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Kent Academic Repository Full text document (pdf) Citation for published version Rowlatt, Linnéa (2014) A Godly Environment: Religious Views of Nature in Early Sixteenth-Century Strasbourg. Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) thesis, University of Kent, Freie Universität Berlin. DOI Link to record in KAR https://kar.kent.ac.uk/55002/ Document Version UNSPECIFIED Copyright & reuse Content in the Kent Academic Repository is made available for research purposes. Unless otherwise stated all content is protected by copyright and in the absence of an open licence (eg Creative Commons), permissions for further reuse of content should be sought from the publisher, author or other copyright holder. Versions of research The version in the Kent Academic Repository may differ from the final published version. Users are advised to check http://kar.kent.ac.uk for the status of the paper. Users should always cite the published version of record. Enquiries For any further enquiries regarding the licence status of this document, please contact: [email protected] If you believe this document infringes copyright then please contact the KAR admin team with the take-down information provided at http://kar.kent.ac.uk/contact.html University of Kent Freie Universität Berlin / Free University of Berlin Faculty of Humanities (Kent) Fachbereich Geschichts- und Kulturwissenschaften / Department of History and Cultural Studies (Berlin) Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (Kent) Text and Event in Early Modern Europe (TEEME) An Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate Ph.D. dissertation A Godly Environment: Religious Views of Nature in Early Sixteenth-Century Strasbourg Linnéa Rowlatt Supervisors: Professor Kenneth Fincham (University of Kent) Professor Claudia Ulbrich (Free University of Berlin) 2014 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Much like a baby, the work of conceiving and delivering a doctoral thesis occurs in private; however, it could not flourish without the assistance of a small village, and I would like to express my gratitude to some of those who helped me during this research project. First and foremost, I have been honoured with the attention of two supervisors who inspired me to fulfil the promises of the first proposal. Professor Kenneth Fincham's impeccable scholarliness and gentlemanly demeanour characterized his steadfast support for this Québecoise environmentalist who landed in his office and I am very grateful for his wisdom in every area. The discipline and focus demanded by Professor Claudia Ulbrich served as a powerful spine upon which to erect my arguments; without her helpful criticisms and advice, the satisfaction I find in this thesis would be diminished. I am proud to be among the first Fellows of Text and Event in Early Modern Europe and a recipient of financial support from the Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctoral programme; the scope of my analysis is beneficially and irreversibly broadened through the juxtaposition of literary and historical theories and practices at the core of the TEEME vision. By insisting that research on the past be placed in a meaningful relationship with present issues, TEEME's architects ensured that new methodologies could be brought to bear on familiar stories, delivering a fresh understanding of their relative place in history. Professor Bernhard Klein and Professor Sabine Schülting have been efficient and gracious anchors as the local TEEME co-ordinators of the University of Kent and the Free University of Berlin, respectively, making my immigrant experience a positive one. Professor Klein's assistance in winning a work placement with Doctor Farah Karim-Cooper in the research department of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre was a particular treasure he bestowed upon me, for which I am very appreciative. 1 I am indebted to Professor Marie-Françoise Guédon for helping me understand the nature of culture and to Professor Emeritus Richard C. Hoffmann for methods of showing the relationship between nature and culture; their instruction years ago is the lifeblood of this thesis. Thank you, also, to the members of my examination committee, whose comments and suggestions improved the document. Lisa Crandall and Gabriel Jones have been true allies in this venture; I am very grateful for their courageous generosity in reading through all the drafts and the insight of their comments. Another ally was John Bowra, who extended his neighbourliness to regular meals and good cheer. Kristine Nickel and Jeff Gray have had faith in my capacities from the beginning and my success is at least partly due to the strength of their vision. Tom, my husband, was unstinting in his support, encouragement, and patience; my daughters, Karmen and Freija, are the most beloved members of our planet's future generations, to whom I dedicate this work. 2 ABSTRACT This thesis offers three case studies of religious representations of the natural world in Strasbourg from 1510 to 1541 from the perspective of the interactive model of socioeconomic metabolism. This model proposes that long-term environmental instability will exert a negative effect on human / social biophysical structures and may provoke changes in the manner in which the natural world is represented within that culture. Although direct causation is impossible to prove due to the autonomous nature of the cultural sphere, this thesis suggests that the two case studies of early sixteenth-century religious reforms in Strasbourg indicate the presence of theological innovations that changed the conceptual relationship between faithful Christians and Creation, thereby offering an enhanced capacity for adherents to exploit the metabolic opportunities in their natural environment. Further, it suggests that these cultural developments were supported and strengthened in part by the stresses society experienced from the natural world. The thesis begins with a description of the natural environment in Alsace during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, with particular attention given to the weather from 1473 to 1541. These decades spanned the coldest years of the Spörer Minimum, itself the second coldest trough of the Little Ice Age. Although weather was the most dynamic and influential element of the natural environment during this period, the model suggests that long term stress from the environment may provoke re-conceptualization of the entire natural sphere of causation. Three religious perspectives are taken as case studies in the thesis to test the model: Roman Catholic, Radical, and Evangelical Christianity. They were created temporally and geographically in proximity, but offer different theological representations of nature. Tentative conclusions arising from their juxtaposition with each other and the climatic conditions suggest that the model is helpful to better understand the 3 complex social and cultural changes during the Reformation. The first case study focuses on Die Emeis, forty-one sermons delivered by Johann Geiler von Kaysersberg in the Liebfrauenmünster zu Strasbourg for Lent 1509. By reading against the grain of these sermons delivered by a well-known and highly respected Doctor of Theology, an orthodox Catholic representation of the natural world and the appropriate human relationship with it is revealed. This chapter also includes information about pre- Reform society in Strasbourg and Alsace, in order to provide a basis of comparison for later developments. The second case study explores three sources known to be popular with Alsatian peasants from 1515 to 1525: astrologist Leonhard Reynmann's Wetter Büchlin, Ein Fast schon büchlin by Clemens Zyegler, a lay theologian from Strasbourg, and Article IV of the Twelve Articles which formed the foundation of peasant demands during the German Peasants' War. The third case study focuses on Hexemeron Dei opus, written by Strasbourg Reformer Wolfgang Capito. An exegesis of Genesis 1-11, Capito writes explicitly of God's creation of the world for human salvation. The aftermath of the Peasants' War in Strasbourg and Alsace are described here, as well as social initiatives in Strasbourg favoured by Reformers such as welfare reform and education. The model of socioeconomic metabolism suggests that following an extended period of material insecurity and social instability caused by environmental uncertainty, cultural agents will modify the representation of nature in order to render human colonization of the natural world more effective. While it is impossible to firmly attribute causality for developments in the religious view of nature to environmental stress, it can be shown that the weather during the decades at the eve of the Protestant Reformation repeatedly limited or removed adequate metabolic intake from those disadvantaged by an increasingly unequal society, contributing to social instability which culminated in the 1525 German 4 Peasants' War. Representations of nature in the examples studied from the new religious movements removed layers of spiritual mediation between humanity and nature which had been and continued to be accepted by the Roman Catholic Church, specifically articulating views which encouraged greater exploitation of the natural environment. Those who rebelled are known to have strongly favoured the new theologies, indicating the possibility that part of the widespread support in Alsace for reformed and radical theology may have been due to the enhanced conceptual opportunities they provided for exploiting the natural environment. Die vorliegende Doktorarbeit beleuchtet in drei Fallstudien religiöse Sichtweisen