For Stability in Early Modern Europe

THE STRUCCLE FOR STABILITY IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE

THEODORE K. RABB Princeton University

New York OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 7975 For Susannah, lonatbdn, and leremy

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PREFACE

This essay was written in response to an appârentþ growing need. During the last half-dozen yeers, my classes in Early Modern His- tory have made me increasingly aware that the "general crisis of the seventeenth centuty" thesis, about which so much has been written, and whose importance as a problem in cur¡ent research seems solidly established, frequently confuses rather than enlightens. Even advanced students come away from a reading of the articles published in Past ds Present and the related literatu¡e with the impres- sion that chaos reigns, that there is no way of reaching fi.rm con- clusions or imposing a coherent framework on so contentious e subject. Nor have the scholars who have produced these works offered much solace. Although meny resort to the term "crisis," and it has become a standby in introductory textbooks, hardly any two treetments agree in the meaning of the word, let alone its implications for an understanding of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. For students above all, but also for specialists, it may well be time to call a halt; to examine what has beèn accomplished, and to see if a cornprehensive assessment is now:possible. What follows is an elaboration, and more detailed statement, of an interpretation-in part a re ials, in part an ettempt to find new conne be of some benefit tô uncertain students number of colleagues in the field. There is the additional ing it to a wider audience that the two centu t\peen Reforrnation and Enlightenn'lent heve most shapeless in European history. Indeed, as we will see, it was precisel¡ because of the fragmented scholarship produced before Wo¡ld War II that the "crisis" thesis could have such an impact. Un- dis- * r¡+Ts*,¡å#nc vrypç, ¡gqn fortunately, the divisions and perplexities it aroused quickly solved its role âs the creetor of a new meens of organizing the lvül viìi pref ace #

CONTENTS

To establish the contexr, the fi¡st few sections review the histori-

If such raþid ro put it mildly, I so aptly volunteere es, inThe Comedy of Surviødl:

A \gp¡less ettempr to see things whole is at least as worthy as the equally hopeless task of isolating fragments for intensive study. He continues, "and much more interesting," but I am willing to let I: The Problem, 3 the case rest without flinging down that additional gauntlet.- II: Scholarly Fragmentation and the Origins of the "Crisis"

Thesis, T

III: Proponents and Critics of the "Crisis," r 7 IV: DefiningTerms, z9

V: Beginningp and Cultural Malaise, 35 . VI: The First Response: Caution, Escape, and Control,49 VII: Domestic Politics, óo some use for others who smdy or teech the If I cannot þeriod. VIII: International Relations and the Force of Religion, record ¿ll the reâders, I must convey my appreciation to those who 74 encoura,ged or rec.ggr{zably influenced the pages that IX: Economics, Demography, and Social Relations, 83 ¡tg_þarahona, Bþilip Benedict, Theodore Brown, John X: Resolution in Aesthetics, roo 'War, {pphg1,{r!9{+"^hg,, Çþ-lo Gpolgq, James Henretta, XI: Possible Explanations: The Effects of r 16 Orest Ranum, lrg;!avþ, John XII: Implications fo¡ the Future, 147 Bibliographic Appendix, r53 Index of Authors Cited, r59 T.K.R. Index, 165 lixl èg,ô-

ILLUSTRATIONS

r. El Greco, Laocoön,42

z. Bronzino, Allegory, 43 3. Titian, Pietà,44

4. Michelang elo, C b ar on' s B o at (detall from T h e La st J ud gtne?ìt), +j 5. Titian, Baccbanal, 46 ó. Rubens, The Apotheosis of Jdmes I, 56 7. Rubens, The Marriage of Henry IV and Marie de' Medici,57 8. Le Brun, Chdncellor Ségu,ier, rc5 9. Claude, The Angel Appearing to Hagar, ro9 ro. Claude, The Sermon on tbe Moant, rog r r. Titian, Chdrles V at Mühlberg, tz5 rz. Brueghel ,The Triumph of Death, tz6 r3. Brueghel,The Massacre of tbe Innocents, tz7 14. Rubens, Decius Mus Addressing the Legions, t3o r5. Rubens, Peace and War, t3z ró. Rubens, The Horrors of War, r33 [ri] xä lllustrations

t7. Yelíøquez, Equestian Portrait of Bahasar Carlos, 136 r8. Yelâzquez,Tbe Sutrender of Breda, ry7 -@^ 9¿¡? t9. Yelázquez, Mars, r3B 2o. Calloq The Siege of Bredø (detail), r4o "The road to resolution lies by doubt: 2t. Callot, The Hanging (from The Miseries of War), r4r The next way home's the fa¡thest way about." Callot, The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian, r4z 23. Callog The Execution (fromThe Miseries of War),-t4z -Francis Q:uarles, Em blents (r$ 5), Book IV, No. z, Epigram.z. 24. Calloq The Temptøtion of St. Antbony (detail), r43 25. Wattèau (after), Tbe Encørnpnent, t44 I

THE PROBLEM

Momus (pointing to Mars): Thy'Wars brought nothing âbout.

Jarru.s;'Tiswell an Old Age is out, Cl¡ronos: Andtime to begin a New. -John Dryden, The Seculør Masque ftom T he P ilgrim, lines 889r.

A historian must take pause when in th¡ee short lines e poet distills the argument of many, many peges. Yet Dryden's oft-quoted ob- servetion, put in the mouttn of iconographically well.chosen Greek and Romen gods, does describe in a few words a development which thir essay will attempt et some length to describe and explain. My only disagreement with Dryden is that I believe the wa¡s did bring something about. But the sense thet en age is passing, which is so strong not only in his writing but throughout the culture of his times, is central to the understanding of the late seventeenth century that I wish to propose. What I will be trying to demon- suate is that Europe entered e nerv erâ very roughly during the middle third of the century, and that the best indication of this profound transfo¡metion is the very different atmosphere that reþed in the succeeding decades. Between, sey, the early ró3o's end the early ró7o's (though it would be foolish to insist on crisp cut-off points in so far-reaching a process) there was a change in direction more dramatic artd decisive than any tliat occurred in a ltl 4 Struggle for Stabili.ty in Early Modern Europe The Problenz t forqy-year period between the beginnings of the Reformation and was P¿ul IJaz;lrd, whose classic Ld Crise de la conscience euro- the French Revolution. And it is precisely by recognizing how dif- was published neatly half a century then, many þéenne ^go.'Since fe¡ent Europe's situation was in the aftermøtå of these events than it historians have purported to see a "crisis" taking place somewhat had been during, or immediately preceding, the great shift that we earlier than Haza¡d's opening date of 168o, and on the whole thei¡ can come to appreciate the extent of the alteration that had been chronology seems more appropriate to my schema.2 But they, on wrought. As in modern physics, the existence of the phenomenon the other hand, have given almost no attention to the period with itself can become more perceptible when one focuses on its conse- which Hazard was in fact dealing, and which this essay will be stressing. Indeed, the emphases of the present are such that quences.- work A quick, of the new sensibility and of it might well be characterized as a "posr-crisis" interpretation-a the new so ips, is revealed by a number desþation that has a double justification, both chronological and of obvious e of Rubens and the taste of historiographical. It denotes, first, the view that the changed cir- Claude; between the commitments of Milton and the cominitments cumstences of the end of. the seventeenth century, that is, in the of Dryden; berween the asphations of Charles I and those of his "post-crisis" era, provide the best evidence for the belief that a son, Charles II; between the ambitions of Condé in the ró4o's (not genuine and significant transformation had taken place at mid- unlike those held by his father or great-grandfather in the I6Io's century. Second, it indicates en eftempt to go beyond the literarure and r56o's) and then during the last few years before his death in on the "crisis," to provide a new perspective on the themes that his- r686; berween the career of Wallenstein and the caree¡ of Eugène; torians have studied so extensively during the past twenty years, between the reception of Gelileo and the reception of Newton; be- since Eric Hobsbawm first wrote of a "general crisis."3 In other tween the angst-ridden striving for order of a Desca¡tes or e words, by highlighting the later period this essay also seeks to re- Hobbes and the confidence of a Locke; between the image of Gus- formulate and reshape a scholarly controversy: to confront a tavus Adolphus, "the champion of Protestantism," and Charles XII, "struggle for stability" both in Early Modern Europe and among the defender of Sweden's "great-power position"; between the pol- its recent students. icies of Paul V and Innocent XI; between a society vulnerable and Before any such enterprise can be undertaken, however, we then relatively impervious to witchcraft panics. In all these cases must first examine (as we will in sections II and III) the back- the years around r Toci appear more ordered, more assured about ac- ground out of which the reassessment arises. For the historiography cepted conventions, less divided, less prone to vast and uncontrolled of the century and a half extending approximately from the death suivings in new direcdons, and less passionate about commitments- of Calvin to the birth of Voltaire has been quite distinctive. From in sum, more settled and relaxed-than the preceding years. The the generation of Ranke until after World War II, its main con- comparison is relative, of course, not absolute. Disorder, division, cerns were significantly different from those that dominated re- and commitm€nt were by no means absent from the l69o's; but search into the preceding and succeeding periods, the Reformation their menace was less than it had been in the I63o's or r64o's, and, and the Enlightenment. And in recent times it has enjoyed a fer- most important, they were considered less menacing by contem- ment of reinterpretation unmatched by any field of European his- poraries. The chief subject of this essay is thus a change in percep- r. (Paris, r9¡5). The nanslation, by L. May, was published asThe Euro- tion: its nature, causes, and consequences. J. pean Mind, t68o-t7 t (CleveÌand and New York, 1963 nteenth 5 ). By suesing the difference of the z. See below, notes zr-24. cenflry I shall be drawing on the fin chola¡s. 3. Eric Hobsbawm, "The Overall Crisis of the European Economy in the Perhaps the first to see this period as change Sevenreenth Cenrury," Past d¡ Presenr, No. 5 ( t9l4), l3-sl. I fir ì:., ; ó Struggle for Stability in Emly Modqn Europe tory. My main emphasis, inevitably, will be on this burst of activity, II on'its results and its implications for the furure, and above all on the question of whether there a¡e now grounds for the creation of a Þ& new fremework, a new shape, to guide studies of the sixteenth end seventeenth centuries. SCHOLARLY FRACMENTATION AND THE ORIGINS OF THE "CRISIS" THES¡S

Flfty years ago the period seemed to have virtually no struciltre er all. Indeed, the most famous characte¡ization of the seventeenth 'Whitehead's century during the rgzo's was Alfred North "the century.of genius," which is about as atomized a description of a hund¡ed yeers es one can imagine.a Yet hardly anythingmore coherent or comprehensive was available to the interestãd student.

compess, the century and a half in the middle seemed naturally fragmented. After all, one could find a "golden ege" in iust about every major counuy-Cervantes' Spain, Louis XIV's France, Eliza- bethan England, Rembrandt's Holland, Gusravus' Sweden, Ch¡is- tien IV's Denmark. Since this was such a heroic time, most his-

'Whitehead, 4. A. N. Science and tbe Modern World (New york, r9z5). Chapter III is entided "Cenrury of Genius," and the label has been

tzl 8 Struggle for Stability in Emly Modqn Europe Scbolmly Fr agmentation and " Crisis" Even when b¡oader themes did appear, such as absolutism, con- stitutionalism, or the Counter-Reformation, they seemed to have major relevance only to two or three steres er a time. France and

umes between the two World Wars that did survey all of Europe ner, Firth, Scott, and their contemporaries, for example, English- and more, but such vast co-operative undertakings rarely achieve a a vecuum, and one wonde¡s where poor compelling and unified view of a period, and these v¡ere no exc€P- ideas about monarchical power.6 It is not tion.lo Their emphasis was heavily on political and diplomatic his- at Whitehead, looking over the cenrury, tory, in which they perceived few universal themes. This was true, should have taken the ultimate reductionist approach, emphasizing too, of the international researches of a handful of individual schol- individual genius as the chief unity in sevenieenth-"..rtoiy Eu¡o- (Cambridge Mass., 1934) and "American Treasure and the Rise of Capi- pean history. \ talism, r5oo-r7oo," Economica, lX (t9t9), 338-57; G. N. Clark, lbe The English-speaking ulo¡ld was particularly indifierent to de- Seaenteentb Century (Odord, r9z9); R. B. Merriman' Tbe Rìse of the velopments outside England or America in this period. Until'World Spanìsh Empire in tbe OId World dnd tbe Neut (New York, I9I8-34), Sir 'Wa¡ II major contributions to non-Anglo-Saxon srudies had been Contemporaneous Reoolutiozr (Oxford, r938), and Suleintatz the Magnifi- inthe made by only five men: Motley, Hamilton, Clark, Merriman, and cent, tSzo-t566 (Cambridge, Mass., 1944); and David Ogg,Europe Setsenteentb Century (London, r9z8) and Louis XIV (London, 1933). It Ogg.? And in the United Stateé in the r94o's and r95o's only Mat- is only f¡i¡ to mention that ¿ number of economic historians, notably C. H. Haring, S. L. Mims, and C. W. Cole, did write substantial works on generalissimo b and Continental history, but they did not affect the over-all understanding of then addresses alist the history of the period, as did above. point of view. and 8. Maningly taughi at Columbi the University of the Czech/hostile interpretations are, respectively, Heinrich Ritter von Minnesoa. After Mer¡iman's rd these two Pro- Srbik,'W allensteins Ende : (Jrsacben, V ertauf tmd- F olgen der Katastrophe vided the only graduate training in early modern European history avail- (Salzburg, r95z) and Josef PekaÌ, Wallenstein t63o-t634, Tragödie einer able et an Américan institution until the emergence of such Maaingly Verscbutörung, I (Berlin, 1937). The Thitry Years''War is a subject not students as Flerbert Rowen, Robert Kingdon, ¿nd De Lamar Jensen, and confined to one stete, and the¡efore is all the more significant for having been t¡eated consistently within verious national fremeworks. 6. S. R. Gardiner, History of Englrnd from the Accesion of Jtmes L to th e Outbre ak of tb e Ciail W ar t 6o 3- t 6 4z (London, r 883-84) ; Charles Firth, Oliøer Crorttusell and the Rule of the Purìtans ìn Englrnd (Oxford, rgoo); 'W. R. Scon, Tbe Connitution rtzd Finance of English, Scottish, and. Irísh of the .r93o's who devoted most of his work rs wâs loìnt-Stock Contpanies to t72o (Cambridge, rgrz). These tb¡ee historians T¡evor Devies of Oxford. Significantly, Thom suPer- produced the most important works on Stuarr history during the genere- seded by V. H. H. G¡een's Renaissance and Re r9t2), tion preceding World War I, and indeed thei¡ contriburion was hardly wrinen by a specialist in English history. egualed until after World Wer II. The equivalent scholars among their rc. Propyläen-Webgeschichte,Vols. 5 and 6 (Berlin, r93o and rg3t);Peuples contemporaries on the Continent were equâlly parochial in rheir research. et Ch¡ilisations, ed. Louis Halphen an ols. VIII and 7. J. L. Modey, The Rjse of the Dutcb Republic. A Hìstory (New York, IX: Henri Flauser and Augustin Rena 'âge moderne ( t559-t66o) 1856) and Hinory of the UniteilNetberlrnds (New York, i8ór-ó8); E. J. (Paris, r9z9) and Hen¡i FIauser, La Pr e c e Hamilto4, Ameri an Tr asur e ønd th e P ri c e Rezsolution in Sp ain, t 5 o t - t 6 5 o (Paris, r933). ro Snugglefor Stability inErrly ModernEurope Scbolmly Frøgmentation dnd "Crisis>t r r ers interested in a of whom was Georges l"Sè*.tlThe one t embrace all of Europe in a self-avowed o give the seventeenth century a distinct place in history, was the work of a Swede, Eli Heckscher. But the criticisms of his massive monograph came so fast and furious that interpretations remained as divided-as before.lz seventeenth cenftry has had repercussions in many other areas. For it has been the content of the new wo¡k, not its volume, that has had the most pregnant consequences. has at- tained in a few years a coherence, a s degree of excitement whose result has been into a bride. And the sou¡ces of this new glamor are not far to seek.

The fi¡st impetus . ii*pt|, from the French, and in ""-", loi particular f¡om one of the most fèitile influences in recent his- toriograph)', the VI" Section of the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris. Their great journal, Annales, was fãunded in ry29 by a medievalist, Marc Bloch, and a Reformation scholar, Lucien in Europe and the United Srates, together with the dissertation sub- jects of over 2oo of thei¡ doctoral srudents. The most spectâcular has taken place in the United Stares, where a tickle of

:t:tt*r European Guerre de Le Grdnd

Unifying System." 13. In addition to French history, Tapié's interesc have been mainly diplomatic and cent¡al European history: La Politique étrangère de ld Fratnce etle début de la guerre de trente ans (t6t6-t6zt,) (Paris, rg34),Les Rela- tions entre Ia France et I'Eztrope centrdle de t66t-t7t5 (Paris, 1958), and Monarcbie et peuples du Danabe (Paris, r9ó9); he has recently also This microcosmic and "material" history has had repercussions worked on the history of a¡t: see note r3ó, below. One hâs but to mention 14. See below, notes 29, 3t, 37, anð, 4o. t5. La Méditerrdnée et le monde méditerrarzéen a l,époque de phitippe lI ::3î:"T:#i'åJJl: (Paris,-r949); y in England alone. an English translation of the second edirion ( 196ó) by Siân Reynolds was published in Lirndon in ry72 aind ry73. 12 Strugglefor S¡dbility inàmly ModernEurope Scholarly Fragmentation and "Crisii, t3 throughout the profession, but it has been particularly invigorating in early modern studies. Its impact is no doubt partly due to the sharp contrast it presents to previotis work, both because of its cgncern with the messes râther than elites, and because in peasant life the regularities seem more encompassing then, for example, the Counter-Reformation or absolutism. Through sociâl analysis the period takes on more of a "structure," to use a favo¡ite Annales Although both the VI" Section and past d¡ present have been word, than it ever had before. Moreover, there is a peculiar ad- vital stimuli to inreresr in the late sixteenth and the sevenreenth cen- vantege that the late sixteenth and the seventeenth century enjoy. tury, it must be admitted that their contribution to the creation of a In no other field of European history is there so comfo¡table a bal- by implication than ex- ance between paucity and abundance of documentation. With the ntrate lopsidedly on their grpv¡th of bureaucracies end ïhe beginnings of parish registration they themselves have de- in the sixteenth century, archives become sufficiently rich (at læt) characteristic of Past ds to ans\¡¡er most of the major questions asked by modern historians. As the paperwork and its survival rate multiply, however, there comes a point (in most countries a¡ound r Too) when the volume of materials starts to cause severe problems of digestion. It may well be, therefore, that only in the early modern period could the type of research done by the Annales school have seemed so comprehensive, with such revolutionary consequences for úr entire subject. Yet, although the reasons for the school's ascendancy may the impetus has -Here been more noticeably American, the result still be conjectural, its effects are unmistakable: a complete rethink- of a very rapid transformation. until after world wa¡ II there was ing and reopening of topics hitherto regarded as inaccessible or un- only a tiny handful of sçholars interested in this subject-Duhem, interesting, topics which have become the besis for a new synthesis, Sarton, Koyré, and Merton were the rnort ,rot"6le-scattered "a new tradition" and "systematization," to quote Pierre Goubert.l6 through vlious academic departments.r8 By the r96o's there were The second major impetus behind the historiographic revival was in some weys an offshoot of the first, and it was again centered on a journal: the English publication Past d¡ Present. Founded in r95z by a group of Oxford and Cambridge dons who seemed to have left- of-center sympathies and interests in social history that weie similar to those of the Annales school, Pdst ds Present rapidly became the liveliest and most provocative historical journal in the English language. And from its ea¡liest days it has placed a heavy süess on siiteenth- and seventeenth-century topics. Throughout its life

16. Pierre Goubert, "Local History," Historical Stadies Today, ed. Felix þhY (London, rgz4), zn influendal Gilbert and S. R. Graubard (New York, r97z), pp. 3oo-3r4, esp. pp. 3Io boo re closely tied to the history of and 3rr. Goubert speaks of "a regeneration of historical studies, with phil t-h. ' .r. ,rot only scholars wárk- newmethodsandideas" (p. loS). mg Charles Haskins, and a number r4 Struggle for Stdbìlity in Emly Modern Ewoþe S cholmly Fr agmentation and " Crisis,, tt cern for extensive evidence, the "crisis" thesis has in fact received

,,crisis" grânted, in a long review of the book, that the wes an established phenomenon, replacing pr period, and that the chief remaining it happened.2s Despite some recent A the "crisis" thesis (to be discussed below), Hill's and Stone's confi-

of their contemporaries also ventured inro the subject, but none made it a principal focus of his work, and none had a formative influence on the field to compare with the four men mentioned above. zz. See below, notes z4 and 29. 23. Hill in Crisis in ,,The r9. The most forceful stâtement of the doubts is Thomas S. Kuhn, "The Re- Europe, p. 3; Stone, Century of Crisis,', Tbe Neu lations between History and History of Science," Hinorícal Sruilies To- York Reøieus of Books, VI, No. 3 (tg66), pp. ,3-rd. 24. day, eð. Gilbert and Graubard, pp. r59-92. Yet the infusion of his subject The most widely used recent textbooks, ã[ of which ¡eflect the "crisis" into general history is indicated by the careers of rwo of his fellow-authors in that volume: Robert Darnton and Frank Manuel. Neither was trained as a historian of science, and yet both have made contributions to that subject, the former through â srudy of mesmerism, the latter through a major investigation of Newton. zo. ffe¡bert Butterfield, Tbe Orìgìns of Modern Science (London, 1949). The¡e have been ar least a dozen reprintings since that fi¡st edition. On p. 7 of the r9óz Collier edition is the famous remark: the scientific revolution "outshines everything since the rise of Chrisdaniry and reduces the Westem Cìvilimtion: Recent Interpretations (New york, r973), Vol. I; Renaissance and Reformation to the rank of mere episodes.l' and f. R. Major er a1., Ctuilization in the Wertern Wortd (piilzdelphia, z r. Edited by Trevor Aston (London, 1965). 1967). 16 Strugglefor Stability inEørly Modqn&urope achievement of Michelet and Bu¡ckhardt in formulating the mod- n whether the new insights a closer look at the pro- eit? etation, their accomplish- PROPONENTS AND CRITICS OF TI-IE "CR¡SIS"

Although the¡e are fourteen contributors to Cr¡ïs in Europe, ft is the first two, Eric Hobsbawm and Hugh Trevor-Roper, who lay down the fundamental interpretation which, with variations, under- lies the remainder of the volume. Drawing on rv/o areas of research, economic/demographic history and administrative/political history, respectiveþ, Hobsbawm and Trevor-Roper offer two standpoints from which to comprehend late sixteenth- end seventeenth-century history.2õ For Hobsbawm the fact that the great economic and population boom of the sixteenth century came to an end, to be succeeded by the stagnation and frequent recessions of the seventeenth century, indicated that there was a "crisis" both in the "old colonial system" 'Wealth and in internal production. had grown too fast, and was put to unproductive uses-particularly by a wasteful aristocracy. The "crisis" brought about a new concentration of capital and cleared the way for the indust¡ial revolution, because Europe's economy was healthier and more "progresive" when it recove¡ed in the late seventeenth cenrury. The implication is that the troubles of the seventeenth century somehow set right what wes wrong with the economy in the previous period, removed obstacles, and al- Iowed a ne\¡¡ economic situation to emerge around r7oo. Viewed from a Ma¡xist standpoint, this trairsition is presented as a decisive stage in the progression from feudalism to capitalism. Hobsbawm

zg. Crisis in Euroþe, pp. j-9j. Hobsbawm's a¡ricle consisted both of the article cited in note 3, above, and of a complementary anicle in the succeeding issue of Past ds Present, the consolid¡ted piece in Cr¡iri in Earope being entided "The Crisis of the Seventeenth Centu¡y.'" lql r 8 Struggle f or Stability in Emty Modern Earope Proponents and Critics of tbe "Crisis" , g

only briefly mentioned population, but a lot of the resea¡ch on which The ¡emainder of the volume, and a series of studies published his synthesis is based suggesrs that demographic stagnation or decline since its appeerence, have added flesh and variety to the "crisis" in- went hand in hand with economic t¡enás.ri And tie take-off of the terpretation, mainly to Trevor-Roper's thesis. The influence of in- eighteenth cenrury took place in both arees. we thus have "crisis" creasingly expensive wa¡fare on the "crisis," and its manifestations as cleanse¡-the broom that swept away the old and made way for in Sweden, Denmark, Ireland, Portugal, Mexico, central Europe, the new. and F¡ench finances of the early r66o's have all received attention.ze tevor-Roper finds the manifestation of the "crisis" in the series And, although Hobsbawm's particular understanding of the col- of ¡evolts that wracked western European states in the mid-seven- lapse of the boom has had fewer echoes, the basic phenomenon he teenth cenrury. Nearly forty years aþo Merriman pointed to the described-economic and demographic sloydown-has continued contemporeneity of revolutions in the r64o,s and i65o,s.27 He is to inspire a steady flow of research.æ fardly mentioned in the Crlsis in Europe volume, p".h"p, because Fou¡ elaboretors or modifiers of the original set of arguments de- he concluded that there were no important features serve special mention, because they have not only b¡oadened the emong the various upheavals, only local ðonditions."-n*on Trevor-Roper's terms of the discussion but have also highlighted some of its prob- enttre purpose is to uncover the links-between Catalan revoìt, lems. The year after the Crisis in Europe volume appeared Ivo Fronde, English Revolution, and disrurbances in the Netherlands. He finds his organizing principle in the thesis he originally enun- 29. Michael Roberts, "The Military Revolution, r56o-t66o," in his Essays ia ciated as an interpretation of the origins of the English civil'war, Sa;edisb Hìstory (London, 1967), pp. tg1-zz¡, esp. p. 2o7, and "Queen Christina and the General Crisis of the Seventeenth ibid., the_suuggle between "Court" and 'iCountry." As-parasitic, over- Century," pp. trr-1j; E. L. Petersen, "La Crise de la noblesse danoise entre r53o er loaded central courts grew, they generateð increasing resentment r 66o," Annale s Ê c onomie s So ciétê s Ch¡ìlis ations (henceforth Annale s), those left outside the charmed circle, not ðnly because XXIII (1968), tz37-6t; Aidan Clarke, "Ireland and the General Crisis," 1*rg ,,ins" "outs"_always djslike "ins," but also because these partióular Pdst ds Present, No.48 (t97o), 79-99; Pierre Chaunu, "Brésil et I'Atlan- seemed especially vulgar end distasteful. They wêre tolerated as tique au XVIIe siècle," Annales, XVI (196r), tt76-rzo7; J. I. Israel, "Mexico and the 'General Crisis' of the Seventeenth Century," Past l¡ long as prosperity lasted-this is the one poinr at which there is a Present, No. ó3 ( 1974) , j7, Dent, "An Aspect of the Crisis of tenuous link with Hobsbawm's formulation-but second ß- Julian in the the Seventeenth Century: The Collapse of the Financial Administration quarter of the seventeenth century a ne\À/ "puritanism" (not a re- of the French Monarchy (r6jl:6r)," Economic History Reaieu, znd ligious docuine, but an ascetic distaste foi Court extravagance) series, XX (ry61), z4r-256, a subiect set in a broader contexr in DenCs drove an immovable wedge between Court and Country. A violent Crisß in Finance: Crown, Financiers and Society in Seaenteentb Century France (Newton attack was launched on the Renaissance Court, Society clashed Abbot, 1973); and the articles by Poli3ensh.i cited below, note The parallels for Scotland have been drawn by David with the State, and the overweening central power was either 31. Stevenson; The Scottisb Reaolution, t637-t644: The Triumpb of tbe brought down or, as in France, rationãily organized. Amendments Coaenanters (Newton Abbot, 1973 ). to this view have been ofiered by Roland Mousnier and John 3o. The research has been summarized in E. E. Rich and C. H. Wilson, eds., Elliott, the former suessing that sometimes in France officeholders The Cmtbridge Economic History of Europe,lY: The Economy of Ex- themselve-s rose against the State, and the latter cautioning that the panding Europe in tbe t6th and tTth Centuries (Cambridge, r9ó7), esp. essd¡ce of difficulties was the struggle between on pp. 4o-58 of the article by IGrl F. Helleiner end in the graphs on pp, -Spain's þeripheral accompanying the article by Fernand Braudel and Frank Spooner. regions and the cenrer, rather than dislike of an overloadeã 458-85 Cãurt.2. References to the principal resea¡ch are provided by Steensgaard in the 26. See especially note 5 inibid.,p. B. article cited in note 37, below. Of particular importance is the article by 27. Si* Contemporaneous Reoolutions,pttbhshed in r93g. Ruggiero Romano, "Tra XVI e XVII Secolo. Una Crisi Economica: Crisis r 6 r g- t 6z 2," Riui st a St ori c ø I t aliana, ( t r ì 28. inEaroþe, pp. 97-rro. 7 4 96 z), 48o-5 3 r Snuggle in 20 for Stability Emly Modqn Europe Proponmts ønd Critics of tbe "Crisis,, 2r Schöffer published an English t¡anslation had fi¡st 'War ,,crisis" of a talk he By this standard, he regarded the Thirty years' as a er given in 1963, in which he offered a somewhat reluctant endo¡se- least for central Europe and possibly for rhe entire Continenr. Al- ment "crisis" literature.sl to the Paying tribute primarily to Roland though he offe¡ed little evidence ouiside of Bohemia for the slow- Mousnier (to be discused below), he agreed that the previous down or acceleration he mentioned at the end of the above quota- "fragmentary treetment" of the period was unacceptable, for "we tion (apparently only in England and Holland was the ,,årisis" just simply have to give the r 7th century a place of irs own."32 But, positively solved), he did think that " a new conception of civilisa- despite "the chorus of delighC' that-had greeted this new -.g-""i:- i tion" came into being everywhere around r óoo.s6 For all the diffi- ing ,,an principle, he remained dubious: he was uncomfortable with the culties of such an interpretation, the notion of aggravation and vegueness the "crisis"l concerned of word that Holland, in its culmination of inrernal cont¡adictions" hes wide applicability, as "golden ege," \Mas such an exception; uncertain how Baroque art we shall see. fitted into the thesis; and disturbed at the indeterminacy of the social The first overview of the controversy that was both compre- and economic evidence.s3 He preferred the terms "srabilization" and hensive and favorable to the "crisis" theiis was pubrished ry ñiets "shift" to "crisis," for they seemed more descriptive of what he Steensgaard in r97o. He feared that the doubts expressed Uy SctOf- considered the main tendencies of sevenreenth-century history: po- fer the stinging attack _and by A. D. Lublinskaya (see beláw) had litical centralization, the consolidation of the nobility's supremacy, made a "w¡eck of a debate and a concept rhat a few years ago and the solidification of social, economic, and demographic pat- looked so Yet he found it ìmpossible .o ä.ny th"". -promising."3? ,,crisis" terns. Although Schöffer's exposition wes et â very general level there had been an agrarian and demographic in the ,.,o"n- that allowed him little room fo¡ detailed analysis or chronological teenth century; the problematical judgments, according to him, precision, his primary (albeit briefly stated) contention-that there centered on industry and international irade, which seerñed to re- was a gradual "settling dovzn," that life "becâme more settled and semble a seesaw, not a swing, and therefore revealed no clear trends. stable"sa-will be developed into a muôh-expanded, fleshed-out To make up forthis deficiency, he emphasized the change in public means of analysis in the pages that follow. expenditures and taxation. Here a funãamental shift coola bã p.r- A year later Josef Poli$ensk!.undertook a description of recent ceived, and he suggested "that the seventeenth cenrury crisis fiom writings on the Thirty Years' War so es ro propose "the conception the economic point of view primarily was a shift in demand caused of the c¡isis es an eggravation and culmination of the internal con- by a transfer of income from the private to the public sector by tradictions in the structure of a given society or at least in some of , too, he could assess the political its components which brings about a violent impact on eco- onse to government taxation, in- nomic, social, cultural relations, and has as a result either a regional d a centrally devised "redistribu- or general regress or a rapid progress of . . . social development."ss ttempt to rehabilitate the "crisis" 3r. "Did Éfoland's Golden Age Co-incide with ¿ Period of Crfsis?" Actd rects o r r api a d Historiae N eerlandica,I ( r9ó6), 8z-to7. d ministr ativ e ä-lllitli:ï:T. iïr' iiåï;1ï:: 32. Ibid.,p.g. to the economic and political elemenrs of the thesis. îh.r. *ãr no* y; Ibid.,pp.86-y. 34. Ibid.,p. ro6. 36. Hìstorica erdcle, p. 8o. 35. "The Thi.ty Years'lüa¡: Problems of Motive, Extent and Effect, "/lis- 37. "The Economic and Political Crisis of the Seventeenrh Cenrury," Xlll ln- torica," XIV (1967), 77-go.T'he quotation is on p. 8o. PoliSensky made tenzøtìonal Congress of Historical Sciences (Moscow, r97o). îhe quota_ much the seme argument, more briefly, in "The Thirry Years' War and tion is on p. z. the Crises and Revolutions of Seventeenth-Century Europe," Past d¡ Pres- 38. lbid.,p. 5. ezf, No. 39 (ry68), 34-43. 39. Ibìd..,p.7. 22 Snuggle for Støbility in Edrly Modqn Euroþe Proponents and Critics of tbe "Crisis" t3 an underlying unity that could resolve the disparities among the intellectual preparation."as He believed thet the movements had previous interpretations. grov/n out of and expanded upon the incontrovertibly idealistic and political aims of late sixteenth-century rebels. Unconvinced by Le Roy Ladurie's dismissal of the "opposition" in Languedoc, he saw in anti-fiscalism-"the leit wotif of the revolts"-a genuine anti- feudal social movement, reaching its height during the Thirty 'War, Years' when the derelictions of governments broke'all bounds.a Indeed, "this great anti-fiscal agitation" was born out of anti-feudalism and a multipronged attack on the class hierarchy, the system of power, the lin-k between government action "rrd nomic development, and the functrbns of the monarchy. In other""o- wotds, it partook, more concretely than had the messianism or utopianism of the sixteenth century, of social and political revolution. Although Villari sometimes ignored his own warning and relied on rhetoric rether than evidence to establish his case,at his revision of the "c¡isis" thesis does edd new b¡icks to the edi6ce. One can de- plore his ideological attacks on non-Marxists without having to ignore his real contributions: his depiction of the forces and aims that were common even ro widely diverse protests; his emphasis on a real exacerbation of tensions and a radicalization of protest as the mid-century approached; and his insistence that the upheavals were centered, not on trivia. but on genuinely far-reaching and signifi- cent issues of social and political import.

For all their disagre"rn.Ïrr, ,J. rrirårirns discussed thus far at Wha was that so historians few least seem to be convinced that there was a decisive "crisis" at rhe seêmed revolutionary crisis of the heart of the seventeenth century. Those who dissent from this con- year 16 nd had a long and profound clusion may be fewer in number, but they have been no less forceful. And they enjoy apparent support from the current leaders of the great tradition of French scholarship that iñspired the re-evalu- ation of the seventeenth century in the first place. I say "apparent,"

g. Ibid., p. 253. The original text reads: "che la crisi rivoluzionaria degli anni ró4o ebbe un contenuto ideele ed una preparazione intellectuale lunga e profonda." My translation. 44. Ibid., pp. 258-ó4. The quotation is from p. z6r. 45. He offers no evidence, for example, to justify his equating ¿nti-feudalism ând sociâl protest. 24 Struggle for Stdbility in Emly Modern Europe Proponmts and Critics of tbe "Crisis" zt because although some of these historians have expressed their forcefully, and I shall return to it below-he asks that the analysis doubts in private, they have produced no zustained, explicit refuta- not be restricted to the political upheavals of the mid-seventeenth tion. The most that exists in print is a page-long paragraph by century, but extended to the intellectual, religious, moral, and i¡ra- Pierre Goubert in which, after repudiating the "crisis" as â "myth," tional (i.e., witchcraft) dimensions of the period, which he thinks he proceeds to admit that, despite local va¡iations, ir might have are connected with the political, though he does not indicate how. struck France a¡ound r 68o.a6 What is more, he rest¡icts his analysis Trevor-Roper eccepts the validity of the criticism, but again the to economic trends, and does not confront the many ramifications connections ere not pursued.4s of the "crisis" thesis that have now developed. In the absence of A much more fundamental onslaught, sparing none of the major more detailed analysis, his comments cennot be said to have posed, "crisis" exponents, has come from a Russian scholar, A. D. Lublin- on their own, a serious challenge to the PdJt d¡ Present euthors and skaya.ae She clearly believes in no such phenomenon. Her principal their successors. But enother prominent French scholar, Roland targets are Mousnier, Hobsbawm, and Trevor-Roper, and she Mousnier, has raised e more significant difficulty-not because he shows with telling effect that there seem to be more exceptions has denounced the applications and meaning of the word "crisis," than rules in their va¡ious structures. One of her chief points (and but because he has used the term himself as part of a rather differ- it is one thet Schöffer and Stone have also made) is that the eco- ent interpretation of early modern Europe. nomic pattern is in such disarray. The Dutch, for example, achieved Mousnier seemed to be expressing some pique in the Crisis in unprecedented prosperity during the first half of the seventeeñth Earope volume when he claimed that, by and large, he had said all century, and elsewhere the timing both of decline and of recovery these things in a textbook survey published in 1953, before seems totally haphazard. It is a point further reinforced by Goubert, Ffobsbawm's original article and six years before Trevor-Roper's.a?^yeîr whose contention is that an examination of the localities of France At best this is an arguable point, because the one feature that is com- undermines the assumption thet any one period was e time of spe- mon to Hobsbawn, Trevor-Roper, and later discussants is the chro- cial economic crisis. Bad times came cyclically, and some arees were nology of the "crisis." They all see its origins somewhere around not hit by real hardship until late in Louis XIV's reign.5o Lublin- the r6zo's, and assume that it was over by the late seventeenth cen- skaya also makes the particularly cogent point (and it is not her tury, with the acute stage pased by the ¡66o's. For Mousnier, by only one) that Hobsbawm never really indicated how it was that contrast, western Europe was in perpetual crisis from the beginning the "crisis" performed its functions. What was the mechanism by of his book (rSq8) to its end (rZt¡).The nature of the crisis changed from period to period, but the Europeans were never free 48. Crisìs in Euro¡terpp. ro3-4 and r r5. French Absolutivn: Tbe Crucial Phase, t6zo-t6zg, trans. Brian Pearce of it. This is hardly the organizing principle that was suggested by 49. (Cambridge, r9ó8), esp. pp. Widely differing ¿ssessments of this Hobsbewm and Trevor-Roper; nor is it especially useful (in con- 4-ro2. book can be found in J. H. Elliott's introduction; G. M. Littlejohn, "An trâst to theirs) es e means of comprehending early modern history. Introduction to Lublinskay4" Economy and Society,l (ry72), 57-6qi It is too uniform, too undifferentiated, and too lacking in explana- and David Parker, "The Social Foundation of French Absolutism 16Io- tory force. But one of Mousnier's criticisms strikes home quite 163o," Past dt PresentrNo. 53 (r97r),67-89. Lublinskaya's book was first published in Russia, but it was not the first pointed critique of Hobs- bawm, having been preceded bv six years by F. Mauro, "Sur la 'crise' 46. "Local Ffistory," pp. 3o6-8. Ffe hesitates, however, to dismiss the idea completely. du XVII siècle," Anndles, XIV (r959), I8r-85. However, Mauro's view, that there wes no ove¡all decline because the northern counuies bene- 47. Crisis ìn Europe, pp. 97-9& Mousnièr was referring to his Les XVI" et countries, has made liale im- XVil" Siècles (Paris, 1953), Volume lY it Hinoire Générale des CìzsìIi- fited from the hardships of the southern satiortr, ed. Maurice Crouzet, esp. Book II, all of whosri chapters have pâct on the literature. the word "crisis" in thei¡ title. 5o, "Local Flistory," pp. 3o6-8. 26 Straggte Stabitity in Early for Modtn Europe Proponmts dnd Critics of the "Crisis" 27 which the concentration of economic power and the removal of tiny as the leader of capitalism (far from it, by comparison with thc obstacles to the further growth-of capiåism took place? How-did htá serrenteenth centuiy). Nor is the case strengthened by an al- the "progressive" win orrt orre. the,,wlteful?" .-_lT_tr-.n"ally vehement on the subject of the polidcal ,,crisis.,, rrevor-Roper's "Court,' she calls a meaningles, t".rn,-ôi.-räïri* Ensland alons in her opinion, fits his thesis, and badlyiiìr,"i. tne verlous commentetors on Trevor_Roper, both in the Crisis in article originally y help to weaken f their own. Par- whoattackedrrevor-Roperror}"å"T*.iff $J,iå.T;"i"iî early_sixteenth, and for leaving e at fault (Mousnier as well as thei¡ social analysis and in their m. s flaws cennot be doubted. Nev_ plague on everyone's n organizing principle ns:

In the fi¡st third of the seventeenth century alr the main distinctive features of each forrn of society European stetes, talism and of the revolutions, which did not happen until the late eighteenth cenrury' If there.r..*.y ,,crisis', can thus be dismìised for failing to meet certain famil- period thar seems an unlikely candidate for this The bouquet it is the fi¡st thi¡d of the seventeenth A case could any third of the sixteenth cenrury,"Lrrtory. -b," Ttd",fgr, for the ,""ond o, tne last rhld of the seventeenth century, l* or (most likely) for the :F.d of the eighteenth century. Boí i¿oo_r632? Thé rotr, Demg the "rr" 1n l*t- time when F¡ance assumed her role in Europe_a aouþ{t-nrgposition, for Richelieu did not launch tn" gr""t on the Hapsburgp until ró35-and when England ,."f. ili.r-àã_"å""t 5r lJ',i-T:. 5r. Frencb gl-CB; !. Ff. Ffexter, ,,Trevor-Rope¡,s ,General EuroPe: Crisis,' ' No. rg I 196o), ,r_rg. 3siù, 52. French zo8-34. 28 Stru.ggte for Stability in Early Mod.qn Europe fact take place roughry in the middle third of the seventeenth cen- IV tury' Short of an attechmenr ro coincidences, one is driven to the eriod between the first three dec_ # e Reformation era, and the last the Revolutionary era, when one DEFININC TERMS

use the The first prerequisite, of course, is to come to terms with the word will be that has bedeviled the enti¡e literature: "crisis." Neither Hobsbawm thetical nor Trevor-Roper thought a definition necessary, and Schöffer, for one, has pointed out the difficulties they have ignored: the "crisis" goes on too long, it changes meaning, and it seems no different than "ttoubles" in any century.sa Precise usâge presumably requires conformity to the essential attributes of a word. But tested against this standard, the scholarship has been woefully inadequate. One requirement, for example, is that a crisis must be shortlived. M"yb" in'historical perspective it can last for e little more then two decades, as it does in Trevor-Roper's formulation, but it certainly cannot encompess e cenmry, as it does for Hobsbawm and the title of the Crisis inÈurope book, or even longer, as in Mousnier. Nor cen one

what succeeds. This second espect of the definition, the distinctiveness of a "crisis," is ignored by virnrally every contributor to the discussion, yet it would figure prominently in a purely abstract understanding of the word.s5 ffobsbawm's schêma is the only one that acknowl- edges this const¡aint implicitly, for he suggests that the period of

54. "Holland's Golden Age," pp. 86-89. 55. Two excellent theoretical discussions of the term are Oran R. Young, The Polìtics of Force: Bargainìng Duríng Intematíonal Criser (Prince- ton, r9ó8) and Randolph Starn, "Historians and 'Crisis,"' Pdst d¡ Pres- ezrrNo. 5z (tg7r),3-zz. See esp. Young, p. rI, whose theme is that "¿ crisis is usually distinguishable from dre pre-crisß.and post-crisis period," an idea that is eleborated over dre succeeding pages. lzsl 3o Struggle for Stabitity in Emly Modqn Earope Defining Terms 3r "crisis" was difierent in quite suictþ. Circumscribed in usage, it should illuminate rether conditions that had been thanbefog my purpose. untrammeled boureeois s One attribute of the original (and still most precise) meaning of Trevor-Roper, ho,íerrer, the word, its medical meaning, stands out with particular saliency, land) why the evenrs after 164o for it is the most familiar and characteristic iustification for speak- ecessors, such as the French ing of â "crisis." Indeed, this is also the one attribute that is unþe post-"crisis" era almost no eften to the term-namel)¡, that "crisis" is alasays followed by resolution. tinctiveness to be a minor cons There a¡e other ways of describing e greve turn for the worse: write¡s. And when this concern "paroxysm," for example, refers both to a serious stage of a sick- the form of an interest in antece ness and to its onset or intensificetion. But there is no implication th¿t the succeeding stage, subsidence, marks real progress or even the turning point in an illness. Similarly, although "acute" suggests both brevity and severiry, it is like "paroxysm" znd unliþe "crisis" in that it fails to suggest that the decisive moment has arrived. One wo¡d alone serves that function: "crisis." Whatever follows this comes all the more suiking. stage always represents the final outcome of the pathology, and in The third element fact the phrase most closely associated with the entire sequence is in tñe definition is crosely ¡erated to the second: a "crisis" cannot "the crisis has passed." At that point, the outcome becomes clear: this score, none of th the patient either recovers or dies. Which it will be remains uncer- They all agree either tain until this moment; but now all doubt is dispelled. By placing situation deteriorated. the greatest emphasis on the ending-to such a degree that some- is the least essenriel. Although rhere are many times only the resolution reveals that a "crisis" hâs occurred-medi- ,,crisisj' hard, times,- only one, requires breviry cal practitioners provide the historian with an analogy that can be Without specific and these components,I the'term becom both fruitful. leading. Admittedly, this is to take a partial view of the problem; but by Neve¡theless, resaicting to this single (and most crucial) aspect of "crisis" a concepr that has become embedded in historicel oneself usagedevelops and accnretely. a life ofìts own. To discuss a subject *hil" strdi- one cen at least use the metaphor appropriately ousþ Since I will be concentreting on "crisis" in relation to its aftermath, þoring the wo¡d thet commonly describes it is to ,¡r" rnor" problems than need not make its beginning, intensþ, or breviqy essential to my one solves. whatever tÉeir doubts; schorars and stu- I dents continue definition. Even its distinctiveness will be treated primarily in ¡ela- to speak of the Renaisance, the iold War, and the seventeenth-century',crisis.,' No tion to its sequel. To the extent that, as in medicine, a resolution remove this shorthand from our ofiers the best proof that a "crisis" has occurled, our evidence of a however, to su¡¡ender to convent dividing point will de¡ive mainly from what ensues. For our pur- all the greve ¡eservations intact. T poses, therefore, the wo¡d will carry none of its b¡oader connota- es pet of the following analysis, tions: it will refer solely to the determinative qualiry of the period immediately preceding settlement or resolution. I can thus avoid 56. "The Crisis," pp. j-ó. the dificulties th¿t beset Hobsbawm, Trevor-Roper, end Mousnier t2 Struggle for Stability in Early Modern Ernope Defining Terms t3 when they d".pended on one piece of vague terminology to manage "crisis"-in painting in politics, in science, and so on-as a self- a multitude of heterogeneous-e,r.nts. Anã I can also drãï on difieî- contained entity, one more separete indication that an entire cen- ent, more appropriate descriptions (such ,,rising -of as temperanrre',) fo¡ the earlier period, a time uneese and conflict"*hici, v/as cer- ,,crisis." toinly.rent by_disturbance but equally certainly not e Although the wo¡d will be limitãa, in effåcq to the divide be- discontinuity which is the prime that origins and context ari im- ch of the analysis-but they are ogy. one.can distiaguish thestart ffi i"ï"î.i"li[ïî"..ïiiÏ:: -theEnglisl revolution, for instance-but no more thán a few, even in politics.ll*dy 1ny of the othe¡ supposed onsets of "crisis,'; such as the outbreak of the Fronde in Fiance, would ¡eceive !en"r"l egreemenr emong scholars. Cons and appropriatenqss as well only those upheavals (and which are followed by a res attendant defusing of previous its substance. And although "public expenditures" and "social rela- e immediate. In such long time tions" are indeed subiects of conflict, the actual issue remains inde- to use another metaphor, ake is over-but the emergence of a new siruation is disce¡nible nãnetheless. In another. . ryay, too,.I intend to depart from earlier interpreta_ gons:- b¡ insisting that both the rising^fever and rhe "crisis" mani- move the "generâl" from the "crisis." fested themselves in almost all fields oihorrr"r, endeavo¡. Hobsbawm What, tñ.o, -os it a "crisis" of? My claim, in a phrase, is that ¿nd Trevo¡-Roper write of a mean by the phrase merely that were experienced by a number o erd" denotes geographic 'While spread, its geographic dimension i and how certain is it?" or "what is truth and how is it achieved?" eral crisis" would be a more pers ¡eflected a broedened toþicdt c ereture, réligion, and demography. For the nough on its o\¡¡n to alone has recognized thi, rno,t"ffi :i:Tn,":ïi"f ïH"'.î'"ï agreed "yo," particularly âmong those upper stràta that are usually '34 Struggle for Stability in Early Modqn Eu.rope to,as the."political ::ft::.9 nation,', then the divide had been passed, V the "crisis" had been,zu¡mounted, and the ¡esolution had alrived. The appearance of the new dispensation, defined ;., tn"r. t"r*., i, a9¿ essential to my case. 'ô' To summarize: since "crisis" must retain its characteristics of brevþ and distinctiveness if it i BECINNINCS AND not be applying it indiscriminat conflict of the sixteenth and the CULTURAL MALAISE wi-ll-be treated as e sepârete, pre cal framework-not part of the , preters. In accordance with the m the onset of t contrnurtI that marks its Where to stârt our story? Almost any time from the fourteenth dence fo¡ the .,crisis,, -"1*l:l-of century on would be appropriate, for the larger development into the Passing ce some tv/o which our analysis fits is the glacial disintegration of medieval so- of European history. cessary to ciety. Plague, depression, and papal exile and schism were the first snow:,-"lilï thet rhe v/orst moment in e immedi_ devastating blows to that b¡illiant civilization, and both the fourteenth end fifteenth centuries could be regarded as the seedbed of the disruptions whose resolution we will be examining. But there is no doubt that the sixteenth century witnessed a sharp acceleration of the process of change, and since in any case our main focus will be on a later period, we rnight as well light upon the incredibly fertile decades around r 5oo, when one of the maior transformations I of the Europeans' Weltdnscbduuzg took place. In fact, there are few generations in Western history when so meny new di¡ections i were either opened up or fully articulated. The list covers almost ons in hand, and goals established every âspect of behavior and thought: that are as much heuristic as definitive, we can to*lry to see if this--_ interpretation of "crisis" lends shape to the earry modán p"rioã. -ln internal politics, the beginning of that leap forward in bu- reaucratization and centralization that used to be associated with the "nev¡ monarchs," e term that is now out of f¿sh- ion but still epitomizes the rapidly growing central governments, and attempts at centralization, that appeared throughout Europe in the læt querter of the fifteenth century and persisted thereafter, fed by the revolution in war- fa¡e that took hold at this very time. -in internntiondl reldtionr, the endemic unrest and the new techniques of permanent diplomacy, both of which gained lt¡l