Durant W. The Reformation. A History of European Civilization from Wyclif to Calvin: 1300-1564

and servants afterward. Wives took motherhood in their stride, gloried

in their numerous children, and managed to manage their managers. They

were robust creatures, accustomed to hard work from sunrise to sunset.

They made most of the clothing for their families, and sometimes

took in work from capitalist entrepreneurs. The loom was an

essential part of the home; in England all unmarried women were

"spinsters." The women of the French court were a different species,

encouraged by Francis I to prettify themselves in flesh and dress, and

sometimes turning national policy by the guided missiles of their

charms. A feminist movement was imported into France from Italy, but

rapidly faded as women perceived that their power and prominence

were independent of politics and laws. Many French women of the

upper class were well educated; already, in Paris and elsewhere, the

French salon was taking form as rich and cultivated ladies made

their homes the rendezvous of statesmen, poets, artists, scholars,

prelates, and philosophers. Another group of French women- let Anne of

France, Anne of Brittany, Claude, and Renee serve as instances-

stood quietly virtuous amid the erotic storm. In general the

Reformation, being Teutonic, made for the patriarchal view of woman

and the family. It ended her Renaissance enthronement as an exemplar

of beauty and a civilizer of man. It condemned the Church's lenience

with sexual diversions, and, after Luther's death, it prepared the way

for the Puritanic chill.

-

Social morality declined with the rise of commercialism and the

temporary disruption of charity. The natural dishonesty of man found

fresh forms and opportunities as a money economy displaced the

feudal regime. The newly rich, holding securities rather than land,

and seldom seeing the individuals from whose labor they benefited, had

no traditions of responsibility and generosity such as had gone with

landed wealth. `063343 Medieval commerce and industry had accepted

moral checks in the form of guild, municipal, and ecclesiastical

regulations; the new capitalism rejected these restraints, and drew

men into a strenuous competition that pushed aside the old

codes. `063344 Commercial frauds replaced pious frauds. The pamphlet

literature of the age groaned with denunciations of wholesale

adulteration of food and other products. The Diet of Innsbruck

(1518) complained that importers "add brick dust to ginger, and mix

unhealthy stuff with their pepper." `063345 Luther noted that

merchants "have learned the trick of placing such spices as pepper,

ginger, and saffron in damp vaults to increase their weight. There

is not a single article out of which they cannot make profit through

false measuring, counting, or weighing, or by producing artificial

colors.... There is no end to their trickery." `063346 The Venetian

Senate branded a shipment of English woolens as fraudulent in

weight, make, and size. `063347

Charity, in the Latin countries, was still administered with

medieval cheerfulness. Noble families spent a considerable part of

their incomes in gifts and alms. `063348 Lyons inherited from the

fifteenth century a complex organization of municipal charity, to

which the citizens gave "with openhanded generosity." `063349 In

Germany and England the hands were not so open. Luther did his

manful best to re-establish the charities interrupted by the

princely confiscation of monastic properties, but he confessed that

his efforts failed. `063350 "Under the papacy," he mourned, "people

were charitable and gave gladly, but now, under the dispensation of

the Gospel, nobody gives any longer; everybody fleeces everybody

else.... Nobody will give a pfennig." `063351 Latimer gave a similar

report in 1548: "London was never so ill as now.... In times past,

when any rich man died... they would bequeath... great sums towards

the relief of the poor.... Now charity is waxen cold." `063352 Two

Italian cities, Cardinal Pole told London, gave more alms than all

England. `063353 "As truth spread," concluded Froude, "charity and

justice languished in England." `063354 Probably it was not

Protestantism, but commercialism and unbelief, that diminished

charity.

Pauperism grew to the proportions of a social crisis. Evicted

tenants, jobless journeymen, demobilized soldiers, roamed the highways

or littered the slums, begging and robbing to live. In Augsburg the

paupers were reckoned at a sixth of the population, in Hamburg a

fifth, in London a fourth. `063355 "O merciful Lord! " cried the

reformer Thomas Lever, "what a number of poor, feeble, halt, blind,

lame, sickly... lie and creep in the miry streets!" `063356 Luther,

whose heart was as kind as his tongue was harsh, was among the first

to perceive that the state must take over from the Church the care and

rescue of the destitute. In his address To the Christian Nobility

of the German Nation (1520) he proposed that "every town should

provide for its own poor." During his absence in the Wartburg his

radical followers organized in Wittenberg a community fund to care for

orphans, dower poor girls, give scholarships to needy students, and

lend money to impoverished families. In 1523 Luther drew up a

Regulation of a Common Chest, which urged that in each district

the citizens and clergy should tax themselves to raise a fund from

which loans were to be made, without interest, to persons in need

and unable to work. `063357 In 1522 Augsburg appointed six

Armenpfleger - Protectors of the Poor- to supervise the

distribution of relief. Nuremberg followed suit, then Strasbourg and

Breslau (1523), Ratisbon and Magdeburg (1524).

In that year a Spanish humanist, Juan Luis Vives, wrote for the town

council of Bruges a tract On the Relief of the Poor. He noted the

spread of poverty amid growing wealth, and warned that the extreme

inequality of possessions might engender a ruinous rebellion. "As it

is disgraceful," he wrote, "for the father of a family in his

comfortable home to permit anyone in it to suffer the disgrace of

being unclothed or in rags, it is similarly unfitting that the

magistrates of a city should tolerate a condition in which citizens

are hard pressed by hunger and distress." `063358 Vives agreed that

all who were capable of work should be made to work, and that no one

should be allowed to beg. But since many were really unable to work,

some refuge must be set up for them in almshouses, hospitals, and

schools financed by the municipality; food, medical care, and

elementary education should be given them gratis, and special

provision should be made for the mentally defective. Ypres combined

Vives's ideas with the German precedents and organized (1525) a

community chest which united all charitable endowments in one fund,

and all charitable distribution under one head. Charles V asked for

a copy of the Ypres plan and recommended it to all the cities of the

Empire (1531), and Henry VIII sent a similar directive to the parishes

of England (1536). In Catholic countries the Church retained the

administration of charity.

-

Political morality remained Machiavellian. Spies were taken for

granted; those of Henry VIII in Rome were expected to report the

most secret conversations of the Vatican. `063359 Bribery was

traditional, and flowed more lushly after the influx of American gold.

Governments competed in violating treaties; Turkish and Christian

fleets rivaled each other in piracy. In the decay of chivalry the

morals of war relapsed into semi-barbarism; cities that had

unsuccessfully resisted siege were sacked or burned, soldiers

surrendering were slaughtered or enslaved till ransomed; such

international law and comity as had existed in the occasional

submission of kings to arbitration by popes disappeared in a chaos

of nationalistic expansion and religious enmity. Toward

non-Christians, Christians recognized few moral restraints, and the

Turks reciprocated. The Portuguese captured and enslaved African

Negroes, and the Spanish Conquistadores robbed, enslaved, and killed

American natives without abating their high resolve to make the New

World Christian. Life was so bitter for the American Indians under

Spanish rule that thousands of them committed suicide. `063360 Even in

Christendom there was a startling increase of suicides in this

age. `063361 Some humanists condoned self-destruction, but the

Church ruled that it led straight to hell, so that the successful

seeker fell out of the frying pan into the fire.

-

All in all the Reformation, though it ultimately improved the morals

of Europe, temporarily damaged lay morality. Pirkheimer and Hans

Sachs, both sympathetic with Luther, mourned that a chaos of

unregulated conduct had followed the collapse of ecclesiastical

authority. `063362 Luther, as usual, was quite frank about the matter:

-

The more we go forward, the worse the world becomes.... It is

clear enough how much more greedy, cruel, immodest, shameless,

wicked the people are now than they were under popery.... `063363 We

Germans are today the laughing stock and disgrace of all peoples; we

are regarded as ignominious and obscure swine.... We steal, we

lie... we eat and drink to excess, and we give ourselves to every

vice.... `063364 It is the general complaint that the young people

of today are utterly dissolute and disorderly, and will not let

themselves be taught any more.... The women and girls of Wittenberg

have begun to go bare before and behind, and there is no one to punish

or correct them, and God's word is mocked. `063365

-

Andreas Musculus, a Lutheran preacher, described his time (1560)

as unspeakably immoral compared with the Germans of the fifteenth

century, `063366 and many Protestant leaders agreed with

him. `063367 "The future appalls me," moaned Calvin; "I dare not think

of it; unless the Lord descends from heaven, barbarism will engulf

us." `063368 We hear similar notes from Scotland `063369 and

England. Froude, ardent defender of Henry VIII, summed up fairly:

-

The movement commenced by Henry VIII, judged by its present

results (1550), had brought the country at last into the hands of mere

adventurers. The people had exchanged a superstition which in its

grossest abuses prescribed some shadow of respect and obedience, for a

superstition which merged obedience in speculative belief; and under

that baneful influence not only the highest virtues of self-sacrifice,

but the commonest duties of probity and morality, were disappearing.

Private life was infected with impurity to which the licentiousness of

the Catholic clergy appeared like innocence.... Among the good who

remained uninfected the best were still to be found on the Reforming

side. `063370

-

We can hardly attribute this moral decline in Germany and England to

Luther's unchaining of sex or his scorn of "good works," or to Henry's

bad example in sexual indulgence and callous cruelty; for a similar-

in some ways a more unrestrained- license ruled in Catholic Italy

under the Renaissance popes, and in Catholic France under Francis I.

Probably the basic cause of the moral loosening in Western Europe

was the growth of wealth. A main supporting cause was the decline of

faith not only in Catholic dogmas but in the very fundamentals of

the Christian creed. "Nobody cares about either heaven or hell,"

mourned Andreas Musculus; "nobody gives a thought to either God or the

Devil." `063371 In such statements by religious leaders we must

allow for the exaggeration of reformers disappointed to find how

little their theological emendations had improved the moral life.

Men had not been much better before, and would not be much better in

later centuries, if we may trust the preachers. We can discover all

the sins of the sixteenth century in our own age, and all of ours in

theirs, according to their means.

Meanwhile both Catholicism and Protestantism had set up and

strengthened two focuses of moral regeneration: the improvement of

clerical conduct through marriage or continence, and the emphasis on

the home as the final citadel of faith and decency. In the long run

the Reformation would really reform, even to excess; and the time

would come when men and women would look back with secret envy to that

sixteenth century when their ancestors had been so wicked and so free.

IV. MANNERS

-

People then, as now, were judged more by their manners than by their

morals; the world forgave more readily the sins that were committed

with the least vulgarity and the greatest grace. Here, as in

everything but artillery and theology, Italy led the way. Compared

with the Italians the people north of the Alps, except for a thin

upper crust in France and England, were fairly uncouth; the Italians

called them barbarians, and many Frenchmen, charmed with their Italian

conquests in field and chamber, agreed with them. But the barbarians

were eager to be civilized. French courtiers and courtesans, poets and

poisoners, followed Italian models; and the English limped

sedulously behind. Castiglione's Courtier (1528) was translated into

French in 1537, into English in 1561, and polite circles debated the

definition of a gentleman. Manuals of manners were best sellers;

Erasmus composed one. Conversation became an art in France, as later

in the Mermaid Tavern in London; the duel of repartee crossed the Alps

from Italy about the same time as the art of fencing. Conversation was

more polished in France than in Germany; the Germans crushed a man

with humor, the French punctured him with wit. Freedom in speech was

the vital medium of the age.

Since the surface can be more easily made presentable than the soul,

the rising classes in the rising civilizations of the North paid

much attention to their clothing. Commoners dressed artlessly

enough- as we see in Brueghel's multitudes: cuplike hats, loose

blouses with bulging sleeves, tight trousers reaching down to

comfortable shoes, with the ungainly composition centering upon a

codpiece- an insolent bag, sometimes brightly ornamented, dangling

before the male crotch. Moneyed males in Germany enveloped their

mighty frames in voluminous folds of cloth, topped with broad hats

that lay on the head like terraced pancakes; but German women were

apparently forbidden to dress otherwise than as Hausfrauen or cooks.

In England, too, the men wore more finery than their ladies, until

Elizabeth outshone them with her thousand dresses. Henry VIII set a

pace in extravagance of costume, prettifying his pounds with color and

ornaments and precious stuffs. The Duke of Buckingham, at the marriage

of Prince Arthur to Catherine of Aragon, "ware a gowne wrought of

needle worke," says Holinshed, "furred with sables, and valued at

L1,500" ($150,000?). `063371 Sumptuary laws forbade any man lower than

a knight to ape the sartorial splendor of his betters. Englishwomen

covered their forms tightly, with dresses reaching from neck to floor,

and sleeves to the wrist, with a trimming of fur at edges, and broad

girdles buckled with metal ornaments and carrying a pendant or a

rosary; in general they wore less jewelry than the men.

Under the appreciative Francis I French women opened their

bodices, displayed swelling bosoms, and cut their gowns in the back

almost to the last vertebra. `063372 If the natural bust swelled

inadequately, an artificial bust was inserted under the stays. `063373

Clothing was tightened under the breasts and pinched at the waist;

sleeves billowed, hidden wires spread out the skirt at rear and hem,

and high-heeled shoes compelled a prancing, airy step. Women of

rank- no others- were allowed to wear a train, or tail, to their

dresses, the nobler the longer; if nobility sufficed it might be seven

yards long, and a maid or page would follow to hold it up. In

another style the woman would cover her neck with a fraise or

ruff, stiffly supported by wires; and men in a formal mood pilloried

themselves in like contraptions. About 1535 Servetus noted that "the

women of Spain have a custom that would be held barbarous in France,

of piercing their ears and hanging gold rings in them, often set

with precious stones"; `063374 but by 1550 earrings were worn by the

ladies of France, and even by men. `063375 Jewelry continued its

immemorial sway. Frenchmen clothed themselves in silk shirts and

velvet doublets, padded their shoulders, cased their legs in tight

colored breeches, and protected their manhood with a braguette or

codpiece sometimes set off with ribbons or jewelry. Reversing the

custom of the fifteenth century, they wore their hair short and

their beards long. Feminine hair was worn in a variety of structures

discouraging to describe; it was braided, curled, netted, filled out

with switches, decked with flowers, brightened with gems, perfumed

with unguents, dyed to match the fashion, and raised in towers or

pyramids above the head. Hairdressers were now indispensable to

women of fashion, for growing old seemed a fate worse than death.

How clean were the bodies behind the frills? A sixteenth-century

Introduction pour les jeunes dames spoke of women "who have no

care to keep themselves clean except in those parts that may be

seen, remaining filthy... under their linen"; `063376 and a cynical

proverb held that courtesans were the only women who washed more

than their face and hands. `063377 Perhaps cleanliness increased

with immorality, for as women offered more of themselves to view or to

many, cleanliness enlarged its area. Frequent bathing, preferably in

perfumed water, became now, especially in France, part of good

manners. Public bathhouses diminished in number as private bathrooms

multiplied; these, however, were usually without running water,

depending on bowls and tubs. Steam baths, which had come into

Western Europe with returning crusaders in the thirteenth century,

continued popular through the sixteenth.

The home almost replaced the church as the center of religious

worship in Protestant lands. The father served as priest, leading

the family in daily prayers, Bible reading, and psalms, and the mother

taught her children the catechism. In the middle classes comfort

went with piety. This was the age when the table evolved by joining

trestles and boards into a sturdy-legged unity, benches and cushions

evolved into the upholstered chair, and the four-poster bed, carved

and canopied, became a symbol of moral stability and financial

success. Furniture, plate, andirons, and kitchen utensils were made to

endure, even sparkle, for generations. Pewter replaced wooden

platters; spoons of tin or silver replaced those of wood.

Houses were big because families were large. Women bore almost

annually, often in vain, for infantile mortality was high. John

Colet was the eldest of twenty-two children; by the time he was

thirty-two all the others were dead. Anton Koberger, the Nuremberg

printer, had twenty-five children, and survived twelve of them.

Durer was one of eighteen children, of whom only three seem to have

reached maturity. `063378 To round out the family there were household

pets almost as numerous as the progeny. Parrots had come in from the

West Indies, and monkeys from India were domestic favorites. `063379 A

whole literature instructed women and children in the care of dogs and

birds.

Meals were enormous. Vegetables were despised, and only slowly won

acceptance; the cabbage, carrot, lettuce, rhubarb, potato, lima

bean, and strawberry now came into common use. The main meal, or

dinner, was taken at eleven in the morning; supper was deferred till

seven- the higher the class, the later the hour. Beer and wine were

the staple drinks at all meals, even breakfast; one of Thomas More's

claims to fame was that he drank water. About 1550 the Spaniards

brought in chocolate from Mexico; coffee had not yet percolated from

Arabia into Western Europe. In 1512 the household of the Duke of

Northumberland allowed a quart of ale per person per meal, even to

boys eight years old; the average consumption of ale in

sixteenth-century Coventry was a quart per day for every man, woman,

and child. `063380 The breweries of Munich were renowned as early as

the fourteenth century. `063381 Drunkenness was in good repute in

England till "Bloody Mary" frowned upon it; it remained popular in

Germany. The French drank more stably, not being quite so cold.

Despite poverty and oppression, many of the graces of life

continued. Even the poor had gardens. The tulip, first brought to

Western Europe about 1550 by Busbecq, Imperial ambassador at

Constantinople, became a national passion in Holland. Country houses

were a pleasant fashion in England and France. Villagers still had

their seasonal festivals- May Day, Harvest Home, All Saints,

Christmas, and many more; kings themselves went Maying, and crowned

themselves with flowers. The amusements of the rich sometimes provided

exciting pageantry for the poor, as when Henry II entered Lyons in

state in 1548; and commoners might, at a respectful distance, watch

lords joust at tournaments- till that sport went out of style after

the death of Diane's King. Religious processions became more pagan

as the age of Henry VIII moved toward the Elizabethan; and on the

Continent an easy morality allowed nude women, in festival pageants,

to impersonate historical or mythological characters; Durer

confessed himself fascinated by such a display at Antwerp in

1521. `063382

And there were games. Rabelais filled a chapter by merely listing

them, real and imagined; and Brueghel showed almost a hundred of

them in one painting. Bear-baiting, bullfighting, cockfighting, amused

the populace; football, bowling, boxing, wrestling, exercised and

exorcized young commoners; and Paris alone had 250 tennis courts for

its blue bloods in the sixteenth century. `063383 All classes hunted

and gambled; some ladies threw dice, some bishops played cards for

money. `063384 Mummers, acrobats, and players roamed the

countryside, and performed for lords and royalty. Within doors

people played cards, chess, backgammon, and a score of other games.

Of all pastimes the best beloved was the dance. "After dinner," says

Rabelais, "they all went tag-rag together to the willowy grove, where,

on the green grass, to the sound of merry flutes and pleasant

bagpipes, they danced so gallantly that it was a sweet and heavenly

sport to see." `063385 So in England, on May Day, villagers gathered

round a gaily decorated Maypole, danced their lusty rustic measures,

and then, it appears, indulged in intimacies reminiscent of the

Roman festival of Flora, goddess of flowers. Under Henry VIII the

May games usually included the morris (i.e., Moorish) dance, which had

come from the Spanish Moors via the Spanish fandango with castanets.

Students danced so boisterously at Oxford and Cambridge that William

of Wykeham had to forbid the ecstasy near chapel statuary. Luther

approved of dancing, and relished especially the "square dance, with

friendly bows, embracings, and hearty swinging of the

partners." `063386 The grave Melanchthon danced; and at Leipzig, in

the sixteenth century, the city fathers regularly held a ball to

permit students to become acquainted with the "most honorable and

elegant daughters of magnates, senators, and citizens." `063387

Charles VI often led ( balait ) the ballet or dance at the French

court; Catherine de Medicis brought Italian dancers to France, and

there, in the later days of that unhappy queen mother, dancing

developed new aristocratic forms. "Dancing," said Jean Tabourot, in

Durant W. The Reformation. A History of European Civilization from Wyclif to Calvin: 1300-1564

Подождите немного. Документ загружается.