Masculinity in the Reformation Era.
Johnson, Dale A.
Masculinity in the Reformation Era. Edited by Scott H. Hendrix and
Susan C. Karant-Nunn. Sixteenth Century Essays and Studies 83.
Kirksville, Mo.: Truman State University Press, 2008. xix+228 pp. $48.00
cloth.
As explorations into women's history morphed into gender
studies, it was only natural that study of masculinity would soon
follow. From the bibliographies provided in this volume, it appears that
this latter is barely twenty years old. The nine papers included here,
most of which were presented at meetings of the Sixteenth Century
Society and Conference, contribute to scholarship on the topic by taking
up very specific cases, whether focusing on an individual or on a
location, effectively making more complex the broader category itself.
Recognizing early on that any such definitions are very much affected by
class, age, marital status, and situation, the authors give to their
readers even more plurals in the course of their investigations.
The essays are grouped into three sections: "Deviating from
the Norms," "Civic and Religious Duties," and "The
Man Martin Luther." Two essays in part 1 advance clear deviations
from the norm. Allyson M. Poska's study of Galicia in northwest
Spain offers numerous examples to show that peasant men lacked
educational opportunities, frequently engaged in nonmarital sexuality,
tended to resist military service but engaged in violence over more
trivial issues, and had difficulty providing for their families (because
of the system of inheritance)--all contrary to the masculine
expectations of the day. The result was that thousands of Galician
peasant men left the region and "demonstrated their masculinity by
migrating" (16). Helmut Puff explores the case of an individual in
Reformation Zurich who managed to negotiate multiple masculinities and
challenge both cultural and Protestant norms. In 1541 Werner Steiner
admitted to multiple instances of sexual activities with other men over
the course of the previous two decades. Because of his elite position,
his status as a former priest who had married and embraced the reform
movement, and the council's concern to preserve its own reputation
against possible Catholic attack, he was given the rather light sentence
of house arrest, which was itself soon mitigated. He died the following
year.
To this reader, the most interesting essays are those that complete
the first section by Ulrike Strasser and Scott H. Hendrix, chiefly
because they are not so much deviations as reconstructions of
masculinities in this century that saw a crisis of gender norms.
Strasser shows how Ignatius of Loyola's "crisis in his
soldierly and chivalric masculinity" (52) led to a new model of
clerical manhood: an uncompromising emphasis on purity, a form of
spiritual cooperation among men, an integration of masculine and
feminine elements into an action-oriented mysticism, the exchange of the
dagger for the pilgrim's staff to become a soldier of Christ, and
the formal exclusion of women from the order (which, she argues,
actually enabled greater ministry to women). Hendrix's study of
pamphlets on marriage by ten German Lutheran preachers was originally
published in the Journal of the History of Ideas 56, no. 2 (April 1995):
177-93) and could have been missed by persons who do not focus their
work on the sixteenth century. Happily reprinted here, it offers
significant insights into the construction of a Protestant masculinity:
the importance of marriage, sexuality as an essential component, the
divisions of labor (public and domestic) between men and women, and the
special accountabilities of men in the marriage relationship. A much
more nuanced patriarchal image emerges here, Hendrix contends, than
might routinely be suspected.
The intersection of the civil and religious provides the framework
for part 2, with essays by Karen E. Spierling on Geneva, Raymond A.
Mentzer on Huguenot France, and B. Ann Tlusty on imperial Augsburg.
Spierling focuses on the implicit and occasionally explicit conflicts
between the expectations of men to be responsible family heads and
fathers and the claim that they should be obedient to church and city
authorities in matters of piety and social discipline. On the other
hand, Mentzer finds that the Reformed tradition in France exalted the
role of the father as spiritual and ethical guide, enlarged the male
role in the celebration and reception of the Eucharist, asserted
patriarchal control over marriage, and in general intensified male
dominance. A civic uprising by Protestant men of Augsburg in 1584 over
fears concerning what would happen with the imposition of the new
Gregorian calendar (for example, foreign massacres, threats to
Protestant religious holidays) had at its root, according to Tlusty, in
the tradition of the rights of men to collective self-defense. Conflict
arose when the council attempted to remove an incendiary preacher from
the city. Although confessional divisions hardened, negotiations that
ended the immediate dispute actually resulted in the general disarmament
of the civilian population and the loss of a longstanding characteristic
of masculinity.
The fruit of many years of study on Luther and women by Susan C.
Karant-Nunn and Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks is exhibited in the essays of
part 3 on Luther's masculinity. Karant-Nunn reinforces in this
particular case the points made by Hendrix in his broader essay and goes
further to address Luther's frequent expressions of slander against
women. She offers two angles that suggest more subtle judgment:
Luther's acknowledgment that Katharina "wielded the household
scepter" (176) and his use of humor in interacting with his wife.
Wiesner-Hanks uses the lectures on Genesis to refocus the understanding
of lust in Luther's thought, first, away from women and toward men,
but more importantly, as part of his theology of sin and grace.
Such diverse investigations preclude comprehensive conclusions
beyond acknowledging that masculinity in historical context is much more
than patriarchy and power, a complex topic with multiple angles. One
hopes that these researches will encourage others to pursue the topic in
other contexts with similarly rich results.
doi: 10.1017/S0009640710000260
Dale A. Johnson
Vanderbilt University
