Abstract
This chapter explores the physical removal and attempted indoctrination of European children during the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. Despite prohibitions on mixed marriages by the religious authorities of all confessions, interfaith unions continued to be common throughout the early modern period. The confessional identity of the offspring of such marriages remained a hotly contested issue, subject to a variety of customary, statutory and contractual norms. Contrary to conventional narratives of the development of religious toleration, abduction of children on confessional grounds—whether by parents, relatives, clerics or state authorities—actually increased in frequency during the so-called Enlightenment era. This chapter argues that new state attempts at enforcing religious homogeneity during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries played a key role in this intensification of confessional conflict.
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Notes
- 1.
Benjamin J. Kaplan, Cunegonde’s Kidnapping: A Story of Religious Conflict in the Age of Enlightenment (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014).
- 2.
Dagmar Freist, Glaube—Liebe—Zwietracht. Konfessionell gemischte Ehen in Deutschland in der frühen Neuzeit (Munich: Oldenbourg, 2018); Cecila Cristellon, “Due fedi in un corpo. Matrimoni misti fra delicta, carnis, scandalo, seduzione e sacramento nell’Europa di età moderna”, Quaderni Storici 145 (2014): 1–29.
- 3.
Kaplan, Cunegonde’s Kidnapping, 21.
- 4.
Benjamin J. Kaplan, Divided by Faith: Religious Conflict and the Practice of Toleration in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 2007), 287.
- 5.
Dagmar Freist, “Between Conscience and Coercion: Mixed Marriages, Church, Secular Authority, and Family”, in David M. Luebke and Mary Lindemann, eds., Mixed Matches: Transgressive Unions in Germany from the Reformation to the Enlightenment (New York: Berghahn, 2014), 106.
- 6.
Judith Pollmann, “Honor, Gender, and Discipline”, in Raymond Mentzer et al., eds., Dire l’Interdit: The Vocabulary of Censure and Exclusion in the Early Modern Reformed Tradition (Leiden: Brill, 2010), 32–33.
- 7.
13–29%, according to Kaplan, Divided by Faith, 284.
- 8.
The journal of Montaigne’s travels in Italy by way of Switzerland and Germany in 1580 and 1581, translated and edited, with an introduction and notes by W.G. Waters (London: Murray, 1903), 136.
- 9.
Peter Zschunke, Konfession und Alltag in Oppenheim. Beiträge zur Geschichte von Bevölkerung und Gesellschaft in einer gemischtkonfessionellen Kleinstadt in der frühen Neuzeit (Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1984), 103. Based on 1216 mixed marriages between 1755 and 1798. Freist finds a similar pattern in Osnabrück. Dagmar Freist, “Crossing Religious Borders: The Experience of Religious Difference and its Impact on Mixed Marriages in Eighteenth-Century Germany”, in C. Scott Dixon et al., eds., Living with Religious Diversity in Early-Modern Europe (Farnham: Ashgate, 2009), 246–247.
- 10.
Etienne François, Die unsichtbare Grenze. Protestanten und Katholiken in Augsburg 1648–1806 (Siegmaringen: Thorbecke, 1991), 192–193.
- 11.
Dagmar Freist, “One Body, Two Confessions: Mixed Marriages in Germany”, in Ulinka Rublack, ed., Gender in Early Modern German History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 280.
- 12.
In Utrecht the percentage of mixed marriages rose from 2/1% in 1680 to 7.2% in 1720. Bergen op Zoom saw a similar figure of 82% for 1736–95. In eighteenth-century Amsterdam, by contrast, only 2% of all marriages were mixed. Kaplan, Divided by Faith, 283.
- 13.
Kaplan, Divided by Faith, 288.
- 14.
Freist, “Between Conscience and Conversion”, 110.
- 15.
Zschunke, Oppenheim, 105.
- 16.
Kaplan, Divided by Faith, 288.
- 17.
Ibid., 288–289.
- 18.
Freist, “Between Conscience and Conversion”, 112.
- 19.
Ibid., 114–115.
- 20.
Zschunke, Oppenheim, 97.
- 21.
Kaplan, Divided by Faith, 269. There was much dispute about this age among German Protestants and Catholics, with the latter claiming age 10 old enough and the former preferring 18. A 1650 Nuremberg imperial deputation came up with a compromise age of 15. Freist, Glaube—Liebe--Zwietracht, 109–110.
- 22.
Freist, “Crossing Religious Borders”, 207.
- 23.
Kaplan, Divided by Faith, 254,
- 24.
Freist, Glaube—Liebe--Zwietracht, 257. See, for instance, similar concerns in Oppenheim (Zschunke, Oppenheim, 102).
- 25.
Kaplan, Divided by Faith, 255.
- 26.
Zschunke, Oppenheim, 100.
- 27.
Kaplan, Divided by Faith, 255.
- 28.
Ibid., 269–270.
- 29.
“…endlich in desperation durch die gedrohete wacht, thurmstraff, schlagen und krottengefängnüß…daß es zur Reformierten Kirch offentlich seine Zuflucht nehmen und dazu übergehen müßen, um sich der widerchristlichen Soedrischen banden zu entübrigen…. ie mehrmalen aus ihrer mutter hauß geholet, über die gaß zur Lutherischen schul vor sich hergetrieben, wodurch grose händel, aufruhr, wüste thätlichkeiten und handgemeng hätten entstehen können…und überhaupt, daß er viele unruhen erwecke, allhier von hauß werben gehe, um Reformirten an sich zu ziehen, ist eine bekante sach, so hat er die Reformirte Ehewaldin zu bereden gesucht, ihre Kinder zur lutherischen Religion zu bringen, and der Salatinin, die jetzt der Posthalter zu [Gross-Gerau] hat, angelegen, sie käme in ein gut lutherisch land, zu deren abendmal solte sie sich auch verfügen…würkliche Läster Schrift aus seiner…trüben, faulen und stinkenden quelle gefloßen, daher auch eben so confus, verworren und unordentlich abgefaßt..daß ich…des Kindes oncles, tantes, Petter und Goth in Schimpf, Schaden und Straf gesetz, schriebt Herr Pollich so gut deutsch dahin, ohne sich der Unwarheit zu schämen…Ein hochlöbl. OberAmt wird auch hierbei die krumme Sprünge, das falsche und Leere in der Pollichishen Schrift…von Selbst hochgeneigt zu erkenne geruhen.. wann ich transmigrationem animarum statuirte, müste ich urtheilen, ein geist von uralten Zeiten her, von seines gleich, die anno 1586 gelebt, und sich durch die schänden und schmähen übel berathen haben, müste in ihn gefahren seyn”. Zschunke, Oppenheim, 97–98.
- 30.
Freist, “One Body, Two Confessions”, 293–295.
- 31.
Lucy Underwood, Childhood, Youth and Religious Dissent in Post-Reformation England (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), 72.
- 32.
Ibid., 73–91.
- 33.
Ibid., 92–94, 102.
- 34.
Lucy Underwood, “The State, Childhood and Religious Dissent”, in Hannah Crawforth and Sarah Lewis, eds., Family Politics in Early Modern Literature (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), 191–210.
- 35.
Benoist, L’histoire de l’Edit de Nantes, 2: 364–66; cited in Luria, Sacred Boundaries, 186.
- 36.
Keith Luria, Sacred Boundaries: Religious Coexistence and Conflict in Early-Modern France (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2005), 187.
- 37.
Kaplan, Divided by Faith, 290.
- 38.
Freist, “Between Conscience and Conversion”, 109–110.
- 39.
Kaplan, Divided by Faith, 340, 384.
- 40.
Most child abductions in Osnabrück, the Palatinate and the Electorate of Saxony occurred after 1648, and continued to be common well into the eighteenth century—a finding Freist calls “astounding”, and like Kaplan, believes offers strong evidence against the conventional tolerance narrative of the eighteenth century. Glaube—Liebe--Zwietracht, 456.
- 41.
Ibid., 203.
- 42.
Ibid., 222.
- 43.
Freist, “Between Conscience and Conversion”, 113.
Bibliography
Cristellon, Cecila. “Due fedi in un corpo. Matrimoni misti fra delicta, carnis, scandalo, seduzione e sacramento nell’Europa di età moderna”. Quaderni Storici 145 (2014). Pages 1–29.
The journal of Montaigne’s travels in Italy by way of Switzerland and Germany in 1580 and 1581. Translated and edited, with an introduction and notes by W.G. Waters. (London: Murray, 1903).
Kaplan, Benjamin J. Divided by Faith: Religious Conflict and the Practice of Toleration in Early Modern Europe. (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 2007).
———. Cunegonde’s Kidnapping: A Story of Religious Conflict in the Age of Enlightenment. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014).
François, Etienne, Die unsichtbare Grenze. Protestanten und Katholiken in Augsburg 1648–1806. (Siegmaringen: Thorbecke, 1991).
Freist, Dagmar. “One Body, Two Confessions: Mixed Marriages in Germany”. In Gender in Early Modern German History. Ed. Ulinka Rublack. Cambridge: (Cambridge University Press, 2003). Pages 275–305.
———. “Crossing Religious Borders: The Experience of Religious Difference and its Impact on Mixed Marriages in Eighteenth-Century Germany”. In Living with Religious Diversity in Early-Modern Europe. Eds. C. Scott Dixon et al. (Farnham: Ashgate, 2009). Pages 203–224.
———. “Between Conscience and Coercion: Mixed Marriages, Church, Secular Authority, and Family”. In Mixed Matches: Transgressive Unions in Germany from the Reformation to the Enlightenment. Ed. David M. Luebke and Mary Lindemann. (New York: Berghahn, 2014). Pages 185–212.
———. Glaube—Liebe—Zwietracht. Konfessionell gemischte Ehen in Deutschland in der frühen Neuzeit. (Munich: Oldenbourg, 2018).
Luria, Keith, Sacred Boundaries: Religious Coexistence and Conflict in Early-Modern France. (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2005).
Pollmann, Judith. “Honor, Gender, and Discipline”. In Dire l’Interdit: The Vocabulary of Censure and Exclusion in the Early Modern Reformed Tradition. Ed. Raymond Mentzer et al. (Leiden: Brill, 2010). Pages 29–42.
Underwood, Lucy. Childhood, Youth and Religious Dissent in Post-Reformation England. (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).
———. “The State, Childhood and Religious Dissent”. In Family Politics in Early Modern Literature. Ed. Hannah Crawforth and Sarah Lewis. (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017). Pages 191–210.
Zschunke, Peter. Konfession und Alltag in Oppenheim. Beiträge zur Geschichte von Bevölkerung und Gesellschaft in einer gemischtkonfessionellen Kleinstadt in der frühen Neuzeit. (Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1984).
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Harrington, J.F. (2019). Early Modern Child Abduction in the Name of Religion. In: Berner, T., Underwood, L. (eds) Childhood, Youth and Religious Minorities in Early Modern Europe. Palgrave Studies in the History of Childhood. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29199-0_9
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