Daily Life During The Reformation (18 page)

Next to the hall would be a bedroom, sometimes equipped
with a curtained bed, a place for clothing to be laid, a box for clothes or
linens, and a traveling trunk. On the wall might be hung a brush, a comb, and a
towel. A basin for water, a mirror, and a spinning wheel might also be present.
Two rooms were fairly standard for a merchant’s house. A merchant could own a
horse, a plow and a cart, and other tools for him to work a piece of land
leased on the outskirts of town.

At this time chairs began to be used that were convertible
into a small table used for chess or cards. They were usually light-weight and
could be moved in front of the fire or to the window so that women doing
needlework could look outside as they sewed. As other furniture came into use
from the continent, people started to enjoy it not only because it was useful,
but also for its beauty. Carpets, rugs, and books duly took their place in
homes.

The merchants represented a rising class just before and
during the Reformation, who enjoyed more prestige and material benefits than
previously.

Mirrors are not mentioned in Scotland until 1578, and
clocks, although found on churches and city halls, were not used in private
houses until businessmen, who needed to keep appointments, began to use them.
The alarm clock is recorded in Scotland as early as 1564, but many still used
the hourglass.

Innovative items that were introduced into the well-to-do
households from France about this time included fans, shoehorns, painted
buttons, and cups. Tobacco also became popular in spite of King James’ negative
views on smoking.

In 1556, the town council of Edinburgh decreed that there
should be an English version of the Bible in every substantial household.

Dinner
on the Farm

Eating a meal for a farmer and his family contrasted
greatly to dining at the castle or in the house of a wealthy merchant. At noon
the wife set up the trestles in the middle of an earthen floor, placing boards
on top to serve as the dinner table. In better class farms, a linen cloth was
spread over the part where the farmer and his family sat. At the other end of
the table sat the hired workers. When no cloth was available, a chalk line or
the position of the salt dish separated the upper and lower halves. Before
eating, people uncovered their heads and grace was said after which the males
replaced their hats and kept them on. Although the farmer washed his hands
before eating, the workers seldom did.

The house itself was usually wood-framed and constructed of
stone, clay, or turf with small windows covered over in bad weather with skins
or shutters. The thatched roof had a hole in the center for smoke to escape
from the hearth below. Sometimes animal skins covered the doorway. In poor
houses and cottages, kitchens and living quarters were the same room.

The New Church

For some years, the new Church of Scotland developed along
the lines of the Elizabethan Church in England. Bishoprics continued to exist,
and the Book of Common Prayer was followed. Difficulties arose when the widowed
Mary returned to Scotland to take up her position as queen and did not
recognize the new church. Although she found it expedient to make peace with the
Protestants, she was a staunch Catholic through and through and hoped to
restore the Church of Rome in Scotland. To this end, she was prepared to use
force if it became available, but for such force she was dependent on France or
Spain, neither of which was willing to help.

The deposition of Mary Stuart in 1566 marks a turning point
in religious history. Her son James VI, still a baby, succeeded her, so the
government fell into the hands of nobles who made certain that James was
brought up as a good Protestant.

For the majority of the common people, life remained
difficult. They suffered from an increase in population in the sixteenth
century that caused shortages of grain leading to famines, and contagious
diseases such as measles and smallpox were rampant. Prices rose faster than
wages, vagrancy laws in the latter half of the century clamped down on
wandering beggars looking for work, and poor relief was given only to those in
their home parish. Laws were passed against adultery, fornication, drunkenness,
breaking the Sabbath, and witchcraft.

Small country communities still centered around a castle, a
manor house, or a church. Communications between towns remained poor.

8 - FRANCE

Like
much of Europe, urban France was responsive to new ideas on religion that
entered the country from Germany and the Netherlands. In 1519, the German
printer Johann Froben sent 600 copies of Luther’s works there, and from then on
France provided a market for further controversial publications. As early as
1523 statues of the Virgin Mary were desecrated in Paris and at Meaux. But
these were small matters in light of what was to come.

The bulk of the population of France lived in the
countryside either in small towns, hamlets, or on isolated farms. About nine
out of ten inhabitants of the country depended directly on agriculture that
provided not only food but also the raw products such as hemp, flax, and wool
for urban textile industries. The main staple was bread, and much of the land
was sown with wheat, barley, rye, and oats depending on the region and type of
soil. Land not under cultivation or forest and scrubland might provide the
peasants with mushrooms, game, timber, and edible roots.

Plots around the houses for gardening might be planted with
vegetables such as melons and pumpkins, vines and cucumbers. Peasant life was
one of constant labor, planting harvesting, tending the crops, caring for the
sheep and pigs, repairing tools and taking produce to market. Most lived a
hand-to-mouth existence, and any abnormal condition such as persistent bad
weather or ravages by war spelled famine and death.

The king’s claims to govern the Church derived from the
Concordat of Bologna in 1516 that confirmed Francois I’s right to make
appointments to benefices, but allowed the pope to collect a year’s revenue
from each post and to veto unqualified candidates, a veto he seldom used.

The king acquired enormous powers to dispose of the
Church’s wealth, and he could (and did) use the offices of prelates to provide
positions for his relatives or faithful followers. This often meant that lords
of the church were worldly people, lacking in theology and spirituality. No
restraints prevented one person holding many simultaneous titles. Numerous
bishops lived well on their revenues and never visited their sees, preferring
to remain in their palaces or at court. These arrangements amalgamated Church
and state, while the University of Paris (the Sorbonne) acted as arbitrator and
watched over the Church-state complex deciding on matters of heresy or
nonconformity to Catholic principles.

THE AFFAIR OF THE PLACARDS

Francois I reigned during the formative years of the
Reformation in France maintaining an attitude of tolerance, not being
especially interested in religious matters. This changed with the Affair of the
Placards when anti-Catholic posters appeared in public places in Paris, in
major provincial cities, and even insolently on the door of the king’s
bedchamber at Amboise on the night of October 17, 1534. The message was a
direct attack on the Catholic Church, supporting Zwingli’s position on the Mass
that denied the physical existence of Christ in the sacraments.

The incensed king and much of the citizenry of Paris and
elsewhere now viewed the Protestant movement with deep hostility. For Protestants,
inroads into the minds of the French people were off to a bad start. The insult
was too much to overlook, and suspected Protestants were rounded up,
imprisoned, some were burned as heretics. During the reign of Henri II who came
to the throne in 1547, persecution of Protestants intensified and many, among
them John Calvin, fled the country.

Religious
Intolerance

In 1551, the Edict of Chateaubriand dealt with matters of
heresy. All public careers were off limits to Protestants and petitions for mercy
were disallowed. Bible reading and discussions or arguments on religious
matters were banned. The life of a Protestant was dangerous, covert, and
apprehensive. Who could be trusted? Informers received a share of the goods of
condemned persons. Teachers were watched, and the printing of books was
regulated. Reading matter from Protestant countries could not be imported, and
none could be printed in the country that had not been approved by the
theological faculty of the Sorbonne. French clandestine printing presses had to
be well concealed from spies.

In 1557, the Edict of Compiegne ordered judges in civil
courts to order the death penalty in cases of heresy. Filthy, dark, dank,
rat-infested, prison cells where Protestants awaited trial, were filled well
beyond normal capacity. The Protestant prisoner could only look forward to a
confession of his sins and expose all those whom he knew to be heretics at his
trial and have a quick execution, or he could be stretched on the rack for his
silence until his joints were separated, and then be carried off to the stake.

Struck by a lethal blow to the head during a tournament in
1559, Henri II died leaving four sons by his marriage to Catherine de Medici,
among them the future kings Francois II, Charles IX, and Henri III. Franc
_o
is
II died within a year, and the throne passed to ten-year-old Charles IX with
his mother as regent.

The crown’s tolerance or intolerance on religious matters
had a great affect on peoples’ lives and could lead to unexpected consequences.
Catherine’s ambition was to calm religious tensions between Catholics and
Protestants and to see the continuance of the royal Valois line by preserving
the throne for her sons.

Catherine granted the Protestants right of public worship
in 1562, making a formidable enemy of the powerful aristocratic Catholic Guise
family of which some members were great landowners, bishops, and cardinals. The
Guises hated Protestants (called Huguenots) and had a lot to lose if Huguenots
called the tune. The House of Guise constituted the most powerful Catholic
family in the country, which was over 90 percent Catholic.

When 30 Protestants, worshipping on a farm at Vassy, were
murdered by retainers of the second duke of Guise, Catherine ousted the
dangerous Guise family headed by the second duke and his brother, the
Archbishop of Reims and Cardinal of Lorraine, from the royal court. By removing
the Guises, whose agenda for taking over the country was already suspect, she
made a dangerous adversary. They could muster support from the French populace
(by promising to defend the nation’s faith) and from Catholic Spain, Bavaria,
and the Papal States.

Catherine strove for compromise. She was only too aware
that if one of the two enemies defeated the other, it would spell the end of
her dreams for her sons.

The
Common People

At the beginning of the sixteenth century, the French
economy was in a prosperous state. The majority of people including the
peasants were better off than before. The population grew, and the lower
classes ate better and were more mobile in seeking work in other regions where
labor was in demand. Towns and cities also increased in population sometimes
more than doubling the number of inhabitants. However, by the middle of the
century, inflation far outstripped wages, and peasants began losing their land
as it was grabbed up by the upper classes. Vagrancy increased, and towns were
hard pressed to care for the poor. By the end of the century, peasants ate
poorly, tensions among the classes rose, and revolts were common. The gap
between the middle and lower classes grew wider as the former grew more
prosperous.

Famine was the primary threat to both country and city
dwellers. A few bad seasons in a row could be devastating. In good and bad
years, the grain was no sooner harvested and ground than the agent of the local
bishop arrived to claim the Church’s share. To stake his claim according to the
terms of the lease, the lord of the manor soon followed. The farmer then had to
sell at market part of his crop to pay the king’s taxes and set aside the seed
for the following year’s planting. There was generally little left to sustain
the peasant’s family especially if his plot was not large. In bad times he
might have to sell any animals he possessed to pay the rent. As a last resort
he borrowed the money against future crops on his land to pay the debts. When
he fell behind in his payments due to another cold winter and wet summer, some
or all of his land was taken from him by the moneylender in foreclosure.

Given such a chain of events, the peasant farmer might try
to feed his family by making bread from tree bark or grass, but eventually,
starving, he would take his family off to the city where he lived on hand-outs
from begging or any odd-jobs he could get.

When the harvest failed, as happened numerous times in the
sixteenth century, and hunger stalked the towns as well as the countryside,
prices soared as those with money hoarded grain to sell it at the highest
price. Even the town craftsmen, laborers, and merchants were reduced to a
subsistence level of living.