AS Spring 2018 Persecution and Toleration in Early Modern Europe

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1 AS Spring 2018 Persecution and Toleration in Early Modern Europe T/Th 10:30 11:45am Classroom: Smokler Center 301 Instructor: Jeremy Fradkin Office Hours: TBD in Gilman 346 Tolerance has re-emerged as a major concern in the twenty-first century. The rise or emergence of toleration as a founding principle of a liberal society is often traced to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Western European history. In this period, both theories and practices of toleration were forged in the crucible of intensified religious conflict and intolerance. Civil and religious authorities alike understood that they had a responsibility to uphold uniformity, orthodoxy, and hierarchy in Christian society. To fail to do so, they believed, was to risk political disorder or, even worse, to threaten the salvation of millions of Christian souls by allowing pernicious beliefs and practices to spread unchecked. In such a context, toleration for other religious groups could only be rarely considered a positive value. How did religious diversity and deviance from orthodoxy provoke such fear and antagonism in early modern Europe? Why were heretics and witches considered so dangerous as to deserve public execution? Why were Jews and Muslims barred from living alongside Christians? How did religious conflict in Europe shape the colonization of the Americas and the treatment of non-european peoples? And how were demands for religious orthodoxy bound up with assumptions about political loyalty, social class, gender, sexuality, and health? This course has two interrelated goals. First, to trace the process of defining orthodoxies in early modern Europe, and the parallel process of demonizing and disciplining people whose beliefs or practices were classified as heretical, antichristian, or otherwise transgressive. We will think about crowd violence, mass expulsions, Inquisition trials, allegations of ritual murder, campaigns against superstition, and confessions of witchcraft. Second, this course will look both at theories of toleration and at specific examples of tolerance in practice that emerged from this struggle, as people sought to contest, resist, or modify their society s conception of orthodoxy. Our glimpse into some of these stories will reveal something of the mind of a different historical epoch its major cultural conflicts, its shared assumptions and preoccupations, and its widely divergent conceptions of what was permissible within the idealized social order. We will bring together topics in the history of political thought, religious experience, social discipline, cultural memory, gender, sexuality, and the body. And we will engage with key thinkers like Martin Luther, Bartolomé de Las Casas, Michel de Montaigne, and John Locke. Learning Goals: To outline the theory, practice, and limits of religious tolerance and intolerance in early modern Europe. To explore the ways in which early modern European Christians constructed, negotiated, and resisted social types (e.g. heretic, sodomite, Jew) for the demonization and stigmatization of others based on religious belief, behavior, gender, and/or race. To assess the different methodological approaches taken by intellectual, social, and cultural historians in the study of religious conflict, tolerance, and intolerance. AS SP18 Syllabus / 1

2 Required texts: Kaplan, Benjamin. Divided by Faith: Religious Conflict and the Practice of Toleration in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press, Schwartz, Stuart B. All can be saved: religious tolerance and salvation in the Iberian Atlantic world. New Haven: Yale University Press, Suggested background reading: Marshall, Peter. The Reformation: a very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Assignments and grading: 25% Participation 15% Book Review (5pp), due Week 4 10% Primary Source Analysis (2 pp), due Week 7 15% Annotated bibliography (5 pp), due Week 10 25% Final Research Paper (10pp): due at end of exam period Complete rough draft is due Week 13 5% Peer review workshop assignment (1 p), Week 14 5% Oral presentation of final research topic, Week 14 Course Policies Attend all sections. Bring copies (paper or electronic) of the day s readings to class. See me outside of class as problems and concerns arise. If you must miss a class, please notify me by in advance, except in the case of an emergency. Excused absences will be given for authorized participation in official college functions, personal illness, or an illness or death in the immediate family. Other absences will be excused at my discretion. Failure to attend class consistently will result in a lower participation grade. Readings: Assigned readings should be completed by the start of the class for which they were assigned. Ultimately, it is your responsibility to obtain the texts for this class, either from the libraries, electronic reserves, the bookstore, or by whatever means at your disposal. Any trouble accessing one or more of the readings should be communicated to me well before we discuss it. I will help you find what you need. Participation: When you are in section, I expect you to participate that is, to raise questions as you have them; to respond to my questions and the questions and comments of your colleagues; and to be AS SP18 Syllabus / 2

3 alert and engaged. These forms of participation, in addition to punctuality and regular attendance, form 25% of your final grade. Assignments: Papers should be turned in to me as hard copies on the days they are due. In case of illness or emergency that causes you to miss any deadline, please notify me as soon as possible to avoid late penalties. Unexcused late submission of papers will be penalized as follows: For each day that the assignment fails to arrive, I will subtract one increment of a letter grade: so, an A- will become a B+ on the first day, a B on the second day, a B- on the third day, and so forth. Lateness is reckoned accordingly: if the due date is 12pm on a Monday, then papers handed in after 12pm on that day will be one day late. After 12pm on the following day, they will be two days late, and so on. You will be required, in week 13, to submit two hard copies of a complete draft of your final research paper in class. One of these copies will go to me for comments. The other copy will go to one of your fellow students for peer review. You will then receive a copy of that student s rough draft in return, and prepare a short list of comments. The two of you will have an opportunity to discuss each other s papers and prepared comments during the following week. Please ensure that your comments are helpful and constructive I will be evaluating them as well. Only the final version of your research paper will be graded. The rough draft assignment is mandatory, but it will not receive a grade. It will provide an opportunity for you to receive comments as you revise your work. However, if your rough draft is submitted late, your final paper will receive a late penalty according to the system outlined above. Plagiarism: As the student code of conduct states, Johns Hopkins has a zero tolerance policy for plagiarism. Ethics violations of any kind are taken seriously and may result in dismissal. The best way you can keep yourself from committing an act of plagiarism is to be properly informed. Even if you have paraphrased an idea, you must provide the appropriate citations. Ignorance is not an excuse. For more information, see Special needs: Students with disabilities or special needs should know that, in order to preserve confidentiality and privacy, the Office of Disabilities does not automatically inform professors of students' needs. If you have a documented disability and need special consideration, please ensure that the Office of Disabilities notifies me in advance of any deadline. I want our class to be a comfortable and productive learning environment for everyone, so if you are having difficulties, I encourage you to let me know. AS SP18 Syllabus / 3

4 Weekly Schedule of Readings: All readings are accessible at the MSE reserve desk, by E-Reserve, or on Blackboard. Week 1) Introduction: Conceptualizing tolerance, intolerance, & the Age of Reformations Tuesday, January 30 Kaplan, Divided by Faith, Thursday, February 1 Kaplan, Divided by Faith, Week 2) Religious Difference in Early Modern Europe Tuesday, February 6 Kaplan, Divided by Faith, Friesland Prophecy (Blackboard) Thursday, February 8 Kaplan, Divided by Faith, In-class workshop: Writing an academic book review Week 3) Religious Indifference in Early Modern Europe Tuesday, February 13 Schwartz, All Can be Saved, Thursday, February 15 Schwartz, All Can be Saved, Week 4) Magic and Superstition Tuesday, February 20 Wietse de Boer, Defining the Sinful: The Case of Superstition, in The Conquest of the Soul: Confession, Discipline, and Public Order in Counter-Reformation Milan (Leiden, 2001), Alexandra Walsham. Sacred Topography and Social Memory: Religious Change and the Landscape in Early Modern Britain and Ireland, Journal of Religious History 36, no. 1 (2012), Thursday, February 22 Carlo Ginzburg, The Night Battles: Witchcraft & Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth & Seventeenth Centuries, trans. John and Anne Tedeschi (Baltimore, 1983), ***Due in class: Book review assignment*** AS SP18 Syllabus / 4

5 Week 5) Witches Tuesday, February 27 The confession of Walpurga Hausmännin, 1587, in The Witchcraft Sourcebook, ed. Brian P. Levack (Abingdon, 2015), Lyndal Roper, Witchcraft and Fantasy in Early Modern Germany, History Workshop Journal 32 (1991), Stuart Clark, Festivals and Sabbats, in Thinking with demons: the idea of witchcraft in early modern Europe (Oxford, 1997), Thursday, March 1 The Salem Witchcraft Trials, 1692, in The Witchcraft Sourcebook, ed. Brian P. Levack (Abingdon, 2015), Jane Kamensky, The Tongue is a Witch, in Governing the Tongue: The Politics of Speech in Early New England (New York, 1997), Week 6) Heretics Tuesday, March 6 Natalie Z. Davis, The Rites of Violence in Society and culture in early modern France: eight essays (Stanford, 1975), Charles H. Parker, Diseased Bodies, Defiled Souls: Corporality and Religious Difference in the Reformation, Renaissance Quarterly 67, no. 4 (2014), Visit to JHU Rare Book Collection Thursday, March 8 Michel de Montaigne, Of Freedom of Conscience, in The Complete Works of Montaigne, trans. Donald M. Frame (any edition). Biancamaria Fontana, Freedom of Conscience: Governing Opinion, in Montaigne s Politics: Authority and Governance in the Essais (Princeton, 2008), Week 7) Sectaries Tuesday, March 13 Excerpts from the trial of Anne Hutchinson (TBD, available online) Jane Kamensky, The Misgovernment of a Woman s Tongue, in Governing the Tongue: The Politics of Speech in Early New England (New York, 1997), ***Due in class: Primary Source Analysis*** AS SP18 Syllabus / 5

6 Thursday, March 15 David Loewenstein, Toleration and the Specter of Heresy in Milton's England, in Milton and Toleration, eds. Sharon Achinstein and Elizabeth Sauer (Oxford, 2007), William Walwyn, A prediction of Mr. Edwards his Conversion and Recantation [1646], in The Writings of William Walwyn, eds. Jack R. McMichael and Barbara Taft (Athens, 1989), Week 8) **SPRING BREAK, NO CLASSES** Week 9) Jews Tuesday, March 27 Martin Luther, That Our Savior Jesus Christ was born a Jew, excerpts. Martin Luther, On the Jews and their Lies, Part 11 (required), Parts (optional) R. Po-Chia Hsia, The myth of ritual murder: Jews and magic in Reformation Germany (New Haven, 1988) 1-13, Thursday, March 29 Kaplan, Divided by faith, , Katherine Aron-Beller, The Inquisition, professing Jews, and Christian images in seventeenth-century Modena, Church History 81, no. 3 (2013), Privileges granted to the People of the Hebrew Nation that are to go to the Wild Coast (Blackboard) Week 10) Mohametans Tuesday, April 3 Kaplan, Divided by faith, Gerald MacLean and Nabil Matar, Islam and Muslims in English Thought, in Britain and the Islamic world, (2011), ***Due in class: Annotated bibliography assignment*** Thursday, April 5 Antonio Feros, Rhetorics of the Expulsion, in The Expulsion of the Moriscos from Spain: A Mediterranean Diaspora, eds, Mercedes García-Arenal and Gerard Wiegers (Leiden, 2014), (required), (optional). A Captive s Tale: Diego Díaz, in Inquisitorial Inquiries, eds. Richard L. Kagan and Abigail Dyer (Baltimore, 2004), Week 11) Savages Tuesday, April 10 Schwartz, All can be saved, (required), (suggested). Bartolomé de Las Casas, A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, excerpts. (selections TBA) AS SP18 Syllabus / 6

7 Thursday, April 12 Gregory Murry, Tears of the Indians or Superficial Conversion? José De Acosta, the Black Legend, and Spanish Evangelization in the New World, Catholic Historical Review 99, no 1 (2013), Kristina Bross, Dying saints, vanishing savages: dying Indian speeches in colonial New England literature, Early American Literature 36, no. 3 (2001), Week 12) Sodomites Tuesday, April 17 Alan Bray, Homosexuality in Renaissance England (New York, 1982), Nabil Matar, Sodomy and Conquest, in Turks, Moors, and Englishmen in the age of discovery (New York, 1999), Thursday, April 19 Sherry Velasco, Lesbians in early modern Spain (Nashville, 2011), chapters 2-3, pp Week 13) Epilogues and Contrasts: Toleration, Christianity, and Liberalism Tuesday, April 24 John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration, in Locke: Political Writings, ed. David Wootton (Indianapolis: Hackett, 2003), John Marshall, Toleration and the intolerant, Catholics, atheists, libertines and sodomites, in John Locke, toleration and early Enlightenment culture (Cambridge, 2006), Thursday, April 26 Karen Barkey, Islam and Toleration: Studying the Ottoman Imperial Model, International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society 19, nos. 1-2 (2007), Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, Believing in Religious Freedom, in Politics of Religious Freedom, eds. Winnifred Fallers Sullivan et al. (Chicago, 2015), ***Due in class: Rough draft of final paper*** Week 14) Presentation and workshop sessions for final paper Tuesday, May 1 Student presentations (5 min) on final paper topic Thursday, May 3 Workshop session: peer review discussion of rough drafts AS SP18 Syllabus / 7