The Semantics of Religious Borders in Early Modern Confessions

ABSTRACT

In order to provide a nuanced understanding of early modern religious history, the metaphors of ‘border’ and ‘layer’ have proved particularly useful. This article proposes utilizing Nicolai Hartmann's ontology and Helmuth Plessner's anthropology to deepen our comprehension of these metaphors. It also highlights the existence of competing metaphors, such as ‘confessional osmosis,’ which can mislead or downplay personal agency. To test the efficacy of stratigraphic metaphors, two case studies are presented: the multi-confessional city and multiple conversions. These case studies demonstrate how stratigraphic metaphors can capture the simultaneity of the simultaneous, commonalities and differences within the lives of historical agents. The conversions of the nun Martha Zitter provide a particularly insightful illustration for the use of such metaphors.

KEYWORDS:

• Semantics
• confessions
• historical metaphors
• conversions
• Martha Zitter

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 Koselleck, Vergangene Zukunft, 301. As someone who is not a native speaker, I found the use of generative AI to be helpful in the editing process of this essay. This article builds upon the arguments presented in Lehner, “Grenzen, Schichten.”

2 McCullagh, The Truth, 76.

3 Black, “More about Metaphor,” 28.

4 McCullagh, The Truth, 77.

5 Medick, “Grenzziehungen.”

6 .Nail, Theory of the Border, 7.Early modern churches also defined themselves against other religions, such as Judaism and Islam, and thus erected all kinds of “borders” with different degrees of permeability. See for example the fascinating study of Michelson, Catholic Spectacle and Rome's Jews.

7 Scholz, Borders, 5; Rutz, Die Beschreibung des Raums, 55–104. For France see, for example Luria, Sacred Boundaries.

8 Schunka, “Konfession Und Migrationsregime in Der Frühen Neuzeit”; Weller and Jürgens, Religion und Mobilität; Corens, Confessional Mobility and English Catholics in Counter-Reformation Europe.

9 Maurer, Konfessionskulturen; Kaufmann, Konfession und Kultur, 3–28.

10 Scholz, Borders, 8.

11 Scholz, 24; Freist, Glaube - Liebe - Zwietracht; Freist, “Crossing Religious Borders.” For the mobility of vagrants, cf. Ammerer, Heimat Straße. For the importance of uncertainty especially among early modern Catholics see Tutino, “Early Modern Uncertainty.”

12 Prass, “Die Etablierung”; Scholz, Borders, 87–89. On dissimulation, see, for example Tutino, “Jesuit Accomodation, Dissimulation, Mental Reservation.”

13 Prass, “Die Etablierung,” 7. On dissimulation, see Tutino, “Jesuit Accomodation, Dissimulation, Mental Reservation.”

14 Lorenz, “Probing the Limits of Metaphor,” 203–4; Jordheim, “Unzählbar viele Zeiten.”

15 Dziadkowiec, “The Layered Structure of the World.”

16 Schnepf, “Was nutzt eine ontologische Grundlegung der Geschichtswissenschaft?”

17 In the analysis of fossil records, paleontologists have found that after long periods of stability, sudden evolutionary changes occur, which have been referred to as “punctuated equilibria.” For the standard explanation in evolutionary paleontology see Eldredge, Time Frames.

18 Gaddis, The Landscape of History, 98–100. See also the use of the term by Clifford Rogers and Geoffrey Parker, see Parker, The Military Revolution, 158.

19 Hartmann, Das Problem, 15.

20 Mul, Plessner's Philosophical Anthropology.

21 Plessner, Die Stufen, 81.

22 Plessner, Die Stufen,82. Cf. ibid., 160.

23 Plessner, Die Stufen, 82.

24 Plessner, Die Stufen, 83. In a very similar way Michael Polanyi argues that such knowledge, which he calls "personal" , complies with scientific standards, see Polanyi, Personal Knowledge, 3–17.

25 Plessner, Die Stufen, 102.

26 At Palacios, Ceremonial Splendor, 45. The word “revestir,” which is cited by Palacios must be “revêtir.”

27 “From a priestly perspective ecclesiastical robes did not represent a character they made one.” Palacios, Ceremonial Splendor, 45.

28 Palacios, Ceremonial Splendor, 46. By contrast, see the nuanced studies in Aust, Klein, and Weller, Dress and Cultural Difference in Early Modern Europe.

29 Plessner, Die Stufen, 154. For a very similar analysis see also Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception. See for a similar approach Polanyi, Personal Knowledge, 3–17.

30 For a sophisticated description of the different layers of “Lebenswelt” from a phenomenological-sociological perspective see Schütz, Strukturen der Lebenswelt.

31 Plessner, Die Stufen, 156.

32 Scheller, “Die Grenzen der Hybridität.”

33 See Scribner, “Symbolising Boundaries”; Jütte, The Strait Gate. On the intermediate position of Third Orders see Armogathe, “Cartesian Physics and the Eucharist.”

34 Volkland, Konfession.

35 See for instance Molnár, Confessionalization.

36 Gerhardt and Russell, Metaphoric Process.

37 Masson, Without Metaphor, 63–67.

38 Büttgen, “Was heißt konfessionelle Eindeutigkeit?”; Kaufmann, “Einleitung: Interkonfessionalität - Transkonfessionalität - binnenkonfessionelle Pluralität”; Greyerz, “Konfessionelle Indifferenz in der Frühen Neuzeit”; Windler, “Communicatio in sacris.”

39 Otherwise, one would have to use the correct term of “double-sided osmosis.” The early Habermas still used it but abandoned it in his later works, see for example Habermas, Glauben und Wissen, 41.

40 Cammack, Oxford Dictionary of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 486.

41 For earlier uses of the metaphor with similar intentions see Hayes, Introduction to the Study of Sociology, 303; Smith, Walter Robinson, An Introduction to Educational Sociology, 43–44. The term “social osmosis” seems to have originated with Bawden, The Principles of Pragmatism, 69.

42 For careful analysis of the ideological baggage of concepts and metaphors see for example the entries in Conze and Koselleck, Geschichtliche Grundbegriffe.

43 Black, “More about Metaphor.”

44 McCullagh, “Metaphor and Truth in History,” 28.

45 McCullagh, 31; Sullivan-Clarke, “Misled by Metaphor.” A post-structuralist philosophy cannot adjudicate between plausible and implausible metaphors, see Kornprobst, “Comparing Apples and Oranges?,” 34.

46 For this fallacy see Kornprobst, “Comparing Apples and Oranges?”

47 Kurzmann, Die Rede vom Jüngsten Gericht, 13–16.

48 Meyer, Zaluski, and Mackintosh, “Metaphorical Internet Terms.” On colloquial metaphors see Schäfer, “Historicizing Strong Metaphors,” 33.

49 François, Die unsichtbare Grenze, 14. On the history of Augsburg in the early modern period, see the excellent introduction by Tschopp, “Augsburg.”

50 Safley, “Multiconfessionalism,” 10. On the localization of the “sacred” and on boundary discourses in Augsburg, see also Wandel, “Locating the Sacred In Biconfessional Augsburg.”

51 Therefore, it is imperative that the historian understands the dynamics of the Lebenswelt of the time she is analyzing. Of particular help are, for example, the reflections of Schütz, Strukturen der Lebenswelt.

52 The adjective “physical” therefore projects a scientific term from the 20th century back into an early modern religious context. Among the most recent works that use this false description are Terpstra, Religious Refugees in the Early Modern World, 18–19; 29–30; Niekerk, The Radical Enlightenment in Germany, 93; Carnes, The Papist Represented, 20.

53 Laarmann, “Transsubstantiation.”

54 A few Cartesian theologians may have held a roughly physical understanding of the Eucharist, but these were not mainstream, nor did their theory prevail in the field of faith practice. Armogathe, “Cartesian Physics and the Eucharist.”

55 Laarmann, “Transsubstantiation”; Neunheuser, Eucharistie in Mittelalter und Neuzeit; Splawa-Neyman, Das Problem der wesenlosen Gestalten.

56 The reports of alleged Eucharistic abuses, in which the host is purported to bleed, do not contradict the notion that the unbeliever is unable to perceive the presence of Christ in the wafer, which is solely discernible to the eyes of faith. After all, otherwise such “bleedings’ would not have been labelled miracles. The host's bleeding, while indicative of the connection between the material accidents and the underlying substance, does not imply a physical equation between bread and flesh.

57 Lehner, The Inner Life, 89–111.

58 François, Die unsichtbare Grenze, 24–25.

59 DeMeuse, Unity and Catholicity in Christ; Schubert, “Bellarmin und die lutherische Ekklesiologie”; Barth, “Sichtbare und unsichtbare Kirche.”

60 François, Die unsichtbare Grenze, 37.

61 François, Die unsichtbare Grenze, 36.

62 In recent years alone, these important studies have appeared: Behringer, Mader, and Nipperdey, Konversionen zum Katholizismus in der Frühen Neuzeit; Bierbaum, “Conversio Constantini und nachtridentinische Konvertitentaufen im Lateranbaptisterium”; Burkardt, “Atheismus als Altlast”; Burkardt, “L’ingorda peccaminosa”; Költsch, Konversion und Integration; Caffiero, “Konvertitinnen im Rom der frühen Neuzeit - zwischen Zwang und neuen Chancen.”

63 Scheller, “Die Grenzen der Hybridität.”

64 For the distorted use of the term “baptizing” see for example Scheutz, “Geteilte Mäntel, ein Hauch von Fasching und ein neuer Martinskult”; Hacke, “Von der Wirkungsmächtigkeit des Heiligen”; Theilig and Coşan, Gewesene Türken. “Türkentaufen” im deutschsprachigen Kulturraum in der Frühen Neuzeit, 54; Költsch, Konversion und Integration; Scheller, “Die Grenzen der Hybridität,” 297.

65 Fleischer, Einleitung zum geistlichen Rechte, 274.

66 Balbach, “Jakob, Johann, oder Joseph?”

67 The practice of naming is analyzed in the insightful volume by Plummer and Harrington, Names and Naming in Early Modern Germany.

68 Tamm, “Truth, Objectivity and Evidence in History Writing.”

69 Wiesner, “Nuns, Wives, and Mothers,” 11; Wiesner-Hanks, “Women's Response to the Reformation,” 159.

70 Paullini, Frauen-Zim̄er, 147.

71 Wiesner-Hanks, Convents Confront the Reformation, 81–107; Hanks and Chojnacka, Ages of Woman, Ages of Man, 234–35. Eva Kormann has already pointed out this finding: Kormann, Ich, Welt und Gott, 179.

72 See also Corvinus, Frauenzimmer-Lexikon, 2164; Hellwig, Entdeckte Heimligkeiten des Frauenzimmers, 88.

73 Kormann, Ich, Welt und Gott.

74 Plummer, “Protestant and Catholic Nuns,” 86.

75 Plummer, “Protestant and Catholic Nuns,” 94.

76 Staatsarchiv Bamberg (StA B): Hst. Bamberg, Geistliche Regierung Nr. 31, Protokoll des geistlichen Rates über die aus dem Ursulinen Kloster Erfurt geflohene Martha Elisabeth Zitterin, 17 June 1678.

77 Plummer, “Protestant and Catholic Nuns,” 94.

78 Jacobsen, Die Tagebücher 1667–1686, 3:394.

79 Geschichte von der berümten Landgrafschaft Thüringen, 307.

80 StA B: ibid, fol. 2, no. V.

81 Zitter, Aufferwachtes Gewissen. The appendix to Zitter's second defense contains the minutes of the interrogation of June 17, 1678.

82 Zitter, Aufferwachtes Gewissen, [25].

83 Schutte, By Force and Fear; Lehner, Mönche und Nonnen im Klosterkerker, 120–21; Corpis, Crossing the Boundaries of Belief, 145–77.

84 Lehner, Enlightened Monks, 103–54.

85 Zitter, Gründliche Ursachen.

86 Of course, Catholics also used their second conversion for propagandistic purposes. On convert coffers and the dynamics of conversions, see, for example. Peper, Konversionen; Corpis, Crossing the Boundaries of Belief.

87 StA B: ibid, no. XVI.

88 Zitter, Aufferwachtes Gewissen, [18].

89 StA B: ibid, no. XVII.

90 StA B: ibid, no. XXV.

91 StA B: ibid, no. XXVIII.

92 StA B: ibid, no. XXIX.

93 StA B: ibid, no. XXXVI.

94 StA B: ibid, no. XXXVI.

95 Rütter, Konstruktion, 285.

96 Zitter, Aufferwachtes Gewissen, s.pag.

97 Zitter, Aufferwachtes Gewissen,[16].

98 “Because at the beginning, out of spite, I again forbade the holy churches; but afterwards, out of malice, I went irresponsibly into the reading of non-Catholic books; and I presumably trusted my weak understanding/ that I alone could help myself in matters of faith/ and, out of temporary inner confusion of mind, arrive at a true decision of the good and reprehensible doctrines.” Zitter, Gründliche Ursachen, 72.

99 Sagittarius, Catholischen Zeughause.

100 Hofmann, Oeffentliche Widerrufs-Predigt.

101 Wigand, Apologia.

102 Zitter, Aufferwachtes Gewissen, [11].

103 StA B: ibid, no. XXXIX. XXVIII.

104 StA B: ibid, no. XL.

105 StA B: ibid, no. XLI.

106 StA B: ibid, no. IX.

107 StA B: ibid, no. XI.

108 StA B: ibid, no. XXVIII.

109 Zitter, Aufferwachtes Gewissen, [8].

110 A precise date is missing in Rütter, Konstruktion, 285–86.

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Ulrich L. Lehner

Ulrich L. Lehner specializes in religious history and theology of the Early Modern period, the Enlightenment, and the nineteenth century. Among his publications are ten authored books and sixteen edited volumes, including The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern Theology, 1600–1800 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016) and Women, Enlightenment, and Catholicism: A Transnational Biographical History (Abingdon: Routledge, 2018). He was selected as a Member and Herodotus Fellow in the School of Historical Studies at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study, a fellow at the Institute for Comparative History of Religious Orders at the University of Eichstätt, Distinguished Fellow at the NDIAS (twice), fellow of the Earhart foundation (twice), and fellow of the Humboldt and Friedrich von Siemens Foundation. In 2014 he was inducted into the European Academy for Sciences and Arts.