Satire in Twelfth Century Europe', in *Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch* 13 (1978), pp. 73−83; Laura Kendrick, 'Medieval Satire', in Ruben Quintero (ed.), *A Companion to Satire: Ancient and Modern*, Oxford 2007, pp. 52−69.

<sup>2</sup> Robert Scribner, *Popular Culture and Popular Movements in Reformation Germany*, London 1987, pp. 71−102, 277−299.

broadsheets of anticlerical satire by the thousands already in the sixteenth century.3 This tradition of mass-produced and extensively disseminated anticlerical satire increased over the following centuries and culminated in the nineteenth century, when the invention of the rotary press, the decline in prices of printed material, and the spread of reading abilities, newspapers, and satire magazines made it almost impossible for Europeans who lived in major cities to avoid being exposed to the abundance of anticlerical images and narratives that circulated in society.

Given the extraordinary production and dissemination of anticlerical satire in Europe, it seems reasonable to ask whether this may have had a formative influence on modern European individuals and societies. Has the fact that European satirists have ridiculed priests and popes for centuries affected the way modern Europeans view and relate to clerical (and non-clerical) authorities? Has the continuous circulation of anticlerical satire in Europe had an impact on our conceptions of ourselves? Has the increasingly ubiquitous mockery and scorn of the church influenced our modern European values or our notion of political rights?

In an attempt to answer these questions, I will argue that the lasting impact of anticlerical satire on modern Europe began in the early Enlightenment with the emergence of a new kind of anticlerical satire that left its target undefined, which meant that it could be understood as an attack on the entire clergy (section I). After the spread of this method of indefiniteness, clerical leaders began to fear anticlerical satire to such a degree that even traditional satirical attacks on well-defined religious rivals were increasingly perceived as threats to the Christian church and religion as such (section II). Nonetheless, anticlerical satire became more and more widespread throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, increasingly contesting the fundamental Christian role allocation between the clergy and the laity viewed as shepherds and sheep (section III). By continuously questioning this role allocation and encouraging the members of the laity to step out of their acquired roles as subservient sheep, anticlerical satire contributed, I will argue, to the process of enlightenment in the Kantian sense, that is, as man's emergence from his self-incurred tutelage (section IV).

<sup>3</sup> Lucien Febvre & Henry-Jean Martin, *L'apparition du livre*, Paris 1999 [1958], pp. 349−350, 381−382, 402−406; J.L. van Zanden, *The Long Road to the Industrial Revolution: The European Economy in a Global Perspective, 1000−1800*, Leiden & Boston 2009, pp. 179−180, 187−190.

#### **I. The Method of Indefiniteness**

When anticlerical satire became a mass phenomenon in the sixteenth century, the satirical attacks were almost always directed against *specific* and *identifiable* authorities or groups such as, for instance, the Roman curia, the abbots and monks, the Lutherans, or the Calvinists. To the audience of the satires of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation there was hardly ever any doubt about which side of the conflict a given satire was meant to support.4

Almost all the satirical broadsheets and pamphlets that flooded Europe in the sixteenth and early seventeenth century were either clearly anti-Catholic or clearly anti-Protestant. Thus, when a satirical broadsheet from the middle of the sixteenth century purported to depict 'The Origin of the Monks' (Figure 1), it was clear to everyone that it was anti-Catholic.5 It depicted Pluto, the ruler of the underworld in classical mythology, sitting on a scaffold relieving himself by excreting a vast pile of monks onto the ground. According to the accompanying verses, the ruler of the underworld once suffered severe abdominal pains 'as if he were pregnant,' and when he was finally able to relieve himself and observe the result, he noticed that the monks were even worse than him; should they gather in his kingdom, he would be expelled himself, and he therefore saw to it that they were scattered throughout the world. By depicting the monks, a distinctively *Catholic* kind of clergy, as the excrement of a devil that had been spread throughout the world like a kind of hellish slurry, it was obvious that the satire was profoundly anti-Catholic.

On the other hand, when a satirical broadsheet from the 1620s showed Martin Luther with a massive drinking cup in his hand and a belly of such gigantic proportions he had to carry it in a barrow (Figure 2), there could be no doubt that the satire was profoundly anti-Protestant.6 Not only was Luther portrayed as a drunkard susceptible to the deadly sin of gluttony; the presence of his wife, the runaway nun Katharina von Bora, carrying one of their six children, may also suggest that he was susceptible to the deadly sin of lust. Perhaps the satire might even suggest that the entire Reformation was really instigated to satisfy this kind of vulgar and sinful inclinations. In any case, it was

<sup>4</sup> Robert Scribner, *For the sake of simple folk: Popular propaganda for the German Reformation*, Oxford & New York 1994, pp. xxii−xxiii, 5−6.

<sup>5</sup> Wolfgang Harms & Cornelia Kemp (eds), *Deutsche illustrierte Flugblätter des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts*. Vol. 4, Tübingen 1987, pp. 86−87.

<sup>6</sup> Wolfgang Harms, Michael Schelling & Andreas Wang (eds), *Deutsche illustrierte Flugblätter des 16. und 17. Jahrhundert*s. Vol. 2, Tübingen 1980, pp. 298−299.

**Fig. 1:** Anonymous anti-Catholic satire depicting 'The Origin of the Monks' (ca. 1545).

unmistakable that the satire was anti-Protestant. Thus, it was virtually always clear who the many illustrated broadsheets and pamphlets of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation were meant to satirize.

Even the more complex literary satires of contemporary humanist authors such as Erasmus of Rotterdam and François Rabelais generally ridiculed beliefs associated with Catholicism; and although some passages in their works, especially in Rabelais' *Gargantua and Pantagruel*, can be interpreted as ridiculing Protestant beliefs, the main trend of the age was surely to ridicule the beliefs of one confession while committing to the other. Neither among the audience of the popular illustrated broadsheet and pamphlets of the period nor among the audience of literary satires by, for instance, Thomas Murner or Johann Fischart was there any real doubt about whose side the satirists were on.

This situation changed dramatically about halfway into the seventeenth century. After the peace of Westphalia put an end to the Thirty Years' War in 1648,

**Fig. 2:** Anonymous anti-Protestant satire depicting Martin Luther carrying his gigantic belly in a barrow. No title (c. 1620−1630).

the confessional conflicts between Protestants and Catholics gradually receded into the background. As intellectual historian Jonathan Israel has put it:

Whereas before 1650 practically everyone disputed and wrote about confessional differences, subsequently, by the 1680s, it began to be noted by French, German, Dutch, and English writers that confessional conflict, previously at the centre, was increasingly receding to secondary status and that the main issue now was the escalating contest between faith and incredulity.7

As a consequence of this general shift, it became increasingly rare to publish satirical works that attacked an unequivocally defined Protestant or Catholic camp. Instead, a more ambiguous kind of anticlerical satire began to circulate in numerous European countries. In this new kind of anticlerical satire, it was often not clear whether the target under attack was this or that *particular* clerical group or the clergy *as such*. The actual target of the anticlerical satires of the early Enlightenment was frustratingly often open to interpretation, and, as

<sup>7</sup> Jonathan Israel, *Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity 1650−1750*, Oxford & New York 2001, p. 4.

a consequence, the satirists were increasingly accused of attacking the entire Christian church or even the Christian religion in general.

The French playwright Molière was among the first to adopt what I will call the method of indefiniteness. In his satirical comedy, *Tartuffe*, which was performed for the first time in 1664 in front of a small audience at Versailles, Molière ridiculed a religious hypocrite by the name of Tartuffe *without* making it clear whether he was a Catholic, a Protestant, a Jesuit, a Jansenist or something else. In Molière's play, Tartuffe was simply described as a man who tried to pass himself off as a true devout in order to fool a credulous man named Orgon, steal his property, and seduce his wife. Still, Tartuffe was not entirely indefinite. Because Orgon regards him as his spiritual director and religious guide, thereby bestowing the traditional pastoral role of the shepherd of a flock on him, it was practically impossible not to associate him with some kind of clergy. However, it remained fundamentally uncertain whether he was to be associated with this or that clerical group. As the literary historian Andrew Calder has put it, Molière's method was 'to portray a set of follies and vices and leave his audiences to decide who might be guilty of them. If the cap fits, wear it.'8

By omitting to specify who the cap was made for, *all* clerics could potentially regard it as made for them. And as this method of indefiniteness became increasingly widespread among the satirists of the early Enlightenment, anticlerical satire – which had been a popular weapon among both Protestant and Catholics clerics during the Reformation and Counter-Reformation – suddenly became exceedingly unpopular among clerics of all kinds. In the second half of the seventeenth century, Protestant and Catholic clergymen suddenly agreed that anticlerical satire was not only a threat to the church but also to the faith, to morality, and to the social order.9

This radical change in the prevailing ecclesiastical attitude toward satire was intertwined with a general rise of skeptical attitudes toward church and religion in the early Enlightenment. While it had been safe, in the age of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, to assume that an *anti*-Catholic satire was *pro*-Protestant and vice versa, this was no longer certain in the early Enlightenment. Now, the satirist might also belong to, or at least be inspired by, the growing host of libertines, freethinkers, deists, and other half or closet

<sup>8</sup> Andrew Calder, *Molière: The Theory and Practice of Comedy*, London 1993, p. 161.

<sup>9</sup> For examples see Ashley Marshall, *The Practice of Satire in England 1658−1770*, Baltimore 2013, pp. 44−48.

atheists, who began to make their voices heard in public. In this new cultural context, ecclesiastical suspicion toward satire grew immensely. Even satirists who, according to themselves, only exposed the hypocrisy or superstition that everyone agreed existed in clerical circles now regularly had to defend themselves against accusations of undermining the church or the religion as such.

Molière also had to defend himself against this kind of accusations. Less than a week after the first performance of *Tartuffe* in May 1664, King Louis XIV imposed a ban on his comedy after pressure from clerical circles, not least from the archbishop of Paris, Hardouin de Péréfixe.10 In August 1664, the Parisian priest Pierre Roullé even issued a pamphlet in which he described Molière as 'the most pronounced disbeliever and libertine that ever existed' and accused him of having written 'a play that derides the whole Church' and 'seeks to bring down the Catholic religion by condemning and mocking its most religious and holy practice which is the guidance and directions of souls,' the traditional role of the pastor as shepherd of a flock. According to Roullé, Molière deserved to be 'executed publicly' for his play about Tartuffe, more specifically, to be 'burned' at the stake 'before burning in the fires of hell.'11 Although this proposal was surely fanatical, it was not a completely idle threat as the satirical author Claude Le Petit had been burned for blasphemy in Paris as recently as September 1662.12

In his defense, Molière argued that he had only exposed a hypocritical impostor who abused religion for personal gain. According to Molière, the play was therefore in accordance with the moral purpose of *all* comedy, which was to 'correct men while entertaining them.'13 Nevertheless, Molière's petition to the king was in vain. Louis XIV maintained the ban, and Molière had to rewrite his comedy. On 5 August 1667, a revised version called *l'Imposteur* was

<sup>10</sup> Julia Prest, *Controversy in French Drama: Molière's Tartuffe and the Struggle for Influence*, New York 2014, pp. 141−143.

<sup>11</sup> Pierre Roullé, *Le roy glorieux au monde*, Paul Lacroix (ed.), Geneva 1867 [1664], pp. 33−35. All quotes are from the following passage: 'Un homme [...] le plus signalé impie et libertin qui fust jamais dans les siècles passes, avoit eu assez d'impiété et d'abomination pour fair [sic] sortir […] une pièce […] à la derision de toute l'Eglise [...]. Il méritoit, par cet attentat sacrilége [sic] et impie, un dernier supplice exemplaire et public, et le fust mesme avant-coureur de celuy de l'Enfer, pour expier un crime si grief de lèze-Majesté divine, qui va à ruiner la religion catholique, en blasmant et jouant sa plus religieuse et sainte pratique, qui est la conduite et direction des âmes'.

<sup>12</sup> Prest 2014, p. 152.

<sup>13</sup> Molière, *Œuvres complètes*. Vol 2. Georges Forestier & Claude Bourqui (eds), Paris 2010, p. 191.

then performed in Palais-Royal in Paris, but already on the following day this version was banned as well. Six days later, on 11 August 1667, the archbishop of Paris, Hardouin de Péréfixe, issued an *Ordonnance* to be posted on the walls of Paris and read from its pulpits. It was the first official ecclesiastical condemnation of Molière's play, and it declared that whoever performed, read, or heard Molière's play would be excommunicated.14 According to the archbishop, such draconian measures were necessary because Molière had written

a very dangerous play that is all the more likely to cause harm to religion owing to the fact that, while claiming to condemn hypocrisy, or false devotion, the play provides grounds to accuse indiscriminately all those who profess the most steadfast piety and thereby exposes them to the continual mockery and slander of the libertines.15

Not unlike Roullé, Péréfixe argued that Molière's play did not only expose the hypocrites to 'mockery and slander' but also 'all those' good people 'who profess the most steadfast piety.' Even if Molière only intended to attack hypocrisy, which Péréfixe seems to doubt, his attack was likely to ramify into an attack upon the clergy as such. Whatever the intention, the satirical attack could neither be controlled nor contained. As the literary critic Northrop Frye would argue many years later, 'any really devout person would surely welcome a satirist who cauterized hypocrisy and superstition as an ally of true religion. Yet once a hypocrite who sounds exactly like a good man is sufficiently blackened, the good man also may begin to seem a little dingier than he was.'16 Péréfixe seems to have had a similar thought, namely that a well-executed satirical attack on a *faux devot* was likely to affect *all* devout persons, which was why Molière's play was 'very dangerous.'

In spite of ecclesiastical fear of, and hostility toward, his comedy, Molière did not give up, and in 1669, after another rewriting of the play, he finally obtained the king's permission to perform and publish *Tartuffe ou l'imposteur* as the play was now called. When Louis XIV finally lifted his five-year-old ban, the play became an immediate success. Theaters in Paris were filled to the brim, and within a year *Tartuffe* was translated into English and performed in theaters

<sup>14</sup> Molière 2010, p. 1169.

<sup>15</sup> Molière 2010, p. 1168: 'une Comédie très dangereuse et qui est d'autant plus capable de nuire à la Religion, que sous prétexte de condamner l'hypocrisie, ou la fausse dévotion, elle donne lieu d'en accuser indifféremment tous ceux qui font profession de la plus solide piété, et les expose par ce moyen aux railleries et aux calomnies continuelles des Libertins.'

<sup>16</sup> Northrop Frye, *Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays*, Princeton 2000 [1957], p. 232.

in London.17 In fact, the story about the impostor called Tartuffe soon became so well-known and so talked-about that Tartuffe's name turned into a *concept*. Thus, the *Dictionnaire de l'Académie française* from 1694 describes 'Tartufe' as 'a newly introduced word referring to a person who pretends to be devout, a hypocrite.'18 Similarly, the *Oxford English Dictionary* informs us that English writers referred to clergymen as 'Tartuffs' and used the concept of 'Tartuffism' as early as in 1688.19 In the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Europeans often spoke of tartuffism, and on the brink of the twentieth century German Molière-readers such as Friedrich Nietzsche and Victor Klemperer would still use the concept of 'Tartüfferie.'20

The fact that the name of Molière's main character turned into a concept in several European languages not only indicates how widespread the story of Tartuffe became, it also shows how deep an impression it made on the European imagination. As soon as one had read or seen *Tartuffe ou l'imposteur* it was almost impossible not to associate allegedly pious men, and not least the men of the church, with tartuffism. As the story about Tartuffe became known all over Europe, it is therefore likely to have spread a more skeptical or even suspicious view of clerical authorities. Whatever Molière's *intention* may have been, the *effect* of his play about the imposter Tartuffe may very well have been a general weakening of the trustworthiness and authority of the clergy and therefore also a weakening of the power of the church. In other words, the archbishop of Paris may not have been entirely mistaken when he claimed that Molière's play was likely to cause harm – not only to the *faux devots* but also to the Christian church and religion as such.

<sup>17</sup> Nöel Peacock, 'Molière nationalized: Tartuffe on the British stage from the Restoration to the present day', in David Bradby & Andrew Calder (eds), *The Cambridge Companion to Molière*, Cambridge 2006, pp. 177−179.

<sup>18</sup> *Le dictionnaire de l'Académie française, dédié au Roy*. Vve J.B. Coignard & J.B Coignard (eds), Vol. 2. Paris 1694, p. 531: 'Tartufe: Mot nouvellement introduit, pour dire, Un faux devot, un hypocrite'.

<sup>19</sup> *Oxford English Dictionary Online*. Oxford University Press, viewed 5 November 2018, <http://www.oed.com>.

<sup>20</sup> Friedrich Nietzsche, *Jenseits von Gut und Böse*, in Giorgio Colli & Mazzino Montinari (eds), *Sämtliche Werke. Kritische Studienausgabe*. Vol. 5, Berlin & New York 1999 [1886], pp. 19, 41, 192; Victor Klemperer, *Die Vorgänger Friedrich Spielhagens*, Weimar 1913, p. 22.

# **II. The Functional Transformation of Anticlerical Satire in the Early Enlightenment**

To many clergymen of the second half of the seventeenth century, it seemed as if anticlerical satire had acquired a kind of rub-off effect which meant that whenever a member of a clerical group was blackened by satire it would rub off on *all* members of *all* clerical groups. Within a few decades, the fear of this kind of uncontainable blackening through satire grew so strong that members of *one* clerical group could no longer freely satirize members of *another* – a practice that had been common and appreciated for centuries. By 1700, however, even satirists employing the traditional praxis of mocking rival churches could reasonably expect being accused of blackening the clerisy as such.

This was indeed what happened to the anonymous author who published a satire called *A Tale of a Tub* in 1704. Unlike Molière, this anonymous author, who later turned out to be Jonathan Swift, ridiculed *definite* and *identifiable* clerical groups, first and foremost the Roman Catholics and the English Dissenters. As Swift was also an ordained priest in the Anglican Church of Ireland, his satire was in fact an attack by a member of *one* clerical group on members of *other* clerical groups. Nevertheless, Swift was immediately accused of blackening the entire clergy and even of weakening the power of the Christian faith. According to the prominent critic and theologian William Wotton, who responded when it was still unknown who had written *A Tale of a Tub*, the satire was 'one of the Prophanest [sic] Banters upon the Religion of *Jesus Christ*, as such, that ever yet appeared.'21 Wotton was convinced that the satire would not only affect the Roman Catholics and the Protestant Dissenters but also the Anglican Church and the Christian faith, possibly even the faith of the author himself:

I abhor making Sport with any way of worshipping God, and he that diverts himself too much at the Expense of the *Roman Catholics* and the *Protestant Dissenters*, may lose his own Religion e're he is aware of it, at least the Power of it in his Heart […]. I would not so shoot at an Enemy, as to hurt my self [sic] at the same time.22

When the author of *A Tale of a Tub* was 'making Sport' with the Catholics and the Dissenters it might seem harmless, but according to Wotton it was likely to make the author and presumably also his readers lose their religion. In other

<sup>21</sup> William Wotton, *A Defense of the Reflections upon Ancient and Modern Learning, In Answer to the Objections of Sir. W. Temple, and Others, With Observations upon A Tale of a Tub*, London 1705, p. 62.

<sup>22</sup> Wotton 1705, pp. 51, 57.

words, it was not only the boundary between satire on rival churches and satire on the Anglican Church that was porous, so was the boundary between anticlericalism and atheism. Once a satirist had entered the slippery slope of anticlerical satire, he and probably also many of his readers were already on their way into the arms of atheism. In a similar vein, the prominent philosopher and Anglican clergyman Samuel Clarke argued that irreverent 'Deists' such as the author of the 'impious and profane' *Tale of a Tub* were virtually en route to atheism: 'As their Opinions can terminate consistently in nothing but *downright Atheism*; so their *Practice and Behaviour* is exactly agreeable to that of the most openly professed *Atheists*.'23

Although Wotton surely agreed with Clarke on this point, he also pointed out that anticlerical satire had not always been like a slippery slope ending in atheism. In the age of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, when there was no real risk that people would lose their religion, clergymen had rightfully perceived satirical attacks on rival churches as beneficial to their own cause. In the present age, however, when there *was* a real risk that people might lose their religion, which was evident from the emergence of freethinkers, deists and the like, a satire such as *A Tale of a Tub* was likely to contribute to the already ongoing subversion of the Christian faith, even if it was only attacking Catholics and Dissenters. As Wotton put it:

[T]ho' the Rage and Spight [sic] with which Men treated one another was as keen and as picquant [sic] then [i.e. at the beginning of the Reformation] as it is now, yet the Inclination of Mankind was not then irreligious, and so their Writings had little other effect but to encrease [sic] Men's hatred against any one particular Sect, whilst Christianity, as such, was not hereby at all undermined.24

Despite his universal condemnation of *A Tale of a Tub*, Wotton did not regard the satire as any worse than the anticlerical satires that flooded Europe in the wake of the Reformation. According to him, the 'Rage and Spight' of anticlerical satire had not changed substantially since then. What *had* changed and worsened, according to Wotton, was the cultural context in which they appeared. For in the age of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation 'the Inclination of Mankind' had not been 'irreligious,' but in the present age it was, and as a consequence, the *function* of anticlerical satire had changed fundamentally even if its *substance* remained the same. In an age where libertinism, freethinking,

<sup>23</sup> Samuel Clarke, *A Discourse Concerning the Unchangeable Obligations of Natural Religion, and the Truth and Certainty of the Christian Revelation*, London 1706, p. 28.

<sup>24</sup> Wotton 1705, p. 62.

deism, and other kinds of closet atheism were on the rise, a satire like *A Tale of a Tub* would no longer just increase 'Men's hatred against any one particular Sect' but help undermine 'Christianity, as such.' Now, even so-called conservative satires ridiculing only those clerics who deviate from the established norms obtained a deeply 'subversive' function because they inevitably contributed to the ongoing subversion of the Christian church and faith.25

Within a decade after the publication of *A Tale a Tub*, a whole host of critics – not only William Wotton and Samuel Clarke but also William King, Charles Gildon, John Dennis, Richard Blackmore and many more – argued that the author of *A Tale of a Tub* made *all* kinds of religious practices and beliefs fall under the suspicion that they were merely part of a ruse perpetrated through the centuries by greedy, self-important, power-hungry priests. The author thus seemed to employ the same strategy as contemporary freethinkers and deists such as John Toland, Matthew Tindal, John Asgill, and Anthony Collins. They too claimed to spare religion while attacking the clergy for having fooled credulous believers for centuries. As Toland put only four years before the publication of *A Tale of a Tub*: 'Religion's safe, with Priestcraft is the War.'26

The deist war on 'priestcraft' – a term they used to refer to priestly craftiness and cunning – was, however, universally denounced as a covert attack on religion itself. In 1683 a whole collection of deist tracts was burned at Oxford in the last great *auto-da-fé* in England, and in 1696 Toland's deist treatise *Christianity not Mysterious* was burned by both the English and Irish Parliaments, while orders were issued for his prosecution as a 'public and inveterate enemy to all reveal'd religion.'27 With such events in recent memory, Swift was put in something of a bind when Clarke classified him as a 'Deist' and Wotton claimed he 'copie[d] from Mr. *Toland.*' 28 And it only worsened his situation that 'Divinities & University-Men' soon began to group 'the Author of ye *Tale of a Tub*' with 'Toland, Tindal, Asgil' as the correspondence of the Third Earl of Shaftesbury

<sup>25</sup> Scholars of satire often distinguish between 'conservative' and 'subversive' functions of satire. See, for example, Jonathan Greenberg, *Modernism, Satire, and the Novel*, Cambridge 2011, pp. 7−11.

<sup>26</sup> John Toland, *Clito: A Poem on the Force of Eloquence*, London 1700, p. 16.

<sup>27</sup> Quoted in John Toland, *A Collection of Several Pieces of Mr. John Toland, Now first publis'd from his Original Manuscripts: With some Memoirs of his Life and Writings*. Vol. 1, London 1726, p. xx. For the auto-da-fé in Oxford see Roger D. Lund, *Ridicule, Religion and the Politics of Wit in Augustan England*, New York 2016, p. 190. For the reactions to Toland see Israel 2001, p. 97.

<sup>28</sup> Clarke 1706, p. 28; Wotton 1705, p. 53.

reveals.29 What was Swift to do in this precarious situation? Should he come out as the author of *A Tale of a Tub* and try to defend himself? He was certainly eager to win renown as a satirist, but he risked losing all respectability (and all possibilities for employment) as a clergyman.

In the end Swift, like Molière, tried to defend himself. In 1710 he published an *Apology* in which he argued that he had only ridiculed what his critics already 'preach[ed] against,' namely 'the Follies of Fanaticism and Superstition' which he, in particular, associated with Catholic and Dissenting clerics.30 Furthermore, he argued that 'the Clergy's Resentments' would have been better employed on the 'heavy, illiterate Scriblers [sic]' spreading 'false, impious Assertions, mixed with unmannerly Reflections upon the Priesthood, and openly intended against all Religion,' that is, on the increasingly inescapable freethinkers and deists.31 In this way, Swift tried to convince his fellow Anglicans that they actually fought the same enemies, namely the Catholics and Dissenters on the one hand, and the freethinkers and deists on the other. Nevertheless, Swift's *Apology* did not produce a lot of converts. Although Clarke removed his reference to *A Tale of a Tub* in all future editions of his *Discourse Concerning the Unchangeable Obligations of Natural Religion*, it was undoubtedly an expression of a widely held opinion when John Dennis in 1712 continued to argue that *A Tale of a Tub* 'was writ with a Design to banter all Religion,' or when the Whiggish newspaper *The Britain* in a response to Anthony Collins' *Discourse of Free-Thinking* from 1713 declared that the only difference 'between the *Free Thinker* and the *Tale of a Tub* is, that the one would Reason us, and the other laugh us out of our Religion.'32

Numerous sources confirm that *A Tale of a Tub* soon became a *succès de scandale*, or as Roger D. Lund has put it: 'As the eighteenth century moved forward, Swift's presumed violation of the proscriptions against religious ridicule became the stuff of legend.'33 By 1710, it had been republished in five editions in

<sup>29</sup> Quoted in Hugh Ormsby-Lennon, *Hey Presto! Swift and the Quarks*, Newark 2011, p. 230.

<sup>30</sup> Jonathan Swift, A Tale of a Tub and Other Works, in Marcus Walsh (ed.), *The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Jonathan Swift*. Vol. 1, Cambridge 2010, p. 6.

<sup>31</sup> Swift 2010, p. 6.

<sup>32</sup> John Dennis, 'To the Examiner. Upon his wise Paper of the Tenth of January, 1712', in Edward Niles Hooker (ed.), *The Critical Works of John Dennis*. Vol 2, Baltimore 1964, p. 397. *The Britain* is quoted in Robert Phiddian, 'The Reaction to Anthony Collins's *A Discourse of Free-Thinking* "Not Politicks"?', *Swift Studies* 4 (1989), p. 72.

<sup>33</sup> Lund 2016, p. 173.

only six years and unleashed a major public debate involving prominent critics, clergymen, philosophers, and poets. In the subsequent decades it would give occasion to recurring debates as well as to several 'keys' to its understanding and 'additions' by other authors.34 In 1721 it was translated into French and denounced by numerous French critics but not by Voltaire who admired its 'impious raillery.'35 In 1734, the French translation of *A Tale of a Tub* was placed on the Papal *Index of Forbidden Books*, which, however, did not hinder it from reaching its thirteenth reprint by 1764.36 In Germany, a first translation was published in 1729 and reprinted four times before a second translation came out in 1758 and a third in 1787.37 Although there were also some German critics who deplored its anticlerical satire, it was generally better received than in England and France, and by 1744 the encyclopedist Johann Heinrich Zedler could note that Swift had become 'so well-known and popular […] that he is generally regarded as one of the greatest satirists.'38

As *A Tale of a Tub* became known all over Europe, it is likely to have inspired thousands of Europeans to be more suspicious toward clerical authorities. Once the readers of Swift's tale had learned to suspect Catholic and Dissenting clergymen of priestcraft, it was not clear why they should not suspect Anglican or other clergymen of the same. Did they not resemble one another in numerous

<sup>34</sup> Among the keys is Edmund Curll's *Complete Key to A Tale of a Tub* published in four editions between 1710 and 1724. Among the unauthorized additions to Swift's tale is *The History of Martin* published anonymously in 1720. See Swift 2010, pp. 231−252, 262−267.

<sup>35</sup> Voltaire, *Lettres a Son Altesse Monseigneur le Prince de \*\*\*\*. Sur Rabelais et sur d'autres auteurs accusés d'avoir mal parlé de la Religion Chrétienne*, Amsterdam [i.e. Généve], p. 55; For the critical reception in France see Wilhelm Graeber, 'Swift's First Voyage to Europe: His Impact on Eighteenth-Century France', in Hermann J. Real (ed.), *The Reception of Jonathan Swift in Europe*, London 2005, pp. 5−16.

<sup>36</sup> Sybil Goulding, *Swift en France*, Paris 1924, p. 38; Herman Teerink & Arthur Scouten, *A Bibliography of the Writings of Jonathan Swift*, Philadelphia 2016, pp. 179−182, 185−187.

<sup>37</sup> Teerink & Scouten 2016, pp. 152, 182−184.

<sup>38</sup> Johann Heinrich Zedler, *Grosses vollständiges Universal-Lexikon der Wissenschaften und Künste*. Vol. 41, Graz 1962 [1744], col. 519: 'Swift […] hat sich […] dermassen bekannt und beliebt gemacht, dass er insgemein für einen der stärksten Satyren-Schreiber gehalten wird.' For criticism of Swift on religious grounds in Germany see Astrid Krake, Hermann J. Real & Marie-Luise Spieckermann, 'The Dean's Voyages into Germany', in Hermann J. Real (ed.), *The Reception of Jonathan Swift in Europe*, London 2005, pp. 104−105.

ways, and did they not build on many of the same traditions? Once the mechanisms of suspicion were up and running, there did not seem to be any inherent or logical halt to them. In a sense, Swift himself had taught his readers to expand their field of suspicion. For while satirical predecessors like Molière had only suggested that there were certain imposters among the holy men of the *present* age, Swift had suggested that the Christian churches had been ruled by imposters *for centuries*. Following his example, it was but a small step to suspect priesthood as such of priestcraft. In other words, Swift's enemies may not have been entirely mistaken when they argued that the satirical attack of *A Tale of a Tub* would ramify into an attack on Christianity itself.

#### **III. Undermining the Christian Role Allocation between Shepherds and Sheep**

The erosion of clerical authority that began in the early Enlightenment continued and deepened throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. With the rise of the novel, the newspaper, and the satirical magazine, clerical authorities were repeatedly exposed as hypocritical, imposturous, superstitious, fanatical, avaricious, lecherous and so on. More and more satirists even ventured to contest the very *idea* of clerical authority, including the basic role allocation on which it is founded. This is, for example, what is at stake in the satirical print *Pull Devil, Pull Baker! or, Pastors versus Flocks in the Matter of Loaves & Fishes!!* (1819) by the English satirist George Cruikshank (Figure 3).

The immediate occasion for this satire was the London Clergy Bill, which augmented the stipends of clerical incumbents.39 Yet, the *imagery* of the satire reaches far beyond the immediate situation. It draws upon the old Christian tradition of regarding ordinary believers as 'sheep' in a flock in need of a 'shepherd' or 'pastor' to lead them to salvation ('pastor' is simply the Latin word for 'shepherd').

The history of this division of the Christians into a group of shepherds, that is, the clergy, and a group of sheep, that is, the laity, goes back to the Bible. In the Gospel of John, Jesus describes himself as 'the good shepherd' and before leaving earth he tells Peter to 'take care of my sheep', that is, to take over the pastorate by assuming the role of the shepherd of the flock.40 The church fathers

<sup>39</sup> Dorothy George, *Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires Preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum*, Vol. 9, London 1949, p. 896.

<sup>40</sup> John 10:11 and 21:16 NIV.

**Fig. 3:** George Cruikshank: Pull Devil, Pull Baker! or, Pastors versus Flocks, in the matter of loaves and fishes!! (1819)

combined these two narratives from the Gospel of John with a third narrative from the Gospel of Matthew in which Jesus says 'you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.'41 Combining these three narratives, church fathers like Augustine argued that Jesus had in fact handed over the role as the shepherd of the flock to the church.42 In the following centuries, the church therefore taught the Christianized Europeans to regard themselves as sheep in a flock in need of a shepherd, that is, of a pastor, to guide and lead them to salvation. As Michel Foucault has put it: 'Over millennia Western man has learned to see himself as a sheep among sheep […] Over millennia he has learned to ask for his salvation from a shepherd.'43

By means of church insignia such as the crosier or shepherd's staff, which was already in use in the early middle ages, clerical leaders reminded the churchgoers that Jesus himself had instated a certain difference among men, a kind of sacred hierarchy, which distinguished a small group of elect shepherds from

<sup>41</sup> Matt 16:18 NIV.

<sup>42</sup> Augustine. 'Sermo 149', in E. Giles (ed.), *Documents Illustrating Papal Authority*: London 1952, p. 175.

<sup>43</sup> Michel Foucault, *Sécurité, territoire, population. Cours au Collège de France 1977−78*, Paris 2004, p. 134: 'L'homme occidental a appris pendant des millénaires […] à se considérer comme une brebis parmi les brebis. Il a, pendant des millénaires, appris à demander son salut à un pasteur'.

the large group of ordinary sheep, or a small crowd of clerical leaders from a large flock of lay followers. In accordance with these divinely assigned roles, each party had to play their part. Being a good shepherd involved keeping the flock together, leading it to salvation, and, if needed, sacrificing oneself for each individual sheep.44 Being a good sheep, on the other hand, involved staying in the flock, following the directions of the shepherd, and being humble, submissive and obedient toward one's shepherd. The more one was able to internalize the markedly *Christian* virtues of 'humility,' 'submission,' and 'obedience' and make them one's own second nature, the better a sheep, that is, the better a Christian, would one be.45

Cruikshank's satirical print obviously draws on the old Christian narrative of shepherds and sheep. It both employs and contests the ordinary believers' image of themselves as sheep in a flock in need of a shepherd. On the one hand, they have internalized the Christian notion of them as sheep among sheep to such a degree that they have literally taken on the shape and form of sheep. On the other hand, they still have enough human nature in them to be capable of getting up on their two hind-legs (their two feet) to oppose the pastors on the right. By contrast, the pastors are exposed as treacherous hypocrites who do not behave as the good shepherds they claim to be. They are selfish rather than self-sacrificing, driven by greed and gluttony rather than care for their flock. Their bloated bodies and bulging pockets make plain that they have more than enough. They even stand in a river of 'Milk and Honey' while the sheep stand on dry land. Everything indicates that they already live in affluence, and yet they still try to pull a bag of loaves and fishes out of the hands of the sheep. However, to their great surprise, the sheep have stood up in protest, proving that they are still capable of breaking out of their acquired roles as humble, submissive, and obedient sheep.

In his own way, Cruikshank thus staged what Foucault would later call 'counter-conduct' and define as a 'struggle against the processes implemented for conducting others.'46 In Cruikshank's satire, the sheep similarly struggle against certain processes implemented for conducting, directing, leading, and manipulating them. On the one hand, they struggle against their internalized sheep-ness, their incorporated docility, their second nature. On the other hand,

<sup>44</sup> Foucault 2004, pp. 129−134.

<sup>45</sup> Foucault 2004, pp. 177−181: 'humilité', 'soumission', 'obéissance'.

<sup>46</sup> Foucault 2004, p. 205: 'ce que je vous proposerai, c'est le mot […] de "contre-conduite" […] au sens de lutte contre les procédés mis en œuvre pour conduire les autres'.

they struggle against the privileged pastors and their seemingly insatiable avarice. By staging this double struggle in which the sheep are doing quite well, Cruikshank does not just blacken the clergy in a traditional anticlerical manner; he also shows that the members of the laity have an enemy within, an internalized sheep-ness, a kind of naturalized meekness and manageability, which they have to overcome in order to get up and oppose the imposturous pastors. Most importantly, however, the satire suggests that it *is* indeed possible to overcome the inner adversary and oppose the outer. In this way, Cruikshank put a memorable and inspirational image of the possibility of resistance into circulation. In a sense, he impregnated the European imagination with a promising picture of the possibility of becoming a self-directed human being rather than a submissive sheep, a citizen rather than a subject.

Cruikshank's satire may not have opposed the role allocation between shepherds and sheep as such, but it certainly destabilized it. First of all, the sheep are no longer as humble, submissive, and obedient in Cruikshank's satire as the church has taught them to be. On the contrary, they are full of indignation and contempt for their pastors, and they even have the nerve to show it, and to censure their shepherds with Bible quotes such as: 'Woe unto you, Scribes & Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour Widows' houses, & for a pretence make long prayers therefor ye shall receive the greater damnation' (Matt. 23:14). The pastors, on the other hand, are evidently startled by the new attitude of the sheep, and one of them tellingly exclaims: 'Dash my wig! Who would have thought the sheep had so much pluck as to oppose us!!' Thus, the humility, submission, and obedience, which is supposed to be the kernel and heart of their sheep-nature, have given way to moral indignation and courage to oppose. In other words, the sheep-ness of the sheep is already eroding from within. And the traditional Christian virtues of humility, submission, and obedience are challenged, if not replaced, by more modern values such as liberty, independence, and self-determination.

Cruikshank was far from the only satirist to put images of popular resistance against the clergy into circulation in his time. In the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, struggles against clerical authorities became an increasingly prevalent theme in anticlerical satire. On the one hand, anticlerical satirists ridiculed the ordinary believers' tendency to behave like compliant sheep obeying every direction from their dubious shepherd. On the other hand, they invented a number of new inspirational heroes who, in spite of severe clerical resistance, managed to break out of their subjectivation as humble, submissive, and obedient sheep in need of a shepherd. This was a main theme in satirical novels such as Denis Diderot's *La religieuse* [The Nun], published posthumously in 1796, and Karl Gutzkow's *Wally, die Zweiflerin* [Wally, the Doubter], published as well as banned in 1835. It was also a main theme in an 1827 print by an unknown English satirist entitled *The Champion of Religious Liberty Contending With the Imps of Bigotry!!!* (Figure 4).

In this satirical print a young man in Roman armor fights Christian as well as Jewish and Muslim leaders. His obsolete uniform makes plain that he is only a soldier in a figurative sense, and the many mottos inscribed on his weapons and dress indicate that he fights with the means of the Enlightenment. Thus, his sword is 'Truth & Sound argument,' his shield is 'Common Sense and the Rights of Man,' his helmet is 'Reason,' his plume is 'Independence,' and so on. He has seemingly just hit a hideous woman, who looks like she came straight out of hell, and who is now lying on all fours. She has lost a mask of comely features and laments 'Oh! Hell & Furies! I Shall never Recover this Blow.' Behind her a fat parson reveals her identity by shouting 'Fire away! and give Superstition time to recover. For she seems badly wounded, I hope it's not mortal Or we are all done for.' The Protestant parson is referring to the other religious leaders in the image, including a Catholic friar exclaiming 'Our trade's at stake!!! Down with him Shackle him,' a Jewish high priest shouting 'Oh the Monster! Dispute the mission of Moses! away with him Crucify him,' and a turbaned figure, probably an Imam, who is riding through the air on a donkey, holding a sword in one hand and a book inscribed 'Coran' in the other while shouting 'Wretch I'll cut thee from the face of the Earth!' That these intimidating religious leaders are 'all done for' if 'Superstition' does not 'recover' seems to suggest that *all* organized religion really rest on superstition.

The viewer is unmistakably encouraged to sympathize with the courageous champion of the values of the Enlightenment. He is apparently not intimidated by the host of threats coming from the religious leaders, and the fact that he is about to be stabbed in the back by an alderman does not lessen his admirable bravery. On the contrary, it unveils that the despicable 'imps of bigotry,' mentioned in the title, do not even shy away from using foul play. Thus, they have apparently teamed up with a political leader who is also an enemy of religious liberty, the rights of man, common sense, independence, and all the other Enlightenment values represented by the young rebel in Roman armor. The fact that the political leader has 'A Special Good Dagger' may suggest that he is the only one who has the authority to ban things and jail people. According to Dorothy George, the satire is namely 'a defense of Robert Taylor,' a defrocked priest who was imprisoned for blasphemy in 1827, the chief prosecutor being

**Fig. 4:** Anonymous: The champion of religious liberty contending with the imps of bigotry!!!

the lord mayor of London, Anthony Browne, who, according to George, is probably the alderman stabbing the rebel in the back.47

Like Jonathan Swift, Robert Taylor was suspected of being an atheist priest. He had been ordained in 1813, but after reading books such as Thomas Paine's *Common Sense* and *The Rights of Man*, quoted on the soldier's shield, his sermons began to reveal deistic principles, and he was forced to give up his position in the Anglican church.48 In 1824, he became secretary and chaplain of a deist organization called *Christian Evidence Society*, where he gave sermons that were 'antichristian in substance and mockingly irreverent in tone' according to Joel Wiener.49 In 1827, he described Jesus as a 'Jewish Vampire,' which made Anthony Browne and a group of aldermen commence an action against him for blasphemy.50 This is probably the reason why the preacher in the

<sup>47</sup> Dorothy George, *Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires Preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum*, Vol. 11, London 1954, pp. 210−211.

<sup>48</sup> Leonard W. Levy, *Blasphemy: Verbal Offense against the Sacred, from Moses to Salman Rushdie*. Chapel Hill 1993, p. 396; Joel H. Wiener, *Radicalism and Freethought in Nineteenth Century Britain: The Life of Richard Carlile*. Westport, CT 1983, p. 130.

<sup>49</sup> Wiener 1983, p. 146.

<sup>50</sup> Wiener 1983, p. 146.

pulpit in the background of the satire declares that 'tis all Blasphemy' while his congregation repeats 'Yes its Blasphemy.'

Beyond this immediate context, however, the print also takes part in a larger cultural context. For it is also part of a growing tendency in the anticlerical satire of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, namely a tendency to stage admirable acts of counter-conduct and invent courageous heroes of opposition. Such enactments and inventions were almost always intended to inspire and encourage its audience. When anticlerical satirists depicted opponents of the clergy as fearless heroes fighting for their rights, it was also an attempt to make the audience take these heroes as models for their own conduct. In other words, the anticlerical satirists tried to make the European sheep dare to think independently and go their own ways.

### **IV. How Anticlerical Satire Contributed to the Process of Enlightenment**

In the course of the nineteenth century, anticlerical satires of this kind began to circulate by the thousands in the European public sphere. Hundreds of satirical magazines emerged in France, England, Germany, and many other countries, and the most popular ones would sell 40,000−50,000 copies a week and up to 250,000 on special occasions.51 In addition, satirical drawings were printed in newspapers, satirical plays were put up in theaters, satirical songs were sung in taverns, and satirical novels were read by an increasing number of literate Europeans. For a typical European living in a city, it was therefore almost impossible to avoid being confronted with anticlerical satire in some form or another. Everywhere, satirical images and narratives encouraged the Europeans to reject the old Christian virtues of humility, submission and obedience, and embrace the new values of the Enlightenment, not least the values of liberty, independence, and self-governance. In other words, an abundance of anticlerical satires urged the Europeans to step out of their internalized sheep-ness or their 'self-incurred tutelage' as Immanuel Kant had called it in his famous definition of the enlightenment from 1784:

*Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-incurred tutelage*. *Tutelage* is the inability to use one's own understanding without being led by another. This tutelage is *self-incurred* if its cause is not lack of understanding, but lack of resolution and

<sup>51</sup> Robert Goldstein, *Censorship of Political Caricature in Nineteenth-Century France*, Kent, OH, pp. 8−9.

courage to use it without being led by another. The motto of the Enlightenment is therefore: *Sapere aude*! Have courage to use your *own* understanding.52

With the double reference to 'courage' in his definition of enlightenment, Kant stressed that the process of enlightenment was not primarily inhibited by people's lack of understanding (in the sense of rationality or intellect) but by their lack of *courage* to use their understanding without being led by another – for example, by one of the pastors who, over millennia, had taught them that the only way to salvation was to be led by them and that rejecting their leadership was tantamount to damnation. By means of this doctrine, the church had, over millennia, *discouraged* the Europeans from using their own understanding. As a consequence, Kant could note at the end of the eighteenth century that most of his contemporaries did not dare to use their understanding without being led by another – and *especially* not in matters of religion.53 Due to this lack of courage to think for oneself and govern oneself that Kant did not regard his own age as 'an *enlightened* age' but only 'an age of *enlightenment.*' 54 According to him, enlightenment was indeed an ongoing process but it was also an uncompleted process since the majority of the population did not yet have the courage to think and act independently and thus to emerge from their self-incurred tutelage.

However, as we have seen, the anticlerical satire of Kant's time and especially of the century following his essay on enlightenment from 1784, aimed at mobilizing *exactly* the kind of courage, which, according to Kant, was necessary for the process of enlightenment to proceed and succeed. Taking the

<sup>52</sup> Immanuel Kant, 'Beantwortung der Frage: Was ist Aufklärung?' in Horst Brandt (ed.), *Was ist Aufklärung: Ausgewählte kleine Schriften*, Hamburg 1999 [1784], p. 20: 'Aufklärung ist der Ausgang des Menschen aus seiner selbstverschuldeten Unmündigkeit. Unmündigkeit ist das Unvermögen, sich seines Verstandes ohne Leitung eines anderen zu bedienen. Selbstverschuldet ist diese Unmündigkeit, wenn die Ursache derselben nicht am Mangel des Verstandes, sondern der Entschließung und des Mutes liegt, sich seiner ohne Leitung eines anderen zu bedienen. Sapere aude! Habe Mut, dich deines eigenen Verstandes zu bedienen! ist also der Wahlspruch der Aufklärung.'

<sup>53</sup> Kant 1999, p. 26: 'Dass die Menschen, wie die Sachen jetzt stehen, im ganzen genommen, schon imstande wären oder darin auch nur gesetzt werden könnten, in Religionsdingen sich ihres eigenen Verstandes ohne Leitung eines anderes sicher und gut zu bedienen, daran fehlt noch sehr viel.'

<sup>54</sup> Kant 1999, p. 26: 'Wenn denn nun gefragt wird: Leben wir jetzt in einem *aufgeklärten* Zeitalter? so ist die Antwort: Nein, aber wohl in einem Zeitalter der *Aufklärung*.'

extraordinary circulation of anticlerical satire in modern Europe into account, it is therefore not unlikely that it contributed quite significantly to the process of enlightenment in Europe in the Kantian sense. When works of anticlerical satire became virtually omnipresent during the nineteenth century, and when an increasing number of them purported that it was possible to break out of the role as a compliant Christian sheep, it could hardly avoid inspiring some of them to emerge from their internalized sheep-ness, or, as Kant would say, from their self-incurred tutelage.

If the pastoral power of the Christian church has shaped the Europeans over millennia, as Foucault has claimed, then one might argue that the anticlerical satire of modern Europe has *reshaped* the very same Europeans. On the one hand, it has contributed to a gradual devaluation of traditional Christian virtues such as humility, submission, and obedience toward authorities. On the other hand, it has helped embolden Europeans to make use of their own understanding and to demand a higher degree of independence and self-determination. Admittedly, the impact of a single satire, even of a highly influential satire like Molière's *Tartuffe*, may have been as weak as a drop of water on a stone, but when one drop after another has fallen on the same stone for centuries there will eventually be a hole in it. In a similar manner, the extraordinary amount of works of anticlerical satire that flooded Europe, especially in the nineteenth century, was probably a decisive factor in its cultural impact.

Contrary to the prevailing notion of the Enlightenment as *The Age of Reason*, as Thomas Paine called it, the way in which anticlerical satire contributed to the process of enlightenment seems to have been less through rational argumentation than through emotional appeal and affective mobilization. When anticlerical satires depicted clerical leaders as hypocritical or imposturous, they evidently tried to evoke feelings of indignation or contempt toward them. And when they depicted acts of counter-conduct and opposition to ecclesiastical authorities as the admirable deeds of valiant heroes, they tried to mobilize the pluck or courage needed to follow their example. In both instances, anticlerical satire appealed to particular emotions or *passions* as they were typically called in Kant's time. Courage was also regarded as a passion, which means that the main hindrance of the progress of enlightenment, according to Kant, was neither a lack of reason (*Vernunft*) nor a lack of understanding (*Verstand*) but a lack of a particular *passion*, namely courage.55 What was really needed,

<sup>55</sup> Building on Aristotle's *Rhetoric*, Hobbes, Rousseau and many others described courage as a 'passion' that was opposed to another 'passion,' namely fear. Thomas

according to Kant, was a kind of *affective reconfiguration* of the Europeans – a reconfiguration that would make them less prone to be timid and submissive (like little sheep) and more prone to be courageous and resolute (like mature citizens). And this was exactly the kind of affective reconfiguration the anticlerical satire of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century endeavored to bring about.

Where does it leave us today? On the one hand, we certainly cannot catalogue the Kantian enlightenment as a completed and accomplished project today. On the other hand, it would also be absurd to dismiss it as a complete and utter failure. We cannot deny that, by all accounts, an increasing number of Europeans distanced themselves from the traditional Christian virtues of humility, submission, and obedience in the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. As time went by, more and more Europeans did apparently manage to mobilize the courage to stand up and demand a higher degree of liberty, independence, and self-determination. If anything, the many revolutions and new constitutions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries testify to this.

The turbulent period from the outbreak of the French revolution in 1789 to the many European revolutions in 1848, resulting in a series of new constitutions, may also suggest that the extraordinary production and dissemination of anticlerical satire in Europe in this period did not only have a formative influence on the modern European *individuals* but also on the modern European *societies*. For when people change, the societies they form will eventually change as well. When the inhabitants of the old European monarchies gradually became less prone to behave like timid, subservient subjects and more prone to behave like courageous, demanding citizens, it could hardly avoid clashing with the authoritarianism of the old regimes and pave the way for new ways of organizing European societies. Hence, the satirical subversion of clerical authority may very well have had an impact on modern Europe that has hitherto been grossly underestimated.

#### **Sources**

Augustine, 'Sermo 149', in E. Giles (ed.), *Documents Illustrating Papal Authority*, London 1952.

Calder, Andrew, *Molière: The Theory and Practice of Comedy*, London 1993.

Hobbes, *Leviathan*. London 1985, pp. 118−123; Jean-Jacques Rousseau, *Discours sur l'origine et les fondements de l'inégalité parmi les hommes*, Paris 1969, pp. 66−67.


# Alexander Maurits

# **Catholic Celebrities, Religious Commodities and Commotions in the Light of Swedish Anti-Catholicism**

**Abstract** In the Protestant tradition the trade and commerce that surrounded different aspects of Catholic spirituality was regarded as something relatively alien. In Protestant Sweden the critique towards these aspects of Catholicism became an essential component in the anti-Catholic rhetoric that was recurring during the latter nineteenth and the early twentieth century. From the perspective of Lutheran theologians in Sweden, this part of Catholic spirituality was regarded as superstitious and a way for the clergy to deceit ordinary people.

## **I**

In a sense, it all started with a quarrel about commodities and commotions. When the monk Martin Luther (1483–1546) in 95 theses stated his eagerness to arrange an academic disputation about the selling of plenary indulgences, the issue of commodities stood at the centre of discussion. In 1517, a year considered to mark the dawn of the Reformation era, Luther levelled severe criticism towards central aspects of the teachings and practices within the late Medieval Roman Church. He was especially critical of the idea that indulgence letters could be bought in order to give the remission of sins without repentance. Thus, according to the teaching of the Church, people could buy letters of indulgence to lessen the temporal punishment. This custom became profitable for the Church, and benefited both the priests who sold the indulgences and the Pope who sanctioned the custom and took a fee from the priests. Protestants were to regard the custom as a deception, helping the Pope to finance the construction of the new St Peter's Basilica in Rome, amongst other things.1

As Luther gradually became a seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation, he began to criticise other aspects of Roman Catholic theology. When it came to the veneration of saints and relics, Luther stated that the merits of the saints were of no help to a good Christian when it came to salvation. He also

<sup>1</sup> S. Hendrix, 'Martin Luther, reformer', in R. Po-Chia Hsia (ed.), *The Cambridge History of Christianity: Reform and Expansion 1500−1600*, Cambridge 2007, pp. 3−19; H.A. Obermann, *Luther: Man between God and the Devil*, New York 1989, pp. 74−81, 187−192.

denounced aspects of the Roman Catholic spirituality involving the veneration of relics, which he on some occasions considered ridiculous and imaginative.2

These ideas were to play a crucial role for the emerging Reformation and for the theological divergence that was to put its distinctive mark on much of the European society during the decades to come. As emphasised by Heinz Schilling, Europe was marked by confessionalisation during the early-modern period – that is, this was a period marked by strong nation-states with a profound national and confessional identity.3 Already from the 1520s anti-Catholic rhetoric became an important part of the Protestant national identity that was evolving in countries like Denmark and Sweden and in the northern parts of Germany.4

Of course, a period that witnessed intense religious conflicts, as for example the Thirty Years' War (1618−1648), must be considered an epitome of confessionalisation. Though not as violent as the seventeenth century, recent research has stressed that also the long nineteenth century was marked by religious tensions and confrontations among the different confessions of western and northern Europe. The nineteenth century has even been depicted as a second confessional age.5 Although that might be to exaggerate, there is evidence to suggest that the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century was a period marked by religious pluralism and confessional tensions.6

A crucial component of the public discourse on religion in the Scandinavian countries during the nineteenth century and at least the first half of the twentieth century was anti-Catholicism. As historian Yvonne Maria Werner

<sup>2</sup> Obermann 1989, p. 18.

<sup>3</sup> H. Schilling, *Religion, Political Culture and the Emergence of Early Modern Society: Essays in German and Dutch History*, Leiden 1992, pp. 205−245.

<sup>4</sup> Kekke Stadin, *Stånd och genus i stormaktstidens Sverige*, Lund 2007, pp. 169−179; David Gudmundsson, *Konfessionell krigsmakt: Predikan och bön i den svenska armén 1611−1721*, Lund 2014.

<sup>5</sup> Olaf Blaschke, 'Das 19. Jahrhundert: Ein Zweites Konfessionelles Zeitalter?', in H.-P. Ullmann (ed.), *Geschichte und Gesellschaft* 2000:1, pp. 38−60.

<sup>6</sup> See, for example, Hugh McLeod, *Secularisation in Western Europe, 1848−1914*, Basingstoke 2000. A brief overview on how this idea of a combined process of secularisation, on the one hand, and confessionalisation, on the other, also could be seen in the Swedish context can be found in Alexander Maurits, *Den vackra och erkända patriarchalismen: Prästmannaideal och manlighet i den tidiga lundensiska högkyrkligheten, ca 1850−1900*, Lund 2013, pp. 35−50, 251−252. A more recent approach to the issue, and a proof that secularisation is not a linear process even in Sweden, is David Thurfjell, *Det gudlösa folket: De postkristna svenskarna och religionen*, Stockholm 2015, pp. 38−66.

has shown, Catholicism to a large extent was considered an archenemy to Swedishness. From the latter half of the nineteenth century until the 1960s, Catholicism was an important countertype, used by both liberals and conservatives in order to promote a Protestant Swedish identity. To simplify, liberals perceived Catholicism as a threat to national integrity and conservative Protestants regarded it as an unbiblical and superstitious faith.7

Among representatives of the Church of Sweden there was a recurring anxiety about Catholic propaganda that threatened the evangelical freedom that was considered as one of the keystones of Swedish Lutheranism. This notion paved the way for repeated eruptions of anti-Catholicism.

Religious unity was central both to the established Lutheran Church and the national regime. To be a Swede was to be a good Lutheran – and this was even stated in the law and in different normative interpretations of the catechism. It was the normative teaching and part of the meta-ideology of Swedish society during the early-modern period, all the way up to and including the 1950s.8 With a gradually introduced religious freedom, notions of anxiety grew, and in the case of Sweden this resulted in a more severely critical discourse towards the Roman Catholic Church. An important aspect of the criticism directed at the Roman Catholic Church concerned liturgical practices and especially the veneration of saints.

It has been said that the nineteenth century was an era of an emerging massproduction of texts and media, and this also stands as a truth for the religious

<sup>7</sup> Yvonne Maria Werner, '"Den katolska faran": Antikatolicismen och den svenska nationella identiteten i ett nordiskt perspektiv', in *Scandia* 81:1 2015, pp. 40−43. Anti-Catholicism must be considered as a transnational phenomenon. In different Protestant countries the similar negative stereotyping was used by the anti-Catholic commentators; see, for example, Yvonne Maria Werner & Jonas Harvard (eds), *European Anti-Catholicism in a Comparative and Transnational Perspective*, Amsterdam & New York 2013) and Stephen Prothero, *Why Liberals Win the Culture Wars (Even When They Lose Elections): The Battles That Define America from Jefferson's Heresies to Gay Marriage*, San Francisco 2016, pp. 55−98. The idea of 'countertypes' is derived from historian George L. Mosse, who uses the concept in his analysis of modern masculinity, George L. Mosse, *The Image of Man: The Creation of Modern Masculinity*, New York 1996, pp. 3−39, 56−76. Werner and Harvard uses the term 'unifying other' to describe the role played by anti-Catholicism in Sweden and other Protestant countries.

<sup>8</sup> Maurits 2013, p. 37. An English introduction to the Swedish religious context during the period discussed in this chapter can be found in Lars Österlin, *Churches of Northern Europe in Profile: A Thousand Years of Anglo−Nordic Relations*, Norwich 1995.

field in both Catholic and Protestant countries. In the Catholic countries, this development was clearly expressed in connection to great religious personalities, who became 'carefully constructed religious commodities' whose fame and reputation were cultivated via various printed media.9 In Protestant countries, the new mass-production of text was used in a way that furthered the confessional cause of Protestantism. Thus, in these countries it was the biblical texts as such that were spread by different revivalist movements. Only to a minor extent stories about exemplary Protestants were spread, and in these narratives it was not the conduct of the person that was in focus. However, there was one exception; if the conduct of a person coincided with the nationalistic discourse so strong in Sweden during the latter half of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century, the exemplary life of a person could be tremendously important – almost in a way that corresponded to the story of the saints within the Catholic context. This was, for example, the case with the great kings in Swedish nationalistic historical writing. They were clearly depicted as heroes for the Lutheran cause, even though it was always emphasised that their success had been achieved *sola gratia Dei*. 10

# **II**

In what follows, I will give, through the theoretical lens of concepts such as religious commodities and commotions, some examples of and discuss how Swedish Lutheran commentators thought of essential elements within the Catholic spirituality and how it was contrasted to the 'orthodox' faith of the Lutheran Churches. Including different kinds of religious artefacts as massproduced cards, rosaries and statues the Catholic spirituality was something quite different from the Protestant spirituality that did not include such means to gain access to the divine. Thus, the approach to religious personalities differed strongly between the confessions.

<sup>9</sup> S. Deboick, 'Céline Martin's images of Thérèse of Lisieux and the creation of a modern Saint', in P. Clarke & T. Claydon (eds), *Saints and Sanctity*, Woodbridge 2011, p. 377.

<sup>10</sup> Anders Jarlert, *Sveriges kyrkohistoria, vol. 6: Romantikens och liberalismens tid*, Stockholm 2001, pp. 110−112, 161−163; Harry Lenhammar, 'Tryckpressarna i kyrkans och väckelsens tjänst', in Oloph Bexell, *Sveriges kyrkohistoria, vol. 7: Folkväckelsens och kyrkoförnyelsens tid*, Stockholm 2003, pp. 306−315; Tine Van Osselaer & Alexander Maurits, 'Heroic Men and Christian Ideals', in Yvonne Maria Werner (ed.), *Christian Masculinity: Men and Religion in Northern Europe in the 19th and 20th Centuries*, Leuven 2011, pp. 63−94 (83, 87). For a discussion on Catholic heroes and heroines, see Tine Van Osselaer, *The Pious Sex: Catholic Constructions of Masculinity and Femininity in Belgium, c. 1800–1940*, Leuven 2013, pp. 149−169.

How did theologians within the Protestant Church of Sweden react to Catholic stories about sainthood and pilgrimages? What were their main concerns and what kind of confessional boundaries did they try to depict and preserve?

Of course, the theme of anti-Catholicism recurs throughout the texts discussed below. However, my goal is not to shed light on a phenomenon that others have investigated in a more proper manner, but rather to look at certain aspects of Swedish anti-Catholicism, that is, the negative stereotyping of sainthood and the commotion to which ecclesiastical celebrities within the Roman Catholic discourse gave rise.

The source material used for this inquiry spans a period from the mid-1850s until the end of the 1920s. Starting in the 1850s, I present the views on Catholicism among some leading representatives of the Lutheran Neo-Orthodoxy in the established Church of Sweden. With the writings of bishop Christian Erik Fahlcrantz (1790−1866) and professor (archbishop to be) Anton Niklas Sundberg (1818−1900) as a point of departure, the investigation moves on to the 1890s. Going through polemical Lutheran literature, it is obvious that the 1890s was a decade of growing animosity towards the Roman Catholic Church and its teachings. During this decade, there was a steady outflow of polemical pamphlets against the Roman Church. Some of them involve questions regarding saints and relics and are therefore of interest in this study.

As a consequence of a petition made in 1921 by the Catholic Apostolic Vicar of Stockholm, bishop Albert Bitter, on how the Catholic Church and the Catholic spirituality were depicted in Swedish school textbooks, the anxiety about the presence of Catholicism within Swedish society grew. This chapter ends with a few examples from this period – a period during which the 'Catholic danger' was considered so threating that a 'Protestant Committee to Protect Protestantism' was funded.11 The 1920s may be regarded as the peak of anti-Catholic notions in Sweden, even if this stream of ideas was rather obvious well up to the 1990s.

#### **III**

As bishop in the Church of Sweden, C.E. Fahlcrantz became an important exponent for the anti-Catholic rhetoric so frequently uttered among theologians and commentators of different kinds.12 Through the writings of bishop

<sup>11</sup> Werner 2013, p. 137

<sup>12</sup> Bengt Hildebrand, 'Christian Erik Fahlcrantz', in *Svenskt biografiskt lexikon*, band 15, 1956, p. 19.

Fahlcrantz we can get a glimpse of the situation during the mid-nineteenth century.

Between 1858 and 1861, Fahlcrantz published six booklets under the title *Rome – Past and Present* (*Rom förr och nu*). The ideas that Fahlcrantz expressed in these booklets have their *Sitz im Leben*. As a Member of Parliament, Fahlcrantz had engaged himself in the fierce debate about extended religious freedom, and he had been an advocate of the established societal order.13 The debate became strongly infected and severe in 1858 when a group of women were exiled because of their conversion to Catholicism. The punishment was a natural consequence of Swedish law, but internationally the incident was ridiculed and questioned as something opposed to an enlightened and modern society.14

According to Fahlcrantz, increased religious freedom not only paved the way for different Protestant denominations, it also increased the risk of hostile Catholic missionary activities in Sweden. His different booklets on the Roman Catholic Church, its dogmas and spirituality, should be seen in this context. The aim of the booklets was to give a detailed account of a phenomenon that stood in stark contrast to Lutheran theology and which also was considered to be a threat to the Swedish society at large, since the Catholic Church, according to Fahlcrantz, aimed to re-Catholicise Sweden.15

The writings of Fahlcrantz were appreciated by other influential Swedish theologians; and in a review published in 1859, the professor of Church History in Lund, Anton Niklas Sundberg, praised what he perceived as Fahlcrantz' great insights.16 However, Sundberg's anti-Catholic conviction and his hostile rhetoric were not new. Already three years earlier he had published an extensive review of a book by the Scottish Protestant Rev. J.A. Wylie called *The Papacy: Its History, Dogmas, Genius, and Prospects*.

True to his style of writing, Sundberg used part of the review to make various judgements on contemporary issues. He commented upon the perceived hostile activity of the Catholic Church. According to Sundberg, schisms within

<sup>13</sup> Per Dahlman, *Kyrka och stat i 1860 års svenska religionslagstiftning*, Skellefteå 2009.

<sup>14</sup> Erik Sidenvall, 'Tolkningen av "katolikmålet" 1858 i ett internationellt perspektiv', in *Kyrkohistorisk årsskrift* 102 (2002), pp. 97−101. Fahlcrantz also engaged in a polemical debate with the Catholic priest in Stockholm, A. Bernhard.

<sup>15</sup> C.E. Fahlcrantz, *Rom förr och nu. Första häftet*, Westerås 1858, pp. 3−13; C.E. Fahlcrantz, *Samlade skrifter. Sjette bandet*, Örebro 1865, pp. 98−121.

<sup>16</sup> Anton Niklas Sundberg, 'Literatur. Rom förr och nu', in *Swensk Kyrkotidning* 1859:9, pp. 129–142.

Protestantism, and radical political movements as communism and socialism, paved the way for the Jesuits to strengthen the power of the Catholic Church.

On at least two occasions, Sundberg discussed the role of saints and miracles within Catholic spirituality. According to Sundberg, the interest in sainthood and miracles was steadily growing within Catholic countries. Of course, there were ulterior motives for the Catholic Church to foster the idea of divine miracles. Sundberg mentions a farmer in the French city of Grenoble who was said to have been given a mission by Jesus to cure sick people. Sundberg was of the opinion that this poor and not properly educated farmer was being used by the Church authorities in order to strengthen the position of the Church. Even though scientists had proved it all to be a scam, the local authorities of the Church tried to convince people that the miracles really had occurred.17 With this in mind, Sundberg depicted the Catholic Church as not adapting to a scientific perspective and as using uneducated and poor people to maintain the societal position of the Church. According to Sundberg, a scientifically based approach should not need to submit to rigid theological teachings.

The deeds of the Catholic Church were also apparent in Scotland. Here the Jesuits, Sundberg claimed, had been successful in using art and the story of the Virgin Mary when persuading in particular women to convert.

As part of his anti-Catholic rhetoric, Sundberg also returned to what can be labelled as a use of commodities in order to foster the cause of the Church. Sundberg's criticism in this particular case is rather similar to the arguments against indulgences that Luther had expressed some 350 years earlier. If there is an ecclesiastical market of commodities, the pursuit of the individual becomes unimportant, and thus Sundberg saw indulgences and special requiems as 'ecclesiastical surrogates' that put personal belief aside.18

The examples found in the writings of Fahlcrantz and Sundberg show that there was an obvious anti-Catholic rhetoric, used by high representatives of Swedish society in the 1850s and 1860s. For some reason this anti-Catholic rhetoric seems to have grown in strength by the end of the century. Of course, this can to some extent be explained by the growing presence of Catholics within Swedish society. However, the force of this explanation should not be exaggerated, since the number of Catholics in Sweden at the end of the nineteenth

<sup>17</sup> Anton Niklas Sundberg, 'Ur Påfwedömets nyare historia', in *Swensk Kyrkotidning* 1856:11, pp. 173–174.

<sup>18</sup> Anton Niklas Sundberg, 'Allmänna Tidsbetraktelser och återblick på det sistförflutna året', in *Swensk Kyrkotidning* 1859:1, pp. 15–16.

century was just a few thousand. The Catholic mission to the Scandinavian countries was more successful in Denmark, where different Catholic organisations as the Jesuits and the Barnabites were well-established and gained converts in great numbers.19

Bearing in mind that the Catholic effort to win converts was relatively successful in Denmark, it may not come as a surprise that some of the anti-Catholic pamphlets were imported to Sweden from this country.20 This was the case with the text *Essays against the Papal Church* (Uppsatser mot Påfvekyrkan), written by the Danish priest G. Schepelern (1839−1900), and translated into Swedish by Adolf Sondén.21 Obviously, there was a growing anxiety that the Catholic Church would be as successful in Sweden as in Denmark.

Of course, Schepelern was overall sceptical and levelled severe criticism concerning all parts of Catholic teaching and spirituality. When it comes to aspects of commotion and commodities within the realms of Catholic spirituality, Schepelern's account of the ideas within the Roman Catholic Church on saints and relics covers some ten pages, and in this section his negative opinions and anti-Catholic agenda become obvious.

The fundament of his criticism was that the idea of saints was unbiblical. According to Schepelern, the teachings regarding saints had pagan roots, and the Roman church had integrated these ideas in a period of spiritual decay. As for other important Catholic dogmas, they erroneously implied that the teaching of the Church was superior to Scripture.22

Schepelern argued that the worship of saints was something characteristic of Christians with a pagan inclination. According to Schepelern, these Christians had difficulties to comply with the idea of a single all-encompassing God,

<sup>19</sup> Yvonne Maria Werner, *Kvinnlig motkultur och katolsk mission: Sankt Josefsystrarna i Danmark och Sverige 1856−1936*, Stockholm 2002; Yvonne Maria Werner, *Katolsk manlighet: Det antimoderna alternativet – katolska missionärer och lekmän i Skandinavien*, Göteborg & Stockholm 2014, pp. 39−44.

<sup>20</sup> Yvonne Maria Werner, *Nordisk katolicism: Katolsk mission och konversion i Danmark i ett nordiskt perspektiv*, Göteborg & Stockholm 2005, pp. 9−14.

<sup>21</sup> C. Weltzer & P.G. Lindhardt, 'G. Schepelern', in *Dansk Biografisk Leksikon*, 3. udg., Gyldendal 1979−84. Retrived from http://denstoredanske.dk/index. php?sideId=297000 2017-03-17.

<sup>22</sup> G. Schepelern, *Uppsatser mot Påfvekyrkan (Öfversättning av Adolf Sondén)*, Stockholm 1891, pp. 188−189. The idea that the worship of saints has its similarities with customs within Hinduism and Buddhism can also be found in the pamphlet *I hvilka stycken lär vår evangelisk-lutherska kyrka på grund af Guds ord annorlunda än den romersk-katolska kyrkan?*, Lund 1903, p. 14.

whom they regarded as a fearsome judge. They were not at ease with a God that one needed to fear. As for the pagan roots of the worship of saints, Schepelern emphasised that saints also could be found in large amounts within religious traditions as Hinduism and Buddhism, but also in the ancient Greco-Roman traditions. Schepelern thereafter tried to give an account of the history of the Christian church, and how venerable martyrs, who were included in different intercessions, had been supplemented by saints to whom Christians were told they could turn as mediators with God due to their splendid deeds. The author also dwelled on the papal rules regarding canonisations that were implemented from the twelfth century. He also made fun of the worship of saints, and especially the fact that there seems to be a saint that suits every single aspect and event of life.

According to Schepelern, the worship of saints was not only a medieval phenomenon, but also a contemporary one, but the Catholic Church had been forced to downplay its oddest expressions due to criticism from Protestants.23

Schepelern regarded the worship of saints as something superstitious, and he exemplified this by stressing the fact that the Italian and Spanish peasantry, like the old Greeks, punished their 'madonnas and saints when they do not do their duty and fulfil their desires'.24 In this sense, Catholic spirituality was unreasonable and superstitious. According to Schepelern, this distinct feature of superstition was obvious to bishops and priests within the Catholic Church, though they were keen to uphold this part of Catholic spirituality since it was an important means for the Church to control the people. Furthermore, Schepelern was of the opinion that there was an obligation to worship and to invoke the saints within the Catholic Church. From his Protestant point of view this was considered as yet another sign of a strictly authoritarian Church and also as a severe violation of the first commandment.25

Starting as early as in the 1890s, Carl Skog (1859−1935) was to become one of the most prominent critics of Catholicism within the Church of Sweden. Skog, who was a vicar in Brunflo and later on in Edsele, published several booklets on the theme, and they are all – to a larger or lesser extent – based on the polemics against Catholicism that was so widespread at this time.26

<sup>23</sup> Schepelern 1891, pp. 190−193.

<sup>24</sup> Schepelern 1891, p. 193.

<sup>25</sup> Schepelern 1891, pp. 194−197.

<sup>26</sup> Arne Palmqvist, 'Kyrkoherde C.A. Skogs kritik av den romerska katolicismen', in *Kyrkohistorisk årsskrift* 93, 1993, pp. 151−158.

In the pamphlet, *What is Roman Catholicism. A Word to the educated and not so educated amongst our people* (Hvad är den romerska katolicismen. Ett ord till de bildade och icke bildade bland vårt folk), Skog addressed what he perceived as an increasing Catholic missionary effort amongst Protestants in the Nordic countries. According to Skog, the threat was imminent and risked to shatter the evangelical light of the Reformation.27 In anti-Catholic booklets published in 1899 and 1901, Skog returned to this theme. In his opinion, the Catholic Church threatened to overthrow the ideas and results of the Reformation, and to bring Protestants back to Rome. Most eager to accomplish this goal were the Jesuits, who were described to be of much consequence within the Catholic Church.28

In a chapter with the title 'Sainthood, relics, and amulets – heathenism', Skog argues that the message of the Bible had been put aside in favour of the tradition of the Catholic Church and the veneration of priests, the Virgin, the saints and their relics. Besides the preposterous Mariology, the Catholic priests and monks mislead the people by encouraging them to venerate saints. To Skog, the cult of saints was superstition and fetishism. He was of the opinion that false relics had been manufactured in thousands in order to be sold and to increase the finance of the Church: 'Each Church or place, which is in the possession of a relic, becomes a sought after place of pilgrimage, which brings in fortunes on the pilgrims.'29 However, this idolatry, and the commotion that came with it,

<sup>27</sup> Carl Skog, *Hvad är den romerska katolicismen: Ett ord till de bildade och icke bildade bland vårt folk*, Stockholm 1892, pp. 5−7. The notion of an imminent threat is also present in the introduction to Carl Skog, *Den katolska kyrkan och herrens lag: Bidrag till ett rätt förstående af den svenska katolska katekesen samt af den katolska sedeläran öfver hufvud*, Stockholm 1896, pp. 3−6. Historian Yvonne Maria Werner has shown that there was an increasing interest within the Roman Catholic Church to send missionaries to the Nordic countries; see Werner 2005, pp. 9−14 and Werner 2014. Thus one could say that Skog was right in regard to the question of increased missionary activities.

<sup>28</sup> Carl Skog, *Hafva vi i wårt protestantiska land någon särskild anledning att vara på vår vakt emot katolicismen och dess förvillande läror? Föredrag hållet vid Ev. Fosterlands-Stiftelsens årsmöte i Blasieholmskyrkan*, Stockholm 1899, pp. 5−6, 14. The notion of an imminent Catholic threat is also present in Carl Skog, *Den Katolska Kyrkan och Bibeln*, Stockholm 1901, p. 7. A more nuanced approach, based on statistics, can be found in Henry William Tottie, *Hvilka kraf ställa de moderna försöken till en romersk kontrareformation på vår kyrkas presterskap?*, 1890, pp. 7, 10−11.

<sup>29</sup> Skog 1892, p. 27. The 'superstition and fetishism' of the Catholic Church can also be found in Skog 1899, where he exemplifies with wax candles depicting the lamb of God, which are sold and considered to protect against evil spirits, bad weather

did not limit itself to the relics. In addition also pictures and amulets were sold by the Church. In accordance to Schepelern, Skog thought that the use of relics and amulets within the Catholic Church could be compared to the pagan spirituality of, for example, Hinduism and Buddhism.30

However, these writers considered that the greedy nature of the Catholic Church and its propensity to make money did not confine itself to making gains from pilgrimages and the selling of religious pictures and amulets. According to Skog, the custom of selling indulgences was still present in the Catholic Church, and he concludes that 'the papal Church still capitalizes on and trades with the forgiveness of sins.'31 But the selling of indulgences was not only a way for the Catholic Church to earn money, but it was also a tool which could be used to control the laypeople of the Church. With indulgences, the Church could attract and/or scare people, and thus lure them to participate in mass and confession and to give alms. According to Skog, the whole idea of indulgences appeared even stranger since it, even among Catholic theologians, was considered uncertain whether or not indulgences were sufficient to help the sinner.32

In a booklet on the Catholic catechism published in 1896, Skog moved on to discuss the cult of the Virgin Mary within the Catholic Church. It may come as no surprise that he regarded this cult as a clear expression of idolatry.33 According to Skog, the relics of the Virgin were spread across Catholic Europe. In a most ironic manner, Skog gave an account of the cult of the Virgin in Loreto, Messina and Lourdes. To Skog, the cult in Basilica della Santa Casa in Loreto, surrounding what is perceived as the Virgin's house and a statue of the Virgin, said to have been sculpted and painted by Luke the evangelist, was yet another example of how the church capitalised on pilgrimages: 'Three different popes have certified the reality of the miracle, and annually an immense number of pilgrims arrives to the church with alms amounting to enormous


conditions, different diseases and catastrophes and human anxiety. To have this effect the candles must be made of wax from candles that have been lit in churches in Rome.

<sup>30</sup> Skog 1892, pp. 28−29; Skog 1896, pp. 18−19. The idea that there is a connection between the prayers to saints in order to avoid certain kind of diseases and pagan religions, and that the interest in relics and holy pictures is something unbiblical could also be found in other anti-Catholic pamphlets.

<sup>33</sup> Carl Skog, *Katolska sanningsvittnen i verklighetsbelysning: Svar till mina vedersakare på den romerska sidan*, Sollefteå 1933, pp. 68−70.

sums.'34 As for Messina, Skog elaborates on the relics of the Virgin in the Cathedral of Messina. His sceptical attitude is obvious when he explains that the Cathedral is said to be in possession of parts of the Virgin's hair and, in addition to this, a letter from the Virgin in which she promises to be the patroness of Messina.35

It may be one thing that pilgrimages were an inherent part of the culture and customs in Catholic countries, but according to Skog the commotion regarding pilgrimages was also part of the re-Catholicisation of Sweden. He reinforced this position by exemplifying with Lourdes, where there was a marble tablet with the inscription 'Venerated Mother, have Sweden in your mind.' This, as well as a papal promise of indulgence for the faithful if they prayed for the conversion of the Scandinavian countries, was considered by Skog as a clear sign of the strategy of Rome to make Sweden a Catholic country once more.36

Skog may be seen as the most virulent representative of Swedish anti-Catholicism, and perhaps even as somewhat of a bizarre exception. It is thus important to bear in mind that representatives from both the Catholic Church and the Church of Sweden on different occasions and in different contexts tried to oppose his views.37

The idea that the Roman Catholic Church capitalised on the feelings of its laypeople and even betrayed them in order to gain more worldly wealth seems to be a prominent part of the anti-Catholic discourse. Skog may be the most prominent representative of this kind of argument, but the theme can be found elsewhere as well.38

Even if the thoughts expressed by Skog could be considered as aggravated, anti-Catholic sentiments were an important part of the national rhetoric in Sweden. This became obvious in 1921 when the Catholic Apostolic Vicar of Stockholm, bishop Albert Bitter, filed a petition on the way in which the Catholic Church and Catholic spirituality were depicted in Swedish school

<sup>34</sup> Skog 1933, p. 72. The Swedish original: 'Tre påvar hava intygat undrets verklighet och ofantlig pilgrimsskaror vallfärda dit för varje år riktande kyrkan med allmosor till ofantliga belopp.'

<sup>35</sup> Skog 1933, p. 73

<sup>36</sup> Skog 1899, p. 18.

<sup>37</sup> One such example can be found in J.A. Hammargren, *Kyrkoherde Skog som apologet*, Sundsvall 1931.

<sup>38</sup> One example of this line of rhetoric can be found in G. Hagstrand, *Nyteologi – Katolicism – Världskristendom*, Karlskrona 1928 in which Hagstrand argues (p. 32) that the priest, who gains income from the worship of relics, deceives the people.

textbooks to the Swedish parliament. Amongst other things, the bishop was concerned about the way in which history textbooks described the veneration of the Virgin Mary and saints. This petition caused an immense debate with strongly anti-Catholic overtones. In the press, the petition was considered as Catholic propaganda, and after an investigation, the governing board concluded that the Catholic criticism was groundless and exaggerated. There were of course other adjacent rancorous debates as well.39

One booklet that was published in the wake of the Bitter-petition was Arvid Gierow's *The Roman Danger* (Den romerska faran). The booklet of vicar Gierow (1873−1944) was initially given as a lecture for pastors in the Diocese of Lund – a diocese that encompasses the southernmost part of Sweden. In the aftermath of the Great War, Gierow concluded that Catholicism was the confession that at first glance seemed to best fit the spiritual needs created by the war. With the help of its primitive spirituality – characterised by certain protective saints and different forms of magic – the Catholic priests were able to offer counselling and comfort to distressed souls.40 According to Gierow, the Catholic spirituality also seemed to attract women to a larger extent than men. Gierow considered Protestantism to have a masculine emphasis that within the Catholic Church was compensated for by the veneration of the Virgin Mary and different female saints. Gierow then moves on to discuss the petition of Bitter. In opposition to Bitter, Gierow emphasises that the spirituality of ordinary Catholics shows that they tend to believe the saints to be like gods and that pictures or sculptures that depict Jesus or saints are of divine nature.41

<sup>39</sup> Werner 2013, pp. 141−144.

<sup>40</sup> A. Gierow, *Den romerska faran: Föredrag vid Lunds stifts prästsällskaps årsmöte den 30 augusti 1921*, Lund 1921, p. 23. A brief biography of Gierow can be found in Bror Olsson, 'P. Arvid Gierow', in *Svenskt biografiskt lexikon*, band 17, 1967−1969, p. 115.

<sup>41</sup> Gierow 1921, pp. 24, 32. As a representative for right-wing women, Blenda Sylvan (1867−1935) was convinced that there was a genuine Catholic threat to Sweden, and this was an opinion that she made clear in the booklet *The Roman Propaganda* (*Den romerska propagandan*). In her opinion, the development in countries like Denmark and Norway and the fact that there was a Catholic prayer book for the conversion of Scandinavia confirmed this. According to Sylvan, Catholics who read the prayer book on a regular basis were promised 300 days of indulgence. Sylvan considers the indulgence to be a spiritual accident insurance. In contrast to the ideas put forward by Bitter, Sylvan argued for a more profound Lutheran education and upbringing. See B. Sylvan, *Den romerska propagandan* (Sveriges moderata kvinnoförbund), Stockholm 1924, pp. 4−6.

The trade and commerce that surrounded different aspects of Catholic spirituality was regarded as something alien from the perspective of Swedish theologians. On the Protestant side, there were few, if any, similarities to the religious objects, merchandise and promotional material that were an essential part of Catholic spirituality.

Bearing in mind the strict confessional divides that characterised Europe during this period, it comes as no surprise that the Swedish commentators we have met in this chapter were profoundly sceptical towards several parts of Catholic faith and spirituality. To a large extent they remained loyal to fundamental principles of the Reformation, such as *sola scriptura* and *sola fide*. To some extent, one can say that they were able to see through the 'devotional-promotional communication' that was used by the Roman Catholic Church for 'inspiring allegiance for an individual, political entity, or religion'.42 As has been emphasised above, they considered the commercialisation of sainthood within the Roman Catholic Church as a threat towards the mono-confessional Swedish religious landscape and as a means of the Roman Catholic Church to gain converts. In part their fears were accurate. The general perception of Catholicism was strongly sceptical within the Swedish society at large, but a growing curiosity towards the Catholic faith can also be found, most notably among the intelligentsia where cultural figures like the author Lydia Wahlström (1869−1954) and the author and journalist Sven Stolpe (1905−1996) showed an increasing, and to some extent appreciative, interest in Catholicism.43

Ending with a more tentative reflection, one could contemplate on the consequences that this divergence of views on the more physical and concrete parts of spirituality has had when it comes to the role of the Christian churches in our present-day societies. Of course secularisation has diminished the role of the Christian churches in Europe, and perhaps more so in Protestant than Catholic countries. However, the physical aspects of Catholic faith – to some extent supported by religious commodities as mass-produced pictures and statues – are still present in Catholic countries in Europe. Thus, there still seems to be a

# **IV**

<sup>42</sup> J. Tilson Donn, *The Promotion of Devotion, Saints, Celebrities, and Shrines*, Champaign, Ill. 2011; J. Tilson Donn & C. Yi-Yuan, 'Saintly Campaigning: Devotional-Promotional Communication and the U.S. Tour of St. Thérèse's Relics', in *Journal of Media and Religion*, 1/2, 2002, p. 81.

<sup>43</sup> Yvonne Maria Werner, *Världsvid men främmande: Katolska kyrkan i Sverige 1873−1929*, Stockholm 1996, pp. 338−340.

market for religious commodities in these parts of Europe. From the perspective of secular Sweden44 one could even say that these commodities in some sense drench the public and private spheres with religion. The Protestant countries in Europe mostly lack this dimension of religiosity. The consequences that this lack of a religious environment may have for the status of religion on a discursive level should not be underestimated,45 especially not in a globalised world where religion perhaps is more present than ever before.46

# **Sources**


<sup>44</sup> The World Values Survey continuously ranks Sweden in the top when it comes to Secular-rational and Self-expression values, see http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/ WVSContents.jsp?CMSID=Findings (retrieved 2017-03-16).

<sup>45</sup> On secularisation on the discursive level, though mainly focusing on Britain, see Callum Brown, *The Death of Christian Britain: Understanding secularization 1800−2000*, London 2001. For an insightful account on different types of secularisation, see Hugh McLeod, *The Religious Crisis of the 1960s*, Oxford 2007, pp. 257−265 and Hugh McLeod, 'Introduction', in Hugh McLeod & Werner Ustorf (eds), *The Decline of Christendom in Western Europe, 1750−2000*, Cambridge 2003, pp. 13−16.

<sup>46</sup> B.S. Turner, *Religion and Modern Society: Citizenship, Secularisation and the State*, Cambridge 2011.


Skog, Carl, *Den Katolska Kyrkan och Bibeln*, Stockholm 1901.


# Hugh McLeod

# **Religion and the Rise of Modern Sport**

**Abstract** This chapter offers a historiographical overview of recent research addressing the relationship between religion and the rise of modern sport. Historians have tended to put forward contradictory lines of argument when trying to explain a many times complex relationship. An analysis of this field of research reveals how the interpretation and evaluation of historical events is often influenced by the historian's political or religious convictions.

# **Introduction**

The years between about 1860 and 1914 saw the origins of the modern sporting world in Britain, the British settler colonies, many other European countries and the United States. Here I shall focus on the example of England. During this time there was an enormous increase in the numbers of people playing or watching sport.1 The sports boom, which in the 1860s was mainly involving men of the upper middle class, was by the 1870s beginning to involve men from the lower middle and working classes. By the 1880s it was extending to middleclass women, and by the end of the century to women of other classes. The 1870s saw the first international football and cricket matches, between England and Scotland, and between England and Australia, respectively. The County Cricket championship began in the 1870s and the Football League was formed in 1888, following the acceptance of professionalism by the Football Association in 1885. The first Wimbledon Tennis Championship was held in 1877, and between the 1870s and 1914 the number of golf clubs in England increased from a dozen to around 1,200;2 by the 1890s the modern sport of boxing had emerged out of the now discredited sport of prize-fighting. On a wider scale, 1896 saw the first modern Olympic Games, 1903 the first Tour de France and 1905 (after an earlier false start) the start of baseball's World Series.

<sup>1</sup> The standard overview is Richard Holt, *Sport and the British*, Oxford 1989; see also Mike Huggins, *The Victorians and Sport*, London 2004.

<sup>2</sup> John Lowerson, *Sport and the English Middle Classes*, Manchester 1993, p. 125.

The early history of modern sport in Britain differed from that in the rest of Europe in two ways.3 First there was the primacy of team sports, and the much more limited role of gymnastics which for long had the leading position in, for example, Germany, the Nordic countries and France. Second was the absence in Britain of the nation-wide federations defined by politics and religion, as in France, where in the early twentieth century there were separate organisations for Republican, Catholic and Socialist sport. In Britain the main divisions in the sporting world were defined by social class, rather than religion or politics. The lines were drawn differently in different sports and the role of class was often thinly masked by the distinction between bodies which insisted strictly on the 'amateur' ideal and those which saw payments to players as desirable and perhaps unavoidable.4

Most histories of the Victorian and Edwardian sports boom include at least some reference, sometimes quite brief,5 to the role of religion, and it has also been the subject of more substantial studies, mostly articles rather than books. Most frequently these concern what was called 'Muscular Christianity', a current of thinking and practice which started within the Anglican Church in the 1850s, but later spread more widely. Why have most historians felt it necessary to make at least some references, even brief, to the role of religion? First there is the evident popularity and assumed influence of the best-known Muscular Christian writers, Charles Kingsley, an Anglican clergyman, and Thomas Hughes, author of the best-selling novel, *Tom Brown's School Days*. 6 A second reason is the influence from about 1860 of Muscular Christian ideas specifically on the teachers in the elite public schools, attended by boys from upper and upper middle–class families. Third the role of the churches in promoting working-class and lower middle-class sport is highlighted by the fact that many of England's top football teams, including Manchester City, Everton, Aston Villa and Southampton, originated as church clubs. Fourth religion may also play a more negative role in the story by attacking particular kinds of sport or the activities associated with them.7 These attacks were partly on the grounds

<sup>3</sup> Hugh McLeod, 'Religion, Politics and Sport in Western Europe, c. 1870−1939', in Stewart J. Brown et al. (eds), *Religion, Identity and Conflict in Britain: From the Restoration to the Twentieth Century*, Farnham 2012, pp. 195*–*213.

<sup>4</sup> See Holt 1989, pp. 104−105, 108−110, 291−292 and *passim*.

<sup>5</sup> See, for example, Huggins 2005, pp. 39−42, 73, 99. There is a more detailed discussion of the role of religion, both in promoting 'good' sports and in attacking 'bad' sports, in Holt 1989.

<sup>6</sup> First published London 1857.

<sup>7</sup> See Holt 1989, pp. 28−42.

of cruelty or brutality, as in the condemnations of cock-fighting and prizefighting, but even when these sports were largely suppressed religious voices continued to be raised against any kind of betting on sports, and especially those sports, notably horse-racing, where betting was an intrinsic part.

Thus most historians agree that religion needs to be part of the story, but they disagree on just about everything else. For example: how do we explain the rise of 'Muscular Christianity'? How significant was the role of religion in the sports boom, and was its significance brief or longer lasting? Was the role of the churches in the sports boom proactive or reactive? And behind many of these other questions is the big question of the relationship between the rise of sport and secularization.

#### **The Debates**

To start with the first question: 'Muscular Christianity' began as a joke by a reviewer, writing in 1857, of one of Kingsley's novels. He saw Kingsley as one of a new school of writers who mixed their Christianity with a vigorous enjoyment of physical recreations of all kinds. Kingsley disliked the term, but it soon won general acceptance, and it has remained in use right up to the present day. Most historians would agree that a mix of factors was involved, but there is a basic division between those who see Muscular Christianity principally as a religious movement and those who see other factors as more significant. The first view has been advanced notably by Norman Vance, as well as by Dominic Erdozain, who has especially highlighted the influence of these ideas on the YMCA, and by Malcolm Tozer whose main concern has been their influence on the public schools.8 The second view has been presented most fully by the contributors to Donald Hall's collective volume.9

Vance, like Kingsley himself, dismisses 'Muscular Christianity' as a trivializing epithet. He prefers the term 'Christian manliness', which places more emphasis on the social vision and liberal theological message of these writers, as well as their insistence that muscularity is in itself of little value unless

<sup>8</sup> Norman Vance, *Sinews of the Spirit: The Ideal of Christian Manliness in Victorian Literature and Religious Thought*, Cambridge 1985; Dominic Erdozain, *The Problem of Pleasure: Sport, Recreation and the Crisis of Victorian Religion*, Woodbridge 2010; Malcolm Tozer, *The Ideal of Manliness: The Legacy of Thring's Uppingham*, Truro 2015.

<sup>9</sup> Donald E. Hall (ed.), *Muscular Christianity: Embodying the Victorian Age*, Cambridge 1994.

combined with moral purpose. As Hughes would write in the 1870s, 'a great athlete may be a brute or a coward, while a truly manly man can be neither.'10 Kingsley and Hughes belonged to the liberal wing of the Church of England, and Kingsley in particular was repelled by anything he regarded as 'manichean'. This included asceticism, contempt for the body and any attempt to separate the spiritual from the secular. Their polemics were directed against two of the most influential movements within the Anglican Church, the Evangelicals and the Tractarians. They accused the former of puritanism and the latter of a sacerdotalism, which served to separate the clergy from the people. Instead they wished to celebrate the goodness of the body and of the natural world, as God-given, and the obligation to work for a better world. Their promotion of sports and physical recreation of many kinds was a product of their own love of the open air and of sporting contest, but also it was part of their agenda for a different kind of Christianity and a different kind of society.

In questioning Vance's term 'Christian manliness', intended to highlight the Christianity, Hall prefers 'Muscular Christianity' because it highlights the physical. He sees this movement as a response to the 'intensification' of 'the gender power struggle' as well as the challenge to 'ruling class male' power. He sees the body as a metaphor for these various forms of power. Beginning with *Tom Brown's School Days*, he suggests that the subject of the novel is the white, upper class, heterosexual male body in a patriarchal society, which denigrates or excludes all other groups and is often contrasted with 'the caricatured bodies of lower-class, Irish and non-European men'.11 The principal themes, he suggests, are masculinity, sexuality and gender relations. The authors also highlight the social origins of Hughes and Kingsley as members of the gentry, with tendencies to be critical of the business class and sympathetic towards, but also distanced from, the working class, and their fervent patriotism (also discussed by Vance). As Wee notes, there is a strong national and imperial dimension to Kingsley's work, which presents the idea of a united English nation, underpinned by Protestantism and a vigorous masculinity.12 The contributors to Hall's volume do not so much refute, as ignore, Vance's emphasis on the specifically liberal Christian inspiration of 'Muscular Christianity', so it is not entirely clear how far the intention is to argue that Vance's argument is wrong

<sup>10</sup> Thomas Hughes, *The Manliness of Christ*, London 1874, p. 26.

<sup>11</sup> Donald E. Hall, 'Introduction', in Hall 1994, p. 6.

<sup>12</sup> C.J.W.-L. Wee, 'Christian Manliness and National Identity', in Hall 1994, pp. 66*–*88.

or irrelevant, or whether it is to show that there is a wider context and other perspectives are also needed.

My second question concerns the contribution of religion to the sports boom, both in the short term and in the longer term. An influential view is that of Peter Bailey. In his history of the 'rational recreation' movement, he argues that religion had an important role in the early stages of the sports boom but that this was a temporary phase. From the 1850s clergymen, mainly Anglican, were providing leisure facilities of various kinds intended both to ameliorate the lives of working-class people and to divert them from harmful recreations, focused especially on drinking and betting, They wanted to encourage other kinds of leisure, beneficial to mind or body, such as attendance at concerts and lectures, walking in parks, and participation in healthy sports. Facilities for these things were often very limited and most working-class people lacked the money to pay for them. The churches often had the resources to pay for free or low-cost facilities, and at least until the 1870s these were gratefully received. He notes that in 1867 about a third of the cricket clubs in Bolton were associated with a religious body. He suggests that working-class membership of church clubs was 'instrumental', 'calculated to obtain certain benefits often unobtainable from the resources of working class life'.13 However, there were always possible tensions. Bailey takes as symbolic of wider trends the case of Bolton Wanderers, later one of the country's leading football teams, who began in 1874 as a branch of Christ Church Anglican church. Within a few years the players had quarrelled with the vicar. They took the name of 'Wanderers' on breaking away from clerical control.14 Similarly, Working Men's Clubs, initially established by clergymen or pious laymen, eventually declared independence, the main issue often being the provision of alcoholic drinks on the premises.15 A variation on this theme is Stuart Barlow's account of the early history of rugby in Rochdale in the 1870s and 1880s. He notes that many of the early teams were based on an Anglican, Wesleyan or Unitarian church. However, he contrasts these with teams 'formed by ordinary people' and based on 'a street, district or public house'. He concludes that 'the tenuous hold that "Muscular Christianity"

<sup>13</sup> Peter Bailey, *Leisure and Class in Victorian England: Rational Recreation and the Contest for Control, 1830−1885*, London 1978, p. 178.

<sup>14</sup> Bailey 1978, pp. 138−139.

<sup>15</sup> Bailey 1978, pp. 106−119.

exerted on the "rugby" teams of Rochdale was largely replaced by the working class values that had developed in the streets, alleys and public houses.'16

However, the suggestion that the religious dimensions of popular sport were already in decline by the 1880s has been challenged by Jack Williams, who has shown that in many parts of the industrial north church-based teams still had a major role in amateur sport in the 1920s and 1930s. His account, based mainly on reports in local newspapers, does indeed suggest considerable variations between towns. Ironically it is Bolton which is Williams's special focus, and which shows very high levels of church involvement in the 1920s, when over half the teams playing cricket and football, the two most popular men's sports, and of those playing hockey and rounders, the most popular women's sports, were based in a place of worship. Church clubs were also numerous in table tennis, a sport played by both sexes. Admittedly there were other sports, such as rugby union, darts and golf, where the role of churches and chapels was much smaller.17 Unfortunately the situation since the Second World War has not been studied, so it is not clear how far this role has declined since then or what the chronology of change has been.

My third question is whether churches had a proactive role in the sports boom or whether they were jumping on a bandwagon which was already well on its way. Most historians, whatever their overall perspective, have noted that sport was seen by many churches as an effective means of recruiting new members, and the formation of a football team or the provision of a gym on church premises was thus a recognition of the fact that sport was already a part of life for many people, especially teenage boys and young men. Some historians have argued therefore that the adoption of sport by the churches was reactive and essentially opportunist, rather than driven by any real enthusiasm. One of the most trenchant advocates of this view is Callum Brown who has argued that nineteenth-century Christians were suspicious of the body, and that the puritanism and 'manicheanism' condemned by Charles Kingsley remained the

<sup>16</sup> Stuart Barlow, '"Rugby" Football in the Industrialized Context of Rochdale, 1868−90: A Conflict of Ethical Values', *International Journal of the History of Sport* 10 (1993), pp. 49−67. The placing of 'rugby' in quotation marks is an allusion to the controversy between those who see the game as an invention of the elite Rugby School and those who see it as evolving from older forms of 'folk football'.

<sup>17</sup> Jack Williams, 'Churches, Sport and Identities in the North, 1900−1939', in Jeff Hill & Jack Williams (eds), *Sport and Identity in the North of England*, Keele 1996, pp. 114−117.

predominant influence on Christian attitudes to sport.18 The opposite view has been argued by the historian of leisure in Birmingham, Douglas Reid, who suggests that the role of the churches in the rise of sport, at least up to the 1880s, was often proactive, with churches and chapels frequently acting as pioneers.19

According to Brown, 'Muscular Christianity' was a 'tactical shift' and not a 'paradigm shift' – if they had really wanted to encourage sport, the churches would have promoted sport on Sundays. Some Anglican clergy did support sport on Sunday afternoons, and Catholic clergy had no objections to Sunday sport provided that the obligation to attend mass on Sunday morning was observed first; but Nonconformist ministers, however keen they were on Saturday sport, were still defending the sanctity of the sabbath in the 1920s. In the nineteenth century, Brown argues, sports had all sorts of subversive connotations that in the eyes of church and state needed to be controlled and structured. They encouraged hedonism and were potentially violent. God, on the other hand, was seen as the opposite – essentially associated with morality and discipline; Religion is about the 'higher', the transcendent; games about the 'lower'. Discourses about the spiritual largely exclude sport.

In a highly detailed study of Birmingham in the middle decades of the nineteenth century, Douglas Reid offers a more nuanced view. He recognizes considerable differences both between denominations and within denominations in attitudes to recreation and specifically to sport, with much of the opposition coming from Evangelicals, whether Anglican or Dissenting. He quotes the claim by the historian of leisure, Hugh Cunningham, that in the growing acceptance of recreation churches were 'accommodating to society rather than changing it', and he cites some examples of clergy who fit this description, as they promoted leisure for fear of losing their congregation rather than seeing it as anything good in itself.

However, Reid, as well as rejecting the idea that there is any necessary conflict between the church and secular amusements, goes on to argue that some influential clergy were 'moulding' rather than 'reacting to' public opinion.20

<sup>18</sup> Callum Brown, 'God and Games – Yin and Yang', paper delivered at a conference on 'Historians on Sport', Leicester, 29 October 2005; see also Callum Brown, *The Death of Christian Britain*, London 2001, pp. 97−98, 107−108.

<sup>19</sup> Douglas Adam Reid, 'Labour, Leisure and Politics in Birmingham, ca. 1800−1875', University of Birmingham PhD thesis, 1985. See also Jeremy Crump, 'Amusements of the People: The Provision of Recreation in Leicester, 1850−1914', University of Warwick PhD thesis, 1985, pp. 126−131 and *passim*, which emphasises the importance of the churches in leisure provision, including sport, during this period.

<sup>20</sup> Reid 1985, pp. 132−135.

Seeing the 1850s as a turning point he highlights the role of two prominent clergy, the Anglican J.C. Miller at the historic parish church, St Martin's, and the liberal Dissenter, George Dawson at the non-denominational Church of the Saviour. Ironically Miller was an Evangelical, but he was also a political Liberal and strongly concerned with the threat of social unrest and the lack of concern by the elite for the welfare and needs of the masses. His Working Men's Association founded in 1854 had within two years 1,700 members, of whom 300 were women, and as well as numerous religious, educational and social activities, included in its programme football and cricket. Dawson's church held from 1855 an annual outing including cricket, football and athletics, and he used both his pulpit and a newspaper, which he owned, to attack puritanism and promote sport. Reid notes that church sports clubs were more often started by the young men of the congregation, rather than being directly established by the clergy, but he also mentions the examples of clergy who were themselves sports enthusiasts, and who took the leading role.21

Also relevant here is the work of historians of the public schools such as J.A. Mangan and Malcolm Tozer.22 From the later 1850s onwards these schools were building gymnasia and including in their curriculum increasingly large amounts of sport, especially cricket and the various codes of football. Many of the next generation of Members of Parliament, industrialists, country gentry, military officers, lawyers and Anglican clergy were being educated in these schools. They often imbibed a passion for sport which they took into their adult life, and which they not only continued to practise themselves, but which they attempted to transmit to their employees, tenants, fellow-soldiers and parishioners.

Most of the headmasters and many of the assistant masters in these schools were Anglican clergymen and many of them were inspired by some form of Muscular Christianity. A notable example was the Rev Edward Thring, who was headmaster of Uppingham from 1853 until his death in 1887. He celebrated his arrival at the school with a cricket match in which he himself played and he claimed to be the first headmaster to play football with the boys. In 1859 he built the first gym in an English public school. His purpose was to educate the whole person, 'body, intellect and heart', recognizing that each part was essential and all were interrelated. From 1877 he promoted sport for both sexes in the

<sup>21</sup> Reid 1985, pp 102−107, 115−118, 136−139, 163 note 267.

<sup>22</sup> J.A. Mangan, *Athleticism in the Victorian and Edwardian Public School*, Lewes 1986; Tozer 2015.

town of Uppingham. Sport also found a place in his sermons, where he commended the virtues of 'manliness', 'bravery', 'courage' and 'truth', and praised 'the joy of strength and movement'.23

Mangan notes the varied motives for the new emphasis on sport in the 1850s, but he also notes the example of Henry Walford, headmaster of Lansing from 1859, who was said to preach Muscular Christianity from the pulpit. He suggests that in the later Victorian period an ideal of the public school master was said to be a 'Christian all-rounder', such as Henry Hart, headmaster of Sedbergh 1880−1900, who was described as a 'fine classicist, courageous footballer and intense Christian'.24

The big question behind many of the debates is the relationship between the rise of sport and secularization. The causes, extent, chronology and even the meaning of secularisation are of course subjects of a vast and often contentious literature, and the role of sport is a very small part of it. However, this was the question that first got me interested in the issue of sport and religion. In fact one of the most influential historians of sport, Allen Guttmann, while not claiming that the rise of sport was a cause of secularisation, has proposed that one of the fundamental characteristics of modern sport is secularity.25 This has to be understood in terms of a grandiose scheme of sports history neatly summed up in his title *From Ritual to Record*, beginning with the ancient Greek Olympics, where the athletic events were closely bound up with the cult of Zeus, and continuing to the modern Olympics with their nationalism, commercialism and cult of the individual athlete. Of course, many individual athletes interpret their feats in religious terms. But Guttmann is no doubt right that the organisers of the modern Olympics and most of the general public would not see them as having religious significance, though to call modern sport simply 'secular' is a considerable over-simplification.26

However, the debate among those historians who focus in greater detail on the rise of modern sport has centred on the question of its relationship with the secularising trends in most parts of the Western world in the nineteenth and

<sup>23</sup> Malcolm Tozer, *Physical Education at Thring's Uppingham*, Uppingham 1976, pp. 26−30, 46, 57, 61−64, 82−88, 123−127.

<sup>24</sup> Mangan 1986, pp. 39, 66−67, 115.

<sup>25</sup> Allen Guttmann, *From Ritual to Record: The Nature of Modern Sports*, New York 1978, p. 26.

<sup>26</sup> See, for example, Shirl J. Hoffman (ed.), *Sport and Religion,* Champaign, Ill. 1992; Tara Magdalinski & Timothy J.L. Chandler (eds), *With God on Their Side: Sport in the Service of Religion*, London 2002.

twentieth centuries. Among historians of England we can see three basic positions. John Lowerson has claimed that there was indeed a direct connection, and that by the last part of the nineteenth century sport was taking the place of religion in many people's lives.27 This was partly because of the question of Sunday and whether it should be spent in church or on the golf course or cycling down country lanes. Partly it was because of claims that the moral virtues inculcated by sport rendered church teaching redundant. As one Edwardian football enthusiast claimed: 'There is more moral training for youth in the play of this sport than there is in going to church, and listening to dull sermons, and in monotonous repetition of dull formulae.'28 As early as the 1870s Thring had privately been expressing fears that cricket was becoming 'a religion'. He had advocated a balanced life and in the 1850s this had meant speaking up for the importance of sport and gymnastics. By the 1870s it was clear that his exaltation of the physical had been all too successful, and that the spiritual and the intellectual were being crowded out, as sport came to occupy an ever larger part in the public school curriculum and in the thoughts of most of the boys and many of the masters too.29 This trend would continue. Mangan and Tozer have suggested that although these schools were in principle Christian, the obsession with sport, especially cricket and rugby, was increasingly bound up with values of different kinds – Social Darwinist, according to Mangan.30

A second view is that of Jack Williams whose work was discussed earlier and who argued for the continuing importance of the links between religion and sport at least up to the 1920s and 1930s. As well as the many church-based sports clubs, he shows the central role of the churches in youth sport. In Bolton, the Sunday School Leagues catered for a huge range of sports, including in 1936 football, hockey, rounders, table tennis and swimming.31 In London at that time the Sunday School Sports Association had such an important role in youth football and cricket that teams with no church connection applied to join.32 Williams's book on cricket in the interwar period includes a chapter on religion,

<sup>27</sup> John Lowerson, *Sport and the English Middle Classes, 1870−1914*, Manchester 1993.

<sup>28</sup> Lowerson 1993, p. 272.

<sup>29</sup> Tozer 1976, pp. 140−143.

<sup>30</sup> Mangan 1986, pp. 135−136; Tozer 2015, p. 280.

<sup>31</sup> Jack Williams, 'Cricket and Society in Bolton between the Wars', University of Lancaster PhD thesis, 1992, pp. 140−141, 305−307.

<sup>32</sup> Hugh McLeod, 'Sport and the English Sunday School', in Stephen Orchard & John H.Y. Briggs (eds), *The Sunday School Movement: Studies in the Growth and Decline of Sunday Schools*, Milton Keynes 2007, p. 110.

and he sees the prominence of church teams as evidence that the extent of secularisation in the early twentieth century has been exaggerated, though he also comments that a decline in the number of church cricket and football teams in the 1930s may have been a cause of secularisation, in so far as these teams had been a route into the churches.33 A similar comment is made by O'Keefe in his study of cricket in West Yorkshire: noting that many of those who played for church cricket clubs were not regular members of the congregation, he suggests that 'the church remained a natural home or fallback within the community for social activities such as cricket.'34 In this their work parallels that of historians such as Callum Brown, who minimises the extent of secularisation before the 1960s,35 and Michael Snape who, without entering the debates over the Sixties, has highlighted the influence of 'diffusive Christianity' both at home and at the front during the two world wars. After discussing the limitations of this 'diffusive Christianity' and the reasons why many churchmen distrusted it, Snape goes on to conclude that 'the prevalence of "diffusive Christianity" reflected the existence of a broad expanse of common ground between the church-goer and the non-church-goer and an enduring bond between the churches and the mass of the British people.'36

A third view, which overlaps with the first, but approaches the question from a different angle, is that of Dominic Erdozain, who has written a major study of the rise and subsequent influence of Muscular Christianity. Drawing especially on the example of the YMCA, which he sees as representing wider trends in British Christianity in the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, he argues that the churches underwent an inner secularisation. This was partly because of the increasing time devoted to sport which, he suggests, diverted Christians from more important tasks. But he sees more subtle processes at work even in those churches which still gave primacy to preaching and worship. The mistake, he suggests, was to present sport not as a relatively unimportant extra, but as integral to the church's mission. He quotes articles in the YMCA magazine, *The Young Man*, which in 1887 was claiming an 'affinity

<sup>33</sup> Jack Williams, *Cricket and England: A Cultural and Social History of the Inter-War Years*, London 1999; Williams 1996, p. 127. The eight towns surveyed by Williams all showed an overall decline in the number of football and cricket clubs in this period, which he attributes to sports grounds being used for new housing.

<sup>34</sup> Dennis O'Keefe, 'The Lord's Opening Partnership: Church and Cricket in Calderdale, 1860 to c.1920', *Sport in Society*, 15 (2012), pp. 249−251.

<sup>35</sup> Brown 2001.

<sup>36</sup> Michael Snape, *God and the British Soldier*, London 2005, p. 58.

between Christianity and athletics' and in 1888 called the gym at the Liverpool YMCA 'one of the best aids to religion in the city'.37 This was one aspect of a focus on works rather than faith, on 'sins' (especially drunkenness and sexual immorality) rather than 'sin', on character rather than conversion. The ultimate end of this process, Erdozain suggests, drawing support from John Henry Newman and from the great Congregationalist preacher, R.W. Dale, was that God became unnecessary, as the desired ends could be achieved by a combination of efficient religious organisation and enlightened social reform without the need for divine grace.38

# **Commentary**

Returning to the questions posed at the beginning of the last section, I will begin by looking again at Muscular Christianity. I believe that it does have to be regarded first and foremost as a religious movement and that the Christian motivation of the movement's pioneers has to be taken seriously. However, their Christianity was obviously of its time and conditioned by a range of contemporary concerns and by their own social background as members of the English gentry. Kingsley and Hughes were also members of the short-lived Christian Socialist movement formed in the wake of the 1848 revolutions, and they had a continuing interest in what was called 'The Condition of England', which meant in particular the living and working conditions of the working class and the social conflicts which had reached unparalleled intensity in the 1830s and 1840s. Many middle- and upperclass reformers at the time recognised the lack of time and facilities for recreation as one of the grievances of the working class, and some of them hoped that common participation in sport might be a means to better relations between the classes.

Several other considerations also fed into Muscular Christianity, one being a concern for the nation's health, especially in the wake of terrible cholera epidemics in 1832 and 1848. A second was patriotism: in the early 1850s and again in the later 1850s fears of war with France were rife, and Kingsley and Hughes believed that physically fit men would be able to defend their country.

A third very important consideration was what historians have called 'the feminisation of the church'.39 Many people were well aware that the powerful

<sup>37</sup> Erdozain 2010, p. 209.

<sup>38</sup> Erdozain 2010, pp. 211, 274.

<sup>39</sup> Which has been a major theme of Yvonne Maria Werner's work. See, for example, Yvonne Maria Werner, 'Religious Feminisation, Confessionalism and

religious revival of the early nineteenth century had appealed more successfully to women than to men and those who were calling for more active involvement by the church in recreation and specifically in sport believed that Evangelical puritanism and condemnation of apparently harmless kinds of recreation had been a major factor in male alienation. Hughes and Kingsley and like-minded contemporaries were therefore concerned to promote a new kind of masculinity, but one that was emphatically Christian, and far removed from any mindless celebration of physical strength as something good in itself.40 By the 1880s many of the arguments used in support of men's sport in the 1850s were beginning to be used in support of women's sport.41 But in its origins Muscular Christianity was a men's movement.

As regards the importance or otherwise of religion in the rise of sport, it is clear that many factors contributed to the sports boom, notably rising standards of living and especially from the 1870s the growing practice of closing factories on Saturday afternoons and shops on Wednesday or Thursday afternoons. These became the favoured times for sport in view of the various restrictions on Sunday sport, which were being slowly relaxed by the 1890s, but which continued until the 1960s or even later. However, it is clear that from at least the 1870s the churches were playing a significant part in the spread of sports to wider sections of the population beyond the upper and upper middle classes, both by providing facilities and forming teams, and by encouraging participation both by Sunday School pupils and by adult members of their congregations. Sometimes the initiative came from the clergy, but equally often it came from lay members. A typical example is the formation in 1874 of the Aston Villa club by members of a Young Men's Bible Class in a Birmingham Methodist church.42 Churches, and especially the organisations within them,

Re-masculinisation in Western European Society, 1800−1960', in Lene Sjørup & Hilda Rømer (eds), *Pieties and Gender,* Leiden 2009, pp. 143−166.

<sup>40</sup> Hugh McLeod, 'The "Sportsman" and the "Muscular Christian": Rival Ideals in Nineteenth-Century Britain', in Patrick Pasture et al. (eds), *Beyond the Feminization Thesis. Gender and Christianity in Modern Europe*, Leuven 2012, pp. 85−105.

<sup>41</sup> McLeod 2012, p. 100; Kathleen E. McCrone, 'Play up! Play up! And Play the Game! Sport at the late Victorian Girls' Public Schools', in J.A. Mangan & Roberta J. Park (eds), *From 'Fair Sex' to Feminism: Sport and the Socialization of Women in the Industrial and Post-Industrial Eras*, London & New York 1987, pp. 97−129.

<sup>42</sup> Peter Lupson, *Thank God for Football!* London 2006 provides detailed accounts of the early history of Aston Villa, as well as other leading teams with church or chapel roots.

such as a Bible Class, provided a nucleus of young men who already knew one another and round whom a sports club could be formed.

In the light of such examples it is hard to accept Barlow's distinction between church teams and those started by 'ordinary people'. The founders of Aston Villa were 'ordinary people', the two main organisers of the first football team being an electroplater in the jewellery trade and a brewery storekeeper, while the first star was a clerk in a Birmingham factory.43 Barlow's argument also rests on an over-simplified view both of the working class and of the relationship between church and working class. The importance within working-class communities of differences of income, occupation, ethnicity, political and religious affiliation, and of course gender, and the consequent difficulty of speaking about 'working-class values' as if these were something easily defined and unproblematic is so obvious that it scarcely needs to be emphasised. The place of churches, chapels and missions and of religious professionals within these communities is more open to dispute.

However, the whole trend of research since about 1980 has been to stress the familiarity of religious institutions to working-class Britons in the city, as much as in the countryside, in the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the wide-ranging social role which these institutions played and the complex and varied relationships between religious professionals and working-class people.44 My contention here is that from about the 1870s to the 1930s − possibly for longer, but hardly any research has been done on more recent periods – sport played a part in the these relationships. The familiarity of church, chapel or institute as a taken for granted aspect of neighbourhood life arose partly from the club-room, gymnasium or sports teams based there, and the popularity of some clergymen or youth leaders arose partly from their sporting prowess and enthusiasm.

<sup>43</sup> Lupson 2006, pp. 5−6.

<sup>44</sup> The pioneering studies by E.R. Wickham, *Church and People in an Industrial City*, London 1957, and K.S. Inglis, *Churches and the Working Classes in Victorian England*, London 1963, emphasised the gulf between churches and workers. Subsequent research began by nuancing their arguments, but later approaches were more directly critical. The debate up to the 1990s is summarised in Hugh McLeod, *Religion and Irreligion in Victorian England*, Bangor 1993; for a fuller statement of my own view, see Hugh McLeod, *Piety and Poverty: Working Class Religion in Berlin*, London & New York 1996. For more radically 'revisionist' views see S.C. Williams, *Religious Belief and Popular Culture in Southwark, c.1880−1939*, Oxford 1999; Brown 2001.

However, so far as sport in England is concerned, the rising importance of professionalism from the later nineteenth century marks the beginning of a new era. Especially in football and rugby there was already in the 1880s and 1890s a concern that the need to win at all costs, urged on by fervent local supporters, was leading to deteriorating standards of play and sometimes violence, both on the field of play and sometimes on the terraces or outside the ground.45 It was clear that although there continued to be outstanding players who regarded themselves as 'Muscular Christians', the ideals of 'fair play', the 'gallant loser', and uncomplaining acceptance of the referee's decisions were of decreasing relevance.

At the elite level the links of football and rugby teams with the churches where they had begun became increasingly tenuous, and though many boxers had begun their careers in church gyms, success brought them to a world where money was the dominant consideration. In fact Nonconformist influences remained for some time significant in the Football League. For example, the leading figure in the founding of the League, Aston Villa's William McGregor, remained faithful to the club's Nonconformist tradition, being himself an active Congregationalist.46

Nonconformists continued for many years to be prominent in the League's management, their most conspicuous influence being in their fruitless attempts to stop betting on football matches through the highly popular football pools.47 But in so far as religion continued to be a significant part of elite sport it was mainly at the level of the individual athlete, for whom religious motivations or identities might continue in one way or another to be relevant. Religious

<sup>45</sup> 'The Football Slaughter', *The Young Man*, April 1889, pp. 74−75; Charles Edwardes, 'The New Football Mania', *Nineteenth Century*, 32 (1892), pp. 622−631; Creston, 'Football', *Fortnightly Review*, New Series 55 (1894), pp. 25−38. There is a sometimes acrimonious debate among sports historians as to the extent of football violence in the years before the First World War. See, for example, R.W. Lewis, 'Football Hooliganism in England before 1914. A Critique of the Dunning Thesis', *International Journal of the History of Sport*, 13 (1996), pp. 310−339. He mentions examples of fights between players and between rival fans, of players of the visiting team being escorted to the dressing room by police, and of attacks on referees, but he suggests that such incidents were relatively infrequent.

<sup>46</sup> Lupson 2006, pp. 8−9.

<sup>47</sup> Matthew Taylor, *The Leaguers: The Making of Professional Football in England*, Liverpool 2005, pp. 55−58.

identity was especially conspicuous in boxing, where the fight between two individuals encouraged a stress on their religion or ethnicity.

Many outstanding fighters in the early twentieth century were Jewish, and this played a part both in the promotion of their fights and in their following.48 In individual sports such as athletics the belief that his or her talents were Godgiven could offer powerful support in the disciplines of training as well as in facing the bitterness of defeat. The best-known example is Scotland's Eric Liddell, Olympic gold medalist and rugby international, who was one of the heroes of the film *Chariots of Fire*. 49 A more recent example was the world record-holding triple jumper, Jonathan Edwards, a fervent high-profile Evangelical during his brilliant career who ironically renounced his faith after retirement, claiming that it had been the most powerful form of sports psychology.50 Team sports may be conducive to a more low key form of piety, such as that of Jack Hobbs, the outstanding England cricketer of the 1910s and 1920s and one of the most successful batsmen in the history of the game.51

The motives for church involvement in sport clearly varied. Sometimes it was a tactical move intended to retain boys who were drifting away from the church as they entered their teens. Sometimes church-based sport was justified not so much as something good in itself but because of the prevalence of undesirable leisure pursuits and the need to provide healthier alternatives. However, as Erdozain complains, it is hard to miss the enthusiasm with which many clergy and lay leaders practised sport and the evangelical fervour with which they propagated the new sporting gospel. A typical figure was the Baptist Rev J.A. Roxburgh. When he entered a new pastorate in Northampton in 1906, a local newspaper reported:

He has all along pleaded for the entire development of manhood and womanhood – body, mind and spirit. He is athletic and a lover of all legitimate sport, an all-round

<sup>48</sup> Stan Shipley, 'Boxing', in Tony Mason (ed.), *Sport in Britain: A Social History*, Cambridge 1989, p. 99; John Harding with Jack Kid Berg, *Jack Kid Berg, the Whitechapel Windmill*, London 1987, pp. 93, 198−199. Berg emphasised his Jewish identity more strongly when he moved to the USA for a time in the later 1920s.

<sup>49</sup> Liddell 's value as a role-model for young Christians has inspired several biographies. See, for example, John W. Keddie, *Running the Race: Eric Liddell – Olympic Champion and Missionary*, Darlington 2007.

<sup>50</sup> Hugh McLeod, 'Muscular Christianity, European and American', in David Hempton & Hugh McLeod (eds) *Secularization and Religious Innovation in the North Atlantic World*, Oxford 2017, p. 207.

<sup>51</sup> McLeod 2017, p. 202.

cricketer, having captained several clubs, a swimmer and a seasoned cyclist [...] His piety is of the robust order, and will appeal to young men in particular, in whose interests a large part of his active life has been spent.52

By Roxburgh's day the case for church-based sport was widely accepted and would have caused little controversy. An earlier generation had more of a pioneering role, not only in the promotion of church-based sport but in the promotion of sport in their communities. Reid has shown this for Birmingham. It is also true for small town and rural areas, where there was often little other sporting provision with which to compete. An example was the small Sussex town of Arundel where the vicar, the Rev George Arbuthnot, seems to have been the first sports fanatic. From 1874 he was forming a cricket team, establishing athletic and swimming championships, and using his parish magazine both to report sporting events and to harangue the many among his parishioners who showed no interest in these opportunities.53 But the most striking example of the proactive role of Muscular Christians in the rise of modern sport lies in the mission field. The key part played by the YMCA in the diffusion of American sports, such as basketball, baseball and volleyball, in Asia and Latin America is well-known.54 But British missionaries and teachers in mission schools also played their part in the diffusion of British sports, sometimes in the face of local resistance. The best known example is C.E. Tyndale-Biscoe of the Church Missionary Society who was headmaster of a school in Kashmir from 1890 to 1947 where cricket, football, rowing and boxing were all important parts of the curriculum, in spite of resistance from many of the boys and their parents who regarded all this sport as a waste of time.55 David Goldblatt, the football historian, notes that missionaries were the first footballers in Uganda, Nigeria, the French Congo and probably the Gold Coast.56

As mentioned earlier, several historians have seen connections between secularisation and the rise of sport, but they have explained the relationship

<sup>52</sup> Hugh McLeod, '"Thews and Sinews": Nonconformity and Sport', in David Bebbington & Timothy Larsen (eds) *Modern Christianity and Cultural Aspirations*, Sheffield 2003, pp. 38−39.

<sup>53</sup> McLeod 2017, p. 116.

<sup>54</sup> See, for example, Fan Hong et al., *Christianity and the Transformation of Physical Education and Sport in China*, London 2007.

<sup>55</sup> J.A. Mangan, *The Games Ethic and Imperialism: Aspects of the Diffusion of an Ideal*, Harmondsworth 1986, pp. 168−192.

<sup>56</sup> David Goldblatt, *The Ball is Round: A Global History of Football*, London 2006, pp. 484−485.

in essentially different ways. Lowerson and Erdozain both make important, if conflicting, points, but both overstate their case. As Erdozain shows, religious and sporting fervour were in no way incompatible. However, the bicycle and, for the better-off, Sunday golf and tennis did provide attractive alternatives for those whose attendance at church had been more a matter of convention than conviction.

Erdozain shows that the British YMCA was a little behind the Americans in embracing sport, but as soon as the Manchester branch gave the lead in 1876 by building a gym, there was an unstoppable momentum for the provision of gyms and of cricket, football, swimming, and later cycling clubs in British Ys. He draws especially on the example of the Cambridge branch to argue that this embrace of sport went much too far.57 However, on two points I think that the evidence he cites is insufficient to sustain his case. First, it is not clear that the ever-expanding programme of athletic and educational activities was squeezing out more strictly religious activities. At Birmingham in 1904, for example, YMCA members, as well as participating in a Praying Band, a Quiet Hour, a Bible Class and a 'Conversational Bible Class' which included 'straight talking' on issues 'of importance to young men', could bring the gospel to others through a Pleasant Sunday Afternoon, a Lodging House Mission and an Open Air Mission. And since they were required to attend a place of worship they also presumably took part in services and other activities organised by their own church.58 Second, granted that there were many *associates* of the YMCA who came mainly to use the gym, for the *members* the relationship between the 'religious' and the 'recreational' was not either/or but both/and.

A contemporary example is provided in the memoirs of William Kent, who was growing up in London in the early 1900s. He did not belong to the YMCA, but he attended various Congregationalist churches and institutes, taking a very active part in the Bible Class and Mutual Improvement Society and making notes on the Sunday evening sermon, while also playing for the cricket team. Rather than being alternatives as claimed by critics of 'amusements' these various activities flowed naturally in and out of one another.59

Where Erdozain is right is in saying that the acceptance of, and indeed the increasing importance attached to, sport by many Evangelical Christians in the

<sup>57</sup> Erdozain 2010, pp. 226−229.

<sup>58</sup> *A Tale of Two Buildings* (1904), YMCA Archives, A46, University of Birmingham, Cadbury Research Library.

<sup>59</sup> McLeod 2003, p. 33.

later nineteenth century reflected significant religious changes – in particular an overriding emphasis on 'practical Christianity', rather than on doctrinal orthodoxy.60 Equally important was the insistence that Christianity was concerned with the whole person and with all aspects both of individual life and of society. In 1860 these claims were provocative; by 1900 they had become a cliché. However, I do not agree that these changes are best described as a form of secularisation. The use of this highly loaded term gives a questionable air of objectivity and scientific detachment to what is a value-judgement concerning the merits of one kind of theology over against another.

The relationship between secularisation and the rise of sport may, however, be more indirect. The growing preoccupation with sport in the later nineteenth century, especially on the part of the middle and upper classes, but also among the more prosperous sections of the working class, was part of a widespread reaction against the cult of work, the emphasis on saving, the restraint and the puritanism which had played such a central role in many areas of English life in the early and middle years of the nineteenth century.61 'We are living in the midst', said the letter from the Wesleyan Conference to the Methodist societies in 1890, 'of a great reaction from puritanism. Sympathy is turning from the spiritual to the natural side of things. Town life has produced a passion for rural nature. Civilisation is creating artificial wants. Art is clothing objects in sensuous garments which are most attractive. Ingenuity is manufacturing new forms of enjoyment. Travel is contributing to the knowledge of the world.'62

Many Christian preachers were anxious to show that the new mood of freedom was good (at least within certain limits). Frances Knight has argued that Christians at the end of the century 'were becoming increasingly convinced of the redemptive power of the arts',63 and she shows how Anglo-Catholics in particular were enthusiastically embracing art, music and the theatre. But there were certainly other Christians who opposed the new trends, and there were many people who blamed these restrictions on the churches. The downward

<sup>60</sup> Of course, as Erdozain shows (pp. 230−270), there were also many Evangelicals who opposed these trends, most notoriously the well-known London Baptist minister, Archibald Brown, whose *The Devil's Mission of Amusement* (1887) provoked a huge controversy.

<sup>61</sup> For the changing lifestyles of industrialists, see Stephen Yeo, *Religion and Voluntary Organisations in Crisis*, London 1976.

<sup>62</sup> Minutes of the Wesleyan Conference (1890).

<sup>63</sup> Frances Knight, *Victorian Christianity at the Fin de Siècle: The Culture of English Religion in a Decadent Age*, London 2016, p. 226.

trend in church-going became clear from about 1890,64 and the same considerations which were leading many people to loosen their ties with the churches were also leading some to embrace sport and other forms of leisure as the most important part of life.

Many middle-class households were gradually dropping the restrictions and taboos which stood in the way of a relaxed enjoyment of life. Meanwhile, sport was becoming the emotional centre of many people's lives, offering them their deepest experience of fulfilment, sustaining them through the workaday grind, and sometimes (through passionate involvement with a particular club) providing their most strongly felt form of social identity.65 Characteristic of the new mood was a contributor to a newspaper correspondence on Sunday observance in 1905: the writer praised the man who 'takes his bicycle, entailing no Sunday labour on others, and goes forth to worship God in His bright sunshine, amid His wonderful lakes and fells'.66

Of course in many people's lives religious commitment and a passion for sport co-existed without conflict and even fitted neatly together. But sport was offering new ways of being religious or of being non-religious, and for some people it fulfilled some of the same functions that their religion fulfilled for others. This was not entirely new. In his classic study of Lincolnshire in the mid-nineteenth century James Obelkevich suggested that fox-hunting was the real religion of the rural gentry.67 However sport was now the passion of millions rather than of a few thousand. In some ways the frequent claims – whether by enthusiasts or by critics – that sport was a new religion were absurd. Sport cannot offer any explanations of why the world is as it is, an ethic for everyday living or a vision of a just society. Yet we can see in the later Victorian period the beginnings of a process by which sport has come to be seen by governments, by teachers, by parents and of course by many of those in the sports industry as something intrinsically good, which governments have a duty to promote and which parents must encourage their children to practise.68

<sup>64</sup> Hugh McLeod, *Religion and Society in England, 1850−1914*, London 1996, pp. 170−175.

<sup>65</sup> Edwardes 1892 shows how far the leading football teams had already acquired a fervent following.

<sup>66</sup> *Daily Telegraph*, 6 October 1905.

<sup>67</sup> James Obelkevich, *Religion and Rural Society: South Lindsey 1825−1875*, Oxford 1976, pp. 41−44.

<sup>68</sup> Hugh McLeod, *The Religious Crisis of the 1960s*, Oxford 2007, p. 205; Garry Whannel, *Media Sports Stars: Masculinities and Moralities*, London 2002, pp. 72−73; 'General Public Losing Faith in Scandal-Ridden Sports', *Guardian*, 5 July 2017. In spite of the

# **Conclusion**

The relationship between religion and the rise of modern sport might seem to be among the less contentious of historical problems. Nonetheless we have seen contradictory lines of argument being presented by writers in the field, and sometimes quite stridently expressed. Some of the reasons for this are common to all areas of historical research. For example, the interpretation and evaluation of historical events is often influenced by the historian's political or religious convictions. But even where this is not overt there is usually a less conscious process whereby the historian is alert to the significance of particular kinds of evidence while being at least partly blind to evidence of other kinds.

Those attending academic conferences are familiar with the questioner who always wants the speaker to focus on class, on gender or on religion, no matter what the ostensible subject of the paper, and many historians bring a similar governing perspective to their own work. Quite apart from any explicit bias, this is likely to determine which kinds of scheme of explanation they are readiest to turn to. Among the historians discussed here we have seen those who privilege class, those who focus on the significance of gender and the body, and those who give primacy to theological developments, with each being much less interested in other potentially significant factors. Admittedly immersion in particular primary sources may change a historian's view of a problem – but he or she may have chosen the source because it seemed likely to confirm views already held.

There is an added problem in discussing the relationship between religion and sport, namely that historians in the field often have an emotional relationship with one or both. This is less general in the history of religion where, as well as the many historians with strong religious or anti-religious convictions, there are those who study religion because it is evidently important, while maintaining a certain critical distance.

However, it is rare to find a sports historian who is not a fan of one or more sport, and the devotion is likely to be at least as fervent of that of the religious believer to his or her faith. Moreover enthusiasm for a particular sport usually comes as part of a package. As well as devotion to a particular club, this may include admiration for the 'physicality' of the sport or alternatively for the elegance and beauty of the play; pride in the sport's working-class roots or in its social prestige; and a belief that this sport embodies the best qualities of

title the survey quoted found that 71 % of respondents believed that sport was 'a force for good'.

a nation, a region, or an ethnic or religious group. Guided as they often are by such beliefs, it may be difficult for many sports historians to accept the significance of factors that clash with their image of their beloved sport. This was brought home to me at a conference where an American scholar spoke frankly about the pain and disillusion caused to him by the scandals engulfing baseball, which he had been brought up to regard as the national game and the embodiment of American virtues.69

In England there is a long tradition going back at least to the Rev James Pycroft in 1851 of books extolling cricket as the national game. Pycroft claimed that cricket was 'essentially Anglo-Saxon' and 'a standing panegyric on the English character'.70 Some sports have become embodiments of regional or class identity, notably rugby league, which in England is essentially Northern and working class, and partly sustained by resentment of rugby union, and those who play, follow or manage it.71

Historians of religion and of sport are seldom in contact with one another and often have little knowledge of one another's work. Yet they have important things in common. Both have sometimes faced marginalisation by 'mainstream' political historians. More significantly, both deal with things which can touch our deepest emotions.

<sup>69</sup> Conference on 'Sport and Spirituality' at York St John University, August 2007.

<sup>70</sup> James Pycroft, *The Cricket Field*, London 1851, pp. 18, 21−22.

<sup>71</sup> See Tony Collins, *Rugby League in Twentieth Century Britain: A Social and Cultural History*, London 2006. Collins has written on a range of sporting themes, but there is no mistaking his emotional identification with rugby league. On his blog he quotes from a fascinating debate in the Communist *Daily Worker* in 1930. An article claiming that rugby was played by 'university loafers', 'little businessmen and middle-class ruffians', and strike-breakers provoked a response from Comrade Bob Davies of Warrington, who said that such comments applied only to rugby union, and that rugby league was played by manual workers, including some Communists, and that they 'regard the Rugby Union with a great deal of contempt'. www.tony-collins. squarespace.com/rugbyreloaded, 25 September 2016 (accessed 14 December 2019). For a good overview of the relationships between sports and national, regional, class, religious and political identities in Britain and Ireland, see Holt 1989, pp. 236−279.

# **Sources**

# **Periodicals**

Daily Telegraph Guardian

# **Electronical sources**

# **Unpublished sources**


## **Published sources**


www.tony-collins.squarespace.com/rugbyreloaded, 25 September 2016 (accessed 14 December 2019)


*From 'Fair Sex' to Feminism: Sport and the Socialization of Women in the Industrial and Post-Industrial Eras 1987*, London & New York, pp. 97−129.


# Franziska Metzger

# **The Religious Memory of Crisis. The Example of Apocalyptic Memory in Nineteenth-Century Art and Fiction**

**Abstract** This chapter explores the ways in which memory underpins religious life. Based on a post-structuralist approach of memory studies and a cultural history perspective on religion this chapter examines the role of the perception of crisis in the production and promulgation of religious memory. In particular, the ways in which apocalyptic narrative is used to interpret times of crisis are explored.

Mechanisms of memory are central for the modelling and stabilisation of religious language, of ritual practices and the formation and fostering of religious communities. Based on a post-structuralist approach of memory studies and a cultural history perspective on religion this chapter examines the role of the perception of crisis in the production and promulgation of religious memory.

On the one hand, the chapter is based on a conception of religion as system of meaning production, focusing on religious communication, that is, on discourses, semantics, and the public dimension of religion. On the other hand, it is grounded in a constructivist approach in memory studies in as much as it conceptualises memory as space of selection, not unlike Jacques Derrida's notion of 'archive'1 and approaches by representatives of systems theory.2

Memory as space of selection is already the result of processes of construction and not something 'neutral' and 'given'. Various modes of construction, modelling and usage of memory can be differentiated: narratives (be it in

<sup>1</sup> Jacques Derrida, *Mal d'Archive*, Paris 1995.

<sup>2</sup> Cf. Niklas Luhmann, *Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft*, Frankfurt a.M. 1997; Elena Esposito, *Soziales Vergessen: Formen und Medien des Gedächtnisses der Gesellschaft*, Frankfurt a.M. 2002. Cf. also Moritz Csáky, 'Die Mehrdeutigkeit von Gedächtnis und Erinnerung: Ein kritischer Beitrag zur historischen Gedächtnisforschung', in *Digitales Handbuch zur Geschichte und Kultur Russlands und Osteuropas*, Vol. 9, 2004. The approach differs from the conception that dichotomises between memory as 'storage' and 'functional memory' proposed by Aleida Assmann: Aleida Assmann, 'Funktionsgedächtnis und Speichergedächtnis – zwei Modi der Erinnerung', in Kristin Platt & Mihran Dabag (eds), *Generation und Gedächtnis: Erinnerungen und kollektive Identitäten*, Opladen 1995, pp. 169–185.

historiography, education, the media or literature); images (art, films, monuments, but also different types of media and publications); and symbolic and ritual practices (religious or not religious).

This conception focuses on the dynamics of the production, transmission and transformation of memory, on situations of communication and on different communities of memory.3 The importance that the following contribution ascribes to the relation of religion and memory is based on the thesis that this complex relation can be regarded as a central mechanism of religious communication.4 In a concrete analysis, I will focus on apocalyptic discourses as discourses of crisis and their dimension of memory.

# **Religion and Memory**

Based on my previous research and conceptualisation in the field of memory and religion, especially on religious narratives of memory,5 I define three modes of religious memory that have to be seen in an entangled relationship: religious language as space of memory, symbolical and ritual practices as memory, and narratives of memory.

First, religious language as space of memory constitutes the fundamental frame for the two other modes. In a semiotic, communication theoretical and discourse analytical perception, language can be regarded as web of possibilities of symbolisation,6 as space of memory of semantics, discourses and images.

<sup>3</sup> Cf. Dimiter Daphinoff & Franziska Metzger, 'Einleitung', in Dimiter Daphinoff & Franziska Metzger (eds), *Ausdehnung der Zeit: Die Gestaltung von Erinnerungsraumen in Geschichte, Literatur und Kunst*, Wien, Köln, Weimar 2019, pp. 7–15; Franziska Metzger, *Geschichtsschreibung und Geschichtsdenken im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert*, Bern, Stuttgart & Wien 2011; Gregor Feindt, Félix Krawatzek et al., 'Entangled Memory: Toward a Third Wave in Memory Studies' in *History and Theory* 53 (2014), pp. 24–44; Gregor Feindt, Félix Krawatzek et al., 'Europäische Erinnerung? Erinnerungsforschung jenseits der Nation', in Gregor Feindt, Félix Krawatzek et al., (eds) *Europäische Erinnerung als verflochtene Erinnerung: Vielstimmige und vielschichtige Vergangenheitsdeutungen jenseits der Nation*, Göttingen 2014, pp. 11–36.

<sup>4</sup> For a systematisation, cf. Franziska Metzger, 'Devotion and Memory – Discourses and Practices', in *Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte/ Contemporary Church History* 31/2 (2018).

<sup>5</sup> Franziska Metzger, *Religion, Geschichte, Nation: Katholische Geschichtsschreibung in der Schweiz im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert – kommunikationstheoretische Perspektiven*, Stuttgart 2010.

<sup>6</sup> Cf. Franziska Metzger, 'Apokalyptische Diskurse als Gedächtnis- und Erwartungsräume in der Sattelzeit um 1900', in *Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Religions- und Kulturgeschichte* 110 (2016), pp. 23–51; Christian Zolles, 'Die

Several modes of linguistic and visual memory can be differentiated: a) the codification and reproduction of discourses related to a religious community and its positioning within different domains of society is a strong producer of multilayered textures of memory. Historical research on nineteenth- and twentiethcentury religious communities has shown that sacralisation of language can be seen as a central mechanism of communication within a religious community and beyond regarding its participation in the public sphere, especially in relation to its position in the competed field of defining the nation.7 b) Intertextuality, that is, the integration of discourses that belong to religious memory into new contexts, also into non-religious discourses, and the appropriation and modification of discourses of other communities of communication by a religious community, makes textures of linguistic and visual memory even more complex, inasmuch as the polyvalence of certain discourses, semantics and images enables their rewriting and transformation. c) The radical questioning and deconstruction of codes of religious language creates a complex self-reflexive relation to instances of the community's discursive memory.

Second, mechanisms of memory are central to the functioning of symbolical and ritual practices. Religious rites can be conceptualised as 'techniques of memory'8 making the invisible visible and possible to experience sensually. A relation to transcendence is created through repetition and thus through memorial reproduction. Sacral objects, images and bodies (of Saints, of Christ) can be conceptualised as *lieux de mémoire* created through their materiality.9

symbolische Macht der Apokalypse', in Veronika Wieser, Christian Zolles et al. (eds), *Abendländische Apokalyptik: Kompendium zur Genealogie der Endzeit*, Wien 2013, pp. 125–155.


Third, religious practices produce or are closely linked to narratives and narrative memory. Narratives of memory, including images and staging, consist of layers of memory discourses. This mode has been researched by memory studies and historiography of religion mostly regarding uses of narratives of a religious or very often of a national past.10 Narratives of memory are produced by historiography and history teaching, by literature, film and art, in monuments, sites in nature, the staging of the past in festivities, and by the media. Textures of narratives of memory and their complex structure have to be emphasised: the superposition of different narratives, intertextual relations, as well as the integration of discourses that are not immediately related to memory.

# **Mechanisms of Detemporalisation and Mythicisation**

The narrativist perspective focuses on the functioning of discourses and practices of religious memory; on ritual, symbolic and narrative patterns; iconographic strategies and modes of staging.11 A number of mechanisms in the dynamics of devotion and memory seem to be especially interesting: the relation between the visible and invisible, between the present and absent, the past, the future, and the eternal; the relation between the corporeal and the spiritual, sensual and emotional; the creation of sacred spaces and objects and their transformation.

Based on research by the author on religious memory,12 a number of mechanisms can be systematised: (a) detemporalisation is a central mechanism of religious memory – and also of non-religious memory, as research on national memory construction shows – an effect created a) by the construction of continuity from the past to the present and future, in which retro-projection (especially in narratives) and/or repetition (especially in rites) play a central role; b) by a teleological perspective from the past into the future and into 'eternity',

<sup>10</sup> Cf. the contributions in Heinz-Gerhard Haupt & Dieter Langewiesche (eds), *Nation und Religion in Europa: Mehrkonfessionelle Gesellschaften im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert*, Frankfurt a.M. 2004; Kerstin Armborst-Weihs & Stefanie Wiehl (eds), *Geschichtsschreibung und Geschichtsbewusstsein zwischen religiöser und konfessioneller Toleranz und Identitätsfindung*, Göttingen 2010; Urs Altermatt & Franziska Metzger (eds), *Religion und Nation: Katholizismus im Europa des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts*, Stuttgart 2007; Metzger 2010.

<sup>11</sup> Michel Foucault, *L'Archéologie du savoir*, Paris 1969.

<sup>12</sup> Metzger 2010; Metzger 2016.

which in religious memory is expression of a providential dimension; and c) by the synchronisation of different times (different past times; past, present and future) creating simultaneity (in narratives, paintings, ritual practices).

The creation of presence (b), both temporally and spatially, or in Hans-Georg Soeffner's words 'appresentation'13 is a second important mechanism of religious memory – in rites, paintings, monuments, places and spaces, but also in narratives*.* It relies on repetition, ritualisation, and personalisation, creating immediacy and making transcendence present. We could speak of a *mise en scène* of the transcendent having at the same time an effect of disembodiment and spiritualisation (somatisation).

Visualisation of the invisible (c) cannot be underestimated as mechanism of religious memory. It fixes the absent past as well as the eternal and transcendent. Visualisation of the invisible is of great importance in the devotion of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, of Mary and Saints and their respective iconography, for instance.

A fourth mechanism (d) is related to the dimension of space: the creation of sacred spaces through memory. (Ritual) objects, images, human bodies, bodies of Saints and of Christ, sacralised places, paths of pilgrimage, processions in the public sphere, but in a more abstract sense also narrative spaces are transformed into sacred spaces through memory. They include both created, shaped spaces and 'natural' spaces. Sacred spaces can be conceptualised as 'heterotopia' in Michel Foucault's conception, as real, but utterly different spaces, as 'contestation à la fois mythique et réelle de l'espace où nous vivons'14, inasmuch as they link immanence to transcendence, the past, present and future, creating eternity through memory.15

<sup>13</sup> Hans-Georg Soeffner, 'Protosoziologische Überlegungen zur Soziologie des Symbols und des Rituals', in Rudolf Schlögl, Bernhard Giesen & Jürgen Osterhammel (eds), *Die Wirklichkeit der Symbole: Grundlagen der Kommunikation in historischen und gegenwärtigen Gesellschaften*, Konstanz 2004, pp. 41–72; Hans-Georg Soeffner, *Symbolische Formung: Zur Soziologie des Symbols und des Rituals*, Weilerswist 2010.

<sup>14</sup> As 'mythic and at the same time real contestation of the space we live in.' Michel Foucault, 'Des espaces autres' (1967/1984). Michel Foucault, *Dits et écrits*, Vol. 4. Paris 1994, pp. 752–762, 756 (translation by the author). Cf. Michail M. Bachtin, *Chronotopos*, Frankfurt a.M. 2008 (in Russian: 1937/38).

<sup>15</sup> Cf. Dimiter Daphinoff, 'Sakraler Raum, Erinnerungsraum und das Ringen um Deutungshoheit: T.S. Eliots *Murder in the Cathedral* und G.B. Shaws *Saint Joan*', pp. 121–132; Jürgen Mohn, 'Inszenierte Sinnsysteme – Gärten als Heterotopien in der europäischen Religionsgeschichte', pp. 55–87; Joachim Valentin, 'Spiegel, Reisen, Klänge: Jim Jarmuschs Filme eröffnen Räume jenseits der Alltagsrealität', pp. 133– 146; Franziska Metzger, 'Apokalyptische Erwartungs- und Erinnerungsräume als

#### 196 Franziska Metzger

Furthermore and across all four mechanisms mythicisation (e) can be described as a central mechanism in the sacralisation of memory in narratives, images and ritual practices. Mythicisation stages transcendence. In a semiotic perception going back to Claude Lévi-Strauss16, myth is principally regarded as language and narration or in Roland Barthes' terminology as 'un mode de signification', a 'mode of meaning'17. With Hayden White myth can be conceptualised as 'plot-structure' and mode of emplotment.18 Mythicisation essentialises history, transforming history into 'nature' – as Roland Barthes had put it: 'Le mythe a pour charge de fonder une intention historique en nature, une contingence en éternité'.19 The concept of 'mythicisation' emphasises the dynamic of construction, transmission, reconfiguration and transformation of narratives of memory rather than 'given' myths, looking at their functioning, that is, at their deep structures20, their functionalisation and political use by different agents. Mythicisation thus creates broadly connective components of memory, highly polyvalent symbolic particles that can be appropriated and used in different ways, transformed and rewritten.

All mechanisms reduce contingency, stabilise and essentialise the past, foster difference, form communities as 'moral' communities, and legitimise

narrative und visuelle Heterotopien', pp. 147–168; Elke Pahud de Mortanges, '"Be a somebody with a body": Christus-Heterotopien in Kunst und Kommerz des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts am Beispiel von Andy Warhol, Joseph Beuys und Conchita Wurst', pp. 223–245, all in: Franziska Metzger & Elke Pahud de Mortanges (eds), *Orte und Räume des Religiösen im 19.–21. Jahrhundert*, Paderborn 2016.


<sup>16</sup> Claude Lévi-Strauss, 'The Structural Study of Myth', in *The Journal of American Folklore* 68 (1955), pp. 428–444; Claude Lévi-Strauss, *Myth and Meaning*, London 1978. For narrativist approaches in recent years: Chiara Bottici & Benoît Challand (eds), *Myth, Memory, and Identity*, Cambridge 2013; Laura Cruz & Willem Frijhoff (eds), *Myth in History, History in Myth*, Leiden & Boston 2009; Silvio Vietta & Herbert Uerlings (eds), *Moderne und Mythos*, München 2006; Stephanie Wodianka & Dietmar Rieger (eds), *Mythosaktualisierungen: Tradierungs- und Generierungspotentiale einer alten Erinnerungsform*, Berlin & New York 2006.

action.21 The reduction of contingency can be seen in the abolition of temporal differences in the superposition of past, present and future. Regarding the analysis of narratives of mythicisation, the actualisation and reuse of 'old' narratives, the superposition of different myths, intertextuality and webs of narratives are highly important.

# **Experience and Memory of Crisis**

In a constructivist approach, crises are considered as phenomena of perception by larger parts of a society or by certain communities.22 Ansgar Nünning speaks of 'the cultural life of catastrophes and crises', of 'crisis plots' and their underlying construction, selection and distinction.23 Feelings of uncertainty regarding the experienced present and fears, anger or helplessness regarding the future are central characteristics of discourses of crisis. They can result in public mobilisation, emotional politics and the construction of enemies.24 In the constructivist line of thought, crises are particularly interesting as phenomena of communication.

With a focus on the language of crisis the entanglement of different narratives and their functionalisation by different agents can be approached. Within this field, analysing the role of uses of memory in the communication of perceived crises is continuative and innovative. Hayden White pointed at the importance of myths in narrativising crisis: 'Myth explicates situations of social disaster by narrativising them.'25 Based on the thesis that memory both forms the perception of crisis and is formed by perceived crisis, uses of memory are to be analysed in their close relation to experiences and expectations.

'When we become "observers" of history, representing the past by telling stories about it, we look for and find in the past just those experiential features we

<sup>21</sup> Cf. Ansgar Nünning, 'Making Crises and Catastrophes – How Metaphors and Narratives Shape the Cultural Life' in Carsten Meiner & Kristin Veel (eds), *The Cultural Life of Catastrophes and Crises*, Berlin 2012, pp. 59–88, 71.

<sup>22</sup> Cf. Reinhart Koselleck, 'Einige Fragen an die Begriffsgeschichte von Krise', in Reinhart Koselleck, *Begriffsgeschichten*, Frankfurt a.M. 2006, pp. 203–217; Uta Fenske, Walburga Hülk & Gregor Schuhen (eds), *Krise als Erzählung: Transdisziplinäre Perspektiven auf ein Narrativ der Moderne*, Bielefeld 2013; Thomas Mergel (ed.), *Krisen verstehen: Historische und kulturwissenschaftliche Annäherungen*, Frankfurt a.M. 2012.

<sup>23</sup> Nünning 2012.

<sup>24</sup> Cf. Bill Niven & Chloe Paver, *Memorialization in Germany since 1945*, Basingstoke 2010.

<sup>25</sup> White 2000, p. 52.

know from our own experience', David Carr writes in *Experience and History*. 26 The category of experience is used in different disciplines of the humanities with a focus on the individual and/or social dimension.27 A constructivist focus on the cultural constructedness of experience by communicative communities, has however, apart from Reinhart Koselleck,28 rarely been used as fundamental constituent in the field of memory studies.

Based on the thesis that memory both forms the perception of crisis and is itself formed by perceived crisis, different relationships of crisis and narratives of memory – especially through the mechanism of mythicisation – can be distinguished: a) a superposition of crises in experience and memory, that is, the production and use of narratives of memory with regard to elements of remembered crisis in a respective time of perceived crisis, b) uses of elements of memory not related to crisis in times of perceived crisis, and c) the production and promulgation of narratives of memory of crisis in times not perceived as crisis.

Following Reinhart Koselleck, different types of crisis can be defined regarding the mythicisation processes and elements of memory that are mythicised: The perception of 1) unique events as crisis, 2) of longer-lasting situations as crisis and 3) of an inherent, permanent systemic crisis, often leading to fundamentally pessimistic, even apocalyptic visions.29 In the following, I will focus on the dimension of memory in apocalyptic discourses in the nineteenth century in an in-depth analysis of evangelical narratives of crisis in evangelical prophecy fiction and of catholic variations, of the sublime of apocalyptic memory in Romantic art, and of Last Man narratives as discourses of crisis and their use of apocalyptic memory.

<sup>26</sup> David Carr, *Experience and History: Phenomenological Perspectives on the Historical World*, New York 2014, p. 71.

<sup>27</sup> Clifford Geertz, 'Making Experience, Authoring Selves', in Victor Turner & Edward Bruner (eds), *The Anthropology of Experience*, Champaign 1986.

<sup>28</sup> Reinhart Koselleck, '"Erfahrungsraum" und "Erwartungshorizont" – zwei historische Kategorien', in Reinhart Koselleck *Vergangene Zukunft: Zur Semantik geschichtlicher Zeiten*, Frankfurt a.M. 1979, pp. 349–375.

<sup>29</sup> Cf. Koselleck 2006. Similar, using the concept of liminality: Bjorn Thomassen, *Liminality and the Modern: Living Through the In-Between*, New York 2014, pp. 90–92.

# **Apocalyptic Discourses as Mode of Construction and Interpretation of Crisis**

Apocalyptic discourses in religious communities, as well as in communities defining themselves not predominantly through religion, can be described as modes of construction and interpretation of crisis in society and of the construction of spaces of expectation. Crisis as perception of uncertainty can be imagined, interpreted and mediated apocalyptically, inasmuch as it can be regarded as a symptom of the fulfilment of salvation history.30 In this construction the appropriation, transformation and deconstruction of elements of apocalyptic memory play a central role.

The possibility to communicate about a not experienced radically 'different' (catastrophic) event projected into the close or more remote future depends to a high degree on a web of available patterns of interpretation – of memory – which can be reproduced, partially appropriated, transformed, alienated and transmuted into a negative foil for an utterly different narrative. Inventories of apocalyptic memory form a space of possibility in the symbolisation of uncertainties and fear related to the present and future.

Particles of apocalyptic memory underlie the variety of apocalyptic discourses that we can find in political and societal movements, religious communities, art and literature in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.31 The *topos* of a New Jerusalem, for instance, is a widespread *lieu de mémoire* far beyond fundamentalist narratives.

I propose four variations of appropriation and transformation of elements of apocalyptic memory: a) the reproduction of integral or large parts of narratives; the appropriation and transformation of single images, symbols and codes that b) are integrated into new frameworks of interpretation; c) the transformation of images, symbols and codes that are carried along and evoked as negative foil; and d) a radicalised transformation as ironic citation of apocalyptic narratives.

<sup>30</sup> See for the most recent cultural historical research: Veronika Wieser, Christian Zolles, Catherine Feik et al. (eds), *Abendländische Apokalyptik: Kompendium zur Genealogie der Endzeit*, Wien 2013; Johannes Fried, *Dies Irae: Eine Geschichte des Weltuntergangs*, München 2016; the contributions in the dossier 'Räume apokalyptischen Denkens' of the *Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Religions- und Kulturgeschichte* 2016; Alexander Kenneth Nagel, Bernd U. Schipper & Ansgar Weymann (eds), *Apokalypse: Zur Soziologie und Geschichte religiöser Krisenrhetorik*, Frankfurt a.M. & New York 2008; Bernd U. Schipper & Georg Plasger (eds), *Apokalyptik und kein Ende*, Göttingen 2007.

<sup>31</sup> Cf. Metzger 2016.

The 'temporalisation of the future' (Koselleck) and the dynamisation of inner-worldly conceptions of the future in the decades around 1800 which have fundamentally to be interpreted against the background of changed and changing social and political experiences led to uncertainties and perceptions of crisis regarding the future, new conceptualisations and reinterpretations of society.32 The drifting apart of experiences and expectations, which could not any longer be deduced from former experiences, led not least to apocalyptic interpretations and to the engagement with and fascination for apocalyptic narratives and images with their utterly different conception of temporality and their transcendent spaces of expectation (*Erwartungsräume* in Reinhart Koselleck's terminology). Apocalyptic spaces of expectation – in their various formations – can be interpreted as heterotopia.33

Based on the analysis of apocalyptic discourses – narratives, semantics and images – the following discursive dimensions can be formulated. Each of them is to be perceived as a spectrum: a) apocalyptic discourses can – similar to utopian discourse – be described as mode of interpretation based on the construction of difference. Whereas utopian narratives imagine a radically different immanent world, which is mostly transferred into the future and can be more or less displaced, apocalyptic narratives are oriented towards a radically different – catastrophic – immanence and/or transcendence. The dichotomous structure of downfall and resurrection/salvation, of fear and hope are significant in apocalyptic discourses. This is valid also for those transformed variations in which no hope for deliverance is produced, in which the structure of deficiency and abundance is reversed and radically deconstructed. These discourses are also based on the double code of downfall and resurrection. Discourses of the end of the world are discourses of the end of history and of an 'ultimate future'.34

b) The dichotomous structure can more or less intensely go along with a manichaean confrontation of revelation and misapprehension, truth and untruth, which – more or less constituted religiously – is oriented towards a final dualism in societal and religious/confessional conflicts or towards the last judgement and divine justice and grace. The manichaean structure is particularly present in radical evangelical and integrist catholic communities of

<sup>32</sup> Cf. Koselleck 2006; Lucian Hölscher, 'Religiöse Begriffe im Widerspruch.', in *Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Religions- und Kulturgeschichte* 107 (2013), pp. 367–387.

<sup>33</sup> Foucault 1967/1984, p. 756.

<sup>34</sup> Eva Horn, *Zukunft als Katastrophe*, Frankfurt a.M. 2014, p. 101.

communication which frequently linked it to discourses of conspiracy.35 The manichaean structure substantially accounts for the attractiveness of apocalyptic discourses in (political) communication of fear.

c) The relation of immanence and transcendence, on which the construction of radically different spaces of imagination is based, becomes manifest in the period that we are interested in in this chapter in a complex spectrum. The transcendent dimension remains inscribed as inventory of memory also in cases of radical deconstruction of religious apocalyptic memory. The construction of a radically different inner-worldly condition could be oriented towards renewal and overcoming of crisis, towards revolution, ideas of chosenness of the nation, renewal of humanity, worldly paradise or a totalitarian state. At the same time, it could be oriented towards total destruction and chaos in the narrative of a radically broken (*kupierte* in the German term36) apocalypse. A state of innerworldly perfection or dystopia both – at least implicitly – refer to the inventory of memory of immanent redemption. Likewise, the imagination of a transcendent, not immanent space could vary from narrative of fulfilment at the end of all times with more or less strong godly interference to one of (permanent) eternity or of internalised transcendence in a variety of syncretistic mouldings especially in art and therefore in an aesthetisation of transcendence. d) In the relation of immanence and transcendence, the handling of time in the sense of a transformation of temporality into eternity plays a central role.37

e) A further dimension closely linked to the two aforementioned dimensions is the visualisation of the not visible. This mechanism has to be seen as narrative and visual in-depth dimension in the aesthetic of the apocalypse. Visualisation

<sup>35</sup> Cf., for example, the intransigent catholic antirevolutionary discourses: Javier Fernández Sebastián, '"Riding the Devil's Steed": Politics and Historical Acceleration in an Age of Revolutions', in Javier Fernández Sebastián (ed.), *Political Concepts and Time: New Approaches to Conceptual History*, Santander 2011, pp. 369–398; David Luginbühl, '"Christenthum" oder "Nichtchristenthum". Zur Konstruktion von Differenz in der katholischen Erneuerungsbewegung vor 1847', in David Luginbühl, Franziska Metzger et al. (eds), *Religiöse Grenzziehungen im öffentlichen Raum – Mechanismen und Strategien von Inklusion und Exklusion im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert*, Stuttgart 2012, pp. 179–199.

<sup>36</sup> For this term cf. Dietmar Kamper, 'Die kupierte Apokalypse: Eschatologie und Posthistorie', in *Ästhetik und Kommunikation* 60 (1985): pp. 83–90; Klaus Vondung, *Die Apokalypse in Deutschland*, München 1988.

<sup>37</sup> Cf. Walter Sparn, 'Chiliastische Hoffnungen und apokalyptische Ängste: Das abendländische Erbe im neuen Jahrtausend', in Bernd U. Schipper & Georg Plasger (eds), *Apokalyptik und kein Ende*, Göttingen 2007, pp. 207–228, esp. p. 211.

of the invisible makes present and can be described as 'appresentation'.38 This mechanism can occur in more or less symbolic, figurative or abstract forms. It can also be found in variations of the deconstruction of 'classical' apocalyptic narratives and images. Only in art, apocalypse can not only be made visible and tellable, but also be depicted as already past or reflected as present and continuous experience. This is particularly the case in paintings in which the very moment of the apocalyptic event is 'shown' and in novels which are, as Mary Shelley's *The Last Man* (1826), narrated from a post-apocalyptic perspective.39 A mechanism of mythicisation of the apocalypse is inherent to the mechanism of appresentation.40

f) Apocalyptic interpretations can – similar to utopian narratives – build more or less explicit frames of reference for individual- or group-oriented action. Following Alexander K. Nagel and other authors, the following forms of apocalyptic pragmatism can be differentiated.41 An interventionist form is based on the faith in the 'feasibility of salvation' and the expectation of the temporal proximity of an ultimate reversal. Supporters of this discourse regard themselves as forerunners of salvation history, as 'agents of the apocalypse', wherein the complexity of action is reduced through a radically dichotomous worldview. A consultative mode of action is, in contrast, oriented towards reform and the prevention or at least a delay of crisis and catastrophe.42 In a quietist mode of suffering crisis and the final judgement, we can, thirdly, differentiate between the belief in an imminent apocalyptic fulfilment combined with an exclusivist belief in belonging to the small group of the elect, on the one hand, and complete withdrawal in the case of broken, post-apocalyptic positions, on the other hand.43

<sup>38</sup> Soeffner 2004, esp. pp. 48–50.

<sup>39</sup> Cf. the focus on literature and art in: Veronika Wieser, Christian Zolles et al. (eds) 2013; Judith Schössöck, *Letzte Menschen: Postapokalyptische Narrative und Identitäten in der Neueren Literatur nach 1945*, Bochum & Freiburg i. Br. 2012.

<sup>40</sup> Cf. Barthes 1957, p. 202.

<sup>41</sup> Cf. Alexander Kenneth Nagel, '"Siehe, ich mache alles neu?". Apokalyptik und sozialer Wandel', in Bernd U. Schipper & Georg Plasger (eds), *Apokalyptik und kein Ende*, Göttingen 2007, pp. 253–272, 264.

<sup>42</sup> Cf. Maren Lickhardt & Niels Werber, 'Pest, Atomkrieg, Klimawandel − Apokalypse-Visionen und Krisen-Stimmungen', in Uta Fenske, Walburga Hülk & Gregor Schuhen (eds), *Die Krise als Erzählung: Transdisziplinäre Perspektiven auf ein Narrativ der Moderne*, Bielefeld 2013, pp. 345–357.

<sup>43</sup> Cf. Nagel 2007, p. 264.

# **Apocalyptic Memory in Evangelical Pre-millenarian Prophecy Fiction and Catholic Alternatives**

The pre-millenarian discourse is founded on a linear, progressive salvation historical narrative of a sequence of 'ages', the so-called dispensations, having its origin in the early nineteenth century. The period of the anti-Christ and apocalyptic sufferance are regarded as necessary dystopian conditions previous to the return of Christ and the reign of a thousand years with the New Jerusalem as preliminary stage of the reign of Christ. The construction of a spiritual community of chosen people is paramount in the self-understanding of pre-millenarian evangelicals. The narrative frame of the evangelical socalled Prophecy Fiction especially of the English-speaking countries with its greatest spread around 1900 is marked by the deterministic, holistic horizon of pre-millenarian discourses.44 Regarding the turn of the century around 1900, we can detect a superposition of two closely linked discursive spaces of memory: the biblical and the pre-millenarian dispensationalist discourse based on the biblical discourse.

Joseph Crompton Ricket's novel *The Christ that is to be,*45 published in 1891, playing in the twenty-first century, and Sydney Watson's trilogy *In the Twinkling of an Eye*, *The Mark of the Beast*, *Scarlet and Purple*, published between 1904 and 1913, belonged to the most popular novels of the genre.46

Through the inscription of John's Apocalypse into the present and near future, in Ricket's novel the transcendent is extended into the immanent until it is displaced into the other world. The immediate inner-worldly pragmatism of this novel consists of a moral reversal of Great Britain projected into the twenty-first century. This reversal is the precondition for the transformation of apocalyptic London into a New Jerusalem – the heterotopia of this narrative par excellence. In line with evangelical political discourses in Victorian England, London is projected as the chosen city: 'From London, as from Jerusalem of old, messengers would be sent into all the world to exhort to repentance and to proclaim the coming of the King.'47 At the end of the novel, Christ's parousia is

<sup>44</sup> Cf. on Prophecy Fiction: Crawford Gribben, *Writing the Rapture: Prophecy Fiction in Evangelical America*, New York 2009.

<sup>45</sup> The novel was published shortly after Edward Bellamy's *Looking Backward: 2000– 1887* (1888) and William Morris *News from Nowhere*, in *The Commonweal* 1890.

<sup>46</sup> Cf. also: Axel Stähler, 'Apocalyptic Visions and Utopian Spaces in Late Victorian and Edwardian Prophecy Fiction', in *Utopian Studies* 23 (2012), pp. 162–211.

<sup>47</sup> Joseph Crompton Rickett*, The Christ that is to be*, London 1891, p. 106 (the persona Alpha is speaking).

imminent; however, the apocalyptic climax is, as Axel Stähler has put it, 'indefinitely deferred'.48

The daylight fades; the stars creep into the sky, the great city lowers its voice, trims its lamp, like a wise virgin, and watches heaven for the coming of its Lord. We listen, and seem to hear through the open window the distant sound of His wheels. The curtains are about to part, the dead will crowd upon our sight, and heaven will descend upon our sorely tried Earth.49

If we compare the apocalyptic novel *Lord of the World* by the catholic author Robert Hugh Benson published in 1907 with the evangelical narratives, we can detect a more symbolic-metaphoric, ritualised 'appresentation' of transcendence and a more universalising and integrative discourse with a stronger detemporalisation.50 This can be shown with regard to the novel's ending: this world and the kingdom to come are intertwined spatially and temporally in the sacrament of the eucharist. The eschatological event is materialised and textually staged in the object of the monstrance. Detemporalisation and spatial appresentation ritualise the sacral event of the eucharist. The apocalyptic expectation is transferred into the immanent presence as potentially eternally repeated transubstantiation.

He turned to the altar again, and there, as he had known it would be, in the midst of clear light, all was at peace: the celebrant, seen as through molten glass, adored as He murmured the mystery of the World-made-Flesh, and once more passing to the centre, sank upon his knees. […] thought was no longer the process of a mind, rather it was the glance of a spirit. He knew all now; and by an inevitable impulse, his throat began to sing aloud words that, as he sang, opened for the first time as flowers telling their secret to the sun. O Salutaris Hostia Qui coeli pandis ostium...51

The connection between immanence and transcendence is – at the very end of the book – moreover permuted in a divine apparition:

[...] and across the space, moved now the six flames, steady as if cut of steel in that stupendous poise of heaven and earth; and in their centre the silver-rayed glory and the Whiteness of God made Man… [...] Then, with a roar, came the thunder again,

<sup>48</sup> Stähler 2012, p. 170.

<sup>49</sup> Rickett 1891, p. 279.

<sup>50</sup> On the reception of Benson's novel cf. Paul Airiau, 'L'impossible Apocalypse: Le Catholicisme français au prisme du Maître de la terre de Robert Hugh Benson (1908– 1909) ', in *Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Religions- und Kulturgeschichte* 110 (2016), pp. 125–141.

<sup>51</sup> Hugh Benson, *Lord of the World*, London 1907, p. 243.

pealing in circle beyond circle of those tremendous Presences – Thrones and Powers – who, themselves to the world as substance to shadow, are but shadows again beneath the apex and within the ring of Absolute Deity... The thunder broke loose, shaking the earth that now cringed on the quivering edge of dissolution...52

Contrary to the elliptic end in Watson's *The Mark of the Beast* '"Finis?" No! Waiting!',53 in which the second coming is transferred into yet a further future and therefore external to the novel's time frame, Benson concludes his novel with the apocalyptic finale 'Then this world passed, and the glory of it.'54

# **The Sublime Apocalypse in Art**

Reflexions on the sublime and the staging of the apocalypse as sublime were marked by artists of Romanticism around 1800 and the early nineteenth century, especially under the influence of William Turner, and had a longlasting influence throughout the nineteenth century and beyond. In his essay 'A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin or our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful' published shortly after the earthquake of Lisbon in 1756, the English philosopher and writer Edmund Burke formulated fundamental reflexions on the sublime:

Whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain, the danger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime; that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling.55

The concept of the sublime can be detected in paintings of otherworldly marvelousness as well as in such of destruction and ultimate darkness. The sublime is created through narrative and visual distance, enabling the presentation of aesthetic delight. The depiction of apocalyptic destruction became popular visual spectacles.

The frequently monumental paintings on apocalyptic narratives – on the deluge, the last judgement, the wrath of God and others – show the ultimate catastrophe in its excessive horror expressing especially the entanglement of immanence and transcendence, the coalescence of spaces and the sublime of

<sup>52</sup> Benson 1907, pp. 244–245.

<sup>53</sup> Sydney Watson, *The Mark of the Beast*, New York 1915, p. 245.

<sup>54</sup> Benson 1907, p. 245.

<sup>55</sup> Edmund Burke, *A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful*, London 1757, p. 47.

the transcendent sphere as heterotopia. Light effects are central for this entanglement. In Britain, paintings by William Turner – especially *The Deluge* (1805) –, Francis Danby – also *The Deluge* (1840) – and John Martin are of special importance. Martin created monumental paintings on the apocalypse such as *The Great Day of His Wrath* (1851–1853), *The Last Judgment* (1853) and *The Opening of the Seventh Seal* (1837) that together constitute the triptych *The Last Judgment*. 56 Martin's paintings were in line with millenarian thoughts that were popular in Britain beyond evangelicalism. The long continuity of the sublime apocalyptic in art can be illustrated with the example of Albert Goodwin's painting *Apocalypse* of 1903.

**Fig. 1:** William Turner, *The Deluge*, 1805, Tate Britain, London

<sup>56</sup> On John Martin cf: Martin Myrone, 'John Martin's Last Judgement Triptych: The Apocalyptic Sublime in the Age of Spectacle', in Nigel Llewellyn & Christine Riding (eds)*, The Art of the Sublime, Tate Research Publication, January 2013,* https://www. tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/the-sublime/RESOURCE-TITLE-r1109, accessed 21 April 2020; Martin Myrone, *John Martin: Apocalypse, Ausstellungskatalg der Tate Britain*, London 2011.

**Fig. 2:** John Martin, *The Great Day of His Wrath*, 1851–1853, Tate Britain, London

**Fig. 3:** Albert Goodwin, *Apocalypse*, 1903, private collection

William Turner's *Death on a Pale Horse* (1825–1830) differs from the paintings mentioned above as it transforms the sublime into a symbolic apocalypse. It presents not so much grand scenes of destruction, but rather symbolic figures and spaces: the last apocalyptic horseman who announces the last judgement. Death does not appear as triumphant figure, but as phantom in the fog.

**Fig. 4:** William Turner, *Death on a Pale Horse*, 1825–1830, Tate Britain, London

# **The Narrative of the Last Man as (Broken) Apocalypse**

Inwardness, reflexion and symbolism can be interpreted as equally important in narratives of a godforsaken world in broken apocalypse, which came powerfully to the fore in the *topos* of the last man on earth. The pivotal example of the Last Man narrative is Jean Paul's *Rede des toten Christus vom Weltgebäude herab, dass kein Gott sei* (1796; *Speech of the dead Christ from the Universe that there is no God*), a dream satire described by Paul as thought experiment.57 In this text, the author radically deconstructs any expectation of a 'classical' apocalypse: the apocalypse takes place without a last judgement, man finds himself in a vacuous cosmos without a divine creator and judge. The cosmos as well as the eschatological frame of interpretation with its expectation of salvation are void.

Wie ist jeder so allein in der weiten Leichengruft des All! [...] O Vater! O Vater! Wo ist deine unendliche Brust, dass ich an ihr ruhe? – Ach, wenn jedes Ich sein eigner Vater und Schöpfer ist, warum kann es nicht auch sein eigner Würgengel sein?58

The Last Man is a figure of radical loneliness looking at the end of the world without God and divine justice. Probably the most famous painting that influenced the *topos* of the Last Man is Caspar David Friedrich's *Der Mönch am Meer* (1808–1810). Two contemporaries, Clemens Brentano and Achim von Arnim, commented the painting in the following words:

Nichts kann trauriger und unbehaglicher sein, als diese Stellung in der Welt: der einzige Lebensfunke im weiten Reiche des Todes, der einsame Mittelpunkt im einsamen Kreis. Das Bild liegt, mit seinen zwei oder drei geheimnisvollen Gegenständen, wie die Apokalypse da [...], und da es, in seiner Einförmigkeit und Uferlosigkeit, nichts, als den Rahm(en), zum Vordergrund hat, so ist es, wenn man es betrachtet, als ob einem die Augenlieder weggeschnitten wären [...].59

The Last Man narratives focused and still focus, if we think of apocalyptic movies, on natural catastrophes, on the relationship of nature and salvation history, natural and moral catastrophe. Thus, for example, Lord Byron wrote

<sup>57</sup> Cf. on Jean Paul: Horn 2014, pp. 51–53.

<sup>58</sup> 'How alone everyone is in the wide tomb of the universe! [...] O Father, O Father! where is thy infinite breast, upon which I might rest? – Alas, if each I is its own father and creator, why can it not also be its own avenging angel?' Jean Paul, *Rede des toten Christus vom Weltgebäude herab, dass kein Gott sei* (1796), published in *Deutsche Nationalliteratur*, Joseph Kürschner (ed.), vol. 131: *Jean Pauls Werke II*, Berlin & Stuttgart 1884, pp. 427–433, here p. 431 (translation by the author).

<sup>59</sup> 'Nothing can be more tragic and discomforting than this position in the world: the only life left in the wide sphere of death, the lonely centre in the lonely sphere. The painting lies there with its two or three mysterious objects like the apocalypse [...], and as with its uniformity and shorelessness it has no foreground but the frame, the beholder feels as if his eyelids were cut off.' Clemens Brentano & Achim von Arnim, 'Verschiedene Empfindungen vor einer Seelandschaft von Friedrich, worauf ein Kapuziner', in *Iris: Unterhaltungsblatt für Freunde des Schönen und Nützlichen* 20 (28 January 1826) pp. 77–78, published in: *Kommentierte digitale Edition von Jochen A. Bär* (Quellen zur Literatur- und Kunstreflexion des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts, Reihe A, Nr. 1645), Vechta 2014 (translation by the author).

in the 'year without summer' 1816 in his poem *Darkness* about the last catastrophe of humanity which would end up in an absolute de-humanisation.60 All salvation historical and rational constructions of meaning were deconstructed. Mary Shelley's novel *The Last Man* published in 1826, which plays at the end of the first century of the third millennium, negates in an equally radical way a redeeming God, uncoupling man from nature: nature persists with all its beauty and does not need man – a transformed version of the dominant Last Man narrative.

I [the last man as narrator, F.M.] lifted up my eyes – a bat wheeled round – the sun had sunk behind the jagged line of mountains, and the pale, crescent moon was visible, silver white, amidst the orange sunset, and accompanied by one bright star, prolonged thus the twilight. A herd of cattle passed along in the dell below untended, towards their watering place – the grass was rustled by a gentle breeze, and the olive-woods, mellowed into soft masses by the moonlight [...] Yes this is the earth [...] she continues to wheel round and round, with alternate night and day, through the sky, though man is not her adorner or inhabitant.61

The deconstruction of memory of apocalyptic discourses of salvation through the usage of images and partial narratives of 'classical' apocalypse is a central characteristic of the reflexion of crisis in Last Man narratives, which on their part quickly turned into nettings of narratives, images and metaphors, into inventories of memory regarding the end of the world as (mostly) depleted of any expectation of salvation.62

# **Sources**


<sup>60</sup> George Gordon Byron, 'Darkness', in Jerome J. McGann (ed.), *The Complete Poetical Works*, vol. 4, Oxford 1986, pp. 40–42.

<sup>61</sup> Mary Shelley, *The Last Man*, London 1826, pp. 456–457.

<sup>62</sup> Cf. contemporary novels and movies such as Cormach McCarthy's *The Road* (2006 as book, 2009 as movie). On *The Road* cf. among others: Kristijan Mavri, 'Cormac McCarthy's *The Road* Revisited: Memory and Language in Post-Apocalyptic Fiction', in *Politics of Memory* 3 (2013), pp. 1–14.


Derrida, Jacques, *Mal d'Archive*, Paris 1995.


Lévi-Strauss, Claude, *Myth and Meaning*, London 1978.


# **Index of Persons**

#### **A**

Airiau, Paul 204 Almgren, Viktor 110, 115 Altermatt, Urs 18, 29 Arbuthnot, George 181 Arndt, Johann 107 Arnim, Achim von 209 Asgill, John 130 Assmann, Aleida 191 Augustine 134

#### **B**

Bailey, Peter 169 Barbin, Abel/Herculine 88 Barlow, Stuart 169, 178 Barthes, Roland 196 Bellamy, Edward 203 Benson, Robert Hugh 204−205 Berg, Jack Kid 180 Bernhard, A. 152 Bismarck, Otto von 18 Bitter, Albert 151, 158−159 Blackmore, Richard 130 Blaschke, Olaf 11, 18, 21−22 Boddice, Rob 70 Bondestam, Maja 91 Bora, Katharina von 121 Borutta, Manuel 21 Bourdieu, Pierre 93 Bourke, Joanna 61−62, 71 Bourneville, Désiré 72 Brentano, Clemens 209 Brinkmann, Joh. 75 Brown, Archibald 183 Brown, Callum 170−171, 175 Browne, Anthony 138 Bruce, Adam 86, 88−91, 93 Bruce, Carolina 98

Bruce, Therese Andreas 23, 85−99 Buchheim, Hans 31 Bursche, Julius 105 Burke, Edmund 205 Byron, George Gordon (Lord Byron) 210

#### **C**

Calder, Andrew 124 Carr, David 198 Catherine of Sienna 73 Cederberg, Daniel 108−109, 112, 114−115 Chapman, Sylvia 111 Clark, Christopher 20 Clarke, Samuel 129−131 Cohen Hanegbi, Na'ama 75 Collins, Anthony 130−131 Collins, Tony 186 Constantine 35 Crompton Ricket, Joseph 203 Cruikshank, George 133−136 Crump, Jeremy 171 Cunningham, Hugh 171 Curll, Edmund 132

#### **D**

Dale, R.W. 176 Danby, Francis 206 Danemarie, Jeanne 71−72, 74 Davies, Bob 186 Dawson, George 172 Dennis, John 130−131 Derrida, Jacques 191 Dewachter, R. 76 Diderot, Denis 136 Dittrich, Lisa 21 Dubbe, Jacob 94, 98

#### **E**

Ebertz, Michael N. 28 Edstedt, Vilhelm 87 Edwards, Jonathan 180 Ehrenstråle, Hans 112 Eidem, Erling 109 Elias, Norbert 95 Erasmus of Rotterdam 122 Erdozain, Dominic 167, 175−176, 180, 182−183 Eskeland, Lars 66, 69

#### **F**

Fahlcrantz, Christian Erik 151−153 Fahlman, Ragnar 110 Fischart, Johann 122 Foucault, Michel 88, 134−135, 141, 195 Fox, A. 71, 79 Francis of Assisi 60 Freytag, Niels 64 Friedrich, Caspar David 209 Friszke, Edmund 110, 113 Frye, Northrop 126

#### **G**

Gabriel, Karl 18 Gadelius, Eric 91−92 George, Dorothy 137−138 Gierow, Arvid 159 Gildon, Charles 130 Goldblatt, David 181 Goodwin, Albert 206−207 Gregory XVI 29−30 Gross, Michael B. 21 Guttmann, Allen 173 Gutzkow, Karl 137

#### **H**

Hagberg, Kjell 110 Hagströmer, Anders Johan 91−92, 97

Hall, Donald E. 167−168 Hammar, Gunvor 109−110 Hart, Henry 173 Haydon, Colin 20 Helena (mother of Constantine the Great) 35 Hide, Louise 61 Hobbes, Thomas 141−142 Hobbs, Jack 180 Hohenhausen, Michael Silvius von 96 Holt, Richard 165−166, 186 Huggins, Mike 165 Hughes, Thomas 166, 168, 176−177 Huybers, A. 67

### **I**

Inglis, K.S. 178 Israel, Jonathan 123

#### **J**

Jacobi, Wilhelm 60 Jarlert, Anders 11, 19 Johansson, Kerstin 110

#### **K**

Kaiser, Wolfram 20 Kane, Paula 61, 65 Kant, Immanuel 139−142 Keddie, John W. 180 Kennedy, John F. 20 Kent, William 182 King, William 130 Kingsley, Charles 166−168, 170, 176−177 Klemperer, Victor 127 Knight, Frances 183 Kosselleck, Reinhart 105, 198, 200 Kossert, Andreas 102, 105 Kulczycki, John J. 103

#### **L**

Lateau, Louise 66−75, 77, 79 Le Petit, Claude 125 Lepp, Claudia 21 Lepsius, M. Rainer 30 Lévi-Strauss, Claude 196 Lewis, R.W. 179 Leyk, Emil 107 Liddell, Eric 180 Liliequist, Jonas 91 Lind, Allan 110 Lind, Lisa 112 Lindblad, Maria 98 Lindeberg, Maria 87 Ling, Pehr Henrik 95 Littberger Caisou-Rousseau, Inger 11, 23 Ljungberg, Johannes 11 Ljunggren, Jens 95 Louis XIV 125−126 Loth, Wilfried 28−29 Lowerson, John 174, 182 Lund, Roger D. 131 Lupson, Peter 177 Luther, Martin 121, 123, 147, 153

#### **M**

Mangan, J.A. 172−174 Mangion, Carmen 61 Mannay, Charles 36 Martin, John 206−207 Maurits, Alexander 12, 22, 148 Mayrhofer, Johannes 78 McGregor, William 179 McLeod, Hugh 12, 20 Meneval, E. de 69 Metzger, Franziska 12, 23 Meyhoff Brink, Dennis 12, 22 Miller, J.C. 172 Molière 124−128, 131, 141 Molin, Lars 87 Morri, William 203

Moscoso, Javier 74 Mosse, George L. 149 Murner, Thomas 122

#### **N**

Nagel, Alexander K. 202 Nelson, Clifford Ansgar 109, 114−115 Neumann, Therese 65−79 Newman, John Henry 176 Nietzsche, Friedrich 127 Nipperdey, Thomas 28 Norman, E.R. 20 Nünning, Ansgar 197 Nyström, Lars 97

#### **O**

Obelkevich, James 184 O'Keefe, Dennis 175 Olsson, Bror 159 Österlin, Lars 149

#### **P**

Paine, Thomas 138, 141 Parcot, L. 67 Paul, Jean 208−209 Paz, D.G. 20 Péréfixe, Hardouin de 125−126 Pilch, Władysław 112, 115 Pius IX 18, 30 Pontet-Bordeaux, Marthe 71 Priesching, Nicole 65 Pycroft, James 186

#### **R**

Rabelais, François 122 Ralls, Walter 20 Regnard, Paul 72 Reid, Douglas 171−172, 181 Rhodes, Jan 69 Robel, Zygmunt 110 Rohling, August 69

Roodenburg, Herman 77 Roullé, Pierre 125−126 Rousseau, Jean-Jacques 141−142 Roxburgh, J.A. 180−181

#### **S**

Sachs, Jerzy 106 Sawicki, Diethard 64 Scheer, Monique 76 Schepelern, G. 154−155, 157 Schieder, Wolfgang 28, 41−42 Schilling, Heinz 148 Schimanski, Adolf 103 Schmidt-Klaer, Lucie 67 Shelley, Mary 202, 210 Sidenvall, Erik 13, 20 Skog, Carl 155−158 Smith, Helmut Walser 21 Snape, Michael 175 Soeffner, Hans-Georg 195 Sondén, Adolf 154 Stolpe, Sven 160 Straudinger, Odo 65 Stålhammar, Ulrika Eleonora 87−88 Stähler, Axel 204 Sundberg, Anton Niklas 151−153 Svensson, Margareta Zenta 112, 115 Swift, Jonathan 128, 130−133, 138 Sylvan, Blenda 159 Szeruda, Jan 102, 110, 113

#### **T**

Taylor, Robert 137−138 Thompson, E.P. 15 Thring, Edward 172−174 Thurfjell, David 148 Tindal, Matthew 130 Tjeder, David 96, 99 Tippelskirch, Xenia von 62 Toland, John 130 Tottie, Henry William 156 Tozer, Malcolm 167, 172, 174 Turner, William 205−206, 208 Tyndale-Biscoe, C.E. 181

#### **V**

Van Looy, Henri 68, 70−71 Van Osselaer, Tine 13, 22, 150 Vance, Norman 167−168 Voltaire 132

#### **W**

Wahlström, Lydia 160 Walford, Henry 173 Watson, Sydney 203, 205 Weber, Christoph 31 Wee, C.J.W.-L. 168 Wehler, Hans-Ulrich 28 Werner, Yvonne Maria 19, 21, 23, 85, 148−149, 156, 176−177 White, Hayden 196−197 Wickham, E.R. 178 Wiener, C.Z. 20 Wiener, Joel 138 Williams, Jack 170, 174−175 Williams, S.C. 178 Wittenberg, Otto 116 Wróblewski, Andrzej K. 105 Wolffe, John 20 Wotton, William 128−130 Wylie, J.A. 152

#### **Y**

Yeo, Stephen 183 Ysander, Torsten 109

#### **Z**

Zedler, Johann Heinrich 132