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‘Reformed Pastors’ and Bons Curés: the Changing Role of the Parish Clergy in Early Modern Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Ian Green
Ian Green*
Affiliation:
Queen’s University, Belfast
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Extract

Over the last half century, a number of sociologists on both sides of the Atlantic have tried to define the contemporary role of the ministry. Among the ideas which emerged from their work, three are relevant for our purpose here. The first was that a number of roles which well-intentioned if not always well-qualified clergy had tried to play in the past had been lost or were being lost to rival professions, few of whose members were in holy orders: doctors and psychiatrists, marriage guidance counsellors and social caseworkers, solicitors and schoolteachers. Sociologists detected a sense of what was called ‘role uncertainty’ among the English clergy, and a feeling that in future they should be trained in new skills such as counselling. Allied to this disquiet was another concern, that the administrative and organizational side of the minister’s work was threatening to swamp the more important traditional roles of priest, pastor, and preacher. A third suggestion was that in an increasingly secular society the status of the ministry was declining. For centuries, it was argued, the clergy had enjoyed a unique place in society because of their sacerdotal functions and special skills, but this was now changing: the value of the Christian ministry in the eyes of the laity was falling behind that of more ‘useful’ professions such as medicine and the law.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 26: The Ministry: Clerical and Lay , 1989 , pp. 249 - 286
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1989

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References

1 The preparation of this paper would not have been possible without grants from the Research Fund committee and much help from the Librarians of the Queen’s University of Belfast, to whom I should like to extend my deep gratitude. For America, see the work of the Lynds summarized and revised in Caplow, T., ed., All Faithful People: Change and Continuity in Middletown’s Religion (Minneapolis, 1983), pp. 39–42 Google Scholar, and the comments in Niebuhr, H. R., Williams, D. D. and Gustafson, J. M., The Purpose of the Church and its Ministry (New York, 1956), pp. 31, 48–53Google Scholar. For England, see the works cited by Towler, R., ‘The Social Status of the Anglican Minister’ in Robertson, R., ed., Sociology of Religion (Harmondsworth, 1969), pp. 443–50 Google Scholar, and A Russell, The Clerical Profession (London, 1980), pt. 3.

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21 Comments on clerical standards of living are bound to be impressionistic in the absence of comparative studies over different periods and different areas, but see the following: J.-F. Bergier, ‘Salaires des Pasteurs de Genève au XVIe Siècle”, Mélanges D’Histoire du XVIe Siècle Offerts à Henri Meylan (Geneva, 1970), pp. 159–78; F. W. Brooks, ‘The Social Position of the Parson in the Sixteenth Century’, Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 10 (1945-7), pp. 23–37; Green, ‘Career Prospects’, pp. 78–88, and ‘The first years of Queen Anne’s Bounty’, in R. O’Day and F. Heal, eds.. Princes and Paupers in the English Church, 1500–1800 (Leicester, 1981), pp. 231–54; O’Day, ‘Anatomy’, pp. 53–6; Roberts, Gustavus Adolphus, 1, pp. 392–4; Delumeau, Catholicisme (Paris, 1971), pp. 211–13, 273–4; Ferté, Vie Religieuse, pp. 43, 48; Hoffman, Church and Community, pp. 159–60; W. R. Foster, The Church before the Covenants (Edinburgh, 1975), cap. 8, and Bishop and Presbytery (London, 1958), pp. 108–10; but cf. Fulbrook, Piety, pp. 84–6 (as opposed to 77–9) and E. Sagarra, A Social History of Germany 1648–1914 (London, 1977), p. 117.

22 H. McLeod, Religion and the People of Western Europe 1789–1970 (Oxford, 1981); W. Doyle, The Old European Order 1660–1800 (Oxford, 1978), pp. 156–61; R. Lennard, Rural England 1086–1135) (Oxford, 1959), p. 307.

23 Mousnier, R., Social Hierarchies: 1450 to the Present Day (London, 1973); see also the articles by Wrightson, Thompson and Mettam in History Today, 37 (1987) and the references therein, and K. Wrightson, ‘The Social Order of Early Modern England: Three Approaches’ in L. Bonfield, R. Smith and Wrightson, eds.. The World We Have Gained (Oxford, 1986), cap. 7.Google Scholar

24 As previous note, and J. H. Hexter, “The Education of die Aristocracy in the Renaissance’, in Reappraisals in History (London, 1961); L. Stone, ‘The Educational Revolution in England, 1540–1640’, P& P 28 (1966), pp. 57–70; R. Mousnier, The Institutions of France under the Absolute Monarchy, 1598–1789: Society and the State (Chicago/London, 1979), caps. 1, 4, 5; I. A. A. Thompson, ‘Neo-noble Nobility: Concepts of Hidalguia in Early Modern Castile’, European History Quarterly, 15 (1985).

25 Bornfert, R., La Rèforme Pastorale du Culte à Strasbourg au XVIe siècle(Studies in Medieval and Reformation Thought 28, Leiden, 1981), p. 419; Roberts, Gustavus Adolphus, I, p. 394.Google Scholar

26 Bruford, W.H., Germany in the Eighteenth Century (Cambridge,1965), p. 255; W. H. Williams, ‘Voltaire and the Utility of the Lower Clergy’, Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century, 58 (1967), pp. 1869–91.Google Scholar

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28 K. Wrightson, English Society 1580–1680 (London, 1982), pp. 13–14, 222–8; E. P. Thompson, ‘Patrician Society, Plebeian Culture’, Journal of Social History, 7 (1974), pp. 382–405; R. Muchembled, Popular Culture and Elite Culture in France 1400–1750, tr. L Cochrane (Baton Rouge/London, 1985), pp. 208–23; Hoffman, Church and Community, caps. 3–4. For Sweden sec next note, for Catalonia and Sicily n. 96; the idea of bridge-building is taken a stage further, below pp. 277–85.

29 Roberts, Gustavus Adolphus, 1, p. 392, and cf. p. 395, and cap. 7 passim; see also M. Roberts, ed., Sweden’s Age of Greatness 1632–1718 (London, 1973), pp. 115–19, 132–73.

30 O. Hufton, ‘The French Church’, in W. H. Callahan and D. Higgs, eds., Church and Society in Catholic Europe of the Eighteenth Century (Cambridge, 1979), p. 24; see also Tackett, T., Priest and Parish in Eighteenth-Century France (Princeton, 1977), pp. 155–66, and Molinier, ‘Curès’, pp. 73–4.77-8. 86–7.Google Scholar

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32 Baxter, R., Gildas Salvianus. The Reformed Pastor(London,1655), cap. 1, section 1: 5; it is interesting that Baxter devotes two-fifths of his text to catechizing and household instruction and very little to preaching compared to Bernard: see Collinson, above pp. 195–6.Google Scholar

33 Herbert, G., A Priest to the Temple Or The Countrey Parson (1652), caps. 4–5 and passim.Google Scholar

34 Broutin, Réforme Pastorale, 1, pp. 44–5, 227–30, and pt 3 passim; A. Playoust-Chaussis, La Vie Religieuse dans le Diocèse de Boulogne au XVIII’ Siècle (Arras, 1976), pp. 177–8; P. Sage, Le ‘Bon Prêtre’ dans la Littérature Française (Geneva, 1951); Williams, ‘Voltaire’, art. cit.; and see M.-L Fracard, ‘Le Recrutement du Clergé Séculier dans la Région Niortaise au XVllle Siècle’, Revue d’Histoire de L’Eglise de France, 57(1971), pp. 262—4.

35 T. Tackett, ‘The Citizen Priests: Politics and Ideology among the Parish Clergy of die Eighteenth Century’, Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture, 7 (1978), pp. 307–28.

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38 Richard Rogers, Samuel Smith and Lewis Thomas are referred to as ‘preacher’ on the title-pages of some of their printed works; Thomas Shephard and Samuel How are referred to as ‘pastor’ in their The Sincere Convert (London, 1648) and The Sufficience of the Spirits Teaching (London, 1655); some British authors, even episcopalians, used die term ‘presbyter’, as in the catechism published in Edinburgh in 1712 by T.M. (‘a suffering presbyter of the Church of Scotland’) and the Primitive Catechism published by Daniel Whiston (‘a presbyter of the Church of England’) in London in 1718. For the German ‘pfarrer’, ‘praedicant’ and other terms, see Vogler, B., Le Clergé Protestant Rhénan au Siècle de la Réforme (1555-1619) (Paris, 1976), p. 121 Google Scholar.

39 See n. 21 above; also Luciano Allegra, Ricerche sulla Cultura del Clero in Piemonte. Le Biblioteche Parrocchiali nell’Archidiocesi di Torine. sec XVII-XVIII (Turin, 1978); L. Pérouas, La Diocèse de la Rochelle de 1648 à 1724 (Paris, 1964), pp. 203, 263–4; D. Julia, ‘Le Prêtre au XVIIIe Siècle’, Recherches de Science Religieuse, 58 (1970), pp. 521–34; Tackett, Prior and Parish, pp. 89–92; Pruett, J. H., The Parish Clergy under the Later Stuarts(Urbana, 1978), pp. 45–6 and cap. 5Google Scholar; Chadwick, O., The Popes and European Revolution(Oxford, 1981), pp. 103-9, 118; in England, not only fashionable Anglican authors like Andrewes but also nonconformist authors such as Richard Baxter, John Bunyan and Matthew Henry had their features reproduced in their works. For satirical printsGoogle Scholar, see Miller, J., Religion in the Popular Prints 1600–1832 (Cambridge, 1986).Google Scholar

40 Russell, Clerical Profession, pp. 33–4;Tackett, Priest and Parish, pp. 74–5, 88–91, 167–8; Ferté, Vie Religieuse, pp. 179, 191–4; T.-J. Schmitt, L’Organisation Ecclésiastique et la Pratique Reli gieuse Jans l’Archidiaconé d’Autun de 1655 à 1750 (Autun, 1957), pp. 129–30; Chadwick, Popes, p. 108; Gilbert White, The Natural History of Selbome (London, 1788–9).

41 Heeney, Different Kind, cap. 2.

42 Delumeau, Catholicisme; Pérouas, La Rochelle; Muchembled, Popular Culture; Bossy, Christianity; and P. Chaunu, Le Temps des Réformes (Paris, 1975).

43 The differences I am thinking of are not simply matters of the ratio of clergy to parishioners, the background and education of ordinands or the size and value of livings to which they were appointed, but also matters such as the extent of stratification between upper and lower clergy and the strength of rivals such as regulars or nonconformist preachers.

44 While social standing might have been important to the self-confidence and thus the performance of the clergy (unless humility triumphed over worldliness), the laity were surely just as likely to be offended by a rise in clerical standards as impressed by them to the point of listening more carefully to what the minister said.

45 See above nn. 9–12, 20, and below pp. 265, 271–3. Preliminary attempts to assess calling and the concept of the ministry can be found in Vogler, Clergé Protestant, pp. 52–3, 117–34; T. E. Weir, ‘Pastoral Care in the Church of Scodand in the Seventeenth Century’ (unpublished University of Edinburgh Ph.D. thesis, 1960); and F. Bussby, ‘A History and Source Book for the Training for the Ministry in the Church of England, 1511–1717’ (unpublished University of Durham M. Litt. thesis, 1952), cap. 6.

46 Bossy, Wastem Christianity, p. 66; P. Heath, Church and Realm 1272–1461 (London, 1988); A. K. McHardy, ‘Liturgy and Propaganda in the Diocese of Lincoln during the Hundred Years War’, SCH 18 (1982), pp. 215–27, and ‘Clerical Taxation in Fifteenth-Century England: the Clergy as Agents of the Crown’, in Dobson, R., ed., The Church, Politics and Patronage in the Fifteenth Century(Gloucester, 1984), pp. 168–92 Google Scholar.

47 Binz, L., Vie Religieuse et Réforme Ecclésiastique dans le Diocèse de Genève …(1378-1450) (Mémoires et Documents Publiés par la Société d’Histoire et d’Archéologie de Genève 41, Geneva, 1973), pp. 358–72; Hoffman, Church and Community, pp. 19–20, 50, 98–100.Google Scholar

48 Above p. 193.

49 P. Richè, ‘La Pastorale Populaire en Occident VIe-Xle Siècles’, reprinted in Instruction et Vie Religieuse dans le Haut Moyen Age (London, 1981), pp. 195–221; Hamilton, B., Religion in the Medieval West (London, 1986), pp. 70–3, 108–11, 133–41.Google Scholar

50 It is not so much that most clergy have lost the social status of gentleman or the roles of doctor, counsellor, etc., as that most probably never had them; and by the nature of both their calling (inner and outer) and the difficulty of assessing the quality of their ‘work’, especially the sacerdotal, it is hard to see how they can be compared with occupations now widely accepted as professions. Moreover given a sense of vocation among clergy, the questionnaires used by some of the sociologists mentioned in n. 2 above were bound to produce answers that gave administrative chores a very low priority.

51 The best general introductions to training schemes are L.-E. Halkin, ‘La Formation du Clergé Catholique après le Concile de Trente’, in Baker, D., ed., Miscellanea Historiae Ecclesiastical, 3 (Louvain, 1970), pp. 109–25 Google Scholar; Meylan, H., ‘Le Recrutement et la Formation des Pasteurs dans les Eglises Réformées du XVIe Siècle’, ibid., pp. 127–50; and Vogler, Clergé Protestant, cap. 1.Google Scholar

52 For example, M. Brecht, ‘Herkunft und Ausbildung der Protestantischen Geistlichen des Herzogtums Wurttemberg im 16 Jahrhundert’, Zeilschrift fur Kirkengeschichte, 80 (1949), p. 170; Karant-Nunn,’Luther’s Pastors’, p. 13; Ferté, Vie Religieuse, p. 148.

53 Meylan, ‘Recrutement’, pp. 131, 134; Vogler, Clergé Protestant, pp. 50–3; Foster, Bishop and Presbytery, pp. 89–93; Ferté, Vie Religieuse, pp. 160-;9; A. Schaer, Le Clergè Paroissial Catholique en Haute Alsace sous l’Ancien Régime (1648-1766) (Paris, 1966), p. 130; Fracard, ‘Recrutement’, pp. 245–55; Chadwick, Popes, p. 117.

54 e.g., Tackett, Priest and Parish, pp. 54–71, 79, and Pruett, Parish Clergy, p. 35; funds could be eked out by acting as servant to richer students: ibid., pp. 39–40, and Bruford, Germany, pp. 247–8. On sums demanded before ordination see below n. 76.

55 See above n. 20, and Meylan, ‘Recrutement’, pp. 144–7; Vogler, ‘Formation et Recrutement du Clergé Protestant’, in Misc. Hist. Eccles., 3, p. 219; D. Julia, ‘Le Clergé Paroissial dans le Diocès de Reims à la Fin du XVIIIe Siècle’, Revue d’Histoire Moderne et Contemporaine, 13 (1966), pp. 206–9; Playoust-Chaussis, Vie Religieuse, pp. 150–2, 286.

56 Two recent surveys have useful bibliographies: G. Mialeret and J. Vial, eds., Histoire Mondiale de L’Education, 4 vols (Paris, 1981), 2, pt 2, and J. Bowen, A History of Western Education, 3 vols (London, 1972–81), 3, caps. 4–5. For regional variation, see R. Charrier, D. Julia and M.-M. Compère, eds., L’Education en France du XVIe au XVIIIe Siècle (Paris, 1978), pp. 23–5, and compare Hoffman, Church and Community, pp. 112–4 and Tackett, Priest and Parish, pp. 72–4-

57 Vogler, Clergé Protestant, pp. 46–57; Pruett, Parish Clergy, pp. 42–5, but see J. G Shuler, ‘The Pastoral and Ecclesiastical Administration of the Diocese of Durham 1721–1771’ (unpublished University of Durham Ph.D. thiesis, 1976), cap. 6; Roberts, Gustavus Adolphus, 1, pp. 470–6, and ‘The Swedish Church’, in Sweden’s Age of Greatness, pp. 147–8.

58 In eighteenth-century France graduates comprised as little as a sixth of the parish clergy in more remote dioceses and perhaps a half nearer university cities: Tackett, Priest and Parish, p. 76 n. 14. See also ibid., pp. 72–5;Schaer, ClergéParoissial, p. 122; J.-P. Gutton, ‘Notes sur le Recrutement du Clergé Séculier dans l’Archidiocèse de la Région Lyonnaise’, Bulletin du Centre D’Histoire Economique et Sociale de la Région Lyonnaise, 2 (1974), p. 19; and Chadwick, Popes, p. 118. For graduates securing higher office, see R. L Kagan, ‘Universities in Castile 1500–1700’, P&P 49(1970), pp. 51–2, 59, 62; Hoffman, Church and Community, pp. 10–14; M. C. Perronet, Les Evêques de L’Ancienne France (Lille, 1977), pp. 4–15.

59 Karant-Nunn, ‘Luther’s Pastors’, pp. 19–20; Pruett, Parish Clergy, pp. 44–5; Roberts, Gustavus Adolphus, 1, p. 391; and see below pp. 278–80. C Webster, ‘The Curriculum of the Grammar Schools and Universities 1500–1660: A Critical Review of the Literature”, History of Education, 4 (1975), pp. 56–8.

60 See below p. 273.

61 Vogler, Clergé Protestant, p. 72; Halkin, ‘Formation’, pp. 109—25; A. Dégert, Histoire des Séminaires Français jusqu’à la Révolution, 2 vols (París, 1912); Sagarra, Social History, p. 122; Chadwick, Popes, pp. 112–14; Callahan and Higgs, Church and Society, pp. 56, 131.

62 Meylan, ‘Recrutement’, pp. 132–3; C. A. Tukker, ‘The Recruitment and Training of Protestant Ministers in the Netherlands in the Sixteenm Century’, Misc. Hist. Eccles., 3, pp. 202–13; Halkin, ‘Formation’, pp. 120, 122, 124; Dégert, Histoire des Séminaires, i, pp. 117–254; Broutin, Réforme Pastorale, 2, pp. 117–254, 507–40; Ferté, Vie Religieuse, pp. 152—4, 157—9.

63 Webster, ‘Curriculum’, pp. 58–60; Green, ‘Career Prospects’, pp. 109–10; Kagan, ‘Universities’, p. 54; Roberts, Gustavus Adolphus, 1, pp. 454–5; and see previous note.

64 J. Verger, ‘Les Universités à l’Epoque Moderne’, in Histoire Mondiale, 2, p. 249; Roberts, Gustavus Adolphus, 1, pp. 455, 474–5; Kagan, ‘Universities’, p. 59; R. Briggs, ‘The Catholic Puritans: Jansenists and Rigorists in France’, in D. Pennington and K. Thomas, eds., Puritans and Revolutionaries (Oxford, 1978), pp. 345–7; Peronnet, Evèques, pp. 44–56.

65 Ortiz, A. D., The Golden Age of Spain 1516–1659 tr. J. Casey (London, 1971), pp. 123–4; Kagan, ‘Universities’, pp. 49–50, 54, 56–7Google Scholar; Clark, G. N., The Seventeenth Century (Oxford, 1960), pp. 291–3; Verger, ‘Universités’, pp. 256–9, 259–66; Scotland, History of Scottish Education, 1, pp. 151-8; C. Bourgeaud, Histoire de l’Université de Genève: 1. l’Académie de Calvin, 1559–1798 (Geneva, 1900); P.-F. Geisendorf, L’Université de Genève (Geneva, 1959); Chadwick, Popes, pp. 114–15, 118–22, 129–31.Google Scholar

66 Ibid., pp. 124–33; Verger, ‘Universités’, p. 251; Bruford, Germany, p. 252; Pruett, Parish Clergy, p.51.

67 e.g., R. Peters. ‘The Training of the “Unlearned” Clergy in England during the 1580s’, in Misc. Hist. Eccles., 3, pp. 184–97; T. Wood, ed., Five Pastorals (London, 1961); J. R. H. Moorman, ed., The Curate of Souls (London, 1958); C. Hill, ‘Puritans and “the Dark Corners of die Land”’, TRHS 5 ser., 13 (1963), pp. 77–102; and see below n. 111.

68 Ortiz, Golden Age, pp. 201, 208, 213–14; Kamen, H., Spain in the Later Seventeenth Century 1665–1700 (London, 1980), p. 298; Schaer, Clergé Paroissial, pp. 138–41; Hoffman, Church and Community, pp. 77–9; Delumeau, Catholicisme, pp. 271–2, 278–80; and see Callahan and Higgs, Church and Society, pp. 30, 32, 43, 47, 56, 72, 74, 112, 133–5, 147–8, 154Google Scholar.

69 e.g., Foster, Bishop and Presbytery, pp. 89–96; Roberts, Gustavus Adolphus, i, pp. 454–6; Tackett, Priest and Parish, pp. 81–2.

70 Ferté, Vie Religieuse, p. 158.

71 Green, ‘Career Prospects’, pp. 109–10. For attempts to increase the study of theology, see O’Day, English Clergy, pp. 132–4, 139–40, and Dent, C. M., Protestant Reformers in Elizabethan Oxford (Oxford, 1983), pp. 165–66.Google Scholar

72 Brecht, ‘Herkunft’, p. 171; O’Day, English Clergy, pp. 7–66, 177; Pruett, Parish Clergy, pp. 52–7, 69–71, 96–7; Foster, Church before the Covenants, pp. 135–8; Schmitt, L’Organisation Ecclésiastique, p. 156; Tackett, Priest and Parish, pp. 98–102.

73 Collinson, P., The Religion of Protestants: The Church in English Society 1559–1625(Oxford, 1982), pp. 118–19; Foster, Church before the Covenants, p. 138; Ferté, Vie Religieuse, p. 60; Playoust-Chaussis, Vie Religieuse, pp. 163–4.Google Scholar

74 Foster, Church before the Covenants, pp. 136–7.

75 See above n. 72, and J. McManners, French Ecclesiastical Society under the Ancien Régime (Man chester, 1960), p. 138.

76 The amount of the bond could vary even within one Church and one diocese: Viala, “Suggestions’, pp. 1474–6; Y.-M Le Pennée, ‘Le Recrutement des Prêtres dans le Diocèse de Coutances au XVIIe Siècle’, Revue du Department de la Manche, 12 (1970), p. 195; Fracard, ‘Recrutement’, p. 246.

77 See above nn. 20, 55, and Green, ‘Career Prospects’, pp. 71—88.

78 Pérouas, ‘Le Nombre des Vocations Sacerdotales’, p. 38.

79 Fracard, ‘Recrutement’, pp. 244, 256, 264; B. Vogler, ‘Recrutement et Carrière des Pasteurs Sttasbourgeois au XVIe Siècle’, Revue d’Histoire et de Philosophie Religieuse, 48 (1968), pp. 159–60; Roberts, Gustavus Adolphus, 1, p. 391; O’Day, Parish Clergy, pp. 161–2; Green, “Career Prospects’, pp. 76–8; Pruett, Parish Clergy, pp. 35—7; Tackett, Priest and Parish, p. 55. Du Moulin is cited by Meylan, ‘Recrutement, pp. 148–9.

80 McManners, French Ecclesiastical Society, pp. 138–9; Ferté, Vie Religieuse, pp. 19, 40–1; Playoust-Chaussis, Vie Religieuse, pp. 156–8; Chadwick, Popes, pp. 130, 154; Vogler, Clergé Protestant, pp. 79–84; O’Day, English Clergy, caps. 6–9; Foster, Church before the Covenants, pp. 138–9.

81 Brecht,’Herkunft’, pp. 174–5; Pruett, Parish Clergy, cap. 2; Hoffman, Church and Community, pp. 10–14.

82 Green, ‘Career Prospects’, pp. 89—92; but more local men were recruited in the remote diocese of Durham than in the county of Surrey: J. Freeman, ‘The Parish Ministry in the Diocese of Durham, c.1570-1640 (unpublished University of Durham Ph.D. thesis, 1979), cap. 1; R. A. Christophers, ‘Social and Educational Background of the Surrey Clergy, 1520–1620’(unpublished University of London PhD. thesis, 1975), cap. 2.

83 For a disappointed place-seeker, see J. H. Pruett, ‘A Late Stuart Leicestershire Parson: the Reverend Humphrey Michel’, Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society Transactions, 54 (1978-9), pp. 26–38.

84 Smout, Scottish People, pp. 70–3; Callahan and Higgs, Church and Society, pp. 37–8, 41–2, 54–55, 89–91, 123, 131.

85 e.g., Vienna, ibid., pp. 90–1, and Madrid: Kamen, Spain, p. 299.

86 See above notes 58, 82, 84;Tukker,’Recruitment’, pp. 201–3; Ferté, Vie Religieuse, pp. 42–3, 186–7; Chadwick, Popes, pp. 99–100; Callahan and Higgs, Church and Society, pp. 3–8.

87 Delumeau, Catholicisme, p. 218–23 (citing the work of Pérouas in particular); Callahan and Higgs, Church and Society, p. 25; McLeod, Religion and People, pp. 2–3, 5–10; Coleman, B., The Church of England in the Mid-Nineteenth Century (London, 1980), pp. 8–25.Google Scholar

88 For England, compare Heath, P., The English Parish Clergy on the Eve of the Reformation (London, 1969), pp. 10 Google Scholar, 106–7, 133–4. 152–3. and C. Haigh, ‘Anticlericalism and the English Reformation’, History, 68 (1983), pp. 391–407, with O’Day, English Clergy, caps. 14–15, and E.J. Evans, “Some Reasons for the Growth of English Rural Anri-Clericalism’, P&P 66 (1975), pp. 84–109. On Germany, see Scribner, R. W., Popular Culture and Popular Movements in Reformation Germany (London, 1987), cap. 11.Google Scholar

89 Larner, C., Witchcraft and Religion: The Politics of Popular Belief (Oxford, 1984), cap. 2 (‘Pre-Industrial Europe: The Age of Faith’); J. A Sharpe, Early Modem England: A Social History 1550–1760 (London, 1987), pp. 44–5; Kamen, Spain, pp. 297–300; Callahan and Higgs, Church and Society, pp. 7–8 and cap. 10.Google Scholar

90 Ingram, M. J., Church Courts, Sex and Marriage in England, 1570–1640 (Cambridge, 1988), p. 123 and cap. 3; see also Spufford, Contrasting Communities, cap.13, and next note.Google Scholar

91 e.g., Tackett, Priest and Parish, cap. 7; D. Spaeth, ‘Parsons and Parishioners: Lay-Clerical Conflicts and Popular Piety in Wiltshire Villages, 1660–1740’ (unpublished Brown University Ph.D. diesis, 1985), passim. Of course, many other variables come into play when one tries to assess lay-clerical relations in a parish.

92 Binz, VieReligieuse, p. 444; Hoffman, Church and Community, p. 140 and caps. 4—5;Fulbrook, Piety and Politics, pp. 85–6; Callahan and Higgs, Church and Society, pp. 5–6, 15, 25, 50–1, 68–72; M. Spufford, Contrasting Communities: English Villagers in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (Cambridge, 1974), pt. 3; Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, passim; and G. Strauss, ‘Success and Failure in the German Reformation’, P & P 67 (1975), pp. 30–63.

93 e.g., O’Day, English Clergy, cap. 12; Tackett, Priest and Parish, pp. 225–9; and see above nn. 39, 68, 79

94 Roberts, ‘The Swedish Church’, pp. 164–5; Tackett, Priest and Parish caps. 9–10, and Religion, Revolution and Regional Culture in Eighteenth-Century France (Princeton, 1986), passim.

95 For the complexity of ecclesiastical relations in France from 1650 to 1800, see Golden, R. M., The Godly Rebellion: Parisian Curés and the Religious Fronde, 1652–1662 (Chapel Hill, 1981)Google Scholar; Kreiser, B. R., Miracles, Convulsions and Ecclesiastical Politics in Early Eighteenth-Century Paris (Princeton, 1978)Google Scholar; McManners, French Ecclesiastical Society; and previous note.

96 J. den Tex, Oldenbamevelt, 2 vols (Cambridge, 1973), 2, cap. 10; N. Tyacke, Anti-Calvinists: The Rise of English Arminianism c.1590-1640 (Oxford, 1987); A. Whiteman, ‘Church and State’, in F. L. Carsten, ed., New Cambridge Modem History: 5. 1648–88 (Cambridge, 1964), pp. 132–6; Elliott, J. H., The Revolt of the Catalans (Cambridge, 1963), pp. 34, 289–90, 422, 427, 444–5, 486–7; H. G. Koenigsberger, Estates and Revolutions (Ithaca, 1971), pp. 262, 271–2; Golden, Godly Rebellion, passim; Scotland: D. Stevenson, The Scottish Revolution 1631–44 (Newton Abbor, 1973) and Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Scotland 1644–1651 (London, 1977); F. D. Dow, Cromwellian Scotland 1651–1660 (Edinburgh, 1979).Google Scholar

97 Den Tex, Oldenbamevelt, 2, cap. 12; H. R. Trevor-Roper, Catholics, Anglicans and Puritans: Seventeenth Century Essays (London, 1987), pp. 40–119; Briggs, ‘Catholic Puritans’, pp. 338–43; J. McManners, ‘Religion and the Relations of Church and State’, in Bromley, J. S., ed., New Cambridge Modern History: 6.1688-1725 (Cambridge, 1971), pp. 132–4.Google Scholar

98 Bennett, G. V., The Tory Crisis in Church and State 1688–1730 (Oxford, 1975), pt 1; E. Préclin, Les Jansénistes du XVlIIe Siècle et la Constitution Civile du Clergé (Paris, 1929), and sec works cited by Tackett in n. 94 above.Google Scholar

99 G. S. Abernathy, ‘The English Presbyterians and the Stuart Restoration, 1648–1663’, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 55 (Philadelphia, 1965); J. Spurr, ‘Anglican Apologetic and the Restoration Church’ (unpublished Oxford University D.Phil, thesis, 1985); Buckroyd, J., Church and State in Scotland 1660–1681 (Edinburgh, 1980).Google Scholar

100 The proportion of the French parish clergy who initially backed the Revolution and the Civil Constitution was just over a half (Tackett, Religion, Revolution and Regional Culture, p. 41), but in other countries, including England, the proportion of politically active clergy may have been much smaller.

101 For a recent survey see von Greyerz, K., ed., Religion and Society in Early Modern Europe 1500–1800 (London, 1984), pp. 1–14. Google Scholar

102 N. Z. Davis, ‘Some Tasks and Themes in the Study of Popular Religion’, in C. Trinkaus and H. A. Oberman, eds, The Pursuit of Holiness in Late Medieval and Renaissance Religion (Leiden, 1974), pp. 307–36, and ‘From “Popular Religion” to Religious Cultures’, in S. Ozment, ed., Reformation Europe: A Guide to Research (St Louis, 1982), pp. 321–41; M. Vcnard, ‘Popular Religion in the Eighteenth Century’, in Calahan and Higgs, Church and Society, pp. 138–42. Church music awaits a full comparative study.

103 Ginzburg, C., The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller, Jr. J. and Tedeschi, A. (London, 1980)Google Scholar; Sabean, D., Power in the Blood: Popular Culture and Village Discourse in Early Modem Germany (Cambridge, 1984), cap. 2Google Scholar; Collinson, P., From Iconoclasmi to Iconophobia: the Cultural Impact of the Second English Reformation (Reading, 1986), p. 7.Google Scholar

104 Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, pp. 328–30, 438–9, 450–3, 523–4; 533–4, 559–80, 601–2, 707–9, 797; A Macfarlane, The Family Life of Ralph Josselin (Cambridge, 1970), pp. 189–96; M. MacDonald, Mystical Bedlam: Madness, Anxiety and Healing in Seventeenth-Century England (Cambridge, 1981), cap. 2 and passim; A Sinfield, Literature in Protestant England (London, 1983), caps. 3–61; I. M. Green,’The Persecution of “Scandalous” and “Malignant” Parish Clergy during die English Civil War’, EHR 94 (1979), pp. 521–2.

105 Scribner, Popular Culture, cap. 2, and see the essays by Hórger and Burke in Greyerz, Religion and Society; W. A. Christian, Local Religion in Sixteenth-Century Spain (Princeton, 1981); Tackett, Priest and Parish, pp. 208–15; Briggs,’Catholic Puritans’, pp. 350–4.

106 On the survival of older attitudes and customs in England, sec Gillis, J. R., For Better, For Worse: British Marriages 1600 to the Present (Oxford, 1985), pt. 1; Spaeth, ‘Parsons and Parishioners’, caps. 3–4; B. Bushaway, By Rile: Custom, Ceremony and Community in England 1700–1800 (London, 1982); J. Obelkevich, Religion and Rural Society: South Lindsey 1825–1875; (Oxford, 1975), cap. 6.Google Scholar

107 D. Julia, ‘Le Clergé Paroissial du Diocèse de Reims à la fin du XVIIIe Siècle’, [pt. 1], Etudes Ardennaises, 49 (1967), pp. 26–8.

108 Ibid., [pt. 2], 5 5 (1968), pp. 52–4; Green, ‘Emergence of the English Catechism’, pp. 413–14; Kamen, Spain, pp. 299–300.

109 Davis, ‘From “Popular Religion”’, pp. 327, 330–1; and seem Aston, M., Lollards and Reformers: Images and Literacy in Lale Medieval Religion (London, 1984).Google Scholar

110 Christian, Local Religion, p. 20; and cf. Sabean, Power in the Blood, p. 199.

111 Hoffman, Church and Community, pp. 50–2, 99–103, 109–10; Schaer, Clergé Paroissial, pp. 158–9, 165; Playoust-Chaussis, ‘Vie Religieuse’, pp. 167–8; Pérouas, La Rochelle, pp. 249–56; Broutin, Réforme Pastorale, pt. 3; Hufton, Bayeux, p. 35; Pruett, Parish Clergy, p. 46; Moorman, Curate of Souls, caps. 1, 3, 5; and see above, n. 68.

112 Green, I. M., The Re-establishment of the Church of England 1660–1663 (Oxford, 1978), pp. 170– 7 Google Scholar; Julia, ‘Clergé Paroissial du Diocèse de Reims’ (pt. 2], pp. 54—7.

113 Much of this paragraph is based on material that will be discussed in my Religious Instruction in England c.1540-1740 (forthcoming).

114 See above n. 14; also G. Strauss, Luther’s House of Learning: Indoctrination of the Young in the German Reformation (London, 1978), and J. R. Armogathc, ‘Catéchisme et Enseignement Populaire en France’, Actes du Colloque d’Aix 1696 (Paris, 1973).

115 These will be listed in Appendix 1 of my Religious Instruction.

116 Green, ‘Emergence of the English Catechism’, pp. 401–25; B. Plongeron, La Vie Quotidienne du Clergé Français au XVIIIe Siècle (Paris, 1974), pp. 235–9.

117 The sample will form Appendix 2 of Religious Instruction; sec also Spufford, M., Small Books and Pleasant Histories (London, 1981)Google Scholar, cap. 8, and Charrier, R., The Cultural Uses of Print in Early Modem France (Princeton, 1987), caps. 2, 5.Google Scholar

118 Stranks, C.J., Anglican Devotion: Studies in the Spiritual Life of the Church of England (London, 1961), pp. 35–95. For some preliminary remarks about size and difficulty of books, see I. M. Green, ‘Bunyan in Context: the Changing Face of Protestantism in Seventeenth-Century England’ (forthcoming).Google Scholar

119 Ortiz, Golden Age, pp. 213–14;J.-J. von Allmen, L’Eglise et ses Fonctions d’après Jean-Frédéric Osterwaid (Neuchatel, 1947), pp. 78–9; Weir, ‘Pastoral Care’, p. 80; Ferté, ‘Vie Religieuse’, p. 189; Schaer, Clergé Paroissial, p. 165; and see previous notes.

120 Green, ‘Emergence of the English Catechism’, pp. 408–10.

121 See, for instance, the many efforts by English and Scottish Presbyterian clergy to make the Westminster Shorter Catechism easier for their catechumens to grasp; also Gawthrop and Strauss, ‘Protestantism and Literacy’;Johansson, ‘Literacy in Sweden’; and Charrier, L’Education en France, pp. 6–5.

122 The filter may have worked in the other direction too, in that some of the clergy may have concealed evidence of unconventional local ideas or practices from the authorities.

123 The impression is based on the higher proportion of graduates in the parish clergy, and the greater availability of information through booksellers, lending libraries, newspapers and societies.

124 Green, ‘Emergence of the English Catechism’, p. 404 and n. 32. See also Porter, H. C., Reformation and Reaction in Tudor Cambridge (Cambridge, 1958), pp. 398–403.Google Scholar

125 The samples upon which I base these remarks stop in the 1730s: see my Religious Instruction.

126 Briggs, ‘Catholic Puritans’, p. 351.

127 See J. K. Cameron, ‘The Church of Scotland in the Age of Reason’, Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century 58 (1967), pp. 1941–7; and the debate among English and Scottish Presbyterians in the late 1730s provoked by James Strong’s revision of the Westminster Shorter Catechism.

128 Baxter, Reformed Pastor, cap. 2, sections 3: 4 and 3: 1; for du Moulin see above p. 24.