UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE Baptism, Community, and Critique: A Cross-Cultural Study of Unorthodox Religion in Europe and England, 1100-1700 A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree in Doctor of Philosophy in History by Eric Russell Kenagy June 2015 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Randolph Head, Chairperson Dr. James P. Brennan Dr. Dana Simmons Copyright by Eric Russell Kenagy 2015 The Dissertation of Eric Russell Kenagy is approved: _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ Committee Chairperson University of California, Riverside ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The Rivera Library Staff at the University of California, Riverside provided me with services in a very organized manner. I thank Interlibrary Loan supervisors Janet Moores and Maria Mendoza for locating books so quickly and thoroughly. I am also pleased to acknowledge my dissertation committee: Dr. Dana Simmons and Dr. James Brennan. When I first asked them to be readers, they showed initiative and enthusiasm. Dr. Thomas Cogsell, a historian of early modern England, introduced me to the EBBO database, “Early English Books Online,” which allowed me to construct the primary source base for my chapters on the Quakers and English Baptists. My family—Sherry and Paul Kruckewitt, David, James, and Loree Kenagy, and Wayne, Joyce, and Gordon Fick—have supported me during the course of the entire program, even in instances when those who care might feel compelled to suggest a different path. Finally, I must single-out my advisor, Dr. Randolph Head, for his steadfast commitment to my progress and ultimate success here at Riverside. Dr. Head has committed a great deal of time from his busy schedule to guide me through difficult research topics and concepts, making sure that I could retain and reiterate them clearly at paper presentations and oral examinations. Dr. Head also paid close attention to my activities and teaching assistantships so his letters of recommendation were particularly detailed and opened up opportunities for me to teach in other departments. I thank Dr. Head for making the most difficult path of my life not only possible, but also enjoyable. iv For My Grandmother Katherine Jane Reynolds v ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Baptism, Community, and Critique: A Cross-Cultural Study of Unorthodox Religion in Europe and England, 1100-1700 By Eric Russell Kenagy Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in History University of California, Riverside, June 2015 Dr. Randolph Head, Chairperson Europe’s history is marked by consistent tension between orthodox institutions and non-conformist communities, radical groups seeking to create new autonomous religious movements. What make the heresies I am studying significant are their shared objections to orthodoxy, and the extent to which leaders expressed themselves through attacks on established Church doctrines. This dissertation is a comparative, cross-cultural study of ritual baptism, which seeks to find commonalities among four groups: the Cathars, Anabaptists, Quakers and Baptists. I argue that dissident critiques of prevailing institutions, doctrines, and ways of life were very similar and consistent. Moreover, as the institutional Churches gained in wealth and power, the radical leadership began to attack them through meticulous Scriptural analysis and Biblical interpretation. vi I have determined that four key components link these cultures. First and foremost, the dissenters collectively rejected the orthodox Roman, Magisterial Protestant and Anglican Church practices of infant baptism. The communities’ leadership found no Biblical precedent for pedobaptism. The Cathar “elect” conducted a laying of hands; the Anabaptists and Baptists initiated only willing believers—adults; the Quakers did not baptize with water at all. Secondly, a strict asceticism is common among all of these groups, particularly the Anabaptists who dressed plainly and practiced their religion in austere homes. All four dissident groups had shared experiences of persecution that came often in waves of surveillance, fines, imprisonments, and executions. Finally, corruption and decadence angered the leaders above all and consequently persuasive attacks became most apparent in their writings. Ritual baptism allows us to better comprehend other subjects of contention such as community, eschatology, authority, free will, pacifism, and the separation of church and state. I suggest that struggles between orthodox and heterodox religions are not specific to the European continent in the pre-modern era. We see the same peripheral radicalism today in Western pastoral Christianity and right-wing Fundamentalist Islam, in Hasidic Judaism and Tibetan Buddhism. And all too often, the dominant religion of a certain region alienates the outlying unorthodox faiths. Radicalism exists ultimately as an antithesis to mainstream religious practice. It seeks to check, challenge, and recast conventional orthodoxy. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS……………………………………………………………….iv DEDICATION………………………………………………………………………..….v ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………..vi TABLE OF CONTENTS……………………………………………………………………………viii Introduction: ……………………………………………………………………………1 CHAPTER I: The Cathars……………………………………………………….…….15 CHAPTER II: The Anabaptists……………………………………………………..…45 CHAPTER III: The Quakers………………………………………………………..…83 CHAPTER IV: The Baptists…………………………………………………….……118 Conclusion:……………………………………………………………………….…..145 BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………….……165 viii Introduction In the early modern societies of Europe and England, it was crucial that all individual Christians be baptized. Baptism was a customary ritual that was administered by an ordained Church authority. The Roman Church for centuries conducted this rite on infants. During the sixteenth-century Reformation, however, pedobaptism was challenged with fervor, particularly by the Anabaptists and Mennonites who baptized only adults. The Cathars, a medieval heterodox religious movement, rejected baptism with water entirely because they believed that conducting the ritual this way had no Biblical precedent. They sharply differentiated the spiritual from the material. The Quakers too baptized differently because they attested to a sacred light within the self; theirs was a 1 baptism of the spirit. For each of these heterodox groups, baptism remained a transcendent phenomenon that ensured the candidate’s place in the church and among its community of believers. This ritual of passage caused a spiritual transformation that moved the individual from a profane to a sacred status. Although baptism did not ensure salvation, it was an integral moment in a life-long journey marked by steadfast faith and an obstinate commitment to doctrine, law, and leadership. Each of the heterodox communities above was unique, though they shared a fundamental and radical rejection of the orthodoxy they faced. Radicals often showed great courage when confronted with more powerful opposition, such as the Roman and Magisterial Protestant authorities. In response to their frequent attacks on orthodox ideas and rituals, they were forced to the periphery of society, which led them to express themselves with only more passion. Literate, often itinerant, ministers shaped their communities through the cultural implementation of their own interpretations of Scripture. All of the groups presented in this study can also be distinguished by the diverse ways they looked to doctrine for inspiration and guidance. The Cathars, Anabaptists, Quakers, and English Baptists are the primary focus of this project, which studies of the theory, practice, doctrine, and significance of baptism among dissident movements spanning the High Middle Ages to the early modern era, approximately 1100 to 1700. Baptism constituted a definitive ritual—a rite of passage— and a religious symbol that distinguished one heterodox group from another, and all of them from orthodox establishments. I also explore the continuities and discontinuities— the similarities and differences—between dissident groups’ faith practices and theology 2 through a cross-cultural, comparative, and interdisciplinary study that links the social activities and historical contexts of radical communities to their respective baptismal practices. I argue that these movements grew out of a critique of orthodoxy, which fundamentally shaped their unorthodox ideas. Baptism, either upheld or dismissed, was conceived by each religious thinker through a close scrutiny of Scripture, acute Biblical interpretation, and as a reaction to what they believed to be errors of the dominant orthodoxy. Radical groups, in turn, criticized constantly these institutions that continued to grow in wealth, power, and excess. Orthodox Churches thus fundamentally shaped heterodox critique. Historiographical discussion of dissident faiths is best understood by considering the debates among contemporary scholars of medieval and early modern heterodox Christianity, including historians such as A.G. Dickens, George Huntston Williams, R.I. Moore, and Edward Peters. R.I. Moore argues that there were no real heterodox “movements.”1 The Cathars never defined themselves and their exact beliefs until the Inquisition backed by Pope Innocent III surveyed and eventually wiped out all of their communities. To Moore, radicals were not connected even by indirect genealogy, but may rather be defined by their