Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions1. What part did books play in shaping opinion

and at what point in the process of conversion and opinion forming were they most likely to be influential? (See Pettegree, p. 156.)

2. In what ways do we see “an active commitment” (p. 187) to Protestantism? Does this activism belong to the “culture of persuasion”? How?

3. Does “the power of the crowd” (p. 214) help explain the success or failure of the Reformation? Consider examples from Pettegree’s book and other assigned readings in the course.

Discussion Questions4. Now that you have completed Pettegree’s

book, where do you think he belongs in the debate over the success or failure of the Reformation?

5. Pettegree's idea of “new solidarities” is not merely relevant to Protestantism. It is also evident in Holt’s article. How does it figure in the failure of Protestantism in Dijon?

6. In evaluating the success or failure of the Reformation, can or should we separate social forces from religious identity? What does Holt’s article suggest?

Reformation and the Culture of Persuasion Our purposes in reading the book:

1. to assess the effectiveness of various media to present and gain acceptance of the religious message of the Reformation

2. to supplement our investigation of the debate about the success / failure of the Reformation. Can you find connections between the book and the assigned articles and MacCulloch’s Reformation?

Questions to keep in mind:1. How do we assess effectiveness?2. Does effective presentation of the Reformation

message necessarily mean acceptance of the message?

Pamphlets and Persuasion Why did people buy books?

Not just to read from cover to cover. “as a badge of identity…as a

memento…as a mark of professional status…to signal social aspiration…as a fashion statement…for reassurance…through a sense of obligation, to honour someone we admire. …out of idle curiosity…as gifts” (157)

Pamphlets and Persuasion: The Crowd Made Text “Why did people buy pamphlets in the sixteenth

century?” (159) Those who bought large books also bought

small books: true of France and Low Countries where Protestant books forbidden.

pamphlet wars in 1520s: ca. 6,000 editions x 1,000 copies each = 6,000,000 copies2,000,000 copies in Paris, 1589-90, in support

of Catholic League collections of pamphlets often bundled

together in printer’s shop: pamphlets valuable as individual works and as ensembles

Pamphlets and Persuasion: The Crowd Made Text domestication of the literature of protest

“created an impression of cacophony and irresistible pressure. They were the crowd made text” (162). the work of educated writers

but collective dimension “created the impression of an overwhelming tide, an unstoppable movement of opinion. …Their force lay in the power—or the appearance—of collective, irresistible might” (163)

Pamphlets and Persuasion: Pamphlet Moments 1518-1526 in Germany = ca. 6,000,000

copies for first time book market dominated by small

books in German (not Latin)Protestants dominated book market Luther dominated but 2,500,000 copies by

other authors in support of Luther before 1546

 Flugschriften = pamphlets

Pamphlets and Persuasion: Pamphlet Moments Luther benefited from simplification

supporters emphasized clerical corruptionGhent baker Lieven de Zomere owned at

least two books by Luther a local cleric read him some of Babylonian

Captivity of the Church (1520) de Zomere did not understand

sola scriptura a powerful doctrine, reinforced by Luther’s New Testament in German (1522)manifested “in the pulpit, on stage, in the Bible

itself”(170)

Pamphlets and Persuasion: Pamphlet Moments pamphlet literature of the Lutheran

Reformation: provided the frisson of danger, a taste of the forbidden, disapproved or controversial, without, in fact, being dangerous” (170)

1560s in Northern Europe

Pamphlets and Persuasion: Proxy Evangelists vigilance re: vernacular books; rules against

printing works of forbidden authors; pre-publication censorship by university

France: “public support for the Reformation was, from the first, rendered impossible” (172) re: pulpit.

discreet / disguised publications; but still dangerous

rise of publication of Bibles in 1540s and 1550s: “an economic lifeline for printers” (175)

Pamphlets and Persuasion: Proxy Evangelists “How effectively had books been able to

function as proxies for evangelism in a climate of hostility and repression?” (175)

control of dissemination successful to a pointbooks “still proved most effective when they

played a supporting role among other media of evangelical agitation” (176)

books help sustain faith of small secretive groups.

Pamphlets and Persuasion: Proxy Evangelists “How effectively had books been able to

function as proxies for evangelism in a climate of hostility and repression?” (175) “The proxy evangelism of clandestine

literature kept the Reformation alive, but at a price, since many self-trained adepts arrived at views that could not be contained within the developing orthodoxies of the new movement” (176) exile churches important re: proper formation

of future leaders

Pamphlets and Persuasion: Two Tribes

“How do we judge the contribution of books to this vast turbulent movement of protest and religious renewal?” (277)second pamphlet moment, Northern

Europe, 1560sintense, prolific, printing inside France;

printers used Genevan emblems to attract interest

Pamphlets and Persuasion: Two Tribes

“What can we say of the role, tone, and content of the printed polemic of Protestantism in this new period of opportunity?” (179)print part of “a broad, cross-media movement

of public agitation and debate” (179) intermingling of religious and political

themes; in France: attack on Guise family

Pamphlets and Persuasion: Two Tribes

Catholic pamphlets on counter-attack “Between 1560 and 1565 the polemical

battle between Catholics and Protestants was waged with an unprecedented ferocity in France. Never before in the Reformation century had two contending parties made their case to the reading public with such force, or with evident lack of mutual sympathy” (182-83).

Davies’ rules of propaganda: simplification, disfiguration, transfusion, unanimity, transfiguration

New Solidarities

weakness of confessionalization paradigm: not all change imposed from above

Pettegree’s focus: “an active commitment to a form of religion” (187)

New Solidarities: Schools of Christ Bible: “In this book the print culture of the

sixteenth century was displayed in all its technical sophistication” (191). 5,000,000 vernacular copies in the

sixteenth century also in the godly home: music sermons, catechism service, communal

singing: inculcated “values of the new religion” (193).

New Solidarities: Schools of Christ

“Even in the towns, of course, the most zealous instruction could not guarantee agreement among the citizens who brought their own increasingly autonomous readings to what they heard in the pulpit, or read in their books at home. Empowerment of a theologically informed laity brought its own dangers.” (193-94)

New Solidarities: Battles half won French Huguenots create separate culture: dress,

names for children, marriage, business practices 1572 massacres: destruction, dislocation, sense

of embattlement, moral rigour of Huguenot ministers

Netherlands: consistorial discipline allowed by authorities only for those who freely submitted themselves to it; two types of adherents: full confessing members and sympathizers who did not communicate

England: vestiarian controversy; gentry patronage of godly preachers; but godly not separatists

New Solidarities: Godly kin & godly nation creation of Protestant community beyond

local worship practice: Protestant histories, martyrologies, calendars cleansing of Catholic calendar, promotion of

Protestant calendar with new days of commemoration

biblical events, contemporary martyrsnew commemorations could not be easily

imposed from above

New Solidarities: Godly kin & godly nation Protestant identity:

narrow in focus, exclusive and limited, common heritage and broad fellowship

incubated at school, home, everyday commerce of sociability

most potent when under threat from Catholicism

Culture of Belonging “the urgent tone of conflict and call for

activism best conveyed by the oral means of articulating the new teachings: by preaching and by song” (212)

extent of Protestant success or failure: prejudiced by “gloomy reflections of the reformers themselves” (213) disjunction between reformers’ aims and

process of church building transmitting knowledge vs. “culture of

belonging.”

;

Culture of Belonging “The essentials of faith were mediated—or

possibly only inferred—around the constant enactment of the religious life as sharing: a parish religion, a civic culture, a familial experience embracing generations past” (213).

“In order to succeed, the Reformation had to replace institutions and associations damned by evangelical criticism with a new complex of loved, lived solidarities (213).disjunction between reformers’ aims and process of church building” (213).

;

Culture of Belonging the importance of the crowd, the counter-

community symbols: “badges of belonging” (215)

medals, tokens woodcut as “badge of identity” pamphlets too, hence punishment for

possession

;

Wine, Community and Reformation In evaluating the success or failure of the Reformation,

can or should we separate social forces from religious identity? What does Holt’s article suggest?1. What view of the Reformation does Holt’s article

imply?2. Can we safely label as Counter-Reformation the

events as well as the social and cultural forces that prevented the establishment of Protestantism in Dijon?

3. The articles by Scribner, Goodale, and Holt all direct attention to “social forces” when considering the success or failure of the Reformation. Do you notice any similarities or differences in interpretations and methodology among the three articles?