Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism 9780755623587, 9781780760667

Citation preview

Illustrations

  1 Grotte Massabielle, Lourdes. Source: Wikimedia by Emmanuel Brunner.

14

  2 The Deluge, Genesis 7: 23.  From Doré 1880.

19

  3 The Violent Tortured in the Rain of Fire, Inferno, Canto 14.  From Doré 1876.

21

  4 A priest and his assistant are performing an exorcism on a woman and the demon emerges from her mouth.  In P. Boaistuau et al. 1598.

32

 5 The children of Israel crossing the Jordan River, Joshua 3: 14–17.  From Doré 1880.

40

  6 The baptism of Jesus, Matt 3: 16, 17.  From Doré 1880.

43

  7 Jesus is nailed to the cross, John 19.  From Doré 1880.

47

  8 A baptismal font, Aberdeen.  Photo: Rune Oestigaard.

49

  9 Thomas Aquinas.  Photo: Francisco Bayeu y Subías.

51

10 Martin Luther.  Public domain.

56

11 John Calvin. Author: Georg Osterwald (1803–1884).  Bibliothèque publique et universitaire de Neuchâtel – BPUN.

60

vii

i-xiv WaterChristianity Prelims.indd 7

28/02/2013 13:53

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

12 Henry VIII by Hans Holbein (c. 1534–1536).  Source: The Yorck Project. 13 Lucifer. Statue from the Cathedral Saint-Paul de Liège, Belgium.  Photo: Luc Viatour. 14 Popular propaganda for the Reformation, which depicts the Pope originating from the arse of a witch.  From Depiction of the Papacy, first published in Wittenberg in 1545. From Scribner 1987: 278. 15 Women dancing with devils, illustrating their potential for becoming witches.  From Crouch 1688.

68

78

80

83

16 Osculum infame.  After Guazzo in Rodker 1929: 35.

84

17 The discovery of witches. From Hopkins 1647.

85

18 Communal bathing in a large bathtub, where men and women enjoyed the delights of bathing, food and wine.  From Bonneville 1988: 35. 19 Open-air bath at Plombières in the Vosges, France.  Print from 1553 by J. J. Hugelin. From Bonneville 1988: 38. 20 The May Bath, celebrating the restoration of fertility to the earth.  Illustration from a medieval calendar. From Bonneville 1988: 11. 21 The vapour bath, which reached Germany via Eastern Europe, survived the Middle Ages.  Wood engraving by Hans Sebald Beham (1500–1550). From Bonneville 1988: 38. 22 Cover on Percey’s The compleat swimmer: or, The art of swimming: demonstrating the rules and practice thereof in an exact, plain and easie method: necessary to be known and practised by all who studie or desire their own preservation, from 1658. 

97 98

99

104

107

viii

i-xiv WaterChristianity Prelims.indd 8

28/02/2013 13:53

Illustrations

23 The Roman Bath of Bath Spa, England.  Source: Wikimedia by David Iliff.

110

24 St Cleer well in Cornwall.  From Hope 1893: 26.

117

25 The well under Winchester Cathedral as it was depicted c. 1770.  From Bord & Bord 1985: 28. 26 Wells Cathedral; south aisle of the nave by Francis Bedford.  Original from the Victor von Gegerfelt collection, Volume K 1:3, Region och Stadsarkivet Göteborg. Scanned by Uno Lindström, Göteborgs Fotostudio, 2006. 27 The dove sent forth from the Ark, Genesis 8: 11.  From Doré 1880. 28 The devastating 1607 flood at Burnham-on-Sea and the Bristol Channel. The commemorative plaque in the entrance to the All Saints Church, Kingston Seymour, Somerset, reads: ‘An inundation of the sea water by overflowing and breaking down the Sea banks; happened in this Parish of Kingstone-Seamore, and many others adjoining; by reason whereof many Persons were drown’d and much Cattle and Goods, were lost: the water in the Church was five feet high and the greatest part lay on the ground about ten days. William Bower.’ 29 Swimming a witch. The swimming of the witch Mary Sutton.  From Witches Apprehended, Examined and Executed (1613). 30 The Devil performs a mock baptism.  After Guazzo in Rodker 1929: 14. 31 (a) and (b). The hydrological cycle according to Thomas Burnet, Second Book 1685–1690[1965], pp. 166 & 169. The first illustration shows the river in the air where vapours rise from the torrid zones and move to the pole. The second illustration shows the rivers running from the poles to the torrid zones. 

127

128

135

138 145 145

158

ix

i-xiv WaterChristianity Prelims.indd 9

28/02/2013 13:53

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

32 Spithead. Engraving by William Miller after J. M. W. Turner.  Miller 1875.

160

33 Cover page of Supplementum Plantarum Systematis Vegetabilium by Carolus Linnaeus the Younger, April 1782.161 34 Botallack Mine, Cornwall. Engraving by William Miller after Clarkson Stanfield.  Miller 1838.

170

x

i-xiv WaterChristianity Prelims.indd 10

28/02/2013 13:53

Acknowledgements

In 2008–2009 Professor Terje Tvedt led the international and interdisciplinary research group ‘Understanding the Role of Water in History and Development’ at the Centre for Advanced Study (CAS) at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters in Oslo (http:// www.cas.uio.no/). The overall aim was to address why the initial phases of the Industrial Revolution (c. 1760s–1820s) took place in north-west Europe in general and in England in particular. My role in the project was to investigate religious beliefs and changes with regard to water in the period after the Reformation leading up to c. 1800. Water and Christianity has been a field of research that has interested me for quite a while, but due to other commitments it has been difficult to find time for such a study. I am deeply grateful therefore to have had the opportunity to be part of this research group during the autumn of 2008 and I am honoured to have been able to work at the Centre for Advanced Study in Oslo on this topic. I would like first and foremost to express my gratitude and thanks to Terje Tvedt and to the rest of the research group: Richard Coopey, Graham Chapman, Roar Hagen, Karen Syse, Nina Witoszek, Armando J. Lamadrid and Eva Jakobsson. The staff at CAS provided the best research opportunities one could wish for and created a unique atmosphere, and I would like to thank here the director and Professor Willy Østreng, together with Maria M. L. Sætre, Trude Gran Peters and Marit Finnemyhr Strøm. Also, I would like to thank Francesca de Châtel for allowing me to use parts of her unpublished material. Since I worked at the Centre for Advanced Studies and also in Bergen, I have moved from Norway to Uppsala in Sweden, and I would therefore thank Kjell Havnevik and the Nordic Africa Institute. In addition, Pernilla Bäckström has xi

i-xiv WaterChristianity Prelims.indd 11

28/02/2013 13:53

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

helped finding literature not easily accessible. Finally, I would like to extend my gratitude to the Norwegian Research Council which has supported this publication financially.

xii

i-xiv WaterChristianity Prelims.indd 12

28/02/2013 13:53

‘The one who believes is the person to whom the blessed, divine water is to be imparted. If you believe that through this water you will be saved, it becomes a fact.’

Martin Luther Sermons on the Catechism

i-xiv WaterChristianity Prelims.indd 13

28/02/2013 13:53

i-xiv WaterChristianity Prelims.indd 14

28/02/2013 13:53

1 Introduction Water and Religion Water plays a fundamental role in many of the ritual practices of the world’s religions and is an important element in many of their underlying concepts. By studying water and religion, therefore, we may gain valuable insights into many aspects of religion – not only how religion works but also how its devotees see themselves, how they perceive the realm of the divine, and their own religious practices and rituals. Water is also vital to the welfare of human beings and society. It sustains life. This pervasive role of water in both society and cosmos unites micro- and macro-, legitimises social hierarchies and religious practices and beliefs. Water is a medium that links different aspects of humanity and the divinities into a coherent unit; it bridges paradoxes, transcends the human and divine realms, allows interaction with gods, and enables the divinities to intervene in humanity. Water is a medium for everything – it has human character because we are human, it is a social matter, but it is also a spiritual substance and divine manifestation with immanent powers. But still it belongs to the realm of nature – the hydrological cycle links all places and realms. Water transcends the common categories by which we conceptualise the world and cosmos. Richard Gombrich (1988: 6) asks the question: ‘If religion claims to explain the world, can we in the world explain religion?’ For those who believe, religion is not only the most important element of their life, religion is the very being and essence of life, not only here and now but also in the life hereafter for eternity. A study of religion is thus a study of how humans see themselves and their practices in the cosmos, of how they perceive that god, or the various divinities will judge their human life and behaviour, and will reward 1

001-010 WaterChristianity Chap1.indd 1

17/01/2013 11:51

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

good deeds and actions. A proper understanding of religion, therefore, must include an analysis of how humans respond to what they see as the cosmic premises structuring both this life and the life hereafter when they perceive themselves to be thinking and acting religiously. And water is crucial in both conceptualising cosmos and engaging with divinities. But a focus on beliefs and ritual practices does not explain religion in itself. Max Weber – whose work The Sociology of Religion has been claimed ‘the most crucial contribution of our century to comparative and evolutionary understanding of the relations between religion and society, and even of society and culture generally’ (Parsons 1964: lxvii) – himself said: To define ‘religion’, to say what it is, is not possible at the start of a presentation such as this. Definition can only be attempted, if at all, at the conclusion of the study. The essence of religion is not even our concern, as we make it our task to study the conditions and effects of a particular type of social behaviour (Weber 1964: 1).

Thus, following Weber, the aim of analysing religion is not to reveal some eternal truth or to make universal and essentialist definitions of what religion is, but to study what humans do and why they do so when they are religiously committed. With this approach, the study is not primarily concerned with theological exegesis but with what devotees actually do in ritual and religious practice. And these practices and beliefs can be analysed from a water system perspective. In England there was a topography of holy water, which influenced most parts of society, religion, development processes and perceptions of nature, linking water, Christianity and the spirit of capitalism. But after the Reformation major changes in the perceptions of water occurred that changed worldviews radically. Using beliefs about water to understand society and historical processes enables a discussion of Weber’s thesis – put forward in The Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism – that the Protestant ethic created a capitalistic spirit because magic was eliminated from the sacraments. From a water perspective this is not so. The Reformation represented a watershed in Western Europe in the sixteenth century. Not only was it a religious revolution enabling Protestantism to become one of the three main branches of Christianity: it also had deep political, social and economic consequences. When Martin Luther posted his famous Ninety-Five Theses 2

001-010 WaterChristianity Chap1.indd 2

17/01/2013 11:51

Introduction

in the Castle Church in Wittenberg in 1517, he also challenged the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church. Among other things, Luther and reformers attacked the corruption and indulgence of the Catholic Church, but, more fundamental, were the theological changes. The reformers denied the saints their role in Christianity and denied that the Pope and Catholics could affect the sinners’ stay in purgatory; and they even rejected the doctrine of purgatory. A central feature was also how the holy works, which directly put the emphasis on water and in particular the role of baptism.

The Golden Age of Faith The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Europe have been seen as the ‘Golden Age of Faith’. Following Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Weber 2006[1930]), the crucial question is: what transformed the mind of the typical Middle Ages man, who was dominated by a belief in devils and angels, ghosts and holy relics, into the self-controlled, disciplined and inward Puritan of seventeenth-century England (Caroll 1981: 459)? According to Weber the great historic development of religions took place when magic was eliminated from the world, which included the sacramental force as a means for salvation (Weber 2006: 61). Theoretically, ‘idolatry was to be replaced by ideology, things by ideas – ideas manifested in language’ (Sands 1999: 241). This theological distinction has fundamental consequences for how holy water has been perceived and used, and the question is whether predestination really replaced sacraments, because then water and the sacraments would have lost their liturgical and religious role in the Church and the community. If Weber is correct in his thesis that Protestantism created a capitalistic spirit, then the replacement of the sacraments with predestination should be seen most clearly in England, since the industrial revolution started there, and ‘Water thus conquered man in triumph linked to increasing industrialization and an economy that devoured water’ (Goubert 1989: 25). Puritanism encouraged work rather than works, and ‘puritanism was gaining adherents, offering both a rationalization of this worldly success and a refuge in a brutal world’ (Caroll 1981: 467). For common people, misfortunes, calamities, catastrophes, sudden death and so on were caused by the Devil and his malign forces, 3

001-010 WaterChristianity Chap1.indd 3

17/01/2013 11:51

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

and holy water was the solution to, and protection from, these adversaries. One of the lucrative benefits of parish clerks consisted of a holy water fee, which they collected while they carried holy water supplies to every household. The blessing of this water gave laypeople a powerful religious weapon, which they could use to keep the Devil away, cure illness, avoid death and protect fields, properties and animals. This was not magic as such because ‘the sacramentals were the basis for a genuinely lay Christianity, for they placed in the hands of the laity sources of holy power which were free from clerical control’ (Duffy 1993: 212). However, with the Reformation emphasising justification by faith alone, the qualities and powers of holy water became evidence of diabolic presence, which had to be combated by all means. Thus, one of the main problems for the early Protestants was ‘that they removed magic from Christian ritual without countering the belief in magic’ (Caroll 1981: 463). The holiness and magical effects of water became, therefore, one of the main battlegrounds for the Protestants where God faced the Devil. The persistence of magic in beliefs and practice after the Reformation has fuelled a longstanding debate concerning how religious or Christian the laity was. Although Christianity was dominant and influential among the ruling class, it has been claimed that: The peasantry…were largely untouched by the civilizing role of the Church throughout the Middle Ages and they remained the main vehicle of magical, irrational practices up to the CounterReformation and the era of the Protestant evangelical movements of the nineteenth century (Abercrombie, Hill and Turner 1980: 69–70).

Keith Thomas (1971) argues in his Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century England that magic and superstition were more important for the laity than orthodox Christianity. Therefore, it has been claimed that ‘on the whole, English men and women did not want the Reformation and most of them were slow to accept it when it came’ (Scarisbrick 1983: 1). To put it another way, religion is more than the Church’s dogmas and liturgies, and Christianity as a religion was important for common people (Bruce 1997). Hence, as Spufford has argued: The degree of importance that religion held in the lives of non-gentle parishioners in the sixteenth and seventeenth century will never be

4

001-010 WaterChristianity Chap1.indd 4

17/01/2013 11:51

Introduction established…At no period is it possible to distinguish the conforming believer from the apathetic Church-goer who merely wished to stay out of trouble (Spufford 1981: 194).

At the beginning of the seventeenth century, for example, few people received the Communion more than once a year during Easter. However, throughout Easter the attendance during Communion could be extremely high – as much as 90 per cent – and in rural parishes it could even have been 100 per cent of the population who received Communion (Hunt 1998: 41–44). This is but one example that can be used to support both views: the laity was not particularly Christian since they received Communion just once a year; or, on the contrary, people were deeply religious since during the most important Mass attendance approached 100 per cent. Similarly, as will be shown, belief in and use of holy water partly defined Christianity after the Reformation, even though the Church leaders claimed that these practices were heathen and diabolic. In theoretical debates, a distinction is often made between the Great and Little traditions or between High and Low religions (Redfield 1956). On the one hand, world religions have a corpus of written, sacred texts and a literate priesthood, whilst, on the other hand, a non-literate laity exists which puts emphasis on rituals and practices (Goody 1986: 17). Hence, there is often a contradiction or tension between ‘the written tradition of the ascetic religion and the everyday social practice of merit-making combined with the rites of the “magico-animist”, the spirit cults’ (Goody 1986: 25). The difference between a Great and Little tradition is an analytical distinction, and a Great tradition is often a conglomerate of different local traditions (Furer-Haimendorf 1957: 135). The aim is therefore to assess ‘the development of religious syncretism, coexistence, adaptation, and the development of popular religious traditions’ (Insoll 2001: 19). Many scholars have taken the position that with the Reformation, Protestantism replaced Catholicism, but it should be remembered that this religious change was a gradual process that took a long time. The change from Catholicism to Protestantism can be seen as a kind of conversion, even though both traditions are Christian. In another context, Eaton has noted that ‘conversion’ is a difficult concept to use for religious change because ‘it ordinarily connotes a sudden and total transformation in which a prior religious identity is wholly rejected and replaced by a new one’ (Eaton 1993: 269). This 5

001-010 WaterChristianity Chap1.indd 5

17/01/2013 11:51

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

description highlights the problem with the bricolage of traditions existing in the post-Reformation era, where Catholic practices and beliefs in holy water together with pre-Christian rituals continued, despite the Protestant claim that this was idolatrous and diabolic. Religious change happens slowly because, as Eaton has suggested, such changes go through three phases, which involve ‘inclusion’, ‘identification’ and ‘displacement’ (Eaton 1993: 269). Thus the Reformation started or triggered off a long period of change where the established beliefs and practices were redefined and reinterpreted within the existing Christian tradition. Thus, to argue that some beliefs and rituals are more or less Christian, based on the views of the orthodox, will be misleading, as Hinnells has argued with regards to Zoroastrianism: ‘a religion is what it has become; that Zoroastrianism is what Zoroastrians do and believe when they consider that they are being Zoroastrian’ (Hinnells 2000: 22). Equally, one may state the same of Christians and Christianity, and Duffy has taken the position that ‘no substantial gulf existed between the religion of the clergy and the educated elite on the one hand and that of the people at large on the other’ (Duffy 1992: 2). This may be true, but although the period has been labelled the ‘Golden Age of Faith’, there has inevitably been a huge variation in beliefs, and, more important from my perspective, there has been a great variation in ritual participation and use of sacraments and sacramentals, which contradicts the dogma of justification by faith alone. Despite the high religious separation between faith and rites – between predestination and sacraments – the Christianity of the laity could be quite different from the ideas and the religious prescriptions presented by the Reformers such as Martin Luther and John Calvin. Many of the controversies from the sixteenth century onwards between the Church and the laity, between the Protestants and Catholics, and even among the Protestants, were concerned with water: did holy water exist? If not, were the magical qualities that water was believed to possess actually the work of the Devil? From one perspective it has been argued that the degree of belief in Satan is an indicator of religious confidence: the more you believe, the less need you have to project sins onto the Devil (Godbeer 1992: 97pp). From another perspective this highlights a contradiction in the Protestant belief system: strictly speaking, there is nothing but an omnipotent and transcendental God, and faith alone is the path 6

001-010 WaterChristianity Chap1.indd 6

17/01/2013 11:51

Introduction

to salvation. Nevertheless, even Protestantism is a highly material religion, and the role of materiality in religion is particularly evident in holy water and how water embodies divine presence. In a brutal world where death and human misfortune haunted people in their daily lives, a good, benevolent and caring God would have been believed to protect his devotees. One way to help and safeguard his children would be to trust them with holy water, which they could use whenever they felt threatened by malevolent forces. This was how people perceived the potential benefits of holy water, although the Protestant Church leaders claimed that God would help believers through prayer alone. Holy water is, therefore, one approach that may be used to analyse change and belief in the ‘Golden Age of Faith’. Auguste Comte put forward the theory of the three ‘ages of mankind’, where water was the subject of a different creed and need: the cosmological age, the religious age and the scientific age. The cosmological age was characterised by the cult of sacred and magical fountains, where the healer and the water diviner were one and the same person. In the religious age, ‘baptismal water alone was able to cleanse the body of sin and contact between the naked body and hedonistic water was forbidden’ (Goubert 1989: 27). The age of science or industrialisation was characterised by professionalism and technical knowledge. Importantly, these three ages should not be seen as chronologically succeeding each other, but rather as parallel perceptions of how water has been conceptualised (Goubert 1989: 28). From this perspective the main discussion will focus on different types of water in what Comte labelled the religious age, which also coincides in time with the ‘Golden Age of Faith’. Hence, a perspective emphasising the relation between religion and water may reveal new insights into societal and religious developments between 1500 and 1800, which may also address Weber’s thesis in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism that the sacraments lost their force or magical capacities.

The Materiality of Spirituality: Texts in Contexts from a Water Perspective In the interdisciplinary research field of material culture (Miller & Tilley 1996) the emphasis is put on how and why materialities work 7

001-010 WaterChristianity Chap1.indd 7

17/01/2013 11:51

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

and constitute social and religious structures, because ‘Material culture is as important, and as fundamental, to the constitution of the social world as language’ (Tilley 1996: 4). It is generally reckoned that text and material culture have different constitutive qualities and that material culture is in itself a separate, empirical source (e.g. Miller 1987; Tilley 1989; Olsen 2003; Fahlander & Oestigaard 2004). By focusing on ‘the material’, the aim is to highlight the complex nature of the interaction between social strategies and material culture (Miller 1985: 4), which also include the natural world. ‘The study of material culture may be most broadly defined as the investigation of the relationship between people and things irrespective of time and space’ (Miller & Tilley 1996: 5), and it is not fruitful to distinguish systematically between a natural world and an artefactual one (Miller 1994: 398), since nature is part of cultural and religious structures even when the materiality in itself is not modified or made into objects or tools: The boundary between nature and culture, the distinction between the material and the mental, tend to … dissolve once we approach that part of nature which is directly subordinated to humanity… Although external to us, this nature is not external to culture, society or history (Godelier 1988: 4–5).

Neither is it external, in our case, to religion. Religion can also be material without turning into idolatry. In particular water may deconstruct the belief in nature as a whole, but at the same time break with the postmodern stance where everything is just constructions, without material foundation, because water is nature, culture and religion at the same time, which makes water unique as both the particular and the universal (Tvedt & Oestigaard 2010a, 2010b), the mental and the material. Religion can be analysed using different approaches. Traditionally the emphasis has been on sermons, doctrinal statements, the respective religions’ institutions or leading figures, and has mainly focused on liturgical and sacred texts. Recently, however, attention has been directed towards the material forms and the use of materiality in religious practices. Religion is not simply abstract doctrines and dogmas, or something that has solely to do with reason and speech alone: it also involves material things, devotees and rites, because ‘Religion is fundamentally material in practice’ (Goa, Plate & Paine 8

001-010 WaterChristianity Chap1.indd 8

17/01/2013 11:51

Introduction

2005: 4). In Christianity, as a transcendental and monotheistic religion, God is absolutely context independent and all-encompassing, but he locates himself in context-dependent situations (Huchingson 1980). These contexts are the physical and material world in which people suffer and struggle in their daily lives, and it is in this world that their religion operates. Moreover, the contextdependent situations are, to a large extent, different water worlds where God controlled the absence or presence of the divine, lifegiving waters. Hence, ‘history can be independent of theology, but theology cannot be independent of history’ (Russell 1981: 12). Religious identities are negotiated through material culture, and syncretism is inherently an important agency in both the spread and development of religious identity. Thus in reality there will be notions of syncretism and religious dualism and multiple traditions coexisting (Insoll 2004a). Although ‘syncretism’ has often been perceived and condemned as implying ‘inauthenticity’ or ‘contamination’ of a ‘pure’ religion, it is important to stress that as an analytical tool for analysing religious change it is very useful because it describes ‘the blending or fusing of different religious traditions or elements’ (Insoll 2004b: 98). This religious syncretism is sometimes evident in the Bible or in the letters from, between and against the dominant theologians such as Martin Luther and John Calvin; but most often certain dominant theological interpretations and dogmas have been presented as the one and only truth, and all others as diabolic or heretic. This is very much the situation during the Reformation – not only between the Catholic Church and the Reformers but also between the major Reformers such as Luther and Calvin or Zwingli. Therefore, it is necessary, and of interest, to analyse what the different parties involved in the Reformation and the periods after it said about holy water. Moreover, we should remember that the Church leaders’ and the learned theologians’ beliefs and arguments were not necessarily shared by the laity, who in ritual practice continued older and traditional forms of worship and belief. Hence, these two main parameters of actors will be analysed together in order to see how they coincide with or contradict each other. Although England after the Reformation in the period c. 1500–1800 is the main focus, it has sometimes been necessary to include other Continental parallels and contexts in earlier and later periods in order to proceed with the analysis. Together, it will hopefully present a picture of religious life 9

001-010 WaterChristianity Chap1.indd 9

17/01/2013 11:51

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

and practice, which has defined parts of Christianity, even though Protestant theologians may have labelled this as diabolic. Thus, the question is: how successful was the Reformation in denying the sacraments any material role and in denying their working automatically (ex opere operato)? How successful was the attempt to desacralise holy water? It will be argued that belief in holy water and in the power of water survived and defined important parts of religious practice in England after the Reformation. This was despite the Protestants’ rejection of holy water whereby they claimed that it was diabolic and the work of the Devil. Thus, the strength and pervasiveness of belief in holy water, and its magical effects and power, have to be sought not only in the historical context of England but also in water itself which has enabled these beliefs, since no other material element has created and maintained such strong religious and material embodiments. I will therefore start by describing references to water in the Bible and the differences between holy and evil water before analysing the changing beliefs with regards to the attributed qualities of the water used in baptism, and how these theological changes took place in England during the Reformation. I will continue by approaching the subject from another angle, namely how concepts of bathing, purity and hygiene developed and were associated either with God or with the Devil. Thereafter, the focus will turn to the ritual use and beliefs surrounding holy wells and water in general, and to how changing water worlds in the landscape, such as sudden floods, were perceived. Finally, these various practices and perceptions of water are analysed by approaching water through the relations and differences between science, magic and religion. Together, these approaches will enable a discussion of Max Weber’s thesis that the Protestant ethic created a capitalistic spirit because magic was eliminated from the sacraments.

10

001-010 WaterChristianity Chap1.indd 10

17/01/2013 11:51

2 Water and Christianity Water in the Bible In the Hebrew Bible there are more than 580 direct references to water and many more to rivers, wells, dew and rain (Hillel 1994: 26). These references to water and its role in the history of the Israelites must be seen in the particular context in which the Bible was written: Judaism is a desert religion, and the absence or scarcity of water is often given more cultural and religious importance than its presence (Oestigaard 2005a, 2006a, 2006b; Tvedt & Oestigaard 2006a, 2010a). In England, on the other hand, which has sufficient water all year around, different aspects of water have been emphasised and given religious importance. There are differences to be found between the water world described in the Bible, which has its origin in desert environments, and interpretations of water in regions such as northern Europe. Furthermore, many of the meanings ascribed to water are specific to a given place; they are given local expression, thus combining macrocosmic processes described in the Bible with aspects of the particular place. Take, for example, the River Thames in England. In his painting, The Baptism, Stanley Spencer painted Christ being baptised in the River Thames, and there are at least three churches along the river that are dedicated to John the Baptist (Ackroyd 2007: 82). Thus, a particular landscape – in this instance in England – attains a religious importance for the British as the River Jordan did for the Israelis, creating – literally – a religious water world by which fundamental processes and principles in Christianity are expressed and understood by symbolism of water in the actual water landscape. Water may thus be said to be at the very heart of Christianity. Water may have many different associations, including: 11

011-036 WaterChristianity Chap2.indd 11

17/01/2013 11:55

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

1. Water in the origin of the cosmos and the Earth In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters (Genesis 1: 1–6).

The next step in the Creation was to make the earth fertile: And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters he called Seas: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good (Genesis 1: 9–12).

2. Water as the origin of life The creation of the living earth is further described in Genesis (2: 4–14): These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground …. And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden: and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is

12

011-036 WaterChristianity Chap2.indd 12

17/01/2013 11:55

Water and Christianity gold…And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

3. Water is the Promised Land Israel – the Promised Land – in the Bible is described by its environment. In the Promised Land the Israelis did not have to irrigate grain, as in Egypt. It was a land of rain (Châtel 2010): The land you are about to cross into and possess, a land of hills and valleys, soaks up its water from the rains of heaven. It is a land which the Lord your God looks after, on which the Lord your God always keeps his eye, from year’s beginning to year’s end (Tanakh Deuteronomy 11: 10–13).

Although Israel was an arid desert, the environment was comparatively more fertile than its neighbouring regions, and in the Hebrew Scriptures rain is seen as more precious than the Torah and the Creation (Châtel 2010). The blessed people received the divine gifts from heaven: Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no. And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily (Exodus 16: 4–5).

And according to Deuteronomy (33: 28), ‘Israel then shall dwell in safety alone: the fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine; also his heavens shall drop down dew.’ Moreover, rain in Israel, and irrigation in Egypt, were respectively seen as freedom and slavery (Walzer 1985: 101).

4. Water possesses divine qualities The water used in baptism (which we will discuss thoroughly later), together with the wine in the Eucharist, the qualities and 13

011-036 WaterChristianity Chap2.indd 13

17/01/2013 11:55

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

Figure 1. Grotte Massabielle, Lourdes.

embodiment of the sacraments, have been debated throughout the history of Christianity. In particular the Reformists objected to the belief that water possessed divine qualities. Protestantism sought to erase all belief in its holiness and indeed condemned it as diabolic superstition. Nevertheless, holy water remained an intrinsic part of Christianity. In Catholicism, for example, the holy water of Lourdes, stemming from a cave at the foothills of the Pyrenees in France, is the second holiest pilgrimage site in Christianity after the Vatican (Figure 1). According to legend, in 1858 the Virgin Mary appeared in front of Bernadette Soubirous 18 times. The first occasion was on Thursday 11 February. The following Sunday it happened a second time, when the Lady – who identified herself as ‘the Immaculate Conception’ – sprinkled holy water on Soubirous. From that time onwards, the healing and divine powers of this water have attracted pilgrims from all over the world. Annually some 5 million pilgrims come to this cave to be blessed by the holy water (Gordon 1996; Harris 1999).

5. Water reveals divinities and divine power Truths may appear as a divine blessing raining from heaven, as illustrated by: ‘Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the 14

011-036 WaterChristianity Chap2.indd 14

17/01/2013 11:55

Water and Christianity

skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it’ (Isaiah 45: 8). Water may also be used to prove the truth or to reveal that a god really is the god he proclaims to be. There are basically two ways to prove that one is a god: by doing the impossible or by performing miracles. By walking on water (doing the impossible) (Mark 6: 45–52), Jesus proved that he was God’s son. Upon returning to the shore, he healed the sick (Mark 6: 54–56). Jesus thus combined the two ways of proving his divine status. In the Old Testament, divinities proved which was the ‘superior one’ (and indeed the only one) by procreating the life-giving waters, as is evident in the battle between the Jews and the Baal-worshippers that took place on Mount Carmel (Kings 1: 16–45; see Tvedt 1997: 85; Tvedt & Oestigaard 2010a). In the desert, Yahweh and the Baal-worshippers argued about which god was the most powerful; which was the real one. The argument was settled by performing rain-making rituals: those who could invoke their God to procure rain by prayer and sacrifice would prove they were believers of the true God. The worshippers of Baal failed, whereas when Elijah sacrificed and prayed, Yahweh let the precious rain fall.

6. Absence of water is a place for divine challenges The desert has numerous connotations in the Old Testament. Dryness and barrenness represent danger, hardship and hostility to human life, and living in the desert is seen as a punishment. On the other hand, the desert is also a place for encountering God, and the desert was the foundation for the collective Jewish identity. The desert was also a place for miracles, as when Moses made water gush forth from a rock; and it was in the desert that the Exodus took place that led the Israelites to the Promised Land. In the New Testament, the desert is a place of trial and danger and the abode of demons and evil spirits: it was in the desert that Jesus encountered demons and was tempted by Satan after being baptised. Consequently, many Christian hermits like St Jerome – the Desert Fathers – went into the desert and struggled with demons (Barasch 2003: 2–5). Thus, the desert, and the hardship related to the absence of water, has manifested itself in many different ways within the Judeo-Christian tradition, which can be interpreted as a 15

011-036 WaterChristianity Chap2.indd 15

17/01/2013 11:55

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

way in which humans expose their fragility and vulnerability in the face of God or the Devil.

7. Water purifies and annihilates human sins The purifying capacity of holy water is the most common characteristic attributed to it worldwide, irrespective of religion. The main water rite in Christianity is baptism. The purpose of baptism is to erase sin and to enable the initiate to enter the divine kingdom of God. The Eucharist (Holy Communion), in which the bread and wine are transubstantiated into the body and blood of Christ, is also within the religious water world since divine qualities are attributed to blood as a fluid substance. Water and blood may also be interchangeable, or fulfil or supplement similar religious roles; indeed, there are references in the Bible to baptism with blood instead of water. Importantly, as will be discussed later, ritual purity and annihilation of sin has not always been directly related to physical purity: in certain periods, water for washing was seen as a diabolic threat and dangerous to health and prosperity. Hence, in Christianity ritual purity and physical purity on the one hand, and ritual impurity and physical impurity on the other hand, have not always been related, and, when they did come to be seen as equivalent, there had been theological changes with regard to beliefs about the Devil, health and hygiene, or, in other words, God.

8. Water heals and works as a medium The motion of water, the way in which it moves and flows, inspired the idea that water had life and thereby a soul (Mackinlay 1893: 20). The British Isles were renowned for its many holy wells. The water from these wells, together with water from springs, fountains and rivers, was believed to cure all kinds of sickness, cure and heal both animals and humans, enable prediction of the future, hinder barrenness and create fertility, and to be a source of special knowledge, just to mention a few of the qualities. Belief in the power of holy water was so strong and pervasive that unless the Church sanctified it, bishops and priests regarded such wells with their magical capacities as the work of the Devil. With the Reformation the Church launched a massive campaign aimed at erasing all beliefs that water had magical powers, but to no avail. It will be argued throughout this 16

011-036 WaterChristianity Chap2.indd 16

17/01/2013 11:55

Water and Christianity

book that belief in the religious role and capacity of holy water to work in numerous spheres, protecting people from all kinds of malevolence, danger and human suffering, was one of the most persistent beliefs in Protestant Christianity in England, despite the fact that the Church labelled such beliefs and practices as diabolic.

9. Water generates prosperity and wealth for humans Water, with its life-giving properties, is for the welfare of human beings and society, which is also a divine aim and gift. This life-giving water may take the form of sufficient rain or abundant rivers at the right season when people need the water for cultivation as well as for daily survival: ‘in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness’ (Acts 14: 17). This is not holy water, but in the context of being given by the divinities it is part of a greater cosmological plan since, after all, humanity’s well-being here on earth is part of the divine sphere. Moreover, during periods of drought and famine, people may turn to God and pray for sufficient life-giving water. In extreme cases, God may bypass the water world and present the food directly, as when Jesus fed the 5,000 (Matthew 14). But most often, abundance comes through life-giving rains: And the LORD shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers to give thee. The LORD shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow (Deuteronomy 28: 11–12).

10. Water as a moral index In Protestant areas human fortune or misfortune became connected with morality, and became an index of the moral state of society. According to the logic of the Puritans and the Calvinists, success was a sign of being one of the elected and the blessed. Hard works were rewarded by God with health and wealth, and although such fortune should be invested rather than expended on an excessive and lavish lifestyle, being the chosen one was still materialised in success. At the other end of this scale was human misfortune – a visible sign of not 17

011-036 WaterChristianity Chap2.indd 17

17/01/2013 11:55

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

being one of the elected. If misfortune happened at an individual level, it was traditionally perceived as being the work of the Devil or of malign forces, but if a community as such was afflicted by misfortune, it was believed to be an indication of the moral level of that community. If there was general suffering, fertility problems and hard times with regards to sufficient harvest and so on, it was a sign that the people in that community were not among the elect ones. General misfortune was a consequence and penalty for sins, whilst success was a sign of being chosen by God. Changes in the water world were thus part of an overall moral index of a given society.

11. Water as a penalty for human sin and misconduct on earth Although people may turn to God in times of collective crises, such as drought and famine, such calamities have often been seen as God’s penalty for human disorder and disobedience. It has generally been believed that collective misfortune was a direct consequence of immoral conditions within society. This has its origin in the story of the Deluge, which erased and cleansed the earth from sin (Figure 2): ‘And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die’ (Genesis 6: 17). This is also explicitly described in Deuteronomy, where God warns the Israelites that if they turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them; And then the LORD’s wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the LORD giveth you (Deuteronomy 11: 16–17).

And again, when God condemned false prophets: Say unto them which daub it with untempered morter, that it shall fall: there shall be an overflowing shower; and ye, O great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall rend it. Lo, when the wall is fallen, shall it not be said unto you, Where is the daubing wherewith ye have daubed it? Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even rend it with a stormy wind in my fury; and there shall be an overflowing shower in mine anger, and great hailstones in my fury to consume it (Ezekiel 13: 11–13).

18

011-036 WaterChristianity Chap2.indd 18

17/01/2013 11:55

Water and Christianity

Figure 2. The Deluge, Genesis 7: 23.

12. Water at Doomsday and Armageddon The end of the world is described in similar terms as the Deluge, with God punishing humanity with plagues, with an absence of water or with water in life-threatening forms, as described in Revelation (16: 1–21): 19

011-036 WaterChristianity Chap2.indd 19

17/01/2013 11:55

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth...And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea. And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood…And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory…And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared… And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done…And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath…And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceedingly great.

13. Water as a torment in Hell In Dante, the souls destined for salvation were carried across the river to Purgatory, and ‘in this form the water boundary of Heaven is virtually indistinguishable from the fiery stream that becomes the painful way to Hell’ (Silverstein 1938: 57). The waters in Hell are torturously hot or cold and smell terrible (Figure 3); and in Isaiah they attain certain particular characteristics: These waters of judgement are poison to the bodies of the [kings, rulers, and exalted ones] as well as sensational to their flesh; [hence] they will neither see nor believe that these waters become transformed and become a fire that burns forever (Bernstein 1993: 194).

In Canto 16 of Dante’s Hell, there are several descriptions of rain and cold weather: We hear the water echoing now as it drops into the next circle with a drone like beehive, and three ghosts hurry up together, leaving a gang that was going by under the grim flogging of rain […] (Dante 1994: 54).

20

011-036 WaterChristianity Chap2.indd 20

17/01/2013 11:55

Water and Christianity

Figure 3. The Violent Tortured in the Rain of Fire, Inferno, Canto 14.

It is raining fire and the lowest circle in Hell is characterised by a freezing cold fire, and the damned are punished successively through cold and icy spheres before being boiled in water and oil. The damned go back and forth between the different types of torturous waters and burning fires, which also come in the form of malevolent water (Dante 1994).

14. Water as a reward and grace in Heaven Paradise in Islam is characterised by divine rivers, bountiful gardens and blessed water everywhere (Smith & Haddad 1981). Heaven in Christianity is not equally elaborated in terms of magnificent water, but in the Apocalypse of Paul, an apocryphal text dating to c. 380 ad, there are four rivers in Heaven distinguished by their particular virtues: The River of Honey irrigates the land of the twelve prophets, where those who live on earth renounce their own will. The River of Milk

21

011-036 WaterChristianity Chap2.indd 21

17/01/2013 11:55

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism nourishes the innocent and those who preserve their chastity. On the banks of the River of Wine, Paul…learns that the river rewards those who freely offered hospitality. The River of Oil traverses the country of those who praise God (Bernstein 1993: 296).

Moreover, Eden was characterised as a bountiful garden where everything flourished and blossomed in a harmonious way – it was a perfect water world created by God for the best of humanity and all other living species. According to the Protestants, the Garden of Eden was an actual garden on earth, which withered after the fall.

15. Water links the divine and human realms This is exemplified, for example, in Isaiah (55: 10–11): For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

It is the very same water appearing in the human and divine spheres. This became understood as God having created the hydrological cycle. Thus, water is included in the divine and cosmic realms; it can be holy or ontologically an embodiment of the divinity itself. Water in itself may be the materialisation of the divinities. Water may also be a means for divine interaction and it is often believed to have spiritual qualities, and it links the divine realm with the human. It may be sacred because it is venerated, enabling humans to use it for specific purposes such as baptism and purifying rituals, which cleanses them from sin, thereby improving their fate and destiny in the life thereafter. Consequently, water in Christianity attains many different forms and attributes, and holy, sacred and neutral waters are all religious waters (Tvedt & Oestigaard 2010b). This poses the question of what distinguishes the holy from the sacred, since water seemingly passes through and goes from one sphere to another – sometimes it changes character, in other cases it does not; it appears as neutral rain from heaven, but this often takes the form of a reward and blessing from God for pious behaviour 22

011-036 WaterChristianity Chap2.indd 22

17/01/2013 11:55

Water and Christianity

and prayer. The very same water that rains and runs in rivers is also used in baptism and ascribed other attributes. What, therefore, is holy water?

Holy Water In Christianity, baptism has been of fundamental importance since the very beginning of the religion. ‘The early Christian prescription is to baptize in living water…This is not merely a technical term denoting running water as distinct from standing water’, Schmemann argues, ‘it is [the] theology of the baptismal font…The characteristic feature of the “baptistery” was that water was carried into it by conduit, thus remaining “living water”’ (Schmemann 1976: 164). Hence, in Christianity water played a special, and particular, role in the very foundation of the religion, and ‘living water’ may be understood in four ways: in its ordinary literal meaning it denotes spring water, running water as distinct from standing water. In its ritual sense it means baptismal water. In its Biblical sense it denotes God as the fountain-head or source of life. In its Christian sense it symbolizes the Holy Spirit (Daniélou 1961: 42).

Water creates universal experiences that are expressed in particular contexts (Strang 2005). Holy water is both the universal and the particular at the same time; it is the one and the many (Tvedt & Oestigaard 2010b). In religions, water has been used to conceptualise cosmos and to engage with the divinities. Thus, one may argue that through water it is possible to understand religion in new ways by emphasising other aspects in ritual practices and conceptions which are crucial for the devotees when they engage with the cosmological realms by spiritual and material media. Water is just such an agency and medium. It enables interaction between humans and gods because the divinities may reveal themselves in numerous ways, and often water is at the core of these divine revelations and ritual practices. Humans engage with water and are engaged by water in rituals more often than with any other element or material form. Water reveals the holy, or it is through water that the divine materialises itself or its power. 23

011-036 WaterChristianity Chap2.indd 23

17/01/2013 11:55

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

The term ‘holy water’ is so common that its meaning is often taken for granted. But the question of what constitutes holy water has been a key issue in theological debates before and after the Reformation. In Hinduism, the River Ganga is the manifestation of the Mother Goddess per se, and throughout the history of Europe, rivers have been seen as either male or female divinities. In Catholicism, the water at Lourdes in France transmits God’s grace and has the healing power to cure any given disease or sickness. This water is holy since it is a revelation of the Virgin Mary. The water used in baptism is also within the religious realm. The question whether this water is holy and has the capacity to ensure salvation or not was a key and controversial question among the Reformists. Thus, the question of holy water is inherently a complex one and concepts of holy water operate at different levels. In using the terms ‘holy’ and ‘sacred’ I have, so far, deliberately avoided defining them. But with regard to understanding the religious role of water, the distinction between ‘holy’ and ‘sacred’ is potentially fruitful because it enables one to characterise particular aspects and qualities of water, and to explore how different types of water are attributed values in rituals (Oestigaard 2011). In general, the terms ‘holy’ and ‘sacred’ have often been seen as identical and have been used interchangeably – as, for instance, in Mircea Eliade’s The Sacred and the Profane (1987). According to Oxtoby, however, ‘holy’ and ‘sacred’ refer to different qualities and processes. ‘Holiness’ may refer to the divinity and what is derived from the divinity as attributes, whereas ‘sacredness’ points to consecrated items where it refers to ‘respected or venerated objects but not the divine itself and not to persons as individuals’. God, or the attributes of God, is truly holy, and holy objects ‘may more likely imply that the user of the term holds that the object in question has indeed been hallowed by god’. Sacred, on the other hand, puts emphasis on a description of human veneration. We say ‘the holy Bible’, but the ‘sacred books of the East’ (Oxtoby 1987: 434). In ritual practice, the difference between these terms denotes whether the actual objects are truly divine embodiments or only used in the ritual for various purposes. With regards to holiness, it is important to emphasise, as for instance Hocart has done, that the divine may embody and materialise within a stone, statue, tree or water, but the very stone, statue, tree or water has no soul as such; it is the mere presence of the divinity (Hocart 1954: 30). Obeyesekere has examined this issue from another point of view by addressing Hindu statues. The gods are obviously invisible, but still visible in some ways: 24

011-036 WaterChristianity Chap2.indd 24

17/01/2013 11:55

Water and Christianity Not only are they present in a particular community, but they may be present if invoked in other communities and shrines at the same time. They must be in this place, and that, in the then and the now. They therefore obviously cannot be present in person; rather, they are there in essence (Obeyesekere 1984: 51, original emphasis).

Such statues are holy because the divine essence is present in the statue, but Christ on the cross in churches would be sacred because it is not generally believed that it is actually Christ who is present in the material body. Nevertheless, in the latter case the image of a god, in this case Jesus, may enable a holy experience, feeling or inner communication with God. Religion is rational for believers because the belief is more than just a feeling, and with regards to the ‘holy’, there is something ‘extra’ that is beyond and above the meaning of goodness. In The Idea of the Holy (1923) Rudolf Otto puts forward the concept of the numinous as a central characteristic of the holy, which is an intense feeling of knowing that something cannot be seen, but which nevertheless is understood and felt as objective and outside of the self (Otto 1959[1923]). The numinous is a feeling a believer has in the presence of a superior power. It is an awareness of a mystery that is fascinating but also awe-inspiring and overpowering. Hence, the numinous implies both the quality inherent in an experience as well as the quality of a presumed reality beyond the individual. This religious experience itself is at the bottom of religious life. The question then is: what produces such an experience (Oxtoby 1987: 432–433)? Obviously, the presence of a god provokes such an experience. But divine substances also create the numinous feeling, and this relates to water. If a divinity embodies the water, it may create a numinous experience. However, the water may still be seen as sacred even though no divinity has materialised in it, because it is venerated and used for instance in baptism. This relates to the theological debate of transubstantiation and consubstantiation. According to the doctrine of transubstantiation there is an actual change in the substance and it becomes embodied with the divine. However, according to the doctrine of consubstantiation there is a divine presence of Christ alongside the sacraments. The sacraments can thus be either holy or sacred. If the bread and wine in the Eucharist really are the body and blood of Jesus, as believed in Catholicism, then these objects are holy. On the other hand, if they are seen as symbols – as in 25

011-036 WaterChristianity Chap2.indd 25

17/01/2013 11:55

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

Protestantism, where the presence of Christ is alongside the sacraments – the bread and wine are sacred, because they are venerated objects although not divine themselves. Water holds a unique position because throughout history it has been holy, sacred and neutral: the very same water can change its fundamental character according to its ontological status. It has been the divinity itself, it has been venerated, and it has been used as a neutral substance. Each of these different attributes can be present in the very same body of water, but at different times. In other words, the multiple layers of possible attributions and values ascribed to water are not exclusive but rather additional, highlighting the many roles, values and qualities water may have. Herein lays also a paradox – or more precisely the kernel – that makes water unique: the very same water that is holy can at a later stage become evil and take on other and opposite qualities. This dual character of water was crucial to the claim that water had no holy qualities and magical powers unless the Church approved these capabilities: ‘For those Protestants who believed that the age of Christian miracles was over, all supernatural effects necessarily sprang from either fraudulent illusions or the workings of the Devil’ (Thomas 1971: 256). Concerning superstitious beliefs, the Council of Malines ruled in 1607: It is superstitious to expect any effect from anything, when such an effect cannot be produced by natural causes, by divine institution, or by the ordination or approval of the Church (Thomas 1971: 49).

Hence, it was not superstitious to believe that the elements could change their nature after the formula of consecration had been pronounced over them: this was not magic, but an operation worked by God and the Church; whereas magic involved the aid of the Devil (Thomas 1971: 49).

Evil Water In Christianity, ‘the world is hopelessly polluted with sin, evil and death’ (Schmemann 1976: 26), and water is inevitably associated with sin and defilement, or with how to erase sin and to prepare oneself for a life after death when facing God’s trial. In the words 26

011-036 WaterChristianity Chap2.indd 26

17/01/2013 11:55

Water and Christianity

of Paul Ricoeur: ‘The cosmos is a machine for damnation and salvation. Soteriology is cosmology’ (Ricoeur 2004: 268). To ‘sin’, in its simplest and most fundamental definition, is to deliberately act and behave in a way that deviates from the laws and paths which God has given to humanity. Humans have free will to oppose God’s law, but if a person chooses to do so, it has otherworldly consequences (Hertz 1966). Humans are not only ‘less than God’, but they are also ‘guilty before God’ (Hayes 1992: 95). There are only two main ways of solving the problem of mitigation of sin – divine mercy and human repentance (Kvanvig 1993: 19) – and the latter puts emphasis on what humans do and believe when they strive for mercy. Traditionally, sin is first and foremost related to actions that have to do with the body, in particular carnal pleasures – the Devil of fornication. These were heinous offences. In Christianity, although it has been claimed that the body is the temple of the soul, a sharp distinction between the soul and the body has been established. This Cartesian dualism between mind and matter, however, cannot be upheld because evil and sin materialise in the body. In their book Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and its Challenge to Western Thought, Lakoff and Johnson have argued that reason is not disembodied, which has been a dogma in the Cartesian tradition. On the contrary, they maintain that the mind is embodied (Lakoff & Johnson 1999), and this has consequences for perceptions. Descartes himself called the flesh the ‘third substance’ – a medium bridging the gap between space and thought. The phenomenologist Merleau-Ponty argued that the flesh defies the dichotomy of the cosmic exteriority and reflective, or the physical and the psychical (Ricoeur 1990: 230–231). Sin is embodied, and the places for penalty in Hell and Purgatory are particularly defined through bodily torments (Oestigaard 2003, 2004, 2009). Moreover, in Christian thought, God-consciousness includes the ‘righteousness of the flesh’ (Wyman 1994: 295). Thus, sin is a bio-moral phenomenon that manifests in material ways. Morality is manifested in materiality, and sin and immorality become tangible in material ways in the corrupt body (Parry 1994: 127). Sin is embodied in the flesh; or, more precisely, according to Christianity and in particular Luther, the flesh is sin. Theologically, Purgatory could be seen as an antechamber of Heaven or a department of Hell, and the pain suffered in Purgatory differed from that suffered in Hell since the first was characterised by hope and grace, 27

011-036 WaterChristianity Chap2.indd 27

17/01/2013 11:55

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

whilst the latter was characterised by despair (Duffy 1992: 344–345). Practically, there were also differences. The idea of purging in Purgatory is inevitably connected to the sinful flesh, and the eternal fire in Hell caused a problem for the medieval theologians because if the fire in Hell consumed the damned totally, then Hell would not be eternal. If Hell destroyed the wicked, then there was no purpose of Hell. William of Auvergne, a bishop of Paris (1228–1249), formulated a theological solution to this problem: Hellfire was different from earthly fire. On earth the fire that we know consumes while burning, but Hellfire burns without consuming. Hence, the damned could be burnt and tortured for eternity (Bernstein 1982; Le Goff 1984: 245). In Purgatory the fire had expiatory and purification purposes, but not in Hell where it only tortures and penalises the damned. Thus, in Purgatory, atonements of sin were bodily manifested in the flesh. Human flesh is, then, literally becoming the matter for understanding Christian eschatological concepts, and in particular Purgatory, Hell and the roles of holy water for annihilating sin (Oestigaard 2003: 90, 2010b). Evil is embodied. This puts an emphasis on different theories of evil. Of particular relevance to water is the fact that ‘In the Christian worldview, matter is never neutral. If it is not “referred to God”, i.e. viewed and used as a means of communication with Him, of life in Him, it becomes the bearer and locus of the demonic’ (Schmemann 1976: 48). In the Judeo-Christian tradition, sin is moral evil, and the Church emphasised three distinct types of sin due to deliberate violation of God’s will. The first is ‘satanic’ evil, which has its origin in Heaven when Lucifer was expelled from Heaven to Hell. The second is ‘Adamic evil’, stemming from the inner moral collapse in Paradise when Eve tempted Adam, and ‘by consenting temptation, both choose evil as they are chosen by it’. As a consequence, humanity was expelled from Paradise. By being secluded from God and being mortal, original sin was born. Finally, there is ‘historic evil’, which Adam and Eve transmitted to their descendants. Importantly, this ‘historical evil’ is biologically determined; it is not a matter of choice (Tanner 1988: 45). Hence, strictly logically, ‘evil makes us human [and] not only ourselves but our world is a consequence of evil’ (Kahn 2007: 1). This leads us to the qualities and properties of water. Sacred and holy water may transfer holiness or sacredness to people: it purifies devotees. The devotees purify their bodily, impure bio-moral 28

011-036 WaterChristianity Chap2.indd 28

17/01/2013 11:55

Water and Christianity

constellations in the flesh by employing and receiving divine gifts from other sacred or holy bodies of water. It is through these pure waters that these negative forces are overpowered. On the other hand, impure bodies of water may equally transfer impurity and sin from one person to another. Water ‘can be cursed…evil can be put in active form…what is evil in one aspect, in one of its characteristics, becomes evil as the whole. Evil is no longer a quality but a substance’ (Bachelard 1994: 139). Different bodies of sinful water can have differing capacities, be inherently evil or have impure powers. Thus, perceptions of dangerous, impure or sinful bodies of water in their many manifestations have also to be taken into account in analyses of water and religion. Water can be evil, and both God and Satan use water in their battles against each other (Oestigaard 2010b). In the anthropology of religion, there are different types of evil. First, moral evil, which is characterised by the suffering inflicted by one person on another. This is called moral evil because it is morally judged by others. Evil is especially considered to be moral evil if the perpetrator enjoys inflicting pain on others. Second, metaphysical evil is characterised by harm that manifests itself in the form of human poverty, famine, plague, disease and so on, as a divine penalty due to human ignorance. The Deluge is such an evil. Third, descriptive evil refers to various feared and sinister places or locales haunted by ghosts or malign spirits, for example (Parkin 2005: 171). Fourth, diabolic evil is characterised as an independent, dark force. The archetypical Devil is such a diabolic evil where evil has materialised and is bent on destruction, aiming to destroy the cosmos and divine order (Evans 1982: 8). Each of these types of evil is present in Christianity, and water may either be the solution to these different types of evil or the cause of them.

Moral evil This was combated with holy water, particularly if the Devil was seen to have inflicted the malevolence on the person. Rituals tend to acquire moral connotations where moral evil is being fought (Hocart 1954: 96). The laity used bells, crucifixes and holy water to protect themselves from diabolic influence; and although Protestants claimed that this was to no avail, and was in the worst case a diabolic practice in itself, the use of holy water for protection nonetheless continued. 29

011-036 WaterChristianity Chap2.indd 29

17/01/2013 11:55

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

Metaphysical evil This was inflicted upon humans by God himself. It was generally believed that if humans were not sufficiently obedient then God penalised humanity with floods, lack of rain and the like, causing famine and disaster.

Descriptive evil This refers to sinister places, as we have said. In particular, vivid descriptions of Hell belong in this category. Many of these depictions use violent and threatening images of water to show humans tortured for eternity.

Diabolic evil This is evil in pure form, bent upon destruction. This type of evil threatens the divine order. The magic properties and healing effects of holy water and holy wells can be seen as belonging to this category since, if such powers do not come from the Church, then it is witness to the power and presence of Satan. Water, therefore, could not only be seen as holy and a divine embodiment, it could also be the work of the Devil. This duality and ambiguity made water a dangerous substance for Protestants.

The Devil and Exorcism The Catholic Church had seven sacraments: baptism, confirmation, marriage, the Mass, ordination, penance and extreme unction. Protestants retained only two sacraments – baptism and Eucharist – and these rites attained a symbolical value rather than a magical one and the remedies in use had no divine powers as such. The distinction between magic and religion was blurred by the Medieval Church, but the Protestant Reformation made a very clear separation. According to the Medieval Church, the sacraments worked automatically (ex opere operato), regardless of the priest, whereas in most other ecclesiastical matters the rituals depended upon a good and moral officiating priest and a pious laity (ex opere operantis). The sacraments had immanent powers. But the Medieval Church 30

011-036 WaterChristianity Chap2.indd 30

17/01/2013 11:55

Water and Christianity

also modified and turned former pagan beliefs and rituals into Christianity – such as worship of wells, trees and stones – rather than abolishing them, and this gave the Church a magical aura (Thomas 1971: 47–57). These beliefs strengthened the Catholic Church’s claim that they had the power to manipulate aspects of God’s supernatural powers. Early Protestantism, on the other hand, denied the magic of the opus operatum, the claim that the Church had instrumental power and had been endowed by Christ with an active share in his work and office. For human authority to claim the power to work miracles was blasphemy – a challenge to God’s omnipotence (Thomas 1971: 51).

The logic, as formulated in The Doctrine of the Masse Booke from 1554, was simple: If humans can drive away the devil and deal both with the body and soul, what need do we have for Christ (Thomas 1971: 52)? The Catholic practice of exorcism has to be seen in this light (Figure 4). Exorcism ‘depends on the belief that persons and things may be subject to evil or diabolic powers, and that this power may be driven out through the words and actions of the exorcism rite’ (Davies 1972: 174). Exorcism involves speaking to the Devil and demonic powers, because the Devil is the first person one meets after having chosen to follow Christ. Moreover, the power of evil is personal and present, and is not just the absence of goodness. Finally, according to the principles of exorcism, evil must be confronted (Haitch 2007: 10–11), and in Catholicism exorcism was a part of the baptism. According to Protestants, however, the Christian sacraments had been infected with parasitic beliefs since each ceremony had been attributed with a material significance. The Catholics believed that water had special capacities and powers enabling the task of cleansing. When the child was exorcised in baptism it implied that it previously had been possessed by the Devil (Thomas 1971: 36). Satan was exorcised at the rite of baptism, and the immersion in water was seen as a liminal or transitional phase in which the initiate renounced Satan. The initiate swore to ally himself with Christ and recited the Credo, and, having completed the renunciation and the immersion, the transitional period was completed (van Gennep 1960: 76, 94). Thus, water was believed to have the power 31

011-036 WaterChristianity Chap2.indd 31

17/01/2013 11:55

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

Figure 4. A priest and his assistant are performing an exorcism on a woman and the demon emerges from her mouth.

to denounce Satan in both baptism and in other situations, and this belief was what Protestants claimed was the work of the Devil or was even the Devil himself. This has to be seen in relation to the shift in emphasis with regards to who the Devil was or what he represented. Nathan Johnstone (2004, 2006) has argued that Protestantism favoured a particular type of belief in the Devil in Early Modern England. Although Protestantism also perceived the Devil in a personal form or body, the most characteristic feature of Protestant demonology was temptation. However, the emphasis on temptation was not a Protestant invention; rather the contrary, since it has been a general feature of the Devil throughout the history of Christianity. In particular, Thomas Aquinas focused on temptation in his works. Moreover, where the Roman Catholic Church emphasised temptation as only one aspect or variety of the Devil’s activities or character, Protestantism focused mainly, or only, on this aspect. This had fundamental consequences for the break with Catholicism, since Catholics perceived Satan as a kind of contingent reality. The harmless and superficially pious attitude became evidence that Satan had corrupted the whole Mass. Protestants believed that the true battle between them and the Catholic Church was between faith and sacraments, and that the latter’s ceremonies and doctrines had been diabolic for more than a millennium. This had its rationale in the Protestant fact that 32

011-036 WaterChristianity Chap2.indd 32

17/01/2013 11:55

Water and Christianity

demonism was an experiential reality and indeed inflicted by God as a sign upon the elected ones. Temptation was Satan’s attack on each Christian, and although it could manifest and materialise in concrete form – through lust, greed or avarice, for example – it was first and foremost a mental and spiritual battle. Moreover, and fundamental for Protestants, God allowed diabolic temptation as a test of their faith (although he would not test his children beyond their endurance). God had even tested Jesus, and against temptation no holy water, bells or other remedies worked. The only remedy against temptation was prayer, which directed the devotee to God. Importantly, temptation was the sign of being one of the elect, and only truly ungodly humans would deny the Devil’s temptations. To do so would represent one of two alternatives: they were already so corrupt that they could not recognise temptation; or they were already damned and therefore Satan left them in peace for the time being. Thus, when Catholics did not emphasise inner struggle with the Devil as the most important aspect of the fight against Satan, Protestants believed that they were already damned and corrupted by Satan (Johnstone 2004; 2006). This interpretation has its scriptural foundation in both Mark and Luke, and the question of the Devil’s nature materialised directly in baptismal practices and beliefs in holy water. Such Catholic magic was declared as sheer sorcery, and the Edwardian Injunction of 1547 forbade the Christian to observe such practices as casting holy water upon his bed, …bearing about him the holy bread, or St John’s Gospel, …ringing of holy bells; or blessing with the holy candle, to the intent thereby to be discharged of the burden of sin, or to drive away devils, or to put away dreams and fantasies; or…putting trust and confidence of health and salvation in the same ceremonies (Thomas 1971: 53).

Between 1547 and 1549 the Church discarded holy water, holy oil and holy bread (Thomas 1971: 57). Scory, a Protestant preacher, asked rhetorically, in 1543, do you think: that the devil will be afraid or flee away from cross making, hurling of holy water, ringing of bells and such other ceremonies when he was not afraid to take Christ himself and cast him on his back and set him on a pinnacle? (Duffy 1993: 213).

33

011-036 WaterChristianity Chap2.indd 33

17/01/2013 11:55

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

For the Lollards, the sign of the cross could ‘avail to nothing else but to scare away flies’ (Thomas 1971: 72). Paradoxically, although Protestantism’s focus on complete divine sovereignty could have challenged the Catholic separation between God and Satan, it did not do so since it was too influenced by popular culture and common sense (Levack 2006). Hence, the history of Protestantism in England has been seen from two main perspectives and even a scholar like Keith Thomas has favoured both contradicting explanations in his analysis of religion and the decline of magic. On the one hand, Thomas argues that by the end of the sixteenth century the extreme Protestant view was largely accepted, which implied that rituals and objects could not produce any material results and that divine grace could not be achieved by some human formula (Thomas 1971: 57). On the other hand, Thomas describes the problem the Protestants both made and faced among the laity: Protestantism forced its adherents into the intolerable position of asserting the reality of witchcraft, yet denying the existence of an effective and legitimate form of protection or cure. The Church of England discarded the apparatus of mechanical religious formulae, but it was not prepared to claim that faith alone would protect the godly from witchcraft. The Protestant position was that steadfast faith in God was an infallible protection against the Devil’s onslaughts on men’s souls, but did not provide a similar immunity for their bodies and goods (Thomas 1971: 494–495).

According to the former interpretation of lay Christianity, there was no help to be found in magic: prosperity and solutions to practical difficulties could only be sought through prayer and hard work. Magical solutions were not only wicked but also too easy, and Francis Bacon argued that God enabled prosperous effects as a consequence of work and not being attained by slothful observances, which stressed that people should seek technological solutions rather than magical ones in order to solve their problems (Thomas 1971: 278). However, the problem was that ‘…little consolation was afforded to those who feared witchcraft by the assurance that if only they had faith they would not so fear’ (Thomas 1971: 497). Consequently, people still used holy water as a magical remedy against malevolence in general and the Devil in particular. This paradox Thomas sums up as follows: ‘The Anglican Church had rejected holy water, the sign of the 34

011-036 WaterChristianity Chap2.indd 34

17/01/2013 11:55

Water and Christianity

cross, and all the paraphernalia of the Roman Catholic exorcists, but they had nothing to put in their place, save a general injunction to prayer and repentance’ (Thomas 1971: 265, my emphasis). This dichotomy or dualism – where holy water was rejected by the Church but still used by churchgoers as an efficacious means – has to be seen in relation to the existing perceptions of the Devil. As indicated, there were at least two parallel and dominant perceptions of the Devil. One was the Puritan belief in Satan as temptation, which was easily reckonable in each and everyone as the lack of control over mind and will. This focus on inner guilt and an everlasting struggle between good and evil, where everyone was constantly tempted by Satan, could lead to a particular Protestant ethic. On the other hand, however, popular culture’s belief in the existence of a physical Devil who harmed people by causing death and suffering was impossible for the Reformists either to resist or eradicate. It was too deeply rooted in tradition. People blamed malign manifestations such as thunderstorms on the Devil, and this Devil was an externalised and personalised force (Johnstone 2004, 2006). Although the Catholic Devil also tempted people, this was only one aspect of his presence. Being an external force, working both at a cosmic and personal level, Satan was no doubt evil, but as an external corporeal being or physical malign force it was possible to protect oneself from this destructive evil power that was bent on human misery and suffering, or so it was believed. From this point of view it is understandable that people turned to idolatry and the use of holy objects in the battle against misfortune. In a fight against an external enemy one uses external weapons, and the omnipresence of water believed to be holy and to possess this apotropaic capacity made it a perfect tool, together with bells and crosses, in the daily struggle against evil directed against fields and farms. If, however, the Devil was an invisible and malign spirit, attacking and arising from within one’s body with both spiritual and carnal temptations, other means were required, and then the Puritans’ emphasis on prayer as the only possible way to salvation made sense. Although the Protestant Church leaders claimed that these two types of belief with regards to Satan were diametrically opposite, and that the Catholic and the popular cultural version indeed proved that they were damned and corrupted by Satan, in reality these two belief systems coexisted and worked together in parallel. 35

011-036 WaterChristianity Chap2.indd 35

17/01/2013 11:55

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

I will argue, moreover, that when Protestants claimed that the presence of Satan was mainly an inner diabolic temptation, this also strengthened the belief that water had miraculous powers. The practical problems people faced in their daily lives could not be reduced to inner temptation and prayer alone: cattle died, plague haunted the fields, famine occurred, houses and villages burned, people suffered, got sick and died. Such misfortunes were real and, since the pleasures in life were condemned as hedonistic sins by the Puritans, the Devil was in practice believed to work at two different levels: inwardly and outwardly. If prayers worked inwardly, holy water worked outwardly, and even though the Church condemned the latter as heresy and the work of the Devil, for the laity they were, in practice, two sides of the same coin. The existence of a physical Devil harming people was also part of his diabolic plan since ‘the Devil’s real aim in molesting their material goods was to weaken men’s faith and seduce them into looking away from God in the hope of relief’ (Thomas 1971: 495). From the Devil’s point of view external evil could weaken faith in God since calamities could be interpreted as evidence of a God who was unable or unwilling to protect his followers. This directs our attention to the role and function of baptism.

The Bible quotations are from King James Version at www.biblegateway.com

36

011-036 WaterChristianity Chap2.indd 36

17/01/2013 11:55

3 Holy Water and Baptism Holy Water in the Bible The only direct reference to holy water is in the Book of Numbers in the Old Testament when the Lord speaks to Moses with regard to if a man’s wife goes astray and acts unfaithfully against him. Following the Old Testament, if a man believes that his wife has been unfaithful, he shall bring her to the priest: ‘And the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel; and of the dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle the priest shall take, and put it into the water’ (Numbers 5: 17, my emphasis). The peculiar character and quality of this biblical holy water is interesting and worth referring to at length: And the priest shall set the woman before the LORD, and uncover the woman’s head, and put the offering of memorial in her hands, which is the jealousy offering: and the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that causeth the curse: And the priest shall charge her by an oath, and say unto the woman, If no man have lain with thee, and if thou hast not gone aside to uncleanness with another instead of thy husband, be thou free from this bitter water that causeth the curse: But if thou hast gone aside to another instead of thy husband, and if thou be defiled, and some man have lain with thee beside thine husband: Then the priest shall charge the woman with an oath of cursing, and the priest shall say unto the woman, The LORD make thee a curse and an oath among thy people, when the LORD doth make thy thigh to rot, and thy belly to swell; And this water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels, to make thy belly to swell, and thy thigh to rot: And the woman shall say, Amen, amen…And he shall cause the woman to drink the bitter water that causeth the curse: and the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter…And when he hath made her to drink the water, then it shall

37

037-076 WaterChristianity Chap3.indd 37

28/02/2013 14:00

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism come to pass, that, if she be defiled, and have done trespass against her husband, that the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter, and her belly shall swell, and her thigh shall rot: and the woman shall be a curse among her people. And if the woman be not defiled, but be clean; then she shall be free, and shall conceive seed. This is the law of jealousies, when a wife goeth aside to another instead of her husband, and is defiled (Numbers 5: 18–29).

‘Drinking the waters of Jealousie’ (Taylor 1989: 77) reveals literally the bitter truth of unfaithful women. The described holy water works like a ‘truth serum’, with an active power to curse the woman who lies. But even worse: the water – through the Lord’s command – becomes a medium that will cause her thigh to rot and her belly to swell. Being defiled and unclean by her sexual activities she will be a social outcast. If, on the other hand, she has remained faithful and has not had sex outside the marriage, she will be clean and conceive children. There are several remarkable aspects to this passage in the Bible. The first is that this is the only reference to holy water as such. The holy water is characterised as being bitter and it is used as a trial and a penalty, bearing resemblance to the use of water in the witch trials of Medieval Europe and after the Reformation. God invests the water with power, but it is a curse causing pain and molestation to the unfaithful woman to the extent that her thigh will rot. It is called holy water, and since it was God himself who created this water it is by definition holy, but rather than being venerated this water is to be feared by the unfaithful. Although it may bring fertility and does not harm the faithful woman, the power and quality of the water bear more similarity to evil water cursed by Satan. Thus God as well as Satan may use water as a penalty (Oestigaard 2010b). This type of water is malevolent and within the realm of moral evil since it causes pain and suffering. The holy water referred to in the Book of Numbers has not the quality most commonly attributed to holy water worldwide irrespective of religion: namely, the capacity to purify. This holy water is for the purpose of a trial and is called the ‘water of correction’. Intriguingly, although not mentioned in the Bible, in the Ethiopian text The Conception and Birth of our Lady Mary, the Bearer of God, it is said that the Virgin Mary and Joseph were made to drink the water of correction by the priest Zacharias in order to ensure that they had not had sexual intercourse. The priest said: ‘Know, 38

037-076 WaterChristianity Chap3.indd 38

28/02/2013 14:00

Holy Water and Baptism

O Joseph, behold, I will make thee to drink the water of correction whereby everyone who hath committed fornication is to be tested. And when thou has drunk thy doings shall be revealed before all men.’ After Joseph had drunk the water of correction, Zacharias made Mary drink the water, and when they saw that nothing harmful or injurious came upon them, they all marvelled and the priest said ‘Verily they are innocent’ and he sent them away (Budge 1933: 134–135). Importantly, in the only reference to holy water in the Bible, the holy water is distinctly different from the water used in baptism, which traditionally has been perceived as holy. But the simple claim that baptismal water is holy has caused a great deal of theological controversy. Historically, the different uses of water for purification and baptism have to be seen in relation to the role the Jordan River has played in the history of the Israelites and in the very conceptions of the Promised Land.

Jordan River The Jordan River fulfils a supreme and divine purpose in the religious history of Israel. It separated the Promised Land and their God from the tribes that the Israelites had broken with. The river separated the Israelis from their promised land, and its waters divided at the approach of the ark of the covenant; those who were favoured by the divine passed over to Jericho (Figure 5). Elijah caused a similar miracle and together with Elisha they went to Israel on dry ground (Leeper 1902: 431): And the men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord seeth: but the water is naught, and the ground barren. And he said, Bring me a new cruse, and put salt therein. And they brought it to him. And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith the LORD, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land. So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying of Elisha which he spake (2 Kings 2: 19–22).

It was on these same banks that John the Baptist announced the coming of Christ and the New Kingdom of God. Thus, the river 39

037-076 WaterChristianity Chap3.indd 39

28/02/2013 14:00

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

Figure 5. The children of Israel crossing the Jordan River, Joshua 3: 14–17.

symbolised the limit of the pilgrimage and the passing to the holy land as a blessed sign (Leeper 1902: 431): ‘The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it’ (Luke 16: 16). In Numbers (34: 10–12) the Lord describes the boundaries of the Promised Land: And ye shall point out your east border from Hazarenan to Shepham: And the coast shall go down from Shepham to Riblah, on the east side of Ain; and the border shall descend, and shall reach unto the side of the sea of Chinnereth eastward: And the border shall go down to Jordan, and the goings out of it shall be at the salt sea: this shall be your land with the coasts thereof round about.

Thus, the Jordan River is for the Israelites first and foremost a marking river, that physically and symbolically defined the Holy Land, a theme repeated numerous times in the Old Testament: ‘And it shall be on the day when ye shall pass over Jordan unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee’ (Deuteronomy 27: 2); ‘go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel’ (Joshua 1: 2); and 40

037-076 WaterChristianity Chap3.indd 40

28/02/2013 14:00

Holy Water and Baptism

by following God’s law ‘it is not a vain thing for you; because it is your life: and through this thing ye shall prolong your days in the land, whither ye go over Jordan to possess it’ (Deuteronomy 32: 47). Moreover, it is also a barrier and defence against the non-chosen people. This is most explicitly stated in Joshua (22: 25): For the LORD hath made Jordan a border between us and you, ye children of Reuben and children of Gad; ye have no part in the LORD: so shall your children make our children cease from fearing the LORD;

and in Deuteronomy it is stressed that beyond this border they will be safe: But when ye go over Jordan, and dwell in the land which the LORD your God giveth you to inherit, and when he giveth you rest from all your enemies round about, so that ye dwell in safety (Deuteronomy 12: 10).

In Joshua 3 it is described how the Israelites crossed the Jordan River: And it came to pass, when the people removed from their tents, to pass over Jordan, and the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people; And as they that bare the ark were come unto Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bare the ark were dipped in the brim of the water, (for Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest,) That the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon an heap very far from the city Adam, that is beside Zaretan: and those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, failed, and were cut off: and the people passed over right against Jericho. And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan (Joshua 3: 14–17).

Importantly, before they crossed the river bed on dry ground, ‘Joshua said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves: for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you’ (Joshua 3: 5), but it is not mentioned if this purification used water from the river. There are, however, other indications that the river had holy and healing qualities, but they are rare. One example is nevertheless when Elisha sends a messenger to Naaman saying: 41

037-076 WaterChristianity Chap3.indd 41

28/02/2013 14:00

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean…Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean (2 Kings 5: 10, 14).

The first entry into God’s Promised Land was via a physical crossing through the river. The second admission to the new Promised Land (i.e. the life hereafter) was through a physical immersion in the river, marking the initiation of the transformation of those who already were within the Promised Land of Israel. For the Christians, Joshua prefigured Jesus in a number of ways. Joshua in Hebrew is Yehoshua, whilst Jesus in Aramaic is Yeshua. Jesus crossed the river where he was baptised and then waited for three days before recrossing the river (John 10: 40–11: 6), just as Joshua had waited along Jordan’s shore for three days before crossing the river and attacking Jericho. Moreover, the Israelites crossing the Red Sea has been seen as a kind of baptism (1 Corinthians 10: 1–2) – this was the ‘old covenant’ whereas Joshua’s crossing of the Jordan River was the ‘new covenant’ (Jensen 1993). The origin of the Christian baptism has its roots in the mikvah – the Jewish ritual bath. The mikvah bath was one of 613 commandments that God gave to humans, and before entering the temple the Jews had to perform a purifying ritual immersion. Scribes had also to cleanse themselves with ritual immersion before writing God’s name. In the later Talmud it is claimed that the value of building a mikvah surpasses that of a Torah scroll and a synagogue, which could even be sold in order to raise money for a mikvah. However, although the Christian baptism has its origin in the ancient Jewish purifying ritual, when John the Baptist performed the ritual in the Jordan River and not in the mikvah, he signalled a change that announced the coming Reign of God and gave baptism a new dimension. Moreover, the baptism of Jesus inaugurated the public ministry and the disciples’ mission of baptising in the name of the Holy Trinity (Châtel 2010). The ceremonies of John the Baptist foresaw the religious change and new age that was to come (Figure 6). As he said himself: ‘I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. But he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire’ (Matthew 3: 11). 42

037-076 WaterChristianity Chap3.indd 42

28/02/2013 14:00

Holy Water and Baptism

Figure 6. The baptism of Jesus, Matt 3: 16, 17.

Some interpretations maintain that it was this original baptism that made the Jordan River holy. The place where Jesus was baptised became a holy place that was indicated by a cross-marker and, according to Bede’s eighth-century description, in the midst of the stream there was also a square Church ‘supported by four stone arches, covered with burned tiles, where the Lord’s clothes were kept while he was baptized’. Importantly, some have held the belief 43

037-076 WaterChristianity Chap3.indd 43

28/02/2013 14:00

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

that Jesus was purifying the water of the River Jordan when he was baptised and that this act made all water a source for purification, and the Jordan became the prototype of the ‘river of life’ (Jensen 1993). Thus, Jesus made the river holy by being baptised. If the river was without divine qualities before the baptism of Jesus, his mere immersion transferred holiness to the water, and consequently the Jordan River is holy per se. This perception equates with the Catholic theory of transubstantiation, whereby the wine and bread in the Eucharist are regarded as the actual blood and body of Jesus. The water in itself has divine qualities.

Baptism and Ritual Washing The title of Jesus – Christ – means literally The Anointed One. The Hebrew verb for baptism is tabal, in Syrian it is amad, and in Greek baptizein (Galvin 1926: 15). In the vernacular homilist Ælfric’s Catholic Homilies, written in 990–992, it states: Three principal things God has appointed to men for purification: one is baptism, the second is communion, the third is penance, with cessation from evil deeds and practice of good works. Baptism washes us from all our sins, communion hallows us, true penance heals our misdeed (op. cit., Cubitt 2006: 41).

Baptism means ‘washing’ and has often been called ‘the first sacrament’ or ‘the door of sacraments’, indicating the role and function of the rite. There are numerous references to baptism in the Bible and to its purpose, but these references emphasise different aspects and this has opened the way for numerous interpretations (see Haitch 2007). On a general level baptism, together with the other sacraments, is a remedy against sin. Which type of sin, and how these sins are to be repented, is a matter of debate, but there are two overall interpretations with regards to why baptism is necessary: to give access to the Kingdom of Heaven and to partake in Christ’s death. These two understandings are not mutually exclusive. In the first interpretation, baptism opens the Gates to Heaven or the Kingdom of God. Since newborn infants have no free will they cannot yet, as individual persons, have sinned. Therefore, they must have been born in sin passed down to them from their origins. If 44

037-076 WaterChristianity Chap3.indd 44

28/02/2013 14:00

Holy Water and Baptism

an infant died without being baptised, there would be no admission to the divine sphere, and thus it was necessary to baptise the newborn infants as early as possible after birth. The Church of England’s Prayer Books for 1549 and 1552 stated that pastors should not defer the ‘Baptisme of Infants any longer than the Sunday, or other Holy day next after the child be borne’ and that ‘…it is not meet for Christians to defer the baptizing of their children beyond eight days’, and it was preferred to worship ‘God next after the birth of the child, if at least it fall not out within two or three days after, which is somewhat the soonest both for mother and childe’. In the 1662 Prayer Book, the period for baptism was recommended as no later than ‘the 1st or 2nd Sunday next after their birth’. Thus, before 1650, the English Church encouraged baptism within a week of, and no longer than two weeks after, the child’s birth (Berry & Schofield 1971: 454). If children are baptised in order to admit them into the Kingdom of God, then without baptism it is impossible to reach Heaven. Some believe that this admission into the Kingdom of God is the key reason for baptism rather than the cleansing of sins. This has its scriptural foundation in John, where the Lord says: ‘Except a man be born of water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God’ (John 3: 5). But even within this perspective it has been argued that baptism is not a necessity for opening the gates to the Kingdom of Heaven since there is no need, and it is indeed impossible to open something which already is open. According to this view, the passion of Christ opened the Gates of Heaven: The baptized are not subject to death and the penalties of the present life because of the debt of punishment; rather such a subjection is due to the condition of nature. Therefore, such cannot impede their entrance into the kingdom when death separates the soul from the body, for then they have paid the debt of nature (Beasley-Murray 1962: 145).

If baptism opened the Gates to Heaven, then newborn infants would have paid the price for the original sin. The second dominant interpretation of baptism is that initiates are baptised into Jesus’s death and buried together with him (BeasleyMurray 1962; Harper 1970). In Christianity it is explicitly stated that a man cannot enter the Kingdom of God except through Christ and 45

037-076 WaterChristianity Chap3.indd 45

28/02/2013 14:00

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

his death. Indeed, ‘Christ died for our sins’, says 1 Cor. 15: 3. The first interpretation cannot account for why Jesus was baptised in the Jordan River by John the Baptist, since Jesus was not a sinner. On the other hand, towards the end of his life, Jesus used the word ‘baptism’ connoting death and suffering, and hence signifying his own dying in sin and resurrection in righteousness. Jesus was signalling that his followers should follow the same path through baptism and immersion in water (Beasley-Murray 1962: 46, 54, 73): ‘Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?’ (Rom. 6: 3). Being baptised in Christ’s death is also called Pauline baptism, and this baptismal burial marked the beginning of a process that culminated in admission to the Kingdom of God (Petersen 1986: 218). The implications of being baptised in Christ were eternal, as explained in Glossa Lombardi: Christ has completely abolished the punishment of hell so that the baptized and truly repentant are not subject to it. But he has not yet entirely done away with temporal punishment, for hunger, thirst and death are still with us. But he has overthrown its reign and dominion and finally on the last day he will utterly destroy it (Beasley-Murray 1962: 143).

Being baptised into Christ is being baptised into his death (Figure 7) and, therefore, following Eliade in his view on immersion, at an individual level it is death resolving the past. The water is not only purifying: it is also regenerating. The immersed initiate ‘dies’ and arises from the water as a new person. ‘Water purifies and regenerates because it nullifies the past, and restores – even if only for a moment – the integrity of the dawn of things’ (Eliade 1993: 195). From this perspective, baptism is a spiritual rebirth and not only a death of the former sinful life. Through the ritual the initiate attains full involvement in Christ, which includes His death, burial and resurrection of life. The most explicit connections between baptism and the death of Christ are seen throughout the passage of Rom. 6.1–11: those who ‘were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death’; ‘Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him’; ‘Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him’; and ‘For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God’. 46

037-076 WaterChristianity Chap3.indd 46

28/02/2013 14:00

Holy Water and Baptism

Figure 7. Jesus is nailed to the cross, John 19.

Since there is no other death in Christianity than the death of Jesus, the baptism in his name also means death and burial in his name. A baptism of fire followed, normally directly afterwards, signifying the flame of God’s love within each baptised Christian (Harper 1970: 3). When the institution of baptism was established, it became one of the central and unchanging pillars of Christianity: ‘Since the middle 47

037-076 WaterChristianity Chap3.indd 47

28/02/2013 14:00

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

of the second century, the notions of baptism have not essentially altered. The result of baptism was universally considered to be forgiveness of sins, and this pardon was supposed to effect an actual sinlessness which now required to be maintained’ (Harnack 1961: 140). From around 200 ad exorcism and the renunciation of Satan were included in the baptismal rite (Russell 1981: 101). The water in baptism used for exorcism was believed to have ‘effectual power’ to cast out demons, a belief that goes back to the very foundation of Christianity. From the third century, baptism has been closely associated with exorcism and the expulsion of Satan during the rite. This could be a fierce struggle and the real-life drama became ritualised and made into liturgy (Kelly 1985: 10–11). In the words of Augustine: ‘The devil is cast out when this world is renounced with one’s whole heart; for thus is the devil, who is the prince of this world, renounced, when his corrupting influences, pomps, and angels are renounced’ (op. cit., Kelly 1985: 97). Importantly, in this rite the water that was used in the baptism was not to be de-demonised: rather it was to be made demon-proof by being blessed against all hostile forces, magic and enchantment (Kelly 1965: 138). Hence, water was an active substance with particular characteristics, and not simply a neutral substance. In practice, there are three ways to baptise. The first is immersion. With immersion the initiate’s body is fully or partially submerged in the baptismal water. This tradition is the original one, dating back to the origin of Christianity and the Jewish baptisms in the Jordan River. The epistles of St Paul refer to baptism as a bath and in the Catholic Church this practice lasted at least until the twelfth century (Catholic Encyclopaedia). Complete immersion as the original baptism is also the one that is most loaded with symbolism: Immersion in water symbolizes a return to the pre-formal, a total regeneration, a new birth, for immersion means a dissolution of forms, a reintegration into the formlessness of pre-existence; and emerging from the water is a repetition of the act of creation in which form was first experienced. Every contact with water implies regeneration: first because dissolution is succeeded by a ‘new birth’, and then because immersion fertilizes, increasing the potential of life and creation (Eliade 1993: 188).

The other two types of baptism are aspersion and affusion (Figure 8). Aspersion refers to the sprinkling of water on the initiate, whilst 48

037-076 WaterChristianity Chap3.indd 48

28/02/2013 14:00

Holy Water and Baptism

Figure 8. A baptismal font, Aberdeen.

49

037-076 WaterChristianity Chap3.indd 49

28/02/2013 14:00

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

affusion involves the pouring of water. Aspersion and affusion became the most common forms of baptism in later centuries. Although the Church has attributed different meanings to the various forms of baptism, in most cases they have been seen as interchangeable and equivalent in purpose. The major debates within the Church have been concerned about the qualities of the baptismal water itself: is it holy or not? Or, in biblical terms, is it from heaven or from earth? Unfortunately, the Bible does not provide clarification with regards to this question. Indeed, Jesus challenged his devotees with this question: And when he was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching, and said, By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority? And Jesus answered and said unto them, I also will ask you one thing, which if ye tell me, I in like wise will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men? And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say unto us, Why did ye not then believe him? But if we shall say, Of men; we fear the people; for all hold John as a prophet. And they answered Jesus, and said, We cannot tell. And he said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things (Matthew 21: 23–27; see also Mark 11: 29–33).

The question of baptism is left open in the Bible: is it a divine or human institution? But this question has a particularly important role with regards to the qualities of the water used in the rite. One of the most fundamental breaks with the Catholic Church, apart from the question of Purgatory, came with the Reformation’s claim that baptismal water is not holy, and that if water possesses any qualities at all it is the work of the Devil. I shall now investigate the different views by analysing what various representatives of those views have to say about baptismal water. In particular I shall analyse and compare the views of Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, John Calvin, and finally C. H. Spurgeon, as a representative for the Baptists.

Thomas Aquinas Late medieval Christianity has been described as ‘A cult of the living in service of the dead’ (Galpern 1974: 149). From the middle of the 50

037-076 WaterChristianity Chap3.indd 50

28/02/2013 14:00

Holy Water and Baptism

tenth century the baptismal service was outlined in the ritual of Ordo romanus XI and expanded in Ordo romanus L, and this survived for 1,000 years among the Catholics (Kelly 1985: 254). In Ordo romanus it is stated that in baptism, we are reborn to life; after baptism we are armed and strengthened against enemies, to do battle with them. In baptism we are washed; after baptism we are renewed. In baptism we receive the remission of all sins, both original and actual; after baptism we take up the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit against our enemies, so that we may stand armed on all sides (op. cit., Kelly 1985: 229).

This directs attention to Thomas Aquinas, one of the most prominent theologians in the history of Christianity in general and the Roman Catholic Church in particular (Figure 9). St Thomas Aquinas was born at Roccasecca, near Aquino, in Italy early in 1225, and he died at the Christian Monastery of Fossanova on 7 March 1274, on his way to the Council of Lyon. In Catholicism, baptism consists of holy water, and Thomas’s view on baptism can be summarised

Figure 9. Thomas Aquinas.

51

037-076 WaterChristianity Chap3.indd 51

28/02/2013 14:00

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

as such: ‘Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word’ (Eph. 5: 25–26). According to Thomas, the Eucharist is a more glorious sacrament than baptism since it substantially consists of Christ; but baptism is more important since it is the ‘door’ or ‘gateway’ to all the other sacraments (Haitch 2007: 51). The sacramental character is not only a mark but also a ‘spiritual power’, and the water in baptism is holy. Thomas elaborated upon the role and nature of holy water in baptism (Aquinas 1975a, b, c, d), and he used water as a metaphor to explain theological issues. When proving that God was living, he used water to illuminate what living means. Things that seem to move by themselves are called living – for example, the living water of a flowing spring but not the water of a cistern or a stagnant pool (Aquinas 1975a: 294) – and the qualities of living water were important in baptism. According to the common custom of the Church, recently born children were baptised because they were actually born in sin passed down from their origins. This has its scriptural evidence in John where Jesus says: ‘Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God’ (John 3: 5). Therefore, if unbaptised children cannot reach the kingdom of God, there must be some sin in them (Aquinas 1975b: 214). But, as Aquinas points out, ‘there is no actual sin in them, for they lack the exercise of free will, without which no act is imputed to a man as a fault. Therefore, one may say that there is in them a sin passed on by their origin, since in the works of God and the Church there is nothing futile or in vain’ (ibid.). Consequently, baptism works and lets the children into the kingdom of God: Regarding the spiritual generation which takes place in baptism, one must consider that the generation of a living thing is a kind of change from non-living to life. But man in his origin was deprived of spiritual life by original sin…and still every single sin whatever which is added draws him away from life. Baptism, therefore, which is spiritual generation, had to have the power to take away both the original sin and all the actual, committed sins... because the sensible sign of a sacrament must be harmonious with the representation of its spiritual effect, and since washing away filth in bodily things is done more easily and more commonly by water, baptism is, therefore, suitably conferred in water made holy by the Word of God (Aquinas 1975b: 250).

52

037-076 WaterChristianity Chap3.indd 52

28/02/2013 14:00

Holy Water and Baptism

Of the sacraments, the Eucharist is not the greatest of them because the common good is a more potent factor than the individual good. Baptism is such a great sacrament because of the power that is in it (Aquinas 1975d: 151–155): ‘In baptism the Word incarnate is contained in His power only, but we hold that in the sacrament of Eucharist He is contained in His substance’ (Aquinas 1975b: 253). As Luther argues later, the water in baptism is holy because it is invested with the Word of God. This procreative force enabled the whole universe, and this power is in the water. Since baptism is a spiritual generation, the baptised are suited for spiritual action. ‘Baptism opens the gate of heaven’, and since this is a spiritual generation, one can only be baptised once (Aquinas 1975b: 251). Baptism was instituted after Christ’s passion since the cause precedes the effect, and Christ’s passion precedes the institution of the sacraments. Baptism could also be conferred with blood, and this would seem to be more appropriate to the effect of the baptism since it is written in Revelation (1: 5) that Jesus ‘washed us from our sins in his own blood’ (Aquinas 1975c: 13). However, in Summa Theologiæ, Thomas explains in depth the role and qualities of water in baptism: Moreover, as Augustine and Bede say, Christ by the touch of his pure flesh conferred on the waters the powers to regenerate and cleanse. Yet not all water is connected with the waters of the Jordan which Christ touched with his flesh. Therefore it seems that baptism cannot be conferred with just any water. So water, as such, is not the proper matter for baptism. Moreover, if water as such were the proper matter for baptism there would be no need to do anything further to the water before using it for baptism. But in solemn baptism the water which is to be used is first exorcised and blessed. Therefore it seems that water as such is not the proper matter for baptism (Aquinas 1975c: 13).

Thomas argues here that water by the mere touch of Christ becomes holy and attains the power to regenerate and cleanse. Thus, the water in the sacraments has divine powers that have been conferred on it. This must be seen in relation to the Jordan River, which was purified by the baptism and the immersion of Jesus. Christ created holy water. The problem then faced is clear: what is the ontological status of baptismal water that has not been physically touched by Jesus? Thomas emphasises the spiritual aspects, and in his usual way he discusses pro et contra: 53

037-076 WaterChristianity Chap3.indd 53

28/02/2013 14:00

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism On the other hand, the Lord said, Unless a man is born of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Reply: By divine institution water is the proper matter for baptism and appropriately so. First of all, from the very nature of baptism which involves a rebirth to spiritual life. This rebirth harmonizes well with the properties of water. Indeed, seeds, from which all living things both plants and animals are generated, are themselves moist and related to water. For this reason some philosophers postulated water as the principle of everything. Secondly, with regard to the effects of baptism which correspond to the properties of water. Because of its moistness, water cleanses, and thus appropriately symbolizes and causes the cleansing of sin. Because of its coolness it tempers excessive heat and thus fittingly mitigates man’s innate concupiscence. Because of its limpidity it is a medium of light and thus harmonizes with baptism in so far as the latter is the sacrament of faith. Thirdly, because of its suitability for representing the mysteries of Christ by which we are justified. For, as Chrysostom says, commenting on, Unless a man is born again etc, When we submerge our heads into the water, as in a type of tomb, the old man is buried and, while submerged, he is hidden below and thence rise again a new man. Fourthly, because it is so common and abundant, water is matter suited to the necessity of this sacrament, since it is easily obtainable everywhere (Aquinas 1975c: 13–15).

Thomas explains the reason why the water is holy even more directly and explicitly. The holiness is not due to the fact that there is a physical continuity but because water in itself has the same character as Christ: The power of Christ flowed into all waters not because of physical continuity but because of likeness of species. As Augustine says, The blessing which flowed from the Saviour’s baptism, like a spiritual river, filled the course of every stream and the channel of every spring. The blessing of the water is not necessary for baptism but is a part of its solemnity by which the devotion of the people is aroused, and the cunning of the devil kept in check lest the effect of baptism is impeded (Aquinas 1975c: 17).

Thomas then goes on to discuss if pure water is required for baptism. At the outset, it seems that we are surrounded by a lot of water which is not pure but that is still used in baptism. Thomas answers 54

037-076 WaterChristianity Chap3.indd 54

28/02/2013 14:00

Holy Water and Baptism

that water can lose its quality of purity in two ways: through mixing with other liquids or through alteration. If water is used in wine, it becomes part of another body and hence it is not water but wine. Following the words of Thomas, it does not have the species of water. Hence: we must say that any water can be used for baptism, no matter how it is changed, as long as the species of water is not destroyed. But if the species is destroyed, it cannot be used. The change which takes place in sea water and in other kinds of water which we are familiar with, is not such as it destroys the species of water. Therefore such water can be used for baptism (Aquinas 1975c: 19).

Thomas elaborates upon this in detail: The mixture of chrism does not destroy the species of water. Neither, for that matter, is the water so changed which has been used for the boiling of meat or other food, unless it happens that the substance boiled be so dissolved that the resulting liquid contains more of the foreign substance than water. This can be ascertained from the thickness of the liquid. Yet, if plain water can be strained from the liquid so thickened, this can be used for baptism, as is also the case with water strained from mud, even though mud itself cannot be used for baptism (Aquinas 1975c: 19).

Alteration of water, which can happen naturally, as when water gradually becomes warmed by the sun, or artificially as when water is heated over fire, does not destroy the species of the water. Mud in itself will be an alteration of the species of water but, if it is extracted, then it would be possible to use the water in baptism. Thus, Thomas’s view of water is quite remarkable. All types of water are possible for use in baptism and, when the water is consecrated, holiness is conferred upon it and regeneration and purification occur.

Martin Luther According to Martin Luther (1483–1546), to be baptised in the name of God is to be baptised by God Himself. Consequently, although it was performed by humans, the actual baptismal ceremony was the work of God. Importantly, as Thomas did so Luther also elaborated 55

037-076 WaterChristianity Chap3.indd 55

28/02/2013 14:00

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

Figure 10. Martin Luther.

and explained the qualities of the water used in baptism. According to Luther (Figure 10): Baptism is water comprehended and sanctified in God’s commandment and Word, that is, a divine and holy water because of God’s commandment…baptism is a living, saving water on account of the Word of God which is in it…It is a holy, living, heavenly, blessed water because of the Word and the command of God, which is holy (Luther 1962: 229).

For Luther, the actual water in baptism is holy because it is not just mere ordinary water but it contains God’s Word, and it is the Word that transforms the qualities of the water. The Word of God is ‘greater than heaven and earth, sun, moon and all angels…and all this comes in baptism because God’s Word is in baptism’ (Luther 1962: 229). Thus, Luther related baptism to the original creation in the Old Testament, where the Word made the cosmos and the world as well as humanity. In the beginning everything was made by the Word, and with baptism the Word in water continues the original creative force. If the Eucharist in Catholicism implied 56

037-076 WaterChristianity Chap3.indd 56

28/02/2013 14:00

Holy Water and Baptism

transubstantiation, Luther’s view on baptism depends even more on this principle. The Word, in combination with water, constituted the utmost holiness because it was an embodiment and physical manifestation of God and his powers. This is holiness per se, where the powers are derived directly from the divinity. This interpretation of the qualities of holy water also explains the importance of the ceremony, because the water and the Word scare away the Devil, ensure the initiate salvation, and redeem the initiate from death: Certainly when the devil sees baptism and hears the Word sounding, to him it is like a bright sun and he will not stay there, and when a person is baptized for the sake of the Word of God, which is in it, there is a veritable oven glow. Do you think it was a joke that the heavens were opened at Christ’s baptism […] A child is baptized, not in order that it may become a prince; it is baptized in order that it may be saved, as the words say, that is, in order that it may be redeemed from sin, death, and the devil, and that it may come into Christ’s kingdom and Christ become its lord (Luther 1962: 230–231). There are two things which baptism signifies, namely death and resurrection, i.e., the fulfilling and completion of justification. For, when the minister submerges the child in the water, that signifies death; but, when he again lifts it out, that signifies life…We call this death and resurrection a new creation, a regeneration, a spiritual birth […] Although you only receive the sacrament of baptism once, you are continually baptized anew by faith, always dying and yet ever living. When you were baptized, your whole body was submerged and then came forth again out of the water. Similarly, the essence of the rite was that grace permeated your whole life, in both the body and soul; and that it will bring you forth, at the last day, clothed in the white robe of immortality (Luther 1962: 301–303).

Although Luther broke with Rome, he kept much of the original content of the baptism despite the fact that he continued to criticise the traditional view. The first well-known monograph on holy water, Weihwasser, was written in 1433 and produced for the Council of Basel. The fifteenth-century German writer, Turrecremata, gave ten different reasons why holy water was efficient. Four of them were concerned with the moral or spiritual sphere: holy water recalled the heart from earthly matters; it was a medium for the forgiveness of venial sins; it prepared the devotee for prayer; and it was a means for good 57

037-076 WaterChristianity Chap3.indd 57

28/02/2013 14:00

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

works. Two of the other effects were psychic or psychological: holy water purified the mind from sinful fantasies and expelled impure spirits. The last four effects of holy water were physical and direct: it removed infertility in humans and animals; it created fertility; it repulsed pestilence, and provided protection against sickness. Luther, however, saw all of this as representative of Catholic superstition (Scribner 1987: 39). According to Luther, the Word was more important than the sacrament because one could be saved by the Word without the sacrament, but not the opposite (Faulkner 1917: 227). Luther declared in 1518: ‘The sacraments of the New Law do not work the grace which they signify; faith is required prior to the sacraments.’ Moreover, as he preached later that year: ‘All is at once given in faith, which alone makes the sacraments effect what they signify… Without faith all absolution, all the sacraments are vain; yea, they do more harm than good’ (Richard 1901: 241). Paradoxically, although Luther strongly argued against idolatry, he acknowledged the role of materiality in religion. Luther wrote that it was impossible for humans not to make images of things because ‘without images we can neither think nor understand anything’. As a consequence, images should be used, because they had an educational value and the rhetorical power of images could be used as a means for people to be aware of the real nature of the papacy (Scribner 1987: 299). Although theologically the Protestants claimed justification by faith alone, in the initial phase of the Reformation, Luther had difficulties in breaking with Catholic dogma and the inherent powers of the sacraments; in particular, the water used in baptism was seen as holy since it consisted of Water and the Word. Luther insisted that baptism ‘effects forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil, and grants eternal salvation to all who believe’ (op. cit., Nischan 1987: 47). Even though Luther denied the sacraments ex opere operato, he did not deny that automatic working was possible when faith was present (Faulkner 1917: 234). Moreover, Luther believed that exorcism worked as a powerful prayer, and he retained the exorcism rite in both his Taufbüchlein of 1523 and in the revised edition of 1526. Nevertheless, even though the Lutherans favoured exorcism, the ceremony could be omitted (even during the reformer’s lifetime) since it did not belong to the essence of the sacrament. Calvin, Zwingli and 58

037-076 WaterChristianity Chap3.indd 58

28/02/2013 14:00

Holy Water and Baptism

their followers, on the other hand, condemned exorcism as a ‘papal relic’. During the second half of the sixteenth century, the rite of exorcism became a symbol of confession or belief for the Lutherans (who favoured exorcism) and the Calvinists (who condemned it), particularly from the 1580s onwards (Nischan 1987: 32–34). The Reformists discarded exorcism as a ‘superstitious ceremony’. Polycarp Leyser, a superintendent of Brunswick, asked rhetorically who was responsible for abolishing exorcism. In answer to his own question he replied: ‘Nobody else than those damn Zwinglians…who thought that they had to demonstrate their anti-papal enthusiasm by storming and discarding’ useful ceremonies (Nischan 1987: 36). The belief in the power of exorcism has to be seen in a political context as well and, according to George Lysthenius, the real objective of the Lutherans opposing exorcism was ‘Not the abolition of exorcism but the introduction of Zwingli’s and Calvin’s teachings’ (Nischan 1987: 39). Luther saw the Swiss as incarnations of the Devil and not as Christians. However, due to Pietism and Rationalism, churches that originally had retained the rite were abandoning it and, by the end of the eighteenth century, exorcism had been eliminated from the Lutheran baptism (Nischan 1987: 46–47). Thus, part of the theological controversy between Lutherans and Calvinists was about the holiness of water. In 1586, Theodore Beza said to Jacob Andreae at Montbéliard: ‘The quarrel between you and us is whether holy baptism is a bath of rebirth and a renewal in the Holy Spirit, or whether it is simply a sign that signifies and seals our filial to God’ (op. cit., Nischan 1987: 47). In practice, Luther continued the Catholic line of thought and reasoning, claiming that the water was holy and indeed that it had divine qualities and powers. Calvin, on the other hand, denied this and argued that baptismal water had no spiritual powers in itself as such, but that it symbolised the pact between humans and God.

John Calvin John Calvin (1509–1564) (Figure 11) was mainly concerned with God’s promise offered in the baptism, which is that Christ is the matter of all sacraments. Children were baptised into future repentance and faith, which had a number of implications. First, the 59

037-076 WaterChristianity Chap3.indd 59

28/02/2013 14:00

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

Figure 11. John Calvin. Author: Georg Osterwald (1803–1884).

believer’s sins were forgiven as a result of atonement; and second, this forgiveness took place through the mortification of the believer. Still, ‘it is forgiveness only by imputation since sin remains in the Christian throughout his life’ (Grislis 1962: 46). Calvin clearly stated the purpose of baptism: ‘let my readers call to mind that there is a twofold grace in baptism, for therein both remission of sins and regeneration are offered to us’ (Calvin 1975: 153). Calvin regarded baptism as a sacrament merely as a ‘symbol of our confession’ and believed that salvation depended entirely upon God’s election, which baptism could neither effect nor guarantee (Nischan 1987: 48). Importantly, following Calvin, it was necessary to emphasise the relation between the sacramental sign and the reality it signified. The promises and the atonement were not brought about by baptism as a rite in itself, but only through the Holy Spirit. The believer should not trust in the power of the sign or the baptismal water as such, not even as a vehicle for transmitting the Holy Spirit. Calvin thereby denied that the baptismal water or 60

037-076 WaterChristianity Chap3.indd 60

28/02/2013 14:00

Holy Water and Baptism

the rite in itself could free a believer from original sin. Baptism was thus only the ‘outward sign’: Christ gave the ‘inward grace’ (Grislis 1962: 47). In the words of Calvin: …in Baptism, God washes us by the blood of his Son, and regenerates us by his Spirit; in the Supper he feeds us with the flesh and blood of Christ. What part of the work can man claim, without blasphemy, while the whole appears to be of grace?...For if we grant their postulate – that grace is procured in the sacraments opere operato – a part of merit is separated from faith, and the use of the sacraments is in itself effectual for salvation (Calvin 1975: 215).

Baptism did not ensure salvation automatically, which could only be the result of faith. But if the baptismal promise did not come from the baptismal water or the rite but was the effect of God himself, then one may ask why the sacrament of baptism is necessary? Calvin himself defined sacrament as ‘a testimony of divine grace towards us, confirmed by an outward sign, with mutual attestation of our piety toward him’ (op. cit., Grislis 1962: 47). Thus, the sacraments were regarded as ‘sacred signs’, but the signs were themselves inferior to the Word of God. The baptism was a symbol or seal and, following Calvin’s logic, the seal did not affect the validity of a document, but rather it confirmed it. Baptism was for Christians what circumcision was for the Jews – a testimony of God’s grace and salvation: God does not set up the sacraments as perpetually effective and completely autonomous, but forever uses them only as instruments. Therefore, ultimately speaking, human trust is to be placed in God and not the sacraments…faith must be present before the sacraments can be effectively received (Grislis 1962: 49–50).

Following Calvin, baptism was a seal of election, signifying a regeneration that had started before the actual baptism. ‘Baptism was a necessary, though not a sufficient, condition for eternal life, much as a signature is necessary for a contract’ (Lettinga 1993: 665). Since faith is the crucial aspect, many have argued for adult baptism. Although not mentioned explicitly in the Bible, Calvin still favoured infant baptism, which benefited the parents who saw that God’s goodness and mercy was given to their progeny as well. One reason why Calvin emphasised infant baptism was the strong pressure from the Anabaptists for adult baptism (Riggs 1995: 37). 61

037-076 WaterChristianity Chap3.indd 61

28/02/2013 14:00

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

Following the Bible, there were also other reasons why Calvin chose infant baptism. First, in the Old Testament circumcision served to testify that Israel’s children were sanctified; in a similar manner, baptism ensured that Christian children were sanctified. Second, in the Bible there are a number of references that Christ commanded children to be brought to him to partake in his redemptive life. Third, Calvin deepened this argument to apply infants’ admission to heaven as well. Since no unregenerated people were saved and admitted to the Kingdom of God, and since children who died in infancy were saved, they must have been regenerated. Fourth, John the Baptist was sanctified while he was still in his mother’s womb; and, finally, Calvin insisted that Christ himself was sanctified from infancy (Grislis 1962: 53). Since Calvinist beliefs about the role and function of baptism differed from the Catholics and even Luther, this had consequences for the sacraments. Water, bread and wine had no intrinsic power in themselves: they were ‘instruments and signs only when applied or offered by God in Christ through the Holy Spirit. The permanent effect of baptism is that it is a sign of the unfailing promise of God offered and never withdrawn’ (Raitt 1980: 57). Consequently, baptism was necessary but not sufficient: The sacraments are not to be identified with the ‘substance’ which is given by the sacraments…the sacraments are to be regarded as instruments whose effectiveness is assured not by what the sacraments can accomplish autonomously by virtue of the sacramental power, but what the Holy Spirit does through them (Grislis 1962: 54).

Baptism involved no transubstantiation or ‘bodily presence’ of Christ, but the rite was nevertheless a sacrament in its application (Raitt 1980: 56). Zwingli wrote in his On Baptism (1525) that everyone since the dawn of Christianity had been wrong because they believed that the baptismal water had powers that, according to him, it did not have, and he found the same mistake in the works of Luther. According to Calvin, the sacrament recalls the past deeds of God and the forthcoming deeds of the believers. To consume the Eucharist spiritually is to trust in the mercy of God (Gerrish 1988), and this could not be achieved by the mere physicality of the substances, which they emphasised. Zwingli’s friend, Johann Oecolampadius, ridiculed the Lutherans as worshippers 62

037-076 WaterChristianity Chap3.indd 62

28/02/2013 14:00

Holy Water and Baptism

of a baked God and drinkers of God’s blood. Today, one may see Zwingli’s argument as superfluous because the bread and wine in the Eucharist ‘signify, rather than literally are, the body and blood of Christ, and that a sign cannot be what it signifies’ (Gerrish 1988: 378). In the Lord’s Supper, following Calvin, the power of Christ is present, but not the substance of Christ. The benefits of Christ are offered to everyone, but only received by those who are gifted with the Holy Spirit (Raitt 1980: 51–52). Importantly, there was a progression and theological shift in Calvin’s teaching on baptism over time. In the 1536 Institutes, Calvin writes: ‘Baptism was given us by God; first to serve our faith before him; and then to serve our confession before others’ (Riggs 1995: 33). This second meaning that Calvin added highlights his view that baptism was a profession of faith. Following Calvin, God’s promise of forgiveness of sin is the essence of baptism: Still, we believe that the promise itself did not pass away. In fact, we reckon it the other way: that God promises us forgiveness of sins through baptism, and without doubt he will fulfil his promise to all believers. As this promise was offered in baptism, so let us appropriate in faith (Riggs 1995: 33).

In 1539 he had finished his revision of the Institutes, and he emphasised baptism and added to his definition of a sacrament that it is a mark ‘of declaration by which we publicly swear allegiance to God’s name, binding our faith to him in turn’ (Riggs 1995: 36). In his 1543 sacramental theology, the meaning of baptism was found in Christ: Thus we see that the fulfilment of baptism is in Christ, whom indeed for this reason we can call the proper object of baptism…For whatever of God’s gifts is offered in baptism, it is obtained in Christ alone (Riggs 1995: 38).

The public appropriation of baptism culminated with Calvin’s 1543 Institutes. The function of the sacrament was that the Lord promised his ‘kindness towards us in order to sustain the feebleness of our faith; and we, in turn, attest our devotion towards him before people’ (Riggs 1995: 39). In 1543 Calvin writes: Baptism is the sign of initiation by which we are received into the society of the Church, that we might be engrafted in Christ and

63

037-076 WaterChristianity Chap3.indd 63

28/02/2013 14:00

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism reckoned among the children of God. Again, baptism was given to us by God for this purpose (which I have taught to be common to all sacraments), first to serve our faith before him; and then to serve our confession before others (Riggs 1995: 39).

This confession before others was a serious matter, and the new faith was literally forced onto people. In Geneva, Calvin was faced with a great deal of opposition, and a number of the problems were directly related to the strict view on baptism, including Calvinist policy regarding the naming of the child. Calvinist policy was to eliminate those names that were surrounded with Catholic superstition or had pagan connotations. The priests told the parents, in front of the congregation, that they had chosen idolatrous symbols of superstition, which naturally caused humiliation. In 1546 an unnamed sponsor gave their child the name ‘Claude’, whereupon the minister baptised the boy as ‘Abraham’. Similarly, the names ‘Martin’ and ‘Ayme’ were also prohibited, which caused rioting among the commoners. In 1547 the magistrates realised that this new policy was dangerous for the public peace, and they considered not supporting the banning of names. The conflict escalated and there were increased tensions between the native Genevans and religious refugees. By June 1549 the situation had become so serious that Calvin threatened to place guards at the baptisms to ensure order, a complaint he also raised in January 1550. The question of unacceptable names also added to ethnic tensions with the prominent French. The last major confrontation took place in October 1552 when Calvin denied baptism to a child (Naphy 1995).

Spurgeon and the British Reformed Baptists For extreme denial of any holiness of the water in baptism one may look to the Baptists. The meaning of the Greek term ‘Anabaptist’ is the re-baptised or those who have been baptised a second time (Zuck 1957: 212). In 1520, Luther’s main opponent was Rome, whereby he argued against the faithful appropriation of the sacraments, but by the end of the decade he was defending the sacraments against the Anabaptist. The Anabaptists argued that without faith there could be no salvation through baptism. Luther, on the other hand, believed the Anabaptists made a mistake when they grounded 64

037-076 WaterChristianity Chap3.indd 64

28/02/2013 14:00

Holy Water and Baptism

baptism in human faith, because then nobody should be baptised. Luther claimed that baptism was a correct sacrament because it was a sign of God’s promise, not due to human faith, but that God had commanded humans to be baptised and bad faith could not change that promise (Riggs 1995: 31–32). The Baptists developed their rationale even further. Although not contemporary with Luther and Calvin, one may turn to C. H. Spurgeon (1834–1892), a British Reformed Baptist who was called the ‘Prince of Preachers’, because his position with regards to the quality of water used in baptism highlights the theological conflict and the different standpoints. According to Spurgeon, the baptismal water has no spiritual role at all: ‘Baptism without faith saves no one’ (Spurgeon 1864: 5) because ‘He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be damned. Faith is the one indispensable requisite for salvation. This faith is the gift of God. It is the work of the Holy Spirit’ (Spurgeon 1864: 10). ‘And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned’ Mark (16: 15, 16), or in the words of Spurgeon: ‘We hold that persons are not saved by baptism, for we think, first of all that it seems out of character with the spiritual religion which Christ came to teach, that he should make salvation depend upon mere ceremony’ (Spurgeon 1864: 5). Implying that the water in baptism was holy was a sacrilege to the spirituality of the religion: The false religions of the heathen might inculcate salvation by a physical process, but Jesus Christ claims for his faith that it is purely spiritual, and how could he connect regeneration with a peculiar application of aqueous fluid? I cannot see how it would be a spiritual gospel, but I can see how it would be mechanical, if I were sent forth to teach that the mere dropping of so many drops upon the brow, or even the plunging a person in water could save the soul. This seems to me to be the most mechanical religion now existing (Spurgeon 1864: 5).

Hence, baptism was important but not the water as such; it was the reaffirmation of the faith, and that alone: ‘What connection has this baptism with faith? First, baptism is the avowal of faith; baptism is a testimony of his faith; baptism is Faith’s taking her proper place, and baptism is a refreshment to Faith’ (Spurgeon 1864: 12–13). From this point of view, baptism was in theory unnecessary since it was 65

037-076 WaterChristianity Chap3.indd 65

28/02/2013 14:00

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

faith alone, and nothing but faith, that was the path to salvation. Nevertheless, the Baptists defended the necessity of baptism, for no other reason than God said that they should baptise. From this perspective, water may perhaps be seen as sacred since it is mandatory for conducting the rite, but on the other hand it is not strictly an object of veneration, which leaves the water in itself as just a mere obligation. The only reason why one has to use water is because God has commanded it: So when God tells me to do a thing, if I say, ‘What for?’ I cannot have taken the place which Faith ought to occupy, which is that of simple obedience to whatever the Lord hath said. Baptism is commanded, and Faith obeys because it is commanded, and thus takes her proper place (Spurgeon 1864: 12).

The cosmic proportions of the disputes on this subject are remarkable. At the outset it may seem like a small controversy – if the water used in baptism is holy and ensures salvation or not – but for the Baptists this theological assumption challenged the whole foundation on which Armageddon and the future of England should be fought over: We shall be clear, I say, of those who teach salvation by baptism, instead of salvation by the blood of our blessed Master, Jesus Christ. O may the Lord gird up your loins. Believe me, it is no trifle. It may be that on this ground Armageddon shall be fought. Here shall come the great battle between Christ and his saints on the one hand, and the world, and forms, and ceremonies, on the other. If we are overcome here, there may be years of blood and persecution, and tossing to and fro between darkness and light; but if we are brave and bold, and flinch not here, but stand to God’s truth, the future of England may be bright and glorious (Spurgeon 1864: 13).

Interestingly enough, this battle was actually fought when the Reformation took place in England, and although not as apocalyptic as Armageddon, the language war had cosmic dimensions and the key figures were the Defender of the Faith, the Pope and Luther. Thus, the question and the religious interpretation of baptism was a serious theological issue with wide social and political implications in Europe. The kernel of all these theological debates was not the implication and importance of baptism, but the actual role and 66

037-076 WaterChristianity Chap3.indd 66

28/02/2013 14:00

Holy Water and Baptism

the qualities of the water in the rite itself. Luther maintained the belief in holy water despite the fact that this contradicted his own teaching in other matters, but the various theological positions have also to be seen in a contemporary political context, which includes the internal differences among the Reformists and not least the actual Reformation in England itself.

Defender of the Faith On British coinage there is a legend ‘D.G.Reg.F.D’, which means ‘By the Grace of God, Queen, Defender of the Faith’. This faith is not the Church of England, of which the Queen is head, or Christianity in general, but historically it refers to a Catholic title awarded to Henry VIII (1491–1547) by the Pope for the king’s polemic against Luther’s attack on the sacraments (Figure 12). Although Henry VIII later broke with Catholicism, the Protestant sovereigns kept the title (Firth 1981: 585). Henry VIII published his Assertio septem sacramentorum adversus Martinum Lutherum in July 1521, where he claimed that Luther was a heretic. The king vigorously defended the doctrine of transubstantiation as well as the other sacraments (Marius 1978), and the work was dedicated to Pope Leo. This book, which in English translates into An Assertion of the Seven Sacraments against Martin Luther, brought Henry the long-desired and official title of Defender of the Faith as a reward from the Pope (Smith 1910: 658). Luther went into a fierce polemic with Henry and wrote in 1522 that this damnable and rotten worm has composed lies against my King in heaven, it is right for me to bespatter this English monarch with his own filth and trample his blasphemous crown under feet (Smith 1910: 660).

In 1525 the Danish King Christian II informed Luther that Henry was looking more favourably on the evangelical faith. Luther then wrote a naive letter to the king, with the intention of ending the quarrel in a tone of humble apology. Although Luther wanted reconciliation, Henry saw the letter as hypocrisy. In 1526 Henry answered more fiercely than ever, and received a letter in return early in 1527. Henry did not continue this verbal fight, but took his revenge with a 67

037-076 WaterChristianity Chap3.indd 67

28/02/2013 14:00

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

Figure 12. Henry VIII by Hans Holbein (c. 1534–1536).

ruthless repression of the evangelical faith when, on St Martin’s Eve, 10 November 1527, he putted buffoons representing Luther and his wife on the stage (Smith 1910: 662–664). Strategically, this polemic war with Luther caused more problems for Henry later. In 1527 Henry VIII’s wife and queen of England, Catherine of Aragon, had passed the age of 40, and although she had given birth to at least three sons and two daughters, all of them had died in infancy except one daughter. Hence, there were slim chances of a male heir. Catherine had been the wife of Henry’s elder brother, who had died in 1502, and although it was unusual and perhaps illegal, Pope Julius II made a special dispensation (due to the influence 68

037-076 WaterChristianity Chap3.indd 68

28/02/2013 14:00

Holy Water and Baptism

of Henry’s parents) that allowed Henry to marry her. Rumours of divorce were around already in 1514, but nothing happened. But in 1527 Henry fell in love with Anne Boleyn and wanted a divorce from his wife, which the Roman Church would not grant him (Moorman 1973: 164). In 1529 Henry began to take matters in his own hands by consulting different universities on the matter. Through an intermediate negotiator, Henry asked Luther for permission to divorce, but Luther denied the legitimacy of dissolving the marriage because ‘even if the king sinned in marrying his brother’s widow it would be a much more atrocious sin cruelly to put her away now…Rather let him take another queen…’ (Smith 1910: 665–666). The king was not satisfied with this answer, but Luther maintained his position in 1532 – bigamy was the solution – and Luther advised ‘the king that it would be better for him to take a concubine than to ruin his kingdom’ (Smith 1910: 666). This was not what Henry wanted. Henry married Anne Boleyn secretly in January 1533 and their first child was due in September. If this child should be a legitimate heir, the marriage question would need to be settled before she gave birth. On 23 May, Thomas Cranmer (1489–1556), the Archbishop of Canterbury, nullified the marriage with Catherine of Aragon. With the divorce fulfilled, Henry and Anne got married five days later, and Anne was crowned queen on 1 June. The Pope excommunicated Henry on 11 July and on 7 September, Anne’s first child was born: Princess Elizabeth. The official declaration of the divorce and the excommunication of the king by the Pope triggered the Reformation, which resulted in the final breach with Rome. In 1534 Parliament passed a number of laws that broke all relations with Rome. These included The Ecclesiastical Appointments Act, which referred to the Pope as ‘the Bishop of Rome, otherwise called the pope’; The Dispensations Act, which transferred power from the Pope to the Archbishop of Canterbury; The Supreme Head Act, which stated that the king had the leadership of the Church of England; and The Succession Act, which gave the Parliament sanction to legally allow the divorce. Together, these parliamentary Acts marked the Reformation and the final break with Rome (Moorman 1973: 168). Hence, the Church of England played a minor role in the Reformation, which was orchestrated by the king himself accompanied by Parliament. The Reformation was thus ‘a parliamentary transaction’ or ‘an act of state’, and little had been done to reform either doctrines or practices of worship. The break with Rome was a 69

037-076 WaterChristianity Chap3.indd 69

28/02/2013 14:00

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

constitutional change (Moorman 1973: 168). Henry’s earlier attacks on Luther also left irreparable traces. In 1540, Luther was done with Henry forever, and in a confession he wrote: ‘This king wants to be God. He founds articles of faith, which even the pope never did. I believe Henry VIII is not a man but an incarnate devil’ (Smith 1910: 669). Anne Boleyn, who had a central role in the break with Rome, was executed by Henry in May 1536 (Walker 2002). Even though Henry was a true politician, he was also deeply religious, although more Catholic than Protestant in practice. Henry’s aims to define true religion are found in the Ten Articles of 1536, the Bishop’s Book of 1537 and the King’s Book of 1543 (Bernard 1998: 334). However, he retained the traditional view of the Mass, and in 1538 he stated that the sacrament on the altar was ‘the very body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, our only Saviour and Redeemer’. Moreover, Henry did not embrace either Lutheranism or Protestantism in their entirety. He refused the Confession and Apology of Augsburg and rejected the doctrine of justification by faith alone (Bernard 1998: 325–326). Thus, although he was the ‘Supreme head on earth of the Church of England’, the direct implications of the Reformation were few. ‘The religious life of the country remained much as it had always been. The parish churches looked just as they had always looked’, Moorman argues, and ‘to the ordinary villager the great changes of Henry’s reign meant little… the changes which affected the daily lives of the people were yet to come’ (Moorman 1973: 179).

Book of Common Prayer Although Henry VIII broke with Rome and introduced the Reformation to England, proud of his title as the ‘Defender of the Faith’, politically and theologically he did not adopt Lutheranism but retained belief in the works of the sacraments, and in general he has been seen as a champion of orthodoxy (Moorman 1973: 180). The first major liturgical change took place first after Henry’s death in 1547. In that year a Royal Proclamation was issued, The Order of the Communion, but this was soon replaced by the first Book of Common Prayer in 1549 (Spinks 1993: 176). Thomas Cranmer was the man mainly responsible for reforming the liturgy, and when the king died it was possible to implement many of these long-wished-for 70

037-076 WaterChristianity Chap3.indd 70

28/02/2013 14:00

Holy Water and Baptism

reforms, including the use of the English language in the Church (Moorman 1973: 187–188). In the first Book of Common Prayer, Thomas Cranmer kept the majority of the exorcism rites (Spinks 1993: 181). The water in baptism was blessed and holy since we all have sinned, and cannot be saved without remission of their sin, which is given in baptism by the working of the Holy Ghost, therefore the sacrament of baptism is necessary for the attaining of salvation and everlasting life, according to the words of Christ, saying, No man can enter into the kingdom of God, except he be born again of water and the Holy Ghost (Spinks 1993: 1182).

As already indicated, and as will be elaborated thoroughly, the religious and liturgical changes took a long time to implement despite the fact that the theologians of the time complained about the laity. Already in 1547, Thomas Cranmer wrote that people were so blinded with the goodly show and appearance of things such as water, bread, bells, candles, fire and so on, ‘that they thought the keeping of them to be a more holiness, a more perfect service and honouring of God, and more pleasing to God, than the keeping of God’s commandments’ (Duffy 1993: 199). Cranmer believed not only that the traditional ceremonies were undesirable but that they by nature turned attention away from God (Duffy 1993: 202). According to Cranmer: ‘the Devil is a spirit whom we can neither feel nor see’ (Cranmer 1548: fols 147v–148); and he believed that Satan’s evil was ‘without number, and increase daily more and more’, and these included among others ‘sadness, sorrow, trouble of conscience, faintness of heart, sickness of the body, poverty, slanders, despising, reproaches, persecutions, battle, sedition, hunger, pestilence and all plagues’ (Cranmer 1548: fols 151v–152). Following Cranmer, the only weapon against the Devil was prayer: ‘there is no better remedy than to call for God’s help, and to say as Christ taught us, “Good Lord suffer us not to be led into temptation”’ (Cranmer 1548: fols 146v). In 1550 Cranmer wrote against the theory of transubstantiation in his A Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ: ‘The third example is of the water in baptism, where the water still remaineth water, although the Holy Ghost come upon the water, or rather upon him that is 71

037-076 WaterChristianity Chap3.indd 71

28/02/2013 14:00

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

baptized therein’ (Spinks 1993: 184). The evangelical purity of the baptismal water was contrary to the demonic corruption of the Catholic holy water, and although Cranmer maintained a kind of exorcism in the 1549 baptismal service, this was removed in the 1552 revision (Duffy 1993: 212). This was an important and radical change of tradition and practice. In England, belief in exorcism has had a prominent place in the history of the Church since early days. The oldest baptismal liturgy surviving from the British Isles is found in the Stowe Missal, which is dated between 792 and 812 (although the content may be older), and exorcism was part of the rite (Fisher 1965: 82). The rite of baptism was described in the Sarum Manual. The 1543 edition, printed in Rouen, was the last edition before the first Prayer Book came in 1549. The Edwardian prayer books of 1549 and 1552 reflected a dramatic change in belief regarding the diabolic. Before the first Prayer Book it was believed that baptism was a real victory over Satan and that the Devil was cast out of the initiate. The accursed Devil was commanded out of the child by the priest, who said to Satan that ‘thou has been conquered: trembling and groaning depart: let there be nothing in common to thee and to this servant of God’ (Fisher 1965: 162). However, in 1552 it became simply a prayer asking God to receive the initiate before proceeding to the actual baptism. Rather than seeing baptism as a victory over the Devil, it prepared the child for a lifelong and continuous conflict with the Devil (Johnstone 2004). In baptism, as the archbishop of York, Edwin Sandys (1561–1629), remarked on the Devil in 1547: ‘as soon as we profess to be Christ’s soldiers, as a malicious and fierce enemy he invadeth us’. According to the Protestants, the Catholic use of bells and holy water could not protect them against Satan. The ultra-Protestant position was stated as early as 1395 by the Lollards in their Twelve Conclusions: That exorcisms and hallowings, made in the Church, of vine, bread, and wax, water, salt and oil and incense, the stone of the altar, upon vestments, mitre, cross, and pilgrims’ staves, be the very practice of necromancy, rather than of holy theology. This conclusion is proved thus. For by such exorcism creatures be charged to be of higher virtue than their own kind, and we see nothing of change in no such creature that is so charmed, but by false belief, which is the principle of the devil’s craft (Thomas 1971: 51).

72

037-076 WaterChristianity Chap3.indd 72

28/02/2013 14:00

Holy Water and Baptism

The Lollards used holy water as an example of the principle. They argued that if the Church’s exorcism and blessings really could work material effects, then holy water should be the best medicine for any kind of sickness. Since this was not the case, it showed that it was unreasonable and impious to expect God to assist at a ceremony to give ordinary water divine qualities. Thus, holy water had in reality no more virtue than well water or river water (Thomas 1971: 51). Still, Protestants’ beliefs with regard to magic did not eradicate all former traditions, and in particular holy wells retained much of their magic properties, although Protestants preferred to see them as medical springs and having natural capacities. Moreover, the old Catholic protective formulae, such as using holy water from springs, survived for a long time, and as late as 1604 commoners used it for all purposes in Lancashire (Thomas 1971: 70–72). During the middle of the sixteenth century it was possible for the laity to conduct baptism, and the 1604 Book of Common Prayer was the first to express in written form that only priests could offer baptism to infants, including private baptism (Berry & Schofield 1971: 454, fn. 10). In theory, for Protestants nothing stood between the Devil and the individual Christian, who faced his innermost temptations and experiences as a real battle with Satan, and those who did not share this fundamental belief were already damned (Johnstone 2004, 2006). The relation between being initiated through baptism and temptation has its scriptural foundation in Mark and Luke. Following Mark (1: 4–13): John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And there went out to him all the country of Judea, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, and had a leather girdle around his waist, and ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached, saying, ‘After me comes he who is mightier than I, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit’. In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens opened and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, ‘Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased’. The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.

73

037-076 WaterChristianity Chap3.indd 73

28/02/2013 14:00

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism And he was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to him.

Following the New Testament, the Protestants emphasised the Devil as a force of temptation and the intimate relation with baptism. However, it is more uncertain if this Devil is an inner temptation only, since the temptation has the character of a dialogue, as elaborated by Luke (4: 1–13): And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered. And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence: For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee: And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.

As it has already been noted, God does not let Satan tempt and test people beyond their endurance. From this perspective Paul Ricoeur may have been correct when he said: ‘Evil is supremely the crucial experience of the sacred’ (Ricoeur 1969: 9); and from a Protestant perspective: ‘The demonic cannot be defined, it can only be contemplated – and experienced’ (Nugent 1983: 4). However, the Devil was not only evil and an enemy against God: he was also a ‘servant’ or ‘vindicator’ who by tempting people enabled humans to distinguish between virtue and sin; he taught them humility and to hate sin and to depend upon God (Russell 1988: 36). Baptism therefore opened up the doors to Hell by introducing the initiate to the Devil and 74

037-076 WaterChristianity Chap3.indd 74

28/02/2013 14:00

Holy Water and Baptism

the lifelong fight against evil. Nevertheless, since this first meeting did not go beyond the initiate’s endurance, which the devotee had to face later, God somehow protected the baptised that otherwise would have been damned and gone directly to the Devil. Regardless of how one interprets this, by putting emphasis on the Devil as an inner temptation that everyone had to fight against from birth to death, the baptised were faced with the brutal and harsh realities of Christianity from the very beginning by baptism. It was these concepts of the sinful and the devilish world that Protestants and Puritans developed and elaborated, and the relation between the Devil and water is crucial to a proper understanding of both the nature of the Devil and how people protected themselves against this evil with water as the medium.

75

037-076 WaterChristianity Chap3.indd 75

28/02/2013 14:00

037-076 WaterChristianity Chap3.indd 76

28/02/2013 14:00

4 Mortification, Cleanliness and Godliness The Devil and the Flesh From a purely philosophical point of view, the French philosopher Gaston Bachelard worked extensively with the qualities of water in his book Water and Dreams: An Essay on the Imagination of Matter (1994). Bachelard was concerned with images of matter, or images that stem directly from matter, because in aesthetic philosophy there had been a neglect of the material causes for imagination (Bachelard 1994: 1–2). ‘In fact’, he says, ‘I believe it is possible to establish in the realm of imagination, a law of the four elements which classifies various kinds of material imagination by their connections with fire, air, water, or earth’ (Bachelard 1994: 3). As indicated, sacred and holy water may transfer sacredness or holiness to people, and may purify the devotee. On the other hand, however, impure bodies of water may equally transfer impurity and sin from one person to another. The various bodies of sinful water have different capacities and inherent evil or impure powers. Therefore, perceptions of these various dangerous and impure or sinful bodies of water have also to be taken into account in any analyses of water and religion. It is through the pure waters that these negative forces are interpreted with the help of water symbols and metaphors. The devotees purify their bodily, impure bio-moral constellations of water by employing and receiving divine gifts from other sacred or holy bodies of water. Therefore, it is necessary to discuss what characterises evil flesh and the Devil. The ontological status of the Devil or Satan has always been a highly debated and controversial issue, since it involves the problem of evil and Satan’s dependence on, or independence from, God. These deep theological questions are not the topic here: the 77

077-112 WaterChristianity Chap4.indd 77

28/02/2013 13:54

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

point is that Satan has supernatural and celestial powers, or in other words ‘divine’ powers, albeit directed towards evil rather than good. According to some passages in the Bible, Satan was known as Lucifer – ‘the light bearer’ – and in Heaven he was an archangel and second in command (Figure 13). However, out of pride, Lucifer wanted to be worshipped as a God himself. As a consequence, God expelled him from Heaven and Lucifer has since been seen as the fallen one (Isaiah 14: 3–20) who now reigns in Hell.

Figure 13. Lucifer. Statue from the Cathedral Saint-Paul de Liège, Belgium.

78

077-112 WaterChristianity Chap4.indd 78

28/02/2013 13:54

Mortification, Cleanliness and Godliness

The Devil has many names and forms. He is called the ‘prince of this world’ (John 12: 31), the ‘prince of darkness’ (Ephesians 6: 12), ‘Beelzebub the prince of the devils’ (Matthew 12: 24), and he can transform to become a dog (Psalms 22: 16), a wolf (John 10: 12), a dragon (Revelation 12: 7), a roaring lion and adversary (1 Peter 5: 8). In popular culture, he was also portrayed as a pathetic buffoon, the clown of the country fair or an impotent fool (Delfin 1989: 591). In history, the Devil has been a complex and contradictory figure, and there have also been beliefs that God had two sons: the elder was the Devil and the younger was Christ, but the pride of Satan resulted in him being expelled from Heaven (Russell 1988: 44). Jeffrey Burton Russell has defined the Devil as ‘the hypostasis, the apotheosis, the objectification of a hostile force or hostile forces perceived as external to our consciousness. These forces, over which we appear to have no conscious control, inspire the religious feelings of awe, dread, fear and horror’ (Russell 1977: 34). The qualities and characteristics of Satan included everything that worked against God. The Devil was the personification of evil, he did physical harm to people by attacking their bodies or possessing them, he tested people, tempting them to sin in order to destroy them or recruit him is his struggle against the Lord; he accused and punished sinners, he was the head of a host of evil spirits, fallen angels or demons; he had assimilated most of the evil qualities of ancient destructive nature spirits or ghosts; he was the ruler of this world of matter and bodies until such time as the Lord’s own kingdom would come, until that final time he would be in constant warfare against the good Lord; he would be defeated by the good Lord at the end of the world (Nugent 1983: 256).

As previously discussed, in the Reformation, Protestants focused first and foremost on the Devil as an inner tempting force, whereas the Catholics emphasised the bodily presence of Satan, which could materialise and spiritualise in numerous ways (Johnstone 2004, 2006). This difference between an inward spiritual Devil and an outward physical Satan caused a fierce war of words between the Protestants and the Catholics. In the Lay Folk’s Mass Book from the late fourteenth century, from a Catholic point of view ‘the worthiest thing, most of goodness in all this world, it is the Messe’, and in Catholicism ‘The liturgy lay at the heart of medieval religion, and the Mass lay at the heart of the liturgy’ (Duffy 1992: 91). According 79

077-112 WaterChristianity Chap4.indd 79

28/02/2013 13:54

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

Figure 14. Popular propaganda for the Reformation, which depicts the Pope originating from the arse of a witch.

to Protestants, however, the Roman Mass was personified as a witch and a whore (Figure 14). For the Reformer Thomas Becon in the middle of the sixteenth century, the mass was the origin of all idolatry, wickedness and sin (Bossy 1983: 30). According to critics like Becon, the mass did not represent the Christian community since the entire action, both sacrificial and sacramental, was monopolised by the priest who conducted rites that the congregation could neither see nor understand since the official language was Latin (Bossy 1983: 35). Hence, the popish mass was ‘the very fountain and head-spring of all idolatry and spiritual whoredom’ (Waters 1967: 214). This ‘spiritual’ fornication was a grievous sin trying to combine false and true faith, and ‘spiritual adultery and whore-hunting’ were defined as ‘when men do partly love and worship God, and yet…do…give reverence to strange and other gods’ (Waters 1967: 214). By the end of the sixteenth century the Puritans saw Catholic miracles as witchcraft (Thomas 1971: 69). Robin Briggs has argued that Catholics after the Reformation emphasised that the Devil had an active corporeal presence, and they resisted the Protestants’ separation between the physical and 80

077-112 WaterChristianity Chap4.indd 80

28/02/2013 13:54

Mortification, Cleanliness and Godliness

the spiritual. The Devil was physical (Briggs 1996: 385). But even the Protestants argued that Satan is the lord of matter and flesh – this world – as opposed to the spirit and the divine world (Russell 1981: 27). In Protestant demonism, Satan could appear in a physical form, and the Protestants did not deny this capability or presence of cosmic evil in human form, but they asserted that the most common and dangerous form of the Devil’s appearance was inner temptation (Johnstone 2006: 7). Hence, according to the Protestants, the Catholics failed to take appropriate countermeasures against evil since they were only concerned with the external, not the real battle zone: the inner temptation of the soul. Therefore, the use of holy water and bells, and so on, was superstitious and deceptive since it could not protect the soul (Johnstone 2006: 83). The Devil who came in thunderstorms or transformed into a dog or a wolf was an irregular and uncertain visitor, and although Protestants did not deny such visitations, they did not believe these to be the core activities of Satan. On the contrary, Protestants aimed to reveal the true, diabolic nature of evil and the Devil (Johnstone 2006: 76). The Devil could also appear as a holy man – a priest, monk or pilgrim – or as an angel, but the most important purpose was as the Antichrist (Russell 1988: 68, 79), and this was first and foremost the inner temptation that tried to manipulate the soul to act against God. Thus, the Devil as an inner force became even more diabolic and dangerous than he had been when seen as an external and personalised power, as described in Ephesians (6: 12): ‘For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places’. The emphasis on the inner and ever-present Devil meant that Satan was no longer an external and occasional threat: he was a constant temptation in mind and body, every second, every minute. Prior to John Milton’s (1608–1674) Paradise Lost (1667) there were few works in England dealing with the Devil. However, in the works of the American preacher, theologian and intellectual Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758), the Devil had attained a corporeal body and identity (Reaske 1972). As with beliefs about holy water, so beliefs about the Devil changed gradually, and throughout history overlapping and parallel conceptions coexisted. In other words, the Devil underwent a process of syncretism, and the Puritan Devil as temptation only was an ideal belief. Although many Church leaders saw 81

077-112 WaterChristianity Chap4.indd 81

28/02/2013 13:54

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

Satan as evil temptation, for the majority of people the Devil was real, personified and omnipresent despite the Protestant claim that temptation was the true presence of the Devil. In fact, belief in a physical Devil developed into one of the strongest arguments for the existence of God. ‘If there be a Devil’, wrote Roger Hutchinson in the sixteenth century, ‘there is no surer argument, no stronger proof, no plainer evidence, that there is a God’. John Weemes argued using the same logic. He believed that if men could be persuaded to ‘grant that there are devils, they must grant that there is a God’, and a sceptic in 1635 pushed this reasoning even further: ‘Show me a devil and I’ll believe there is a God.’ This scepticism led to atheism, and some argued that since they could not see or find any Devil, then consequently God did not exist, only nature. For the Puritans, however, this was in accordance to the Devil’s plan: the Devil attempted to persuade us to believe that there was no Devil, because as one put it: ‘he that can already believe that there is no Devil will ere long believe that there is no God’ (Thomas 1971: 476). Greater evidence for the heinous nature of evil and the Devil was difficult to find.

Witches Embodying Evil Despite the Protestant claim that the Devil was an inner destructive force, the bodily presence of evil was evident in witches, and indeed the role of the witch was to a large extent defined by carnal and fleshly sins. According to Trevor-Roper: ‘if we look at the revival of the witch-craze in the 1560s in its context, we see that it is not the product either of Protestantism or of Catholicism, but of both: or rather, of their conflict’ (Trevor-Roper 1969: 67). The witch was inscribed in Satan’s Black Book, where she renounced God and Christ, and gave her soul and body to the Devil (Figure 15). By signing in the book, witches renounced baptism, and their pact with the Devil was similar to an initiate who was baptised in Christ (Reis 1995: 29). For witches the Devil was their God, totally supreme over his followers (Murray 1917: 234). The Devil was not inside a witch’s body since she voluntarily signed the pact with Satan (Walker 1981: 10), and the Christian evil spirit was an ‘intelligent, nonmaterial being that is irredeemably evil, is under the domination of Satan, and whose proper abode is Hell. Evil spirits 82

077-112 WaterChristianity Chap4.indd 82

28/02/2013 13:54

Mortification, Cleanliness and Godliness

Figure 15. Women dancing with devils, illustrating their potential for becoming witches.

interact with humans by harassing, oppressing, or possessing them’ (Csordas 1990: 13). In general, a ‘witch’ was a person who was seen by others – or by him or herself – as being able to use magical powers to do harm (Wilby 2005: 42). Witches were accused of maleficium, which was seen as a heinous crime involving sexual orgies, cannibalism and child murder. But witchcraft could also take other forms and the most notorious and infamous practice was osculum infame – kissing the anus (Figure 16). In general, witches were believed to attend the Sabbath and fly around (Levack 2006: 218–219). The Sabbath could take place at different sites, sometimes in houses, but the sites in France were always close to water (Murray 1917: 253). Traditionally, witchcraft has been associated with weather-making – creating thunderstorms, rain, hail, frost and snow, which harmed society and people (Behringer 2004: 88). The role of the witch as a familiar animal had its basis in traditional fairy beliefs, and the most common form 83

077-112 WaterChristianity Chap4.indd 83

28/02/2013 13:54

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

Figure 16. Osculum infame.

was that of a dog (Wilby 2000). In England witchcraft was first and foremost an activity – not a belief or heresy – and it was primarily an antisocial crime that brought harm to others (Thomas 1971: 442–443). In 1712 Jane Wenham was the last person in England to be condemned to death for being a witch. One of the allegations against her, put forward by a farmer named John Chapman, was that her evil spells had caused the strange deaths of many of his animals (Kingsbury 1950: 135). In Europe, in total there were approximately 90,000 witchcraft prosecutions and around 45,000 executions (Levack 2006: 23). Women who were accused of being witches started to behave as if they were witches and they confessed in accordance with what was expected of a witch – for instance, having numerous sexual orgies with demons and the Devil (Sluhovsky 2002). The total number of British witch trials was probably not more than 5,000, and the number of executions was less than 2,500 and perhaps no more than 1,500. An important characteristic of the witch-hunt in England was the sparse use of torture in trials, which had consequences for the witch-hunt: it weakened the general belief as well as the development of chain-reaction hunts. The images of witches were real – evil in material form – and the pervasive belief in the physicality and fleshly nature of witches as embodied demons was so strong that it became a heresy to say 84

077-112 WaterChristianity Chap4.indd 84

28/02/2013 13:54

Mortification, Cleanliness and Godliness

Figure 17. The discovery of witches.

otherwise (Figure 17). Reginald Scot, who was influenced by the Dutch sceptic Johann Weyer, published The Discovery of Witchcraft (1584), in which he argued against witches. This caused a religious stir, and King James VI of Scotland, who represented a ‘high Calvinism’ although he hated Puritanism and the Presbyterianism (Trevor-Roper 1987: 44, 48), himself wrote a treatise on Demonologie aiming to refute the works of Scot and Weyer. As if this were not enough, one of the first things James did when he came to the English throne was to burn all copies of Scot’s book in public. Interestingly, Reginald Scot did not deny the existence of Satan or witches as such, but stated ‘…I detest the idolatrous opinions conceived of them’ (Trevor-Roper 1969: 74–75), and he gave a list of witches’ alleged crimes, including these two offences: ‘They sacrifice 85

077-112 WaterChristianity Chap4.indd 85

28/02/2013 13:54

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

their own children to the devil before baptism, holding them up in the aire to him, and then thrust a needle into their brains’; and ‘they burne their children when they have sacrificed them’ (Murray 1917: 256). Even though one might have expected that attacking such idolatry and material beliefs was legitimate in Protestantism, the opposite was the case. The materiality of evil was fundamental despite theological emphasis on inner temptation, and one may argue that evil is impossible to experience without materiality (Oestigaard 2010b). Crucial in the materiality of evil and sin is the flesh – and, in particular, women’s bodies. Puritans perceived the soul as feminine and it was generally believed that the Devil attacked the soul by assaulting the body. The Devil was believed to attack women more than men since they had a weaker body and the Devil could therefore reach women’s souls more easily. Women’s souls were not more evil than those of men, but their vulnerability led Puritans to believe that women were more likely than men to submit to Satan. Consequently, womanhood was associated with evil and sin, and the body was the Puritans’ worst enemy. The body was a betrayer, but implicit in this notion was also the idea that the body protected the soul. A strong body made the soul less vulnerable to Satan’s temptations, and a weak (female) body was believed incapable of resisting the Devil. This weakness was also extended to include women’s spiritual and moral state as well. Thus, strangely enough, the Puritans developed a gender ideology that made women closer to both God and Satan: a weak body left the soul vulnerable to Satan, but it also created a belief that it could encourage faith in God. The seventeenth-century American poet, Anne Bradstreet, suffered from illness for months, but she hoped that her soul would gain some benefit from her bodily decay. Physical deterioration could strengthen the soul, she believed, hoping that ‘my soul shall flourish while my body decays, and the weakness of this outward man shall be a means to strengthen my inner man’ (Reis 1995: 35).

Purity and Impurity Belief in the demonic character of the flesh and the body, as opposed to the soul, had consequences for the use of water and baths, which also has to be seen in relation to notions of bodily health and decay. 86

077-112 WaterChristianity Chap4.indd 86

28/02/2013 13:54

Mortification, Cleanliness and Godliness

This relates to the concepts of purity and impurity, cleanliness and uncleanliness, and holiness and unholiness. Purity and impurity and holiness and unholiness are not absolute opposites but relative categories (Douglas 1994: 9), which have both a direct relevance and implications for understanding water in religion and domestic practice, since from a Christian point of view humans’ real thirst is not bodily, but spiritual (Bonar 1860: 13). Cleanliness is not the same as hygiene. Today, cleanliness is basically cultural hygiene and purely scientific (Goubert 1989: 51), and cleanliness has to do with physical washing. Throughout history, however, cleanliness has also involved spiritual purity, and baptism is a ritual washing within the domain of religious purity. Ritual purity and physical purity are interrelated, but their relation is not obvious and it depends upon the religious and cultural context. Similarly, ritual impurity and physical impurity are connected, but most often not in a straightforward way. Although both types of washing may involve water, spiritual and physical cleanliness are often two different processes, which may also be in opposition to each other. Nowadays, purity is first and foremost a matter of hygiene and bodily cleanliness, but this is culturally and religiously dependent, and from a religious point of view, inward purity and piety is more important than outward purity or cleanliness. The importance of spiritual purity thus defined the use of water for physical washing, and after the Reformation people in general were opposed to the use of water for a number of reasons. Personal hygiene was seen as indecent, they did not see any relationship between health and cleanliness, and the water available was of a poor quality and only available in small quantities. Moreover, the use of baths was associated with life-cycle rituals such as birth, marriage and death, and traditional washing as part of cyclical festivals (Goubert 1989: 23). Water was also associated with other initiation rituals, such as becoming a knight in the Order of the Bath. As part of this ritual from the Middle Ages, the initiate spent the first three nights praying and fasting whereby he took a hot bath in order to ‘emerge with no taint’. The Order of the Bath was created by Henry IV in England, and the order honoured the knights who had bathed with the king the night before he was crowned in 1399 (Bonneville 1998: 11). The most important reason for abstaining from baths and physical washing was, however, the very concepts and understanding of 87

077-112 WaterChristianity Chap4.indd 87

28/02/2013 13:54

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

‘clean’ and ‘unclean’, and how it related to the soul or the body. As Mary Douglas argues: ‘Defilement is never an isolated event. It cannot occur except in view of systematic ordering of ideas’ (Douglas 1994: 42). This is very well exemplified by Jeremy Taylor, who is sometimes called the ‘Shakespeare of Divines’. Taylor wrote Holy Living in 1650 (Taylor 1989[1650]), which was followed by Holy Dying in 1651. These two books became highly popular as religious and devotional literature. By 1700 both books had reached 17 editions, and by 1739 there had been a further nine editions. John Wesley read Holy Living in 1725, and it made him feel a fixed intention to ‘give myself up to God’. In the second half of the eighteenth century Taylor’s popularity declined, and the only new edition of Holy Living and Holy Dying were in Wesley’s A Christian Library, 1749–1755, Bristol. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Taylor gained popularity again and both books were intended as popular books of family devotion (Stanwood 1989: liv–lvi). As a pious devotee, Taylor was deeply concerned with purity and cleanliness, but this had nothing to do with the body or bathing. Cleanliness was not connected to hygiene but to spiritual cleanliness: Uncleanness of all vices is the most shameful…Shame is the eldest daughter of Uncleannesse…Most of its kinds are of that condition, that they involve the ruine of two souls: and he that is a fornicatour or adulterous, steals the soul as well as dishonours the body of his Neighbour…Of all carnal sins it is that alone which the Devil takes delight to imitate and counterfeit; communicating with Witches and impure persons in no corporeal act, but in this onely. Uncleannesse with all its kindes is a vice which hath a professed enmity against the body. Every sin which a man doth is without the body, but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body (Taylor 1989: 75). …since GOD hath given the holy Spirit to them that are baptized, and rightly confirmed, and enter into covenant with him, our bodies are made temples of the holy Ghost in which he dwells: and therefore uncleanness is Sacrilege and defiles a Temple (Taylor 1989: 76).

Uncleanness was a spiritual matter and not concerned with filth and dirt, and it was religious sacrilege to defile the soul with sin. Hence, according to Puritanism, everyone had a ritual obligation to preserve and improve one’s religious purity, and although prayer ensured justification by faith, penance and repentance most often involved physical torment and pain. Mortification of the body 88

077-112 WaterChristianity Chap4.indd 88

28/02/2013 13:54

Mortification, Cleanliness and Godliness

worked as a means to attain spiritual godliness and religious cleanliness. By defiling and mortifying the body, the soul could prosper and be purified.

Penance, Fasting and Mortification There are many approaches to solving the problem of sin and most of them include water in one way or another, either practically or conceptually. There was an ancient Christian tradition of praying in water. After Adam and Eve were expelled from Eden while fasting, Adam instructed Eve to stand in the Tigris for 33 days, whereas he stood in the Jordan River for 47 days. This practice of praying immersed to the chin in water was also practised by some of the more extreme saints. There are numerous stories about such saints, and Bede, for instance, referred to a man named Drithelm, who lived a religious life at Cuningham in Northumbria. According to Bede, Drithelm often went into the river to do penance in his body and many times to dip quite under the water, and to continue saying psalms or prayers in the same as long as he could endure it, standing still sometimes up to the middle and sometimes to the neck in water; and when he went out from thence ashore, he never took off his cold and frozen garments till they grew warm and dry on his body (Bonser 1937: 387).

This custom seems to have prevailed to the end of the Anglo-Saxon period. Most often, however, penance took other forms. In the words of Jeremy Taylor: True repentance is a punishing duty…by punishing our selves, and punishing our bodies and spirits by such instruments of piety as are troublesome to the body: such as are, fasting, watching, long prayers, troublesome postures in our prayers, expensive alms, and all outward acts of humiliation (Taylor 1989: 248).

Penance is often referred to as a ‘second baptism’ (Hamilton 2001: 199). Hamilton argues The Latin word for penance, poenitentia, denotes the process by which Christians sought to atone for their sins through confession,

89

077-112 WaterChristianity Chap4.indd 89

28/02/2013 13:54

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism through penitential acts which demonstrated their repentance, and through good works, in order to ensure their salvation at the Last Judgement…. Penance was a preventive act, designed to protect Christians from the consequences of their sinful mortal life in their immortal life (Hamilton 2001: 2).

From a Catholic perspective, the Eucharist and penance were primary sources of reconciliation. Humans were separated from God through sin, and Jesus took on humanity’s sin through the shedding of his blood. Penance should therefore symbolise the future, spiritual growth and not something earning forgiveness, since forgiveness is seen as the gift from a loving God (Scanlan 1972). It is also necessary to distinguish between voluntary and imposed penance. Voluntary or personal penance includes monks and nuns living celibate lives in monasteries. But the Church also imposed penances on sinners, which included excommunication, and public shame was often an integral part of penance in the medieval period (Hamilton 2001: 3). Personal or voluntary penance, which a person imposed on himself or herself out of a deep motivation or religious belief, easily turned into asceticism in one way or another. Asceticism may take two forms: withdrawal from the body and withdrawal from society. The first involved giving up food, sex or other bodily pleasures in an attempt to gain spiritual clarity or purity. The latter involved social withdrawal either because society with all its activities was seen as sinful or it was at least regarded as an obstacle to spiritual enlightenment. These two paths may also be combined, as in Christianity where the withdrawal from society is a necessary means to bodily self-denial (Diamond 2004: 11). The aim of fasting was to subdue the sinful flesh and enhance the divine soul (Grimm 1996: 185). Philosophy has great virtue, according to Clement of Alexandria, because it ‘professes the control of the tongue and the belly and the parts below the belly’ (Grimm 1996: 96). In Christianity, fasting derived from Jewish custom, as opposed to the pagans or Greco-Romans who preferred a lavish lifestyle and were little inclined to self-mortification through fasting. The Jews, on the other hand, were renowned in the ancient world for their fasting (Grimm 1996: 87). Judaism teaches again and again that self-denial is the path to spiritual excellence (Diamond 2004: 11). In the Bible there are seven types of fasting: (1) fasting after death; (2) war-fasting; (3) preparatory or introductory fasting; (4) 90

077-112 WaterChristianity Chap4.indd 90

28/02/2013 13:54

Mortification, Cleanliness and Godliness

fasting as an auxiliary to prayer; (5) expiatory fasting; (6) concomitant fasting; and (7) Zechariah fasting (Brongers 1977). To fast is to give up the exigencies of the carnal life that brings pleasure to the body. In sum, fasting and penance are processes whereby the devotee denies, challenges or repents sin. In fasting and depriving the body of its basic necessities, there are at least three processes involved: fasting as a means of getting closer to God; fasting as a means of suppressing and controlling the sinful body; and fasting as a means against evil temptation, particularly with regards to sexuality. Exorcism by prayer and fasting was a powerful method to resist Satan (Johnstone 2006: 103). The first propaganda texts urging Christians to fast appear at the very end of the second and early in the third century (Grimm 1996: 192). Tertullian argues that primordial sin is disobedience caused by gluttony, and for him fasting was a penance. This manifested itself not in sexual transgression but in abstaining from eating, and, according to Tertullian, God demanded fasting as a sacrifice. He writes that by a renewed interdiction of food and observation of precept the primordial sin might now be expiated, in order that man may make God satisfaction through the same cause through which he has offended, that is through interdiction of food…hunger might rekindle, just as satiety had extinguished salvation (op. cit., Grimm 1996: 127).

One of the most famous Christian saints was Jerome, who was born in Stridon in Dalmatia around 347. He spent his teenage years as a student in Rome and was baptised there, perhaps by Pope Liberius because infant baptism was not widely practised at that time (Lawler 1963). He was a fanatical ascetic, stressing a life of seclusion and selfmortification, and a great populariser of the hermits’ lives (Grimm 1996: 157). According to Jerome, women are particularly sinful and tempting, and in his Letters (45: 3) he reveals his ideal of a Christian woman, which is: one who mourned and fastened, who was squalid with dirt, almost blinded by weeping…The psalms were her music, the Gospels her conversation, continence her luxury, her life a fast. No other could give me pleasure but one whom I never saw eating food (op. cit., Grimm 1996: 164).

91

077-112 WaterChristianity Chap4.indd 91

28/02/2013 13:54

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

Following St Jerome, ‘The food of demons is drunkenness, luxury, fornication, and all the sins’ (Letters 21, 13:2; Mierow & Lawler 1963: 117). Worst of all sins was fornication, which included not only the physical act but also the temptation and lust to commit adultery: ‘Whosoever shall look on a woman to lust after her, He says, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart. Virginity, therefore, may be lost even by thinking. Those are the bad virgins, virgins in the flesh, not in the spirit’ (Letters 22, 5:3; Mierow & Lawler 1963: 138). So, if virgins showed their flesh and tempted men, it was sinful. Cyprian, the Bishop of Carthage, scolded a woman who was going to take a mixed bath. She claimed that she only wanted to refresh her body, but Cyprian added a serious moral aspect: Such a bath sullies; it does not purify and it does not cleanse the limbs, but stains them. You gaze upon no one immodestly, but you yourself are looked at immodestly. You do not corrupt your eyes with foul delight, but in delighting others, you yourself are corrupted (Ashenburg 2008: 56).

Hence, it was a sin to excite lust in others, and the Romans’ use of baths caused a moral dilemma for the early Christians since this bathing culture had nothing to do with ritual purity but was pure hedonism (Ashenburg 2008: 55). The spiritual and moral medicine for sexual desires that could lead to adultery was mortification. For Jerome, fasting was a weapon against the evil of sexual temptation and the best antidote to sexual desire. Whereas Tertullian believed that fasting was a religious duty required by God, Jerome saw it as quite the contrary: ‘Not that God, the Lord and Creator of the universe, takes any delight in the rumblings of our intestines or the emptiness of our stomach or the inflammation of our lungs; but because this is the only way of preserving chastity’ (Letters 22: 11 (my emphasis); op. cit., Grimm 1996: 164). Fasting was the safest method against the demon of fornication and its only purpose was as an antidote to sex. According to Jerome, the human body was heated by food. The more luxurious and expansive the food, the more heat was provided. This heat was energy in itself, but more particularly it was sexual fuel. Hence, heated bodies were sexually recharged, and the more heat, the more sexual desire (Grimm 1996: 164–165). This link between food, body heat and sexual desire became important among Christians who advocated 92

077-112 WaterChristianity Chap4.indd 92

28/02/2013 13:54

Mortification, Cleanliness and Godliness

virginity. Ambrose, a bishop of Milan contemporary with Jerome, writes: An external fire is extinguished by pouring on water…inward heat of the body is cooled by draughts from the stream, for flame is fed or fails according to the fuel…in like manner then the heat of the body is supported or lessened by food. Luxury then is the mother of lust (Letters 63: 26; op. cit., Grimm 1996: 167).

Augustine (354–430) distinguished between the need and desire for food and sex. Food was a necessity but, if one found pleasure in food, this was a sign of moral corruption, even though it was unavoidable. Hunger he saw as a fever, and food as medicine. Sexual desire was an even more serious sickness, since sexual intercourse satisfied such desires (Grimm 1996: 181–182). Sexuality was, for Augustine, a sign of original sin and a symptom of Adam’s fall and hence humanity’s fall from God (Grimm 1996: 186). According to Augustine, sex – as opposed to eating – was an evil that Christians could decide ‘once and for all to repudiate and never to embrace again’ (Grimm 1996: 188). In Christianity there was a notion of a sexless soul embodied in sexed bodies (Murray 1998: 79). This has its scriptural basis in Paul’s letter to the Galatians: ‘There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus’ (Galatians 3: 28). Importantly, ‘not only was women’s nature understood to be essentially sexual, but women’s sexuality was also constructed as disgusting or inherently dangerous to men’ (Murray 1998: 87), and, consequently, the sexual status of women affected the seriousness of the man’s sin. According to Augustine, the body was the slave of the soul and therefore it should be restrained. The body as a slave should be trained to be satisfied with what it gets, and fasting did not imply giving up food, but only the food which one enjoys (Grimm 1996: 189). In the words of Ramsay MacMullen: ‘what one avoids, one condemns’ (MacMullen 1966: 50); and this could not have been truer regarding the Church’s view on sexuality. Sexuality was regarded as polluting – both physically and spiritually – but since the laity would commit sin, it was necessary to regulate sexual activity by imposing penances and taking precautions. On the one hand, there were those who followed Jerome and argued that it was better to remain a virgin than to marry, but of course the life of an ascetic 93

077-112 WaterChristianity Chap4.indd 93

28/02/2013 13:54

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

hermit did not fit the majority of the population. On the other hand, according to Augustine, sexual intercourse was allowed, but only between married couples and solely for the sake of producing offspring, and obviously nobody should enjoy the physical act of procreation. Moreover, since sex was a polluting and sinful act, it was incompatible with the major Christian events of the year. This concerned the Fathers, who elaborated on the topic, and it was refined and developed until the appearance of Bishop Burchard of Worms’ (†1025) collection of canon law, the Decretum, a handbook for confession (Körntgen 2006), where it was calculated that a married couple could have actual sexual intercourse on less than 44 days throughout the year. The Church attempted to impose this agenda on the laity, and there are cases from the medieval period where penances were imposed for such offences as having sex during the Lent or Advent. It is difficult, however, to determine to what extent these injunctions were followed (Hamilton 2001: 196–197). Given the sinful nature of people, according to the Church, most likely the majority did not follow these laws. Chastity and spiritual cleanliness were thus seen as the opposite of bodily cleanliness. In fact, everything that had anything to do with the body was sinful. During the fourth and fifth centuries the state of being unwashed and dirty became a sign of holiness. The mortification of the flesh was opposed to normal washing, which was a sign of worldliness and vanity. Alousia – the state of being unwashed – punished the body so the spirit could flourish. The ‘odour of sanctity’ was a sign of holiness and Jerome once said that ‘He who has bathed in Christ has no need of a second bath’ (Ashenburg 2008: 50). A monk is reported to have said, when he met a hermit in a cave in a desert, that he ‘smelt the good odour of that brother from a mile away’ (Ashenburg 2008: 61). Virgins had also the odour of sanctity (Smith 2007: 137). Paula, a dear friend of Jerome, was concerned about female cleanliness, and claimed that ‘a clean body and a clean dress mean an unclean soul’ (Ashenburg 2008: 59). Abstaining from bathing was a penance for sin by mortifying the flesh, and the early Christians saw this as opposed to the hedonistic and excessive cleanliness and sensualism of Rome. Dirt was a sign of holiness, and not washing the body became a self-denial contrary to the moral decay of the Romans. St Agnes was primarily canonised for her refusal to bath and St Francis of Assisi believed that dirt was among the proper insignia of Holy Poverty, 94

077-112 WaterChristianity Chap4.indd 94

28/02/2013 13:54

Mortification, Cleanliness and Godliness

and the proper humiliation and mortification of the flesh (Reynolds 1974: 2, 42). Damaging the body was also part of the desert asceticism, and as one of the ancient desert fathers proclaimed: ‘He is a monk who does violence himself in everything’ (Fuller 1995: 312, fn 124). This was not, however, limited to the hermits of the Middle East: ‘The Venerable Bede tells us, among the virtues of the Virgin Queen Ethelrida, that she would rarely wash in a hot bath. And a King of Tara and High King of Irleland owned his prosperity entirely to the good fortune of having drunk from waters sanctified by a clerical toilet, thus winning divine approval’ (Reynolds 1974: 324). An unwashed body was, according to St Benedict, a temple of piety (Croutier 1992: 88–89). Thus, from early Christianity until after the Reformation this tough regime was advocated. In the words of Jeremy Taylor, in his Holy Living from 1650: …For if you totally suppress it, it dyes: if you permit the furnace to breath its smoke and flame out at any vent, it will rage to the consumption of the whole. This cockatrice is soonest crushed in the shell, but if it growes, it turns to a serpent, and a Dragon, and a Devil. Corporal mortification and hard usages of our body hath by all ages of the Church bin accounted a good instrument and of some profit against the spirit of fornication. A spare diet, and a thin course table, seldom refreshment, frequent fasts, not violent and interrupted with returns to ordinary feeding, but constantly little, unpleasant, of wholesome but sparing nourishment: For by such cutting off the provisions of victual wee shall weaken the strengths of our Enemy (Taylor 1989: 84).

Thus, mortification of the body was a religious penance, and sensible pleasures were evidence of the lurking Devil trying to corrupt the soul. The soul was cleansed and purified by bodily mortification and penance, and the tough regime weakened the Devil’s temptations. Moreover, contempt for the body, and consequently for bathing and washing, must also be seen in relation to where the baths took place and what happened there. During the Middle Ages the public baths were in many cases whorehouses and bathing became strongly associated with sexuality and adultery. One may therefore argue that it was not bathing in itself that the Church opposed but the associated activities. In other words, it was the sexual activities that took place in the bathhouses (and perhaps these were the main motivation for many bathers) that resulted in bathing becoming synonymous with the Devil of fornication. 95

077-112 WaterChristianity Chap4.indd 95

28/02/2013 13:54

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

From Hedonism to Puritanism When the Roman Empire declined, the sudorific bath was adopted in the East to such an extent that Disraeli commented in the nineteenth century: ‘The East is the land of the bath: Moses and Mahomet made cleanliness religion’ (Drake 1862: 10). In the West, Roman baths had been more or less in demise from the fifth century, but as a consequence of the crusaders the Turkish bath – the hammam – was introduced in a modified form. These medieval bathhouses combined steam bath and wooden bathtubs. The popularity of the bathhouses spread quickly and, in the fourteenth century, London had at least 18 bathhouses (Ashenburg 2008: 78–80). The bathhouses soon became watery banquet halls where music was played and huge quantities of food and wine were consumed (Figure 18), and, as a consequence, with good reason they attained a bad reputation. In Baden, Poggio summed up the sexual possibilities: ‘All who want to make love, all who want to marry or who otherwise look for pleasure, they all come here where they find what they are looking for’ (Ashenburg 2008: 83). The steam baths, or ‘stew’ or ‘stewhouse’, which originally referred to the moist and warmth of the bathhouse, became synonymous with a house of prostitution (Ashenburg 2008: 86). Bathhouses became seen as lawless places that disturbed moral and social order. But around 1450 a change in the bathing culture took place. Ordinary bathhouses were seen as places for hygiene and health, whereas the steam baths were seen as places of sin and moral disorder. In many places the steam bath was nothing more than a bordello (Lencˇek & Bosker 1999: 58). The Southwark neighbourhood of London, where the bathhouses and steam baths were concentrated, was formally legalised as a red-light district by Henry II. Later, a number of brothels and stews in Chester were closed in 1542, and in 1546 Henry VIII ordered the stews closed in Southwark and Bankside (Ashenburg 2008: 87, 95). Nevertheless, the aristocracy was not ready to abandon such pleasures, and within a century the steam bath reappeared among the upper classes in the form of private ‘bagnios’ (Smith 2007: 183). Bathing, moreover, involved nudity. But this was not restricted to the baths: it included nudity in public as well (Figure 19). In medieval times it was not necessarily rude to be naked and there are many pictures of communal bathtubs, and love affairs often started in the bath (Wright 1962: 41). The baths were also believed to 96

077-112 WaterChristianity Chap4.indd 96

28/02/2013 13:54

Mortification, Cleanliness and Godliness

Figure 18. Communal bathing in a large bathtub, where men and women enjoyed the delights of bathing, food and wine.

increase women’s fertility, which may of course have had something to do with activities involved in the baths and the presence of naked men. Concerning the public baths, a monk reported from the famous Wiesbaden Festival as follows: when they arrive at the baths, the food is spread out…In the baths they sit naked, with other naked people, they dance naked with naked people, and I shall keep quiet about what happens in the dark, because everything happens in public anyway…[and when returning home] their bodies are washed white, their hearts are black through sin. Those who went there healthy, come back contaminated.

97

077-112 WaterChristianity Chap4.indd 97

28/02/2013 13:54

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

Figure 19. Open-air bath at Plombières in the Vosges, France. Those who were strong through the virtues of chastity return home wounded by the arrows of Venus…And so they experience through such events, when they return, the truth of sentence that the end of all fleshly lust ends sadness (Smith 2007: 177–178).

Before the sixteenth century, people seemed quite unconcerned about showing their naked bodies, but this attitude to nakedness changed slowly in the sixteenth century and more rapidly in the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries. In Germany at least, the sight of complete nakedness was an everyday rule and everyone undressed completely before going to bed. When people went to 98

077-112 WaterChristianity Chap4.indd 98

28/02/2013 13:54

Mortification, Cleanliness and Godliness

the bathhouses, especially in towns, it seems that they undressed at home. An observer commented: How often, the father wearing nothing but his breeches, with his naked wife and children, runs through the streets from his house to the baths…How many times have I seen girls of ten, twelve, fourteen, sixteen, and eighteen years entirely naked except for a short smock, often torn, and a ragged bathing gown at front and back! With this open at the feet and with their hands held decorously behind them, running from their houses through the long streets at midday to the baths. How many completely naked boys of ten, twelve, fourteen, and sixteen run beside them… (Elias 1978: 164).

It is no wonder that the bathhouses stirred the minds of the Puritans and became the symbol of the Devil in practice. The bathhouse and steam house represented everything that the Church opposed: it was a place for sensual hedonism and sexual pleasures, breaking all of God’s prescribed commandments (Figure 20). It was a place where Hell’s activities were manifest and were practised on earth. Daniel Defoe described the baths as such:

Figure 20. The May Bath, celebrating the restoration of fertility to the earth. Illustration from a medieval calendar. 99

077-112 WaterChristianity Chap4.indd 99

28/02/2013 13:54

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism The smoke and the slime of the waters, the promiscuous multitude of the people in the bath, with nothing but their heads above the water, with the height of the walls that environ the bath, gave me a lively idea of the several pictures I had seen of Fra Angelico’s Purgatory in Italy, with heads and hands uplifted in the midst of smoke, just as they are here (Lencˇek & Bosker 1999: 62).

From a Christian point of view, water was formally associated with the pleasure of flesh, and although bathhouses did not disappear completely, they gained a bad reputation where the Devil lurked (Lencˇek & Bosker 1999: 40). In the words of Jeremy Taylor: ‘…the Prince that rules in the air is the Devil fornication; and he will be as tempting with the windinesse of a violent fast, as with the flesh of an ordinary meal’ (Taylor 1989: 202). Hence, the bath and hedonistic bathing culture represented for Puritans and Christians alike everything that opposed moral order. The bathhouse was a sinful place where the Devil tempted humans, and evidently where the wicked committed the utmost and heinous sins, according to the moralists. Following Taylor, one had to combat these pleasures and temptations; bearing in mind that this was the Devil at work: Sensual pleasure is a great abuse to the Spirit of a man; being a kind of fascination or witchcraft, blinding the understanding and enslaving the will…A fight and actual war against all temptations and offers of sensual pleasure in all evil instances and degrees; and it consists in prayer, in fasting, in cheap diet, and hard lodging, and laborious exercises, and avoiding occasions, and using all arts and industry of fortifying the Spirit, and making it severe, manly, and Christian (Taylor 1989: 61–62). I call all desires irregular and sinful that are not sanctified; 1. By the holy institution or by being within the protection of marriage. 2. By being within the order of nature. 3. By being within the moderation of Christian modesty. Against the first are fornication, adultery, and all voluntary pollutions of either sex. Against the second are all unnatural lusts, and incestuous mixtures. Against the third is all immoderate use of permitted beds; concerning which, judgement is to be made as concerning meats and drinks. Chastity is that grace which forbids and restrains all these, keeping the body and soul pure in that state in which it is placed by God (Taylor 1989: 73).

One might therefore say that the baby was thrown out with the bath water: physical purity and cleanliness were sacrificed for ritual purity 100

077-112 WaterChristianity Chap4.indd 100

28/02/2013 13:54

Mortification, Cleanliness and Godliness

and spiritual cleanliness, although the Puritans did not see it that way. There was only one type of purity, and that was religious purity: …a pure minde in a chast body is the Mother of wisdom and liberation…sincere principles, and unprejudicate understanding, love of God, and self denyall, peace and confidence, holy prayers and spiritual comfort, and a pleasure of Spirit infinitely greater than the sottish and beastly pleasure of unchastity (Taylor 1989: 76–77).

Thus, bathing was associated with sinful activity, lack of chastity and carnal pleasures of the flesh. It was the place where the Devil was at work, and logically it had to be combated by all means. An old poet described Satan as sending one of his evil angels on an errand, using the expression: ‘Go, and take hell’s blessing with thee.’ And what were the hell’s blessings? Go to yon public-house where lust and villainy are revelling night and day. Hear the oaths, the curses, the blasphemy, the shouts of brawling, the words of rage; wretched drunkards damning their fellow-drunkards, and pouring out abominations from their lips, which none but the devils could have taught them, and which are fit only to be uttered in the place of devils. These are some of ‘hell’s blessings’ (Bonar 1860: 43).

This was a description of a public house – the public baths were worse. Consequently, the moral fight against the baths was a religious duty. The damnation of the baths was not only due to water but – equally important – the diabolic activities that took place there: adultery, fornication and whoredom. Nonetheless, it was not the Church’s condemnation of the baths that brought the sinful bathing culture to an end. The bathhouses were still popular in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries despite their bad reputation. It was disease and pandemic, rather than morality, that closed them down (Ashenburg 2008: 91). The Black Death of 1347–1350, the syphilis that was introduced at the end of the fifteenth century and reached its height in the sixteenth century, and the plague of 1665–1666, all had severe consequences for the European bathing culture. All contemporary medical theorists agreed that disease was transmitted to the skin by noxious elements or by the malfunctioning of internal organs triggered by exposure to water. Medical literature was rife with speculations about the

101

077-112 WaterChristianity Chap4.indd 101

28/02/2013 13:54

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism potentially injurious effect of any sort of water – hot or cold, mineral or plain – upon the body. Any encounter between these two required the utmost vigilance (Lencˇek & Bosker 1999: 62).

Charles II and his court visited Oxford during the summer of 1665 to avoid the plague, and in the diary of the Oxford antiquarian, Anthony à Wood, the baths and the people were not appealing: ‘Though they were neat and gay in their apparel, yet they were very nasty and beastly, leaving at their departure their excrements in every corner, in chimneys, studies, colehouses, cellers. Rude, rough, whoremongers; vaine, empty, careless’ (Wright 1962: 76). In England, the decline of the communal bath was so complete that when it was reintroduced in the seventeenth century it was seen as a foreign luxury, and bathing was a curative rather than a cleansing process (Wright 1962: 61). The English Puritans, however, were no filthy ascetic hermits. The Puritan Philip Stubbs (c. 1550–1610) insisted on washing because as the filtinesse and pollution of my bodie is washed and made clean by the element of water; so is my bodie and soule purified and washed from the spots and blemishes of sin, by the precious blood of Jesus Christ…This washing putteth me in remembrance of my baptism;

and Edward Topsell (c. 1572–1625) believed that faithful ‘outward cleansing and washing away of the filth of our bodies, being the saviour of sinne raigning in us’. Interestingly, in the Netherlands cleanliness was seen as divine duty in the seventeenth century, and according to an English account: ‘The beauty and cleanliness of the streets are so extraordinary that Persons of all ranks do not scruple, but even seem to take pleasure in walking in them’ (Schama 1987: 375). Within the house the cleaning regime was also strict and the Dutch were ‘perfect slaves to cleanliness’. Thus, ‘to be clean was to be patriotic, vigilant in the defence of one’s homeland, hometown and home against invading polluters and polluted invaders’ (Schama 1987: 378). The decline of the baths, and in particular the steam baths, was ultimately brought about by physical disease. Nowadays, one of the world’s greatest challenges is the spread of waterborne disease, and in the centuries after the Reformation there existed a belief that disease was transmitted through water, although not the way 102

077-112 WaterChristianity Chap4.indd 102

28/02/2013 13:54

Mortification, Cleanliness and Godliness

we know it today. Importantly, belief in the spread of waterborne disease gave rise to the idea that water in itself was dangerous for the health and wealth of a person.

Dangerous Waters and Hygiene: Hot and Cold Baths The French royal surgeon, Ambroise Paré in Paris, the ‘Father of Modern Surgery’, wrote in 1568: Steam-baths and bath-houses should be forbidden because when one emerges, the flesh and the whole disposition of the body are softened and the pores open, and as a result, pestiferous vapour can rapidly enter the body and cause sudden death, as has frequently been observed (Ashenburg 2008: 94).

Until around 1750 air was regarded as an elementary fluid, and heat and air were considered to influence the body, causing the external parts of the body to swell and the whole organism to become weakened (Figure 21). Cold air, on the other hand, contracted the solids and condensed the fluids, increasing a person’s strength and vigour (Corbin 1986: 11–12). Heavy humidity and persistent rain enabled fluids to enter through the pores and the combination of ‘hot and humid air might jeopardize the precarious equilibrium necessary for survival’ (Corbin 1986: 12). It was believed that the porosity of the body made the bather vulnerable to everything, including syphilis and even floating sperm that could cause pregnancy: ‘Not only could bad things enter the body through the water, but the all-important balance of the four humours could also be upset through pores opened by moisture’ (Ashenburg 2008: 95; see Anderson 2010). Water, and in particular hot water, was dangerous: Steambaths and water baths were feared precisely because they most efficiently and mechanically opened up the body to pestilential influences…baths were thought to upset the organism’s equilibrium…The permeable human body was thought to be so ill-equipped to defend itself from pernicious fluids and emanations that merely being naked was perilous…water was thought to enfeeble (Lencˇek & Bosker 1999: 41).

103

077-112 WaterChristianity Chap4.indd 103

28/02/2013 13:54

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

Figure 21. The vapour bath, which reached Germany via Eastern Europe, survived the Middle Ages.

Dirt, on the other hand, it was believed, could block the pores and seal off the body from infection (Ashenburg 2008: 100): For chemists and doctors, water became, like air, the polluted element par excellence, the favoured place for the ‘spontaneous generation’ of microbes, a theory supposedly confirmed by the serious cholera epidemics that broke out in the course of the nineteenth century (Goubert 1989: 35).

Among parts of the enlightened elite in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries there was a common belief in the therapeutic qualities of filth and excrement. In 1852 the great French hygienist, Parent-Duchâtelet, praised the qualities of filth. According to him, it explained the good health of gut-dressers and sewermen. In the Encyclopédie Méthodique it was reported that in London it was official 104

077-112 WaterChristianity Chap4.indd 104

28/02/2013 13:54

Mortification, Cleanliness and Godliness

practice to open all the cesspits (introduced in the city during the second half of the eighteenth century) to banish the plague by the smell of excrement (Goubert 1989: 58). Although the therapeutic value of excrement was contested in scientific circles (Corbin 1986: 28), before the French Revolution in 1789, butchers attributed the good health that they generally enjoyed to the breathing in the odours given off by the blood, fat and entrails of the animals that they slaughtered. In 1832, workers at the appalling refuse dump were still convinced that the fumes given off by excrements and other waste matters were beneficial to their health… Peasant farmers persisted in keeping the indispensable dunghill just outside their door. In Paris, the rag-and-bone men opposed the measures proposed by the city authorities. In 1832 they triggered off genuine riots against the decisions of the prefecture of police in its attempt to hasten the removal of mire and filth; they decided to use force in order to retain their rubbish heaps (Corbin 1982: 249).

Ordinary Christians, however, saw cleanliness as a good, and in the medieval period there was a silent revolution in England where it was said that ‘filth was never dear to God’ (Ashenburg 2008: 75). Moreover, people in general did not avoid water all together, and they swam and washed themselves in rivers and lakes (Ashenburg 2008: 113). Although there was a decline in hygiene and bathing for pleasure in the late Renaissance, the therapeutic use of baths had continuity during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, particularly due to the success of the waters of Bath (Eklund 1976: 531). Around the end of the sixteenth century, the English sectarians joined the Protestants against the Catholics and their ‘Hot Regimen’, advocating a new, ascetic ‘Cold Regimen’ (Smith 2007: 212). Moreover, during the sixteenth century, cleanliness was in general associated with clothes and not the body (Lencˇek & Bosker 1999: 41). In the following century, clean linen was considered safest – not as a substitute for washing the body with water but on the basis of the science of the time (Ashenburg 2008: 106), although some Puritans banned perfume and linen starch for ruffs as the ‘Devil’s liquor’ (Smith 2007: 207–210). At the end of the eighteenth century, cold water and cleanliness became associated with vigour and northern virility (Ashenburg 2008: 140). Cool water was never seen to be as dangerous as hot water. To voluntarily immerse oneself in hot water one ‘had to be foolhardy, German 105

077-112 WaterChristianity Chap4.indd 105

28/02/2013 13:54

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

– or ill’ (Ashenburg 2008: 114). Bathing in hot water was seen as a terrifying experience, according to Madame de Sévigné in 1676 in Vichy in France: ‘it is no bad rehearsal of purgatory. The patient is naked… [and] This state of nature, in which you wear scarcely a fig-leaf of clothing, is very humiliating…It is necessary to suffer, and suffer we do; we are not quite scalded to death…’ (Ashenburg 2008: 120). The ‘Hot Regimen’ not only included hot baths and waters, but a lavish and sinful lifestyle, as described by John Floyer (1697) in his An Enquiry into the Right Use and Abuse of Hot, Cold and Temperate Baths in England: Brandy, spirits, strong wines, smoking Tobacco, Hot Baths, wearing flannel and many clothes, keeping in the house, warming of beds, sitting by great fires, drinking continually of Tea and Coffee, want of due exercise of body, too much study or passion of the mind, by marrying too young, or by too much Venery (which injures Eyes, Digestion, Perspiration, and breeds Winds and Crudities): and for all the effeminacy, Niceness, and weakness of spirits that is produced in the Hysterical and Hypochondriacal… .

Hot baths were imprudent, whereas cold baths regained a person’s strength and natural vigour. The therapeutic value of cold baths developed ground, and it could also help against sin and the Devil. Witches were believed to be ‘melancholic’ (Trevor-Roper 1969: 75) or melancholy was seen as causing the diabolic activity (Walker 1981: 70). The Anatomy of Melancholy, published by Robert Burton in 1621, is full of references to hydrotherapy (Burton 1989[1628], 1990[1632], 1994[1632]), and he favoured ‘bathing in fresh rivers, and cold waters, and adviseth all such as meane to live long to use it, for it agrees with all ages and complexions, and is most profitable for hot temperatures’ (1990[1632]: 31). At the turn of the eighteenth century there were numerous publications praising cold baths, which included John Locke’s (1693) Some Thoughts Concerning Education, giving final weight to the Cold Regimen, and the patron of modern bathing, Sir John Floyer, who published On the Use and Abuse of Baths (1697) and The History of Cold Bathing (1701). And with bathing in rivers, swimming was necessary (Figure 22). As part of the scientific age, in 1724 Dr George Cheyne recommended, in An Essay of Health and Long Life, bathing and washing: I cannot forbear recommending Cold-bathing; and I cannot sufficiently admire, how it would ever have come into such Disuse,

106

077-112 WaterChristianity Chap4.indd 106

28/02/2013 13:54

Mortification, Cleanliness and Godliness

Figure 22. Cover on Percey’s The compleat swimmer: or, The art of swimming: demonstrating the rules and practice thereof in an exact, plain and easie method: necessary to be known and practised by all who studie or desire their own preservation, from 1658.

especially among Christians, when commanded by the greatest Law-giver that ever was, under the Direction of GOD’s Holy Spirit, to his chosen People, and perpetuated to us, in the Immersion at Baptism… combines their Duty with their eternal Happiness. First, the Necessity of a free Perspiration to Preservation of Health is now known to every

107

077-112 WaterChristianity Chap4.indd 107

28/02/2013 13:54

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism body; and frequent washing of the Body in Water…is of great Benefit towards Health and Long Life. Now nothing promotes that, so much as Cold-bathing…I should advise therefore, every one who can afford it, as regularly to have a Cold Bath at their house to wash their Bodies in, as a Bason to wash their hands; and constantly, two or three Times a Week, Summer and Winter, to go into it. And those who cannot afford such Conveniency, as often as they can, to go into a River or Living Pond, to wash their Bodies (Cheyne 1724: 100–103).

The fear of water slowly disappeared as more doctors prescribed water cures for different illnesses, but it was still eccentric to bathe without a medical reason (Wright 1962: 158). The contribution of religion to cleanliness was less than expected, and although Francis Bacon had said that a clean body was necessary for reverence to God, it had less appeal in the eighteenth century than in the nineteenth century (Bushman & Bushman 1988). John Wesley (1703–1791), the founder of Methodism, is famous for his sermon 88 ‘On Dress’, where he states that ‘Cleanliness is indeed next to godliness’, although he was in fact referring to ‘neatness of apparel’ and not to the cleaning of the body (Wesley 1986: 249). By the time of his death Wesley is believed to have preached some 40,000 sermons and to have travelled a quarter of a million miles. There is hardly a large village in England that he did not visit, and it was after his death that the Methodists formally broke with the Anglican Church (Hibbert 1987: 317). Nevertheless, physical cleanliness and washing were minor matters in the teachings of Wesley. Although he said that people should be ‘as clean and sweet as possible in their houses, clothes, and furniture’, bathing did not have a central place, and he advised dipping in cold water and did not mention regular baths or the use of soap (Bushman & Bushman 1988: 1218). Still, one may claim that Wesley to some extent reinvented and rejuvenated public bathing in Europe in a therapeutic form by preaching the Mosaic belief that ‘cleanliness is indeed next to godliness’ (Croutier 1992: 94). ‘Being next to godliness the term, cleanliness, implies perfect purity in all our mental and organic relations’ (Trall 1860: 33). During the nineteenth century, cleanliness and godliness became one, and William A. Alcott wrote in 1835: ‘We do and must insist that the connection between cleanliness of the body and purity of moral character is much more close and direct than has usually been supposed.’ And in a soap advertisement of the 1880s, Henry Ward Beecher claimed that ‘if Cleanliness is next to Godliness soap must be considered as a Means 108

077-112 WaterChristianity Chap4.indd 108

28/02/2013 13:54

Mortification, Cleanliness and Godliness

of Grace and a Clergyman who recommends moral things should be willing to recommend Soap’ (Bushman & Bushman 1988: 1218). Moreover, the Bishop of Bath and Wells dedicated special prayers to the bathers, and warned that ‘God must first heal the Waters, before they can have any virtue to heal you’ (Wright 1962: 83), which implies a belief that water had both spiritual and physical cleansing qualities. Cleanliness became part of gentility from around 1800 (Bushman & Bushman 1988: 1222), and ‘The early decades of the industrial revolution provided an explanation for this reversal. The simple [sic] notion that dirt must be considered a source of disease, and conversely, that collective and individual cleanliness was essential to the prevention of disease had gained ground’ (Goubert 1989: 59). This is evident in, for instance, Thomas Smollet, who complained in The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (1771) that if I would drink water, I must swallow that which comes from the river Thames, impregnated with all the filth of London and Westminster. Human excrements is the least offensive part of the concrete, which is composed of all the drugs, minerals and poisons, used in mechanics and manufacture, enriched with the putrefying carcases of beasts and men (Ackroyd 2007: 272).

Thus, during the middle of the nineteenth century the ‘sanitary idea’ in England became popular, stressing that the physical environment had an important influence on a person’s well-being and that health depended upon sanitation (Melosi 2000: 43).

Rediscovering the Virtues of Baths During the period from 1560 to 1815 there were 173 spas operating in England, although not all at the same time. The two most famous ones were in Bath and Buxton (Figure 23). By 1816, 36 of these spas were trading in mineral waters, and over the centuries the British spas developed into resorts and holiday places to stay (Hembry 1990: 312). The fundamental basis of hydrotherapy’s water-cure was that all curative virtue was inherent in the living organism, and that water may supply favourable conditions for the successful release of these powers (Trall 1860: 3). Sebastian Kneipp, parish priest of Wörishofen in Bavaria, developed and practised water-cure there for more than 109

077-112 WaterChristianity Chap4.indd 109

28/02/2013 13:54

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

30 years. He was a great success and attracted notice from all over Europe (Kneipp 1891). Oriental baths were also rediscovered in the nineteenth century. As we have seen, steam baths had previously been used by the Romans and in the medieval bathhouses (Bonneville 1998: 50). In Britain in the nineteenth century the focus was on the technical aspects and the medical and health benefits of the Turkish bath (e.g. Bartholomew 1869; Coley 1887). However, a number of accounts refer to a general suspicion and mysticism surrounding the hammam. In England, there was hesitation and an aversion to the term ‘Turkish Bath’. In the stories of The Arabian Nights, all-important events in life were introduced by a long visit to a hammam (Hansen 1990: 93), and the name reflected cultural differences: It unfortunately happens that the name is so thoroughly engrafted on the bath, that it seems impossible to root it out, and we must perforce adopt it. I think the Anglican Bath would be a much more appropriate name; but though called the Turkish Bath, that is no reason why we shall keep its native evil concomitants (Drake 1862: 13).

Figure 23. The Roman Bath of Bath Spa, England.

110

077-112 WaterChristianity Chap4.indd 110

28/02/2013 13:54

Mortification, Cleanliness and Godliness

As is evident from this quotation, the poor reputation of the hot baths was still in evidence by the middle of the nineteenth century. Still, Drake praised the baths, and if it was previously believed to be demoralising, the promising health aspects were now seen as an important moral agent for the common people: I cannot conclude without hoping that, ere long, every town in the kingdom will have its Anglican hot-air bath, not alone for the rich, but also for the working classes; for depend upon it, it would be a great moralizing agent, and do quite as much, if not more, than the teetotal societies (Drake 1862: 31).

In the hammam, as described by Drake in 1862, the first room was a large hall open in the centre to the vault of heaven, and in the centre there was a fountain decorated with flowers. In the second room, which was dark and small and paved with marble, the air was hot but not oppressive. Here the Turk smoked and drank coffee and ‘dreams himself away to the mystic paradise’. The third and inner chamber, which was very hot and vaporous, had a domical roof and was lit by starts of coloured glass: ‘Here, be it remembered, the bather very soon becomes like Niobe, all tears! and seems as if he would dissolve into a liquid stream, and of him it may be said, “Here Fluvius wept; as now a stream declares”’ (Drake 1862: 11). Still, there was a hedonistic and lavish lifestyle associated with the Turkish bath. A hammam or Turkish bath was established in Paris in 1877, at the corner of the Rue Auber and the Rue Neuve-des-Mathurins. Although it was a great hygienic success, it was commonly and vaguely spoken of as a place of mysterious punishment, where the body was alternately frozen or boiled, and the bones were allegedly cracked. Because of the superstition and mystical aura surrounding the hammam, Edgard Sheppard found it necessary to translate the article ‘The Hammam: A Rational Estimate of the Turkish Bath’, originally published in French in Le Figaro, into English (Sheppard 1879). Sheppard praised the hammam: ‘you have, in fact, club-life at the Hammam, plus the Turkish Bath, but minus the cards’ (Sheppard 1879: 9). Apart from the bathing procedure itself, the cigars were excellent, journals from all countries were available, and one could have one’s hair done, eat breakfast and dinner, sleep and read, and actually spend the whole day in the hammam if one wished. As a resort the hammam was also visited by celebrities and royals, including the Dukes of Aumale and Montpensier, the Prince of 111

077-112 WaterChristianity Chap4.indd 111

28/02/2013 13:54

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

Wales, the Prince of Orange, and numerous barons. The Emperor of Brazil and General Grant also visited the bath when they were in Paris. The hammam had great benefits for health and for the purposes of reduction and purification. There was also a ladies’ hammam, no less frequented, but the privacy was strict – as if they were taking a bath at home. Each lady came singly and was only seen by the two dames Driot, who performed the shampooing and douching. The ladies’ hammam also had a large number of clients, including ‘all those elegant women who are beginning to notice their tendency to embonpoint, and all those vocal artists whose lungs and throats are in the need of special care and culture’ (Sheppard 1879: 9). As seen here, even as late as the end of the nineteenth century there were suspicions connected to baths and the bathing culture. Thus, in the history of Christianity, developing and establishing the belief that ritual purity is identical with physical purity has been a long battle – against demons, hedonism and the Devil of fornication. Water and baths symbolised, for a long time, the Devil and his sinful activities, and therefore spiritual purity and chastity were at stake as well as the moral order in general. What happened in the baths and everything associated with these activities – adultery, nudity, drunkenness, cards and lavish meals – were manifestations of evil and the sinful world, and of how corrupt the world had become. But the world of water was not restricted to the bathhouse, and even if the laity engaged in devilish activities in the bathtubs, the Church used water to confront the Devil’s work in other places as well. Throughout the history of Christianity in England, the use of water from holy wells persisted. The problem for Protestantism was that when they denied the power of the sacraments to work automatically, consequently there was no such thing as holy water that could be used to protect fields and farms against malevolent forces. However, people continued to use water from wells. If the Church had not sanctified these wells and waters, it was left with a dual problem. For if these rituals were not Christian, they could only be the work of the Devil. And if the water actually had miraculous powers and these were not the work of God, then they could only be the work of the Devil. Nonetheless, the spiritual capacity of water from holy wells was also seen as the work of God, and also God used flood and plague as a means to punish a sinful world. This directs our attention again to what characterises holy water.

112

077-112 WaterChristianity Chap4.indd 112

28/02/2013 13:54

5 Holy Wells, God’s Penalty and the Devil’s Water Polluting the Holy The main purpose of purifying water rituals is to reduce punishment in an ‘otherworldly’ realm for sins conducted in this world. Thus water has the capacity to reduce misfortune and punishment in the realm hereafter. This attribute of sacred and holy water is perhaps the most important, whatever the religion. One might anticipate that prayer or purely spiritual approaches to the great divinities would be sufficient to erase human sin, but apparently, as evident through practice, this is not so. Water is essential for erasing sin. Prayer, hymns and chants are an integral part of these water rituals, and it seems that by approaching the divinities spiritually through prayer, the gods respond through activating the capacities in the water. Without prayer, the water does not work, regardless of whether one perceives it as holy or sacred. A holy river or body of sacred water – both end the profane and start the divine journey and, as such, water changes the bio-moral character of objects or people who have been immersed in the river or taken part of the waters. What arises from the river is different from what was immersed and it is invested with holiness or sacredness. This is the main purpose with water rituals: to erase impurity and sin. With holy water, however, there is one particular and peculiar aspect that in most other contexts would be seen to be sacrilege and heresy: in many cases it is possible to pollute and defile the holy. This seeming paradox reveals some of the inherent qualities of holy water and the perceptions and beliefs that devotees have attributed to water. These religious perceptions are, however, no different from the ones that are at work; for instance, during the Eucharist. Regardless of whether one invokes the thesis of transubstantiation 113

113-148 WaterChristianity Chap5.indd 113

17/01/2013 12:06

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

or not, the logic is the same. Through bread and wine – the body and blood of Jesus – human impurity is transferred and transformed, and after the ritual consumption the devotee is purified. Hence, human sin is transferred to the blood and the wine, which consequently will be contaminated and would remain so were they not holy, and thereby possess the capacity to transform pollution to purity. Rivers in particular have played a special role in this process due to the flowing character of water. If the impurity is simply transferred, which is possible using the river as a metaphor, then the pollution is only transported further down the river. If the impurity is transformed, however, then the pollution is annihilated and what remains is purity. Holy rivers are, per se, supposed and believed to cleanse themselves, and if they are unable to do so, the water in the river proves that it is not holy. Thus a dual process is involved with the use of holy water. First, there is transference of impurity to the water, in a similar way that physical dirt is washed away with water. This transference of pollution implies that the sin is ‘embodied’. Ritual impurity and sin are transferred to the water, which then is contaminated in a spiritual sense in the same way that a river would be physically polluted by impurities. When the impurity has been transferred, the next step is to transform impurity to purity. This is what characterises holiness – that which is holy has the capability to digest, consume and erase pollution. This annihilation is different from mere transference. From a cosmic perspective it is the battle between good and evil, where cosmos is created out of chaos. If impurity were only transferred, then sin and evil would increase, eventually conquering the world. The holiness, however, transforms this impurity into purity and thus order is created out of the destructive elements threatening cosmos (Oestigaard 2005a, 2005b, 2006a). Whether one talks about the use of holy water or the Eucharist, the purpose is the same: the physical matter shall purify and annihilate impurity. As discussed earlier, the question of transubstantiation and consubstantiation was a major controversy. According to the doctrine of transubstantiation there is an actual change in the substance, whereas according to the doctrine of consubstantiation the claim is that Christ is present alongside the sacraments. Whether one believes that the elements, the material religion and the sacraments on the one hand, or only the spirit of Christ on the other hand, have this capacity for transferring and transforming impurity to purity, the implicit logic is the same. The holy – as a divinity or 114

113-148 WaterChristianity Chap5.indd 114

17/01/2013 12:06

Holy Wells, God’s Penalty and the Devil’s Water

a divine substance and presence – ceases to be divine at the very moment it is incapable of erasing pollution and remaining pure after humans have transferred their impurity onto the divine. This is one way, partly, of defining the holy, which has particular reference to holy water and rivers. As discussed in Chapter 2, Rudolf Otto in his The Idea of the Holy (Otto 1959[1923]) emphasised the numinous as crucial in understanding the holy, and the numinous was felt as something objective and outside oneself, which had a superior power. Belief in being purified by water ritual or the Eucharist creates such feelings. Believing that it is the actual sacrament that holds this power, because it has been invested with divine qualities, is logical because otherwise there would be no reason why the sacraments should be used. Hence, the materiality creates a particular religious feeling of the holy, and water by its very nature has the possibility to clean physical impurity. Consequently, water and rivers have been believed to possess the capability to erase spiritual impurity as well. This is especially evident in the British water world. Old Father Thames was a river god and the Thames was believed to possess semi-miraculous powers, in particular the capacity to purify itself (Ackroyd 2007: 290). Nevertheless, there are practical limitations with regard to how much a river is physically capable of transporting away, since from the believers’ point of view the success of the river is measured in the actual water quality of the river. The Thames was highly polluted already in the Middle Ages, and Parliament passed an Act in 1535 which prohibited casting excrement and rubbish into the Thames: ‘till now of late divers evil disposed persons have habitually cast in dung and filth’ (Ackroyd 2007: 271). This is a very early example of a water protection regulation, but there were other instances in England as well. In Berkhamsted (Hertfordshire) it was believed that clothes washed in St John’s well would ensure the wearer good health. The well was also renowned for curing diseases such as leprosy and scrofula. However, the washing of clothes polluted the water. In the year 1400 a number of washerwomen were fined, and wardens were put in place to oversee the well and to ensure that the water was used in an appropriate manner. Down the centuries similar instructions were made in order to prevent people from polluting the waters in Gloucester, including washing and even disposing of ‘the entrails of swine’, indicating that the practice of washing clothes in wells was quite common (Bord & Bord 1985: 85). 115

113-148 WaterChristianity Chap5.indd 115

17/01/2013 12:06

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

Rather than seeing these prohibitions as evidence of sacrilege – where people desecrated the holiness of rivers and wells – it is possible to see them the other way around: it was precisely because these bodies of water were believed to be holy that people polluted them, for the holy water ought to have the capacity to cleanse itself. Thus, the practice of polluting the holy may be an indication of the pervasive belief in the power of water, rather than the opposite. In these cases, concepts of physical and religious purity and impurity are related. Since these bodies of water are holy, they prove their holiness by transforming impurity to purity and thus remain pure. Similarly, when a person is healed by water from a well, the sick or infected person transfers physically or symbolically the disease to the water, which then becomes infected. ‘Purity’ indicates ‘completeness’ and ‘impurity’ may be seen as ‘lack of completeness’ (Valeri 1985: 33), and from a religious perspective ‘completeness’ means godliness and impurity means lack of partaking in the divine or being separated from the purity of the divinities. Thus, the use of holy water from wells to cure disease is based on the same logic as taking the Eucharist in Communion to erase sin. Either spiritual or physical impurity is removed and the devotee appears, and believes he is cleansed. The healing capacity of the water was mainly directed towards the outer and the physical, whereas the Eucharist functioned inwardly, for the spiritual. Thus the different uses of water had parallel and complimentary functions among the laity, and although the Church forbade the use of holy water, belief in water rituals had a particular role in society, fulfilling practical functions in the here and now. Prayer might work for improving daily life but it was first and foremost for the life thereafter; for everyday problems another means was necessary: water.

Water Works and Sacramentals The total number of holy wells in Great Britain and Ireland amounts to some 8,000, and a conservative estimate for England is 2,000 (Figure 24). In Scotland, there might be around 1,000, another 1,200 in Wales and at least 3,000 in Ireland (Bord & Bord 1985: 24). In the English countryside, in the second half of the nineteenth century, belief in the healing power of water was dominant. This was not only restricted to the laity: Fellows of New College in Oxford were reported 116

113-148 WaterChristianity Chap5.indd 116

17/01/2013 12:06

Holy Wells, God’s Penalty and the Devil’s Water

Figure 24. St Cleer well in Cornwall.

to have worshipped St Bartholomew’s well every Holy Thursday (Hope 1893: 124). Belief in holy water and in the magical powers of wells in England have lasted up until today. When Veronica Strang conducted anthropological fieldwork among the inhabitants of Dorset, the water cult was still strong and she noted that even non-Christians described holy water with words like ‘aura’ or ‘mystical power’. The holy water was used on a number of occasions, including funerary rites and also, occasionally, exorcism (Strang 2004: 93). Hence, in England, Christianity has been closely connected to and defined by the water cult. Water was Christianity in practice, and the wells had one particularly important quality. In Wales two-thirds of the wells had some curative functions, and of the 1,200 or so wells some 370 were exclusively healing wells (Bord & Bord 1985: 34). The relationship between healing and holy is not coincidental: Healing and holy have an etymological kinship…If the body is healed, it is said to be whole and its owner hale; and if the soul is healed, it

117

113-148 WaterChristianity Chap5.indd 117

17/01/2013 12:06

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism is said to be holy…we need not wonder that healing wells were, as a rule, reckoned holy wells, and vice versa (Mackinlay 1993[1893]: 86).

Different wells had different healing powers. Some were believed to be able to cure any kind of ailment, disease or illness, and specific wells have been believed to cure and relieve at least 75 different illnesses including, among others, rheumatic ailments, mental troubles, toothache, headache, tumours, deafness, lameness, broken bones, dropsy, paralysis, asthma, coughs, alcoholism, dumbness, diarrhoea, gangrene, lumbago, pox, dysentery, spasms, colic, melancholia, cancer, bladder stone and so on. In short, any kind of illness could be cured with holy water. Moreover, a number of the wells were widely regarded to be able to heal sick animals, in particular cattle and horses (Bord & Bord 1985: 35–39). Thus, what characterises holy water and the well cult is that water works: it cures human illness and misfortune. In practice, this was operative religion working for the benefit of humans. It was divine intervention in daily miseries and calamities, solving problems. The effect is the same as if prayers had been granted, but the belief in water rituals was more explicit and direct – or material – than prayer, which is spiritual only. Moreover, there was no contradiction between these two practices as perceived by the devotees and the laity, even though the Church forbade the one and praised the other. However, as Duffy argues: the rhetoric and rationale at work in such incantations cannot sensibly be called pagan. Instead, they represent the appropriation and adaptation of lay needs and anxieties of a range of sacred gestures and prayers, along lines essentially faithful to the pattern established within the liturgy itself. This is not paganism, but lay Christianity (Duffy 1992: 283).

This highlights the problem of defining ritual practice and religion, since different actors emphasise different approaches as the true religion. In an analysis of religion, the aim is therefore not only to refer to theological or high religious explanations of certain dogmas. As indicated, the separation between High and Low religion or Great and Little traditions may obstruct interpretations of religion and ritual practice, ending up in discussions of how Christian the laity really was. On the other hand, as Geertz has pointed out, religion is 118

113-148 WaterChristianity Chap5.indd 118

17/01/2013 12:06

Holy Wells, God’s Penalty and the Devil’s Water

to a large extent felt to be an individual experience (Geertz 1968). Religion is often the key building block of identity (Insoll 2004c), and religion ‘can be conceived as the superstructure into which all other aspects of life can be placed’ (Insoll 2004d: 12). In religion, there has always been a bricolage of belief. In a Christian context, with regards to death Sarah Tarlow described the problem as such: Beliefs about death are rarely coherent, consistent and orthodox. People combine elements of theological teaching with superstitious or traditional folkloric belief and personal invention. Thus when we die we are variously understood to go directly to Heaven, await the Day of Judgement, rot in the ground, become ghosts, journey to another place, fall asleep and meet up with friends and relatives who have died before us. These different versions might be logically incompatible, but it is nevertheless possible for a single person to hold many of them at the same time (Tarlow 1999: 103).

Religious explanations are seldom coherent and it is the totality of different beliefs and rituals that constitutes and defines a given religion (e.g. Bourdieu 1990; Bell 1992, 1997; Humphrey & Laidlaw 1994; Rappaport 2001; Modéus 2005). Rituals open up a huge field of variation and contested practices, traditions and hierarchies, which at the outset may even seem contradictory to the religion’s theology because they do not correspond to Scriptures or theological statements in a direct way. But as Humphrey and Laidlaw argue: ‘Ritual is prescribed action, you have to get it right, and yet sometimes it seems that as long as you try, as long as you accept the ritual commitment, it is almost impossible to get it wrong’ (Humphrey & Laidlaw 1994: 128). Importantly, as the theologian Martin Modéus has argued, there is always a situation that creates circumstances that are seen by some to be of such a kind that they trigger the necessity for conducting a ritual. These contexts and reasons vary greatly, but there is always a situation involved. Modéus argues therefore that a ritual as a phenomenon should ‘not be understood primarily in itself, but as a function of a distinct kind of situation. This special situation will be called causa of the ritual’ (Modéus 2005: 35). This move enables the analysis to turn away from the question of what is the difference between a ritual and a non-ritual act, and rather to focus on how the situation that gives rise to a ritual differs from ordinary situations (Modéus 2005: 36): ‘Every ritual performance is an act of ritualization that grows out of a situation, a causa’ (Modéus 2005: 37): 119

113-148 WaterChristianity Chap5.indd 119

17/01/2013 12:06

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism If ritualization then is an activity, not an institution, we must ask: what is the specific nature of the situation that makes ritualization appropriate?...I will henceforth use the term causa to distinguish a situation which is so ambiguous, important or problematic that it needs to be treated in a ritual way. By causa I wish to denote those circumstances, changes or events of nature or culture that are the ultimate reasons making the performances of the ritual desirable or necessary. The causa is the very situation that gives birth to the ritual performance, and to such a causa, ritualization should be seen as a reaction in deed, not in ideology (Modéus 2005: 38, emphasis in the original).

Following Modéus one has to distinguish between: (1) the reason for performing the ritual (e.g. the cause); and (2) the meaning of the ritual, which is an interpretation of the performance. The cause does not necessarily have anything to do with the ideological or interpretative parts of the ritual. In Christianity, for instance, it is the birth of a child that is the cause for baptism, not the necessity for salvation (Modéus 2005: 38). To quote Modéus: We should seek at the most simple level of nature or society to find the causa, and not let our theological or intellectual understandings of a ritual obscure the picture. Finding the causa of a ritual is the primary task in ritual analysis, and it is important to see that the ideological content in a ritual often speaks of something completely different (Modéus 2005: 39).

As indicated, the main cause or reason for using holy water from wells in rituals was human misfortune, in particular sickness and disease. But water also had other potentials. The wells were believed to have the healing power and potential to cure any kind of ailment – disease, illness or infertility, even to predict the future (Bord & Bord 1985: 32–37) and illuminate brilliance and wisdom (Ford 1974: 70). Water was attributed with different layers of meaning and qualities, and the Church’s prohibition against using the wells was not because people did not suffer from misfortune (the cause), nor was it because of the effect of the rituals (consequences), but instead because these magical and spiritual powers did not belong to God unless the Church had sanctified these practices, rites and beliefs. Thus, one may interpret rituals on several levels. Different interpretations of the very same ritual may be valid, even if they may seem to be contradictory, as long as it is reckoned that they work at 120

113-148 WaterChristianity Chap5.indd 120

17/01/2013 12:06

Holy Wells, God’s Penalty and the Devil’s Water

different levels (Modéus 2005: 128). The level of ideology refers to the content or meaning of symbols and rituals. On this level one may speak of theological or transcendental considerations and interpretations, and priests in their understanding of their practices attribute meaning and interpret the practices and rites they conduct. Such interpretations might be both descriptive and persuasive, and ‘quite simply, it is equally important to understand who the person is that is interpreting the ritual, as it is to understand what the interpreter claims’ (Modéus 2005: 129). The level of ideology is often in the hands of a clergy, who may give their own reasons for the necessity of the rites as well as the meaning of symbols and ritual acts. This level of ideology does not need to correspond to the level of use among the ritual’s participants (commoners). A major criterion is whether the participants can verbalise and attribute meaning for themselves as to why they are conducting this particular ritual. This requires also that the participants perceive the ritual to work according to their own intentions and motifs. For most parents, a baptismal ceremony at the level of use is a name-giving ceremony, and the Christian ideological level may not be seen as relevant: On this level, ritual is not susceptible to manipulation, since the use is the interpretation. If, on the other hand, the level of ideology is manipulated, for example, if the clergy changes the theological interpretation of a ritual, people may go on performing and using the ritual as they always have (Modéus 2005: 131).

Finally, there is a level of structure. Status and position are manifested in ritual, and this emphasises hidden and often concealed consequences of rituals, confirming, maintaining, creating and changing structures and relations in society at a deep level (Modéus 2005: 132–134). From this perspective one may see why water became controversial. At the level of ideology, theologians could claim that water possessed no holiness or religious power to heal and cure, and that if it did, unless it was sanctioned by the Church, it was the power of the Devil. At the level of use, people believed it worked, and as Christians they would interpret this within the realm of Christianity, and in their fight against the Devil as an external enemy it was an efficacious remedy. Finally and importantly, at the level of structure, defining truth was in the end also a matter of power and hierarchy. 121

113-148 WaterChristianity Chap5.indd 121

17/01/2013 12:06

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

The main purpose of exorcism, for instance, apart from of course driving out the Devil, seems to have been to manifest the sanctity of the exorcist. In England in the 1580s, Catholic priests conducted exorcisms, but there are also cases where Puritans performed exorcism (Walker 1981: 4–5, 61pp). And even though Protestantism claimed justification by faith alone, they maintained their hierarchy and religious position by insisting that theirs was the sole dialogue with God through the Church and the congregation. This unchallengeable position was nonetheless challenged by the laity’s beliefs and practices. Holy water from the most venerated wells was sold on the streets, and the price varied greatly according to the believed curative properties. Water was also bottled from holy wells and brought home (Bord & Bord 1985: 85, 60), a continuation of the old parish clerks’ practice of selling holy water to households. Thus, the existence of a large group of commoners armed with holy water as a spiritual weapon against demons and the Devil challenged Protestant religious autonomy and authority. The Church’s attitude towards holy water has therefore to be seen from different historical perspectives. First, with the arrival of Christianity, Catholicism had either to transform the ancient pagan water worship and the holy wells to Christianity or to fight these pagan beliefs. Second, with the Reformation, Protestants had to battle against the Catholic use of holy water and wells, as well as former pagan relics still in evidence. From the Protestant point of view, in many cases there was no difference between the two, both of which they condemned as diabolic. Finally, there remained local practice and tradition, which had existed for centuries, even millennia. These traditions continued and were incorporated by the laity into Christianity in one way or another, despite the Church’s claim that these beliefs and practices had nothing to do with Christianity whether Catholic or Protestant. The main point is that beliefs are neither clear nor coherent, and one may separate belief systems or discourses into at least four types: (1) theological beliefs; (2) social beliefs; (3) scientific beliefs; and (4) folk beliefs/practice (Tarlow, personal communication). One group of objects that have been of supreme importance in the water cult, and in highlighting the different belief discourses, is called ‘sacramentals’. These objects have been used in benediction and exorcism, and represent a special category since they have been blessed and are used apart from the sacraments: 122

113-148 WaterChristianity Chap5.indd 122

17/01/2013 12:06

Holy Wells, God’s Penalty and the Devil’s Water The power of Sacramentals was constituted by the process of consecration, which comprised two stages: exorcism and benediction. In the first all demonic forces were expelled from the object, in the second it was blessed so that it could be used without harm, for the advantage of both body and soul. The apotropaic power was twofold, and it was effective both spiritually and physically (Scribner 1987: 261).

The origin of the sacramentals is unclear. They could have emerged as requirements for the conduct of worship or simply as aids to piety, but, whatever their origins, from the thirteenth century these consecrated objects became widespread. Bartholomew Wagner wrote in 1594 that the spread of sacramentals developed as a response to popular demand for holy things. From a theological perspective, the sacramentals did not work automatically (ex opere operato) as the sacraments did, which were divine par excellence. Rather, the sacramentals belonged to a class of blessed objects whose effects and efficiency depended upon the user, which normally should have been a priest. The sacramentals were closely connected to the liturgy. However, the sacramentals could be taken away from the Church and used by people whenever they desired. In particular, holy water was such a sacramental, used by the laity in the household, in stables, on fields and so on. But when the laity used the blessed items used in the liturgy, such as holy water and candles, the authorities saw this as a misuse. Nevertheless, in the Middle Ages the blessing of ‘holy water’ not only took place on Sundays but also on numerous other occasions, such as certain saints’ days, and even though the Church partly opposed this practice, the sacramentals were an efficacious remedy for the laity. Moreover, the distinction between sacraments and sacramentals with regards to efficiency became blurred, and among common people it was generally believed that the sacramentals worked automatically. Even Cardinal Bellarmine (1542–1621), who was canonised in 1930, admitted that the sacramentals could ‘probably’ work ex opere operato. No theological explanations for this magical power were given, but it created a powerful tool for the laity, which had a fundamental place in the wider community outside the Church (Scribner 1987: 5–7, 39–41). When holy water was applied as a sacramental, it was mainly for apotropaic purposes or protective magic of two kinds: exorcism and the expulsion of evil spirits on the one hand, and benediction or divine blessing on the other 123

113-148 WaterChristianity Chap5.indd 123

17/01/2013 12:06

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

(Scribner 1987: 36); and there was no doubt that the laity believed that sacramentals worked automatically and that they were an effective remedy against witchcraft (Scribner 1987: 262). Throughout history, water has played a crucial and particular role as a sacramental because water is everywhere. And not only holy water but also other types of water in its pure form – such as rain and dew – were believed to have curative capacities. Running water could have similar capacities and was used to seal bargains. It was generally believed that the Devil and ghosts could not cross running water, and so many people escaped the malign forces by crossing a stream (Bord & Bord 1985: 86). According to Thomas: ‘what the religious changes of the mid-sixteenth century did was to eliminate the protective ecclesiastical magic which had kept the threat of sorcery under control’ (Thomas 1971: 498). And herein lay the problem, for what is evident from the above description and discussion is that one may argue against how successful the Reformers were in their attempt to erase belief in the supernatural powers of holy water and the sacramentals as efficacious remedies against evil, demons and devils. To whatever extent the Protestant Church actually eliminated these beliefs as belonging to Christianity they still existed. And the history of malign waters is long. Tertullian, a third-century Church father, believed that water was highly attractive to demons and the Devil: Unclean spirits do settle upon waters, pretending to reproduce that primordial resting of the Holy Spirit upon them: for instance, shady springs and all sorts of unfrequented streams, pools in bathingplaces…and those wells called ‘snatching wells’, where malignant spirits violently snatch people…whom water has drowned or stricken with madness or fear (Jensen 1993).

Thus, the Church was left with a dual problem. On the one hand, if holy water was the work of God, then it armed the laity with a spiritual weapon that challenged the Church’s authority and hierarchy. On the other hand, if the water’s spiritual powers and qualities were the work of the Devil, then Protestants faced evil not only as inner temptation but as an external force as well. And one thing was for sure: no matter what the Church did, people still continued to believe in the curative properties and protective miracles of holy water, and they used it for all kinds of purposes. 124

113-148 WaterChristianity Chap5.indd 124

17/01/2013 12:06

Holy Wells, God’s Penalty and the Devil’s Water

The Church and Holy Wells Since rivers regularly flooded villages, settlements tended to be clustered around springs and wells. In religious terms springs and wells were ‘the exit from the womb of the Earth Goddess’ or ‘the eye of the Great Mother’ (Strang 2004: 86). Green argues: ‘Water could be beneficent as a life-giver, healer and means of travel but it could also be capricious and destructive: storms could batter crops and, associated with thunder and lightning, strike and destroy; the sea could wreck ships; and then there was death by drowning’ (Green 1986: 138). Water had a crucial place in the Celtic religion, and this included rivers, lakes, bogs, springs and the sea. Water was recognised as essential to life and fertility, and it was drunk from human skull cups in order to acquire the desirable qualities of the skull’s original owner. Kings, heroes and ancestors were incorporated into the cult, and the washing of severed heads and skulls also took place (Bord & Bord 1985: 8–9). This was paganism, and in c. 452 the Second Council of Arles issued a canon: ‘If in the territory of a bishop infidels light torches or venerate trees, fountains, or stones, and he neglects to abolish this usage, he must know that he is guilty of sacrilege.’ Such practices were barbaric, pagan and unenlightened. In a letter to Mellitus in 601, Pope Gregory instructed him to destroy pagan idols and to purify the temples that housed them with holy water. Pagan worship at wells became forbidden throughout Europe in the succeeding centuries. A canon was exhorted in 960 during the reign of the Saxon king, Edgar, stating: ‘That every priest industriously advances Christianity, and extinguishes heathenism, and forbid the worship of fountains’ (Bord & Bord 1985: 19). According to the Saxon king, Cnut, in the early eleventh century: It is heathen practice if one worship idols, namely if one worship heathen gods and the sun or the moon, fire or flood, wells or stones or any kind of forest trees, or if one practices witchcraft or encompasses death by any means, either by sacrifice or divination, or takes any part in such delusions (Bord & Bord 1985: 19).

Nonetheless, the worship continued and in 1102 the 26th canon of St Anselm decreed: ‘Let no one attribute reverence or sanctity to a dead body or a fountain without the bishop’s authority’ (Gribben 1992: 15). 125

113-148 WaterChristianity Chap5.indd 125

17/01/2013 12:06

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

Water worship was still banned into the twelfth century, but gradually Christianity came to include the old customs and pagan aspects of water worship behind the Christian facade. Since water was used in Christian rites – such as baptism and hand washing – well water was actively incorporated into the liturgy, and baptisteries and churches were built close to, and in some cases over, the wells (Bord & Bord 1985: 20). As part of the process of the Christianisation of Britain, Christian ideology did not demand a total rejection of the old pagan gods but, according to the papal instructions of Augustine, pagan customs had to be converted ‘into Christian solemnity, and pagan temples into churches’, and missionary monks included wells also. However, water could also be dangerous and Christianity pacified the malevolent forces and turned them into benevolent ones. The seventh-century biographer of St Columba, Adamnan, tells of a certain fountain: famous among the heathen people, which the foolish men, having their senses blinded by the devil, worshipped as God. For those, who drank of this fountain, or purposely washed their hands or feet in it, were allowed by God to be struck by demoniacal art, and went home either leprous or purblind, or at least suffering from weakness or other kind of infirmity. By all these things the pagans were seduced and paid divine honour to the fountain.

St Columba blessed the fountain and then washed his feet and hands, showing the pagans that the water no longer harmed them and that the demons had deserted the fountain. From that time onwards a number of cures was believed to have taken place with this water (Mackinlay 1893: 24–25). Holy water was believed to cure pain and disease, to increase the length of life, and to serve as a medium of divination. According to lore, saints are said to have actually created many of the holy wells, and there is a number of wells with Christian names in Wales, Scotland and England. Many are also named after secular people, but at least half the wells have Christian connections, many still visible as baptisteries or well chapels (Bord & Bord 1985: 22–25). Moreover, as mentioned, some churches have been built on holy wells. The bottomless well of St Andrew is the origin of the Cathedral of Wells in Somerset (Crotchet 1902). In St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, in Winchester Cathedral (Figure 25), Wells Cathedral (Figure 26), Exeter Cathedral, and in the crypts of York 126

113-148 WaterChristianity Chap5.indd 126

17/01/2013 12:06

Holy Wells, God’s Penalty and the Devil’s Water

Figure 25. The well under Winchester Cathedral as it was depicted c. 1770.

Minster and Glasgow Cathedral, ancient wells have been found. Wells were also associated with graves. St Ethelbert, King of East Anglia, was murdered in 794. His body was removed to Hereford and in his then empty grave a well arose (Bord & Bord 1985: 28–29). In the sixteenth century, European holy wells were centres for annual religious rites, including pilgrimages, well-dressing and votive offerings. These rites and sites were also featured in both Christian saints’ legends and in folk tales of supernatural events. When the Reformation, and in particular Calvinism, attacked belief in wells and holy water as ‘popish magic and superstition’, the result was that holy wells gradually became relegated to the sphere of superstition (Gribben 1992: 4, 16). The Reformed Church launched an offensive in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries whereby monuments connected with superstition were put to profane use (Moreland 1999: 200–201). In 1565 Bishop Bentham of Lichfield and Coventry commanded the clergy to abolish all ‘monuments of idolatry and superstition’, and the idols had to be kept in secret places in the church (Aston 1988: 319): We can only guess at the impact on their sense of the sacred when they saw the priest feed his swine from a trough which had once

127

113-148 WaterChristianity Chap5.indd 127

17/01/2013 12:06

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

Figure 26. Wells Cathedral; south aisle of the nave by Francis Bedford. been the parish holy-water stoup…Elsewhere the holy-water stoups became the parish wash-troughs, sanctus and sacring bells were hung on sheep and cows, or used to call work-men to their dinner (Duffy 1992: 586).

In theory, the reformed Church opposed any form of iconoclasm but there is an irony in this. According to the story, on the eve of All Saints Day in 1517, Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on Wittenberg’s Schlosskirche (Castle Church). Today, this church, 128

113-148 WaterChristianity Chap5.indd 128

17/01/2013 12:06

Holy Wells, God’s Penalty and the Devil’s Water

where Luther is buried, together with the Thesenportal or the Theses Door, is a magnet for Protestant pilgrims and approximately 80,000 people visit the ‘shrines’ annually (Stephenson 2008). Among the laity the use of images was culturally and psychologically deeprooted in tradition and religious practice (Sands 1999). And as paradoxical as it may sound, in Germany – which was the heartland of Protestantism – there were more than 500 ‘holy trees’ associated with Luther, together with numerous ‘Luther springs’ that were believed to have healing waters (Scribner 1987: 351). Even though the Reformation tried to bring an end to water worship, the cult was so important and such an intrinsic part of culture and religion that it continued for centuries, and nobles as well as commoners made pilgrimages to the holy wells in the hope of long life and prosperity. St Winefride’s well at Holywell (Flint) was immensely popular with pilgrims and was consequently attacked by the Reformists, but the cult was too strong to be dismissed. In 1629 around 1,500 people visited on 3 November – St Winefride’s Day – and on 29 August 1686, King James II and his wife visited Holywell hoping that Winefride would enable them a son (which they got in 1688). Charles I and his queen stayed for several weeks at Wellingborough (Northampton) in 1618 and 1637 so that the queen could take a treatment in the Red Well, and Charles II is associated with two other wells. King James VI ordered in 1617 that St Katherine’s Balm Well in Edinburgh should be protected. On other occasions, however, both royals and the clergy did whatever they could to stop these practices and beliefs. In desperation the authorities would even destroy wells physically, aiming to stop the water cult. This happened twice with the Well of the Virgin Mary at Seggat in Aberdeen. The well was filled with stones, but the local people cleared it both times and the well continued to be a centre of pilgrimage. Nevertheless, the authorities were not coherent in their views of holy wells. Henry VIII, for example, walked barefoot the last two miles to the Well of Our Lady at Walsingham (Norfolk), but he later persecuted a number of holy wells (Bord & Bord 1985: 32–33, 95). This dual attitude may give testimony to how deeply rooted the water-cult beliefs were, despite the Protestant condemnation of any magical effects of water. Thus, throughout the history of Christianity in England there have been opposite and conflicting views of holy wells and of water’s spiritual qualities. When Christianity incorporated the water cult, 129

113-148 WaterChristianity Chap5.indd 129

17/01/2013 12:06

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

festivals were placed to coincide with many of the former pagan and Celtic festivals. The time of the ritual was already sacred to the devotees, and the Church aimed to absorb the old religious practices rather than to displace them (Bord & Bord 1985: 55). The pervasive use of and belief in the water from holy wells encompassed almost all social spheres, and the water was used for any protective, healing or curative purpose. In 1557 Cardinal Pole insisted in his Injunctions for Cambridge University that the font should be locked up because holy water was stolen. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries attempts were made to baptise animals such as horses, sheep, cats and dogs since it was generally believed that animals would benefit from the rite (Thomas 1971: 35–37). According to a story from Scotland, the success of the holy well of St Drostan’s at Newdosk was so great that the local doctors planned to poison the well. When the local villagers heard of the doctors’ plans, they came together to attack and kill the doctors. Whether they were successful is uncertain, but it gives testimony to the pervasiveness and importance of holy water’s curative effects (Bord & Bord 1985: 46). In other contexts, the difference between ‘kill and cure’ was often minor, and Richard Carew wrote in 1602, in his Survey of Cornwall, of how madness was cured at St Nun’s Well: The water running from St Nunne’s well fell into a square and closewalled plot, which might be filled at what depth they listed. Upon this wall was the franticke person set to stand, his backe towards the poole; and from thence, with a sudden blow in the brest, tumbled headlong into the pond, where a strong fellow, provided for the nonce, tooke him and tossed him and tossed him, up and downe, alongst and athwart the water, until the patient, by forgoing his strength, had somewhat forgot his fury. Then was hee conveyed to the Church, and certaine masses sung over him; upon which handling, if his right wits returned, St Nunne had the thanks; but, if there appeared small amendment, he was bowssened againe, and againe, while there remayned in him any hope of life for recovery (Bord & Bord 1985: 43).

The unfortunate person in this case – Sir George Peckham – actually died of the cold water in the well, and in the account of his life it is said that he had ‘continued so long mumbling his paternosters and Sancta Winifreda ora pro me, that the cold struck into his body and after his coming forth of that well he never spoke more’ (Bord & 130

113-148 WaterChristianity Chap5.indd 130

17/01/2013 12:06

Holy Wells, God’s Penalty and the Devil’s Water

Bord 1985: 44). On the Isle of Man a sarcophagus at the cemetery of St Maughold’s Church was used as a container for the water from the spring, and the water was ‘sweet to the draught, wholesome to the taste, and it healed divers infirmities…whosoever drinketh thereof, either receiveth health, or instantly he dieth’ (Bord and Bord 1985: 51). Healing waters could come from a certain spot or holy place, but water from no particular source could also have this power if it was sanctified or rendered curative through special objects being dipped into it (Bord & Bord 1985: 51). Wells also had other capacities and healing powers. There was a huge variety of wells with different functions and capabilities. There were cursing wells, while others were able to identify thieves and criminals, and some wells had the ability to predict the future, especially with regard to the prospects for the sick. Wells were also used to indicate death: if the water bubbled up, the sick person would recover. On the other hand, if the water remained still, death was a certainty. In a similar fashion, death could be predicted by sinking parts of the sick person’s clothes into the well. If the clothes remained afloat, then the person would recover; if they sank, their destiny was sealed. Holy wells, together with other water sources, were also believed to have the ability to foresee major events such as war, famine and pestilence, and especially flood and drought (Bord & Bord 1985: 67–69). In England there are some 600 wells that were reputed to be ‘good for sore eyes’. The tradition of the eye-wells was strongest in the west, where the Celtic influences were most dominant (Binnal 1945). In the Welsh language, the source of a river or a stream is Llyagad, or ‘eye’, indicating that a well was ‘the eye of the god’. Moreover, according to folklore, ‘you must not look into running water, because you look into God’s eye’ (Bord & Bord 1985: 35). One of the oldest superstitions with regards to the River Thames is connected to the local water goddess. Loaves were offered to the goddess. If the loaves remained afloat one’s wishes had been rejected, but, if they sank, one’s wishes had been accepted and the goddess would renew her blessing. Another variant is water scrying. A person goes to the riverbank and asks a question while throwing a piece of bread into the river. If the bread sinks the answer is affirmative but if it floats the answer is negative (Ackroyd 2007: 86). Along the Thames, which is no more than 215 miles in length, there were more than 50 churches, chapels and chantries devoted to 131

113-148 WaterChristianity Chap5.indd 131

17/01/2013 12:06

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

the Mother of God. Mary was the last of these mother goddesses, and perhaps the most powerful of them all. Virgins would bathe in the Thames to become fertile, which is also one of the oldest myths of the river, and hence devotees became blessed by the Virgin herself (Ackroyd 2007: 94). One reason why the cult of the Virgin was so strong even in England may lie in the Roman Catholic belief that the Virgin Mary had the power to save doomed souls from both Purgatory and Hell. According to some stories, through prayer the condemned could be saved; in other stories the Virgin journeyed to Hell and retrieved the damned. On yet other accounts, the Virgin Mary gave visions to the devotees through which they were able to see Hell as a warning against falling into temptation (van Scott 1998: 290–291). Yet the Thames was not only a body of holy and fertile water and the source of the cult of the Virgin. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the darkness of the Thames was associated with the Devil, and near Barking there was, in the eighteenth century, a building known as ‘the Devil’s house’ (Ackroyd 2007: 375). In Sweden, when the old pagan deities were worsted by Christianity, they took refuge in the rivers (M’Kenzie 1907: 266). ‘White ladies’, common characters in folklore and imaginative literature, were associated with wells (but not solely with wells), and they have often been seen as the spirit or ghost of the fountain or well, and sometimes as a water or fountain nymph (Parsons 1933). Moreover, ‘Ordinary ghosts have been known to haunt wells, not as water nymphs, but as tortured spirits condemned to revisit the hiding place of earthly wealth or the locale of crimes committed by or to them when in the flesh’ (Parsons 1933: 303). Another cure commonly referred to is the ability to reverse both male and female infertility (Bord & Bord 1985: 36). Many wells were believed to cure sterility and in ‘wishing-wells’ barrenness could be cured (M’Kenzie 1907). Of 95 Cornish wells, 20 were associated with children and infants. The emphasis on children’s treatment stresses other qualities than the treatment of sore eyes, skin diseases and insanity (M’Kenzie 1907). The association between children and wells has probably nothing to do with baptism since the difference between the two rites is fundamental. In baptism the lustration rite is a washing rite, cleansing away a taboo and sin. In well-cures, on the other hand, it is the water and not the washing that is the focus. The infant is stripped and laid in the well and has to drink as much as possible, ‘as if it was intended that he should obtain from the 132

113-148 WaterChristianity Chap5.indd 132

17/01/2013 12:06

Holy Wells, God’s Penalty and the Devil’s Water

water some mystic and vital property of which he stood in need’ (M’Kenzie 1907: 267). This vital property was the principle of life. In the traditional folklore of Germany and Scandinavia, it is the stork that brings babies, and the stork came from wells, ponds and rivers. Thus, it is from the very waters (which may also include the sea) that the babies came, and consequently people went to the wells asking for children (M’Kenzie 1907). In general, it was not enough just to drink the water from the well to be cured. The patient had to perform long rituals that were prescribed for specific wells. Some wells were active only at specific times, others worked magical powers only on specific days of the year, and were also believed to be most efficient at prescribed times such as at sunrise and sunset. Moreover, there were distinct ways in which the water had to be used: bathing, total or partial immersion, or the water had to be drunk from a skull or the horn of a living cow (Bord & Bord 1985: 41). Although the use of holy water was ritualised, some of the festivals were more like wakes and included violence. In Ireland it is reported that …it seems more like the celebration of the orgies of Bacchus, than the memory of a pious saint, from the drunken quarrels and obscenities practiced on these occasions. So little is there of devotion, or amendment of life and manners, that these places are frequently chosen for the scenes of pitched battles, fought with cudgels, by parties, not only of parishes, but of counties, set in formal array against each other, to revenge some real or supposed injury, and murders are not an unusual result of these meetings (Bord & Bord 1985: 57).

Thus, as was evident in the case of baths, it was not necessarily the water itself that was the problem, it was the activities that occurred in the place and that surrounded the rituals where water was present. The consequence was, again, that water was associated with all kinds of lavish sin, adultery and drunkenness. Nevertheless, although the wells could be the place for the village wake, strong drinks were not always consumed (Hope 1893: 40).

Disasters as God’s Penalty and Baptism of the World Water and death may have been associated with the Devil and the diabolic, but it plays a fundamental role in God’s world, too. The 133

113-148 WaterChristianity Chap5.indd 133

17/01/2013 12:06

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

Devil is by definition evil, but as indicated in Chapter 2, metaphysical evil may be seen as in the interest of humans because it enables them to direct their devotion to God. When humans have been ignorant, sinned or disobeyed God’s laws, God has often punished them with poverty, famine, disease and so on (Parkin 2005: 171), and this often relates directly to the water world and the hydrological cycle. The Deluge is an example of such a metaphysical evil, and God has throughout history used water as a weapon against sin. Following II Peter (3: 5–7) […]by the word of God… Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men (see Figure 27).

Although the Flood destroyed humanity, it was not seen as a hostile and destructive force; rather, it became seen as the ultimate baptism, which saved the world. This view was common in the writings of the early Fathers. After the Flood, the world emerged purified and free from sin. Cyprian made this point explicitly by stating that the Flood was ‘that baptism of the world’. The relation between the ark and the Church is also reflected in the Anglican rite of baptism. In the current Book of Common Prayer, concerning the water used in baptism, it says: Almighty and everlasting God, who of thy great mercy didst save Noah and his family in the ark from perishing by water; and also didst safely lead the children of Israel through the Red Sea, figuring thereby thy holy Baptism; and by the Baptism of the well-beloved Son Jesus Christ, in the river Jordan, didst sanctify Water to the mystical washing away of sin; We beseech thee, for thine infinite mercies, that thou wilt mercifully look upon this Child; wash him and sanctify him with the holy Ghost… (Book of Common Prayer 1990: 323).

God has traditionally used the world of water to control and penalise humans when they have disobeyed his laws. Particularly revealing is the story of how the Israelites continued to sin. God will do the best for his children, but his patience may run short. The penalty is intended as a blessing showing devotees the righteous path, which is evident in Psalms 78: 10–50, which is worth quoting at length because it illuminates the logic with regard to how God works: 134

113-148 WaterChristianity Chap5.indd 134

17/01/2013 12:06

Holy Wells, God’s Penalty and the Devil’s Water

Figure 27. The dove sent forth from the Ark, Genesis 8: 11. They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law; And forgat his works, and his wonders that he had shewed them…He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers. And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the wilderness. And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust. Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? Behold, he smote the

135

113-148 WaterChristianity Chap5.indd 135

17/01/2013 12:06

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people? Therefore the LORD heard this, and was wroth: so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel; Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation: Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven, And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven. Man did eat angels’ food: he sent them meat to the full…He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea…The wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel. For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works…[God] turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that they could not drink. He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them. He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with frost. He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts. He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them. He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence.

According to Psalms, still the Israelites did not obey his rules but continued to tempt and provoke God, causing divine outrage, and the people suffered by the sword and fire. It is, however, important to point out that God repented and swore that he would never destroy the earth again with water. This is described in Genesis (9: 11–16): And I will establish my covenant with you, neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.

136

113-148 WaterChristianity Chap5.indd 136

17/01/2013 12:06

Holy Wells, God’s Penalty and the Devil’s Water

The rainbow would be the sign of the new covenant, but this understanding of the pact seems to have played a minor role compared to the belief that God continued penalising people with hostile waters. Physical evil increased human pain and suffering, which was not limited to Hell, but it also included suffering on earth, and one may see metaphysical evil as God’s punishment for sins in the form of famine, plague, disease and death. From the latter perspective the universe may be seen as better with evil in it because it becomes a means to a greater good; it brings moral good into being and thus it is an essential precondition for the divine plan (McCloskey 1960: 102–106). Thus, major catastrophes and disasters were commonly seen as God’s response to, and penalty for, sin. Consequently, human misfortune was directly linked to the environment in which they lived and the catastrophes they faced. In the Homilies penury, death and famine were caused by God’s anger and wrath, and the Bible showed that God sent plagues and misfortune as punishment for collective sin. This was a belief shared by commoners, and in 1653 Zachary Bogan published the book, A View of the Threats and Punishments Recorded in the Scriptures, comprising more than 600 pages with calculations of appropriate punishments for every possible sin, including adultery and blasphemy. The clergy identified scapegoats responsible for the community suffering these misfortunes of plague, storms, floods and fire. The blame for the plague of 1665 at Hitchin was placed on a prostitute. Moreover, since the victims of these plagues were foreseen and condemned by God as being punished for their sins, the disease itself was not seen as contagious, and hence there was no ban on visiting the sick and no protective measures were needed (Thomas 1971: 83–87). This belief had its roots in Psalm 91: ‘There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.’ The underlying belief was that obedience to God’s commandments would ensure wealth and prosperity, and a female secretary is reported to have confessed during the Interregnum that she became depressed when she saw that her neighbours were more prosperous than her, concluding that they had prayed more than she had (Thomas 1971: 88): ‘This general assumption that virtue and vice would gain their true deserts acted as a powerful sanction for the morality of the day’ (Thomas 1971: 92). This is in accordance with Weber’s thesis that being one of the elect can be measured in success and the accumulation of wealth (Weber 2006), but he did not pay 137

113-148 WaterChristianity Chap5.indd 137

17/01/2013 12:06

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

much attention to the implicit consequences at the other end of the social and religious scale: ‘The course of worldly events could thus be seen as the working-out of God’s judgements. This was but a refinement of the more basic assumption that the material environment responded to man’s moral behaviour’ (Thomas 1971: 89). Consequently, ‘Protestantism is an index of high guilt’ (Caroll 1981: 483). If true, Christianity is evident in wealth and economic success, and calamities and human suffering are an index of moral disgrace and the sinful state of the community. And this was most often manifest in the water world. Floods, hailstorms or harsh winters caused agricultural failure, famine, suffering and death, and God could also use fire as a parallel to the purifying process in Purgatory and the penalty of Hell (Figure 28). Catholics blamed the Reformers for misfortunes and plagues. The clergy saw the Great Fire of London in 1666 as a punishment of sins that harmed most citizens. The Dutch saw it as a divine judgement imposed on England since they were at war with them, and the Spanish emphasised that a Catholic chapel in the Strand had miraculously not been burnt, which clearly showed that the fire had

Figure 28. The devastating 1607 flood at Burnham-on-Sea and the Bristol Channel. The commemorative plaque in the entrance to the All Saints Church, Kingston Seymour, Somerset, reads: ‘An inundation of the sea water by overflowing and breaking down the Sea banks; happened in this Parish of Kingstone-Seamore, and many others adjoining; by reason whereof many Persons were drown’d and much Cattle and Goods, were lost: the water in the Church was five feet high and the greatest part lay on the ground about ten days. William Bower.’

138

113-148 WaterChristianity Chap5.indd 138

17/01/2013 12:06

Holy Wells, God’s Penalty and the Devil’s Water

the sole purpose of penalising the Protestant heresy. Moreover, the Great Fire was also seen as a sign that Doomsday was to come and that the new millennium had started since it contained the number of the Beast – 666 (Thomas 1971: 105, 141). Interestingly, when the Elbe flood of 1523 destroyed their crops, Saxon farmers blamed it on Luther and his cronies, believing it to be a penalty from God because people had eaten meat during Lent (Scribner 1993: 485). In the seventeenth century, floods were seen as God’s chosen instrument for cleansing the corrupt earth, and implicit in this belief was also that those who were not corrupt would remain unharmed. Indeed, according to local beliefs, some people claimed that the area beside Dagenham by the River Thames was the site of the original Deluge (Ackroyd 2007: 355). Virgins were also believed to be saved from the purifying flood by river goddesses, which in the case of the River Severn in England, for instance, was the goddess Sabrina (Schwyzer 1997: 23). The Biblical Exodus also had a fundamental impact on Western politics and religious conceptions among Americans and English Puritans during the 1640s. The promised freedom and land were believed to be a sign of God’s grace. During the American Revolution it was believed that the land was ‘God’s new Israel’, and Benjamin Franklin proposed that the Great Seal of the United States should depict Moses lifting his rod while the Egyptians drowned in the sea (Walzer 1985: 6). Oliver Cromwell, too, used the Exodus as a parallel to God’s dealings with the English, and the long march through the wilderness required a leader like himself (Walzer 1985: 17). The Dutch Calvinists believed that Holland was the New Jerusalem and that God had made a new covenant with the Dutch people (Schama 1987: 45). What makes the Netherlands unique is the remarkable way in which the Bible was reinterpreted and directly related to the physical landscape and the changing water world. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries there were numerous large floods, which shaped both the physical landscape of the Netherlands as well as the mental character of the Dutch. In the sixteenth century, particularly from the 1560s onwards, the floods became calamitous, and the Dutch who survived regarded themselves as being blessed and ordained. Calvinist Dutchness became synonymous with the transformation of catastrophe into good fortune, in particular turning water into dry land, and those who had survived the floods were seen as the elect ones (Schama 139

113-148 WaterChristianity Chap5.indd 139

17/01/2013 12:06

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

1987: 34–37). The Calvinist preacher, Jacobus Lydius, remarked that ‘when, as on so many occasions, the Netherlands has fallen into the most devilish peril, and has brought to the most extremity, so that all seemed quite lost and without; then God has come to our aid with sudden miracles’ (Schama 1987: 25). Moreover, the reclamation of land was a religious act, and the sixteenth-century hydraulic engineer, Andries Vierlingh, wrote: ‘The making of new land belongs to God alone for He gives to some the wit and strength to do so.’ Hence, the reclaimed land was seen as sacred and purified from sin, and the floods were seen as an apocalyptic end to a sinful world. The Dutch were like Noah, in a new and clean world blessed with an infant’s innocence (Schama 1987: 35–37). These beliefs do not only belong to a distant Protestant past – in certain areas they have prevailed. In 1953, the worst and most disastrous flood in the Netherlands since 1570 occurred. It killed 1,836 people and thousands were made homeless. Although this flood was the result of the dykes bursting, it reveals an underlying logic. The Puritans interpreted the flood as God’s penalty for people’s misbehaviour and misconduct. ‘God’s voice is in the floods of water and the roaring of the wind’, was the reason stated by the editorial in a local magazine: Our Lord walks upon the wings of the wind. He forms the winds in his treasure houses. Our Lord God sent the storm tides and the waters. The judgment of the Lord has come over our people. Nay, not over our stricken lands alone: our whole nation has been judged. The wind of God’s breath has broken through our dykes. (…) The Lord has struck us in our pride: he has shown us that the dykes that we were so proud of could not withstand His might.

Although this might be seen as an extreme view among a small group of equally extreme Christians, a later survey documented that 33 per cent of those who were victims of the flood saw it as God’s punishment. The Deluge cleansed away sinfulness, and in a local newspaper one could read: ‘Where is our repentance? What have we accomplished since 1945? Materialism has been the order of the day: bread and circuses, especially circuses, overflowing cinemas, dancing halls and theatres and churches that have more and more empty seats.’ Moreover, according to the local newspaper, complaining was not only in vain, but also made the situation worse 140

113-148 WaterChristianity Chap5.indd 140

17/01/2013 12:06

Holy Wells, God’s Penalty and the Devil’s Water

because it showed criticism and arrogance towards the mysterious ways of the Lord (Châtel, personal communication). Importantly, even though these misfortunes and calamities bear some similarities to the work of the Devil, there is an important difference. Satan was believed to be behind strange diseases, motiveless crime, unusual success, social wickedness, religious unorthodoxy and disasters: ‘In England witchcraft was an explanation of failure, not of success’ (Thomas 1971: 540). Belief in witches did not explain misfortune in general, which was the penalty imposed by God, but only in particular. Large-scale disasters were the works of God (Thomas 1971: 559–560). Hence, when humans were punished collectively, it was God’s work, but if they were punished individually, it was the work of the Devil. Moreover, from a Christian point of view, it is worth stressing that even calamities such as these were in the end for the benefit of humanity and a sign of God’s grace. Although the realities were harsh and brutal, a just God had inevitably to deal with human imperfection and sin. Therefore, it was in the best interest for humans to go through these sufferings because it put emphasis on the importance of human devotion, penance and repentance.

The Devil and Holy Water There was a difference between Eastern and Western Europe with regard to how famine and drought were perceived. As discussed, in England and on the Continent, they were seen as God’s collective penalty for human misconduct and behaviour. Among the Eastern Slavs, however, plagues and famine were seen as caused by witches, especially old and barren women. The Church looked upon witchcraft as a survival of paganism rather than Devil-worship as such, and it consisted of veneration of nature. Women and witches were believed to possess power to make rain, comfortable temperatures and to bring fertility to the land, but also to reverse these processes (Zguta 1977). Thus, at the outset it seems that human misfortune at a collective level caused by dramatic changes in nature, resulting in drought, famine and flood, were seen in the West as God’s work but in the East as witches’ or the Devil’s work. These explanations, however, are not mutually exclusive. Brother Francesco Maria Guazzo, who published Compendium Maleficarum early in the seventeenth century, describes a very 141

113-148 WaterChristianity Chap5.indd 141

17/01/2013 12:06

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

interesting relation between God and witches that may explain why both God and witches could control the weather and cause misfortune through natural calamities: It is most clearly proved by experience that witches can control not only the rain and the hail and the wind, but even the lightening when God permits…but they confessed that they could not injure whomsoever they pleased, but only those whom God had forsaken, that is (for so I understand it) those who had fallen from God’s grace by mortal sin (Guazzo 1929[1628]: 19).

Moreover, witches may ‘cause rivers to stop flowing, and dry up springs, and irrigate the land with fresh springs produced from rocks and stones: they can make the water of a river turn back and flow to its source…’ (Guazzo 1929[1628]: 20). Witches could also produce life-giving rains at a very precise spot, creating fertility, and therefore the difference between white and black magic was a very fine one. In the Malleus Maleficarum is described a witch who dipped her broom into a pond to bring rain before she flew away and searched for the precious waters (Mauss 2001: 89). Following Guazzo again, a Suabian peasant (in Germany) complained bitterly about a drought and the suffering it caused, but his eight- or ten-year-old daughter came to him and said that she could bring a heavy shower upon the field if he wished: When the father said that he very greatly wished it, she asked him to give her a little water. So they came to a neighbouring stream where she beat the water in the name of that Master, as she said, to whom her mother was dedicated; and thereupon there fell rain from the skies abundantly enough to water that field, while it left all the other fields as dry as they were before (Guazzo 1929[1628]: 21).

Even priests dared to summon rain by means of magic, but these priests were wicked and ‘the vilest sinners of all men’. Among the Slavs, ‘When prolonged drought set in and the community was threatened with famine and death, it was not uncommon, particularly in parts of the Ukraine, for all the women, peasants and gentry alike, to be subjected to the swimming ordeal’ (Zguta 1977: 229). In Ukraine the last multiple witch-swimming took place in 1885, and in 1872 all women from the village of Dzhurkovo were herded together, stripped, bound and thrown in 142

113-148 WaterChristianity Chap5.indd 142

17/01/2013 12:06

Holy Wells, God’s Penalty and the Devil’s Water

the river (Zguta 1977: 228–229). This tradition of swimming the witch has a long history in Christianity. A striking testimony is this quote from the Fourth Sermon of Bishop Vladimir Serapion, who explains and complains about people’s perceptions of – and responses to – the devastating famine in Russia from 1271 to 1274 (op. cit., Zguta 1977: 223): And you still cling to pagan traditions; you believe in witchcraft and burn innocent people and bring down murder upon earth and the city…Out of what books or writings do you learn that famine on earth is brought about by witchcraft? You pray to them and implore them and bring them gifts, as if they had dominion over the earth – permitting rain, bringing warmth, making the land fruitful. In the past three years there has been no harvest not only in Rus’ but among the Latins [of the West] as well. Are witches responsible for this? Can God not order his creation if he wants to punish us for our sins?

The ordeal by water was commonly used in times of severe drought. Women who were accused of withholding rain had to carry pails of water from a nearby river or pond to a cross or other religious shrine. They then had to pour water on the shrine, and those who bore the water without spilling any water were proved innocent and released, but those who spilled some of the precious water along the way were accused of being witches and responsible for the drought (Zguta 1977: 227). At Canterbury Cathedral, the pool with holy water that was used for baptism was also used for the water-test. The ordeal by immersion could be a strict ritual. The accused was made to fast for three days, shaved and stripped of clothes and amulets. According to a tenth-century version of the ordeal, the priest offered the accused the mass with the words: ‘May this body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you today at the trial.’ After the mass, the priest brought with him holy water to the place where the trial should take place and offered the accused to drink of the water. Then the priest would ‘strip the probands of their clothes, have each of them kiss the gospel and the cross, sprinkle each with the holy water, and throw them one by one into the water’ (Radding 1979: 955–956). In 1613 a pamphlet was published with the title, Witches Apprehended, Examined and Executed, for notable villanies by them committed both by Land and Water. With a strange and most true trial how to know whether a woman be a witch or not. As the title suggests, 143

113-148 WaterChristianity Chap5.indd 143

17/01/2013 12:06

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

it gives a detailed account of a water ordeal, which is worth referring to at some length: His friend understanding this, advised him to take them, or any one of them to his Mill damme, having first shut up the Mill gates that the water might be highest, and then binding their armes crosse, stripping them into their Smocks, and leauing their legges at libertie, throw them into the water, yet least they should not be Witches, and that their liues might not be in danger of drowning, let there be a roape tyed about their middles, so long it may reach from one side your damme to the other, where on each side let one of your men stand, that if she chance to sinke they may draw her up and preserue her. Then if she swimme, take her up, & cause some women to search her, upon which, if they finde any extraordinarie markes about her, let her a second time be bound, and haue her right thumbe bound to her left toe, and her left thumbe to her right toe, and your men with the same rope (if need be) to preserue her, and bee thrown into water, when if she swimme, you may build upon it, that she is a Witch (op. cit. Briggs 1962).

The rationale behind the water-test was the commonly held belief that the Devil was allergic to holy water and therefore it was an appropriate medium for detecting evil (Figure 29). In Puritan England witchcraft was seen as a spiritual crime and the main offence was the fact that the witch had been in a pact with the Devil, and not necessarily that she had been involved in white or black magic (Levack 2008: 76). The use of water for testing whether a person was a witch or not was a consequence of the rituals that took place when witches made their pact with the Devil. First, witches denied the Christian faith and repudiated the protection of the Virgin Mary. This implied denying baptism: ‘I deny the Creator of Heaven and earth. I deny my Baptism. I deny the worship I formerly paid to God….’ Then the Devil ‘places his claw upon their brow, as a sign that he rubs off the Holy Chrism and destroys the mark of their Baptism. Second, he bathes them in a new mock baptism’ (Guazzo 1929[1628]: 14; see Figure 30). Thus, the water in the water-test was seen as a baptism, and those who had renounced baptism would be rejected by the water. Therefore, a woman in a pact with the Devil would float, but if she were pure and faithful to God, she would sink into the symbolic, baptismal water since God would not accept evil (Thomas 1971: 551). 144

113-148 WaterChristianity Chap5.indd 144

17/01/2013 12:06

Holy Wells, God’s Penalty and the Devil’s Water

Figure 29. Swimming a witch. The swimming of the witch Mary Sutton.

Figure 30. The Devil performs a mock baptism.

Confession of witchcraft could be extracted under torture, swimming and pricking (Levack 2008: 44). In areas where the Inquisition and the Malleus Maleficarum (Kramer & Sprenger [1484]1971) were less well known, such as in England, the preliminary test for witches was usually ordeal by water, commonly known as ‘swimming a witch’ (Zguta 1977: 220–221). The cold water ordeal 145

113-148 WaterChristianity Chap5.indd 145

17/01/2013 12:06

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

(judicum aquae frigidae) was common among the Slavs in Eastern Europe and was established as early as the mid-twelfth century (Zguta 1977). In Russia, the thirteenth-century bishop, Vladimir Serapion, challenged the logic of the water trial: ‘You make water the witness and say: if she begins to sink, she is innocent; if she floats she is a witch. Is it not possible that the devil himself, seeing your weak faith, supported her so that she would not sink, thus contributing to your own perdition?’ (op. cit., Zguta 1977: 223). Hence, the test was believed to be problematic because of the possibility that the Devil might manipulate the actual water (Bodin [1580]1980). The Roman Church early on banned the water-test. In 1215 the Fourth Lateran Council replaced all the medieval ordeals with a criminal procedure that would rely on the evaluation of evidence by human reason. Nevertheless, the swimming-test continued as a popular trial among the laity despite the fact that it had no standing in Scottish or English Law and was not seen as valid legal evidence (Levack 2008: 45). According to the Malleus Maleficarum, however, torture was the best way to get a witch to confess, and it also had the additional advantage that it would break the witch’s pact with the Devil (Kramer & Sprenger [1484]1971). In Scotland torture was quite common as opposed to England, and King James recommended two techniques for identifying witches: pricking and swimming. The belief in the Devil’s mark was strong in Scotland, and it was believed that the Devil gave the witch a special mark that was insensitive to pain and could not bleed. The second extra-judicial technique was swimming, and this procedure was used more frequently in England than Scotland (Levack 2008: 44–45). The water-test was quite common in the British Isles as early as the 1590s (Thomas 1971: 551), but prior to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it was rarely used in the West except in England. Nevertheless, the community sometimes took the law into their own hands by maltreating or ‘swimming’ the witch, who sometimes died in the process (Thomas 1971: 453). In England persecution and the trial by swimming lasted well into the nineteenth century (Kingsbury 1950: 144). In Spain and Germany the water-test was seen as an objective way of finding out whether a person really was a witch. If the woman floated she was guilty; if not, she was believed to be innocent. In Germany this also had its rationale in the belief that those who cast spells did not weigh much. Thus, if a person’s weight did not 146

113-148 WaterChristianity Chap5.indd 146

17/01/2013 12:06

Holy Wells, God’s Penalty and the Devil’s Water

correspond to their bulk, it was a sign that they were a witch or a sorcerer (Baroja 1964: 203). Water also had another structural function in the process of neutralising evil and witches. During the age of the witch-hunt, Guazzo mentions in his Compendium Maleficarum that witches may recover the shape of their bodies and the health of their minds and souls by being baptised. In 1596 at Bungo, there is a story of a heathen woman who was possessed by a demon, and she could not deliver children unless she became a Christian. The woman consented to become a Christian and being baptised. But the night after she had decided to be baptised, the demon dissuaded her from becoming a Christian, saying: ‘Have you been associated with me in such intimate familiarity for so long, and will you desert me now? You shall not do so with impunity.’ She continued sleeping and felt nothing, but the demon cut off her hair. When she realised this upon waking, she wanted to be baptised as soon as possible, and after having received the sacrament she was immune from all the demon’s torments. The battle between demons and those who wanted to be baptised could be even tougher. In Munich in 1583 there is a report of a 23-year-old Jew who was baptised in the College of the Jesuits. The demon tried everything to avoid him being baptised and the more the youth sought for Baptism, the more violently the demon assailed him. He threw him nearly naked out of the house; sometime he nearly throttled him; often he frightened him with visions and spectres so as to drive him out of his mind. The face of the demon was so foully hideous that the youth said that there was no torture to be compared with the sight of him.

At the day of the baptism, the young Jew seems to have been possessed and fought his life’s battle with the demon: ‘the bitter Enemy so violently took hold upon the youth that he could hardly be held in one place by many men. But when he was a member of Christ through Baptism, the demon was at once broken and deprived of his strength’ (Guazzo 1929[1628]: 184). Thus, to sum up briefly, water has been associated with God and the Devil, and both terrestrial and divine agencies have employed water to cause human misfortune, but also to help and cure people by the virtues and qualities of, for instance, holy wells. Water has 147

113-148 WaterChristianity Chap5.indd 147

17/01/2013 12:06

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

been an ambivalent source, which has worked in both the spheres of God and the Devil – Heaven and Hell – with direct implications for how water was believed to be working miracles. Despite the Protestant dogma that water contained no spiritual powers, even within Christianity water was, in practice, ascribed various qualities that can be analysed as holy, sacred or neutral water. These different attributions have to be seen in relation to how water worked, which directs attention to magic, science and religion. If water worked in accordance to religion, it was a Christian practice, but if it worked magically, it was the work of the Devil, which also highlights the role of science in these discourses.

148

113-148 WaterChristianity Chap5.indd 148

17/01/2013 12:06

6 Magic, Science and Religion Magic after the Reformation Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Weber 2006[1930]) in general, and Keith Thomas’s Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century England (1971) in particular, have shaped the common understanding and interpretation of Christianity after the Reformation in England. They both share the premise that belief in magic declined with the Reformation and a new Protestant ethic developed along with science, giving rise to the rational, economic industrialist. This inspires a curiosity concerning the relation between magic, science and religion with regards to water. Though there are differences between magic, science and religion, they are also related. Edward B. Tylor and James G. Frazer argued that magic was a ‘pseudo-science’ (Wax and Wax 1963). This is no coincidence, for the ‘magician is a person who, through his gifts, his experiences or through revelation, understands nature and natures; his practice depends on knowledge: It is here that magic most approximates science’ (Mauss 2001: 94). Indeed, the interrelatedness of magic, science and religion is evident in one of the greatest thinkers of all time: Isaac Newton. Newton maintained an interest in alchemy throughout his life, and owned about 100 volumes on the subject at the time of his death, although he compiled only one alchemical manuscript himself – the ‘Sententiae notabiles’ – sometime after 1686. Whether he really was engaged in the quest for the Golden Fleece is still doubted by diehard rationalists, but Newton did send a letter in which he asks Aston to verify a whole series of metallurgical and alchemical hints and rumours he had heard. Newton also discussed various formulae and made an abstract 149

149-176 WaterChristianity Chap6.indd 149

17/01/2013 12:08

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

from The Epitome of the Treatise of Health, written by Edwardus Generosus, and he was also involved in the search for an elixir of life (Manuel 1968: 162–169). Newton’s method of argument had much in accord with the pre-Socratic philosophers and the King James Bible, revealing the identity of his religious and scientific thought: Newton’s alchemical preoccupations are wonderful examples of the mixture of credulity and sophisticated scepticism that has often been remarked of great men. Newton was almost a fanatical traditionalist about the ancient word transmitted in the Bible, in the writings of acceptable Church fathers and rabbis, in Greek myth, in the fragments of pre-Socratic philosophers, or in the treatises of Medieval and Renaissance alchemist. And at the same time he was a most searching and rigorous experimenter, questioning until convinced (Manuel 1968: 190).

Newton’s work consummated the decline in astrology that partly resulted from the astronomical revolution initiated by Copernicus (Thomas 1971: 349). However, the decline in magic was accompanied by a growth in the natural sciences that helped people to understand their world (Thomas 1971: 656, 663). The affinity between magic and science lay in the fact that many magicians also had highly-developed skills and technologies. Magicians possessed knowledge of metallurgy, they were the first surgeons and they knew about poisons, whilst the alchemists believed in a hidden essence and magical water that could produce gold (Mauss 2001: 91, 94). In a ‘magical world view’ things are logically connected and understood, as Wax and Wax have emphasised: We think of ourselves as the believers in causal law and the primitive as dwelling in a world of happenstance. Yet, the actuality is to the contrary; It is we who accept the possibility of logic and pure chance, while for the dweller in the magical world, no event is ‘accidental’ or ‘random’, but each has its chain of causation in which Power, or its lack, was the decisive agency (Wax & Wax 1962: 183).

Hence, magical beliefs are not so different from scientific beliefs: but while all science, even the most traditional, is always conceived as being positive and experimental, magic is a priori belief…Magic has such authority that a contrary experience does not, on the whole, destroy a person’s belief. In fact, it escapes all control (Mauss 2001: 114).

150

149-176 WaterChristianity Chap6.indd 150

17/01/2013 12:08

Magic, Science and Religion

Failure may even endow the sorcerer with more authority, for it gives evidence of the terrible powers he has to work against even when his powers fail (Mauss 2001: 114). The effects of magic are perceived to be produced by a person’s skill. A magical ceremony would usually be performed outside a main religious building such as the Church. And whilst religious rites are performed openly, most magical rites are performed secretly. Indeed, isolation and secrecy most often characterise magical rites. And as they do not belong to the official body or faction they are regarded as unauthorised and outside normal practices (Mauss 2001: 28–29). Thus, if a definition of magic disregards for the moment the structure of the rites, and considers only the circumstances in which they occur, then ‘a magical rite is any rite which does not play a part in organised cults – it is private, secret, mysterious and approaches the limit of a prohibited rite’ (Mauss 2001: 30, original emphasis). Magic bears resemblances to religion, because ‘Magic, by definition, is believed…Magic, like religion, is viewed as a totality; either you believe in it all, or you do not’ (Mauss 2001: 113). However, there are also important differences. Religion is mainly directed towards the metaphysical and the abstract, whereas magic more closely resembles technology because it has a functional identity and its outcome is mainly directed towards this world; it plays a practical role in the here and now and it often has concrete, visible results. And whilst in most respects religion is a collective phenomenon, ‘magic is as anti-social as it can be, if by “social” we primarily imply obligation and coercion’ (Mauss 2001: 110). More important is the way that magic happens. In religion, the results are dependent upon the divinities: the devotees do not control the outcome. With magic it is the opposite: Magic is the domain of pure production, ex nihilo. With words and gestures it does what techniques achieve by labour…Magic works in the same way as do our techniques, crafts, medicine, chemistry, industry, etc. Magic is essentially the art of doing things,

Marcel Mauss argues, but ‘…a magician does nothing, or almost nothing, but makes everyone believe that he is doing everything… [it is] an opus operatum from the magician’s point of view’ (Mauss 2001: 175). 151

149-176 WaterChristianity Chap6.indd 151

17/01/2013 12:08

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

Thus, there is a fundamental difference between a Christian’s prayer and a magician’s spell. The latter was claimed to work automatically, whilst the outcome of a prayer was uncertain – it depended upon God. The magic spell was a mechanical manipulation that would not go wrong, and it was based on occult forces of nature that the magician had learnt to control (Thomas 1971: 41). Thus it was not the powers in themselves that were problematic, but how they affected the believer. The fundamental question is whether some substances or rites automatically have the ability to realise miracles or whether these miracles are carefully granted according to God’s divine wishes. Importantly, ‘Protestant belief did not hold that the sacred did not intrude into the secular world, simply that it did not do so at human behest and could not automatically be commanded’ (Scribner 1993: 484, my emphasis); or, as Thomas put it: ‘Protestants denied the claim of the medieval Church to be able to manipulate God’s grace for earthly purposes’ (Thomas 1971: 78). One of the most important contributions to the study of magic in anthropology is Malinowski’s essay, ‘Magic, Science and Religion’ (Malinowski 1926), in which he argues that the natives were practical people and only used magic when they faced exceptional conditions and calamities. According to Malinowski, magic is generally to be found where a gap in understanding exists with regard to people’s knowledge and the problems they face – they are not equipped with the knowledge to solve these problems yet they still have to find a way to deal with them (Malinowski 1926). Thomas, who follows Malinowski’s definition of magic, argues that magic is ‘employed unaccompanied to deal with unusual difficulties outside the normal routine’ (Thomas 1971: 647), and that the decline of magic coincided with a marked improvement in the extent to which people were able to control their environment (Thomas 1971: 650). For common folk the real world was a harsh one where supernatural beings constantly influenced and threatened their lives (Wilby 2005: 8). Protestantism spread initially in those countries with harsh climates – such as Britain, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, northern Germany and Switzerland (Caroll 1981: 483) – and it has been argued that the Reformation has to be seen in relation to two ‘internal’ factors: climate and plague; since ‘climate exerts a major influence on disposition, and that those who have lived for generations in a harsh climate without insulation against its rigours would have developed a predisposition towards introspectiveness’ (Caroll 152

149-176 WaterChristianity Chap6.indd 152

17/01/2013 12:08

Magic, Science and Religion

1981: 484). The question was: could Protestantism as a religion offer people what they needed and expected? Even in the eighteenth century there was a wide gap between what the commoners wanted from religion and what the official Church offered (Kent 2002: 5). From the commoners’ worldview, argues Scribner: …all creation depended for its wellbeing on the sustaining power of the divine. Irregularities and discontinuities in the material world were understood either as a form of breakdown of this cosmic order or as a result of sacred power upon the world;

and ‘All manifestations of the sacred – whether in persons, places, or events – also entailed manifestations of sacred power and therefore the possibility of access to it’ (Scribner 1993: 478). Christianity’s problem was thus twofold because the sacraments worked on a fine line between magic and religion. On the one hand, Christianity emphasised salvation through the sacraments, but on the other hand, the Devil worked in this world and he and his companions had to be combated. When the sacraments were believed to work automatically (ex opere operato), in practice they worked very close to magic. But when the sacraments were taken out of the sacred sphere and turned into sacramentals in the secular sphere, then the fine line between magic and religion became even more blurred (Scribner 1993: 479). An important difference between the sacraments and the sacramentals was that the former were first and foremost believed to be soteriological, whilst the latter were mainly believed to work in the here and now, with an emphasis on the pastoral, consolatory and apotropaic. Moreover, even though the Church claimed that the sacramentals worked only when used with the right frame of mind (ex opere operantis), outside the Church they were generally believed by the laity to work automatically (ex opere operato). Hence, the sacramentals fell outside the control of Church and they were immensely popular (Scribner 1993: 480). But the Reformation was not a desacralization of the world: quite the contrary. Luther had a powerful belief in the presence and activity of the Devil in the world, and believed that his age had finally unmasked the Devil’s main agent, the Antichrist, the diabolic antithesis of Christ as Savior (Scribner 1993: 482–483).

153

149-176 WaterChristianity Chap6.indd 153

17/01/2013 12:08

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

As Scribner argues: ‘Luther’s thought was thus apocalyptic and eschatological, rather than desacralizing’ (Scribner 1993: 483). The world of the Reformers was charged with sacrality, and any change could have cosmic significance and implication. This was also true for Calvin, who intensified the cosmic struggle between God and the Devil. Moreover, the Reformation did not create an anti-ritualistic religion: in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries evangelical forms of consecration reemerged and multiplied, and were applied to a wide variety of objects…Care was always taken to insist that no such consecrations in no way imparted any form of sacred power, as under Catholicism. Nonetheless, popular belief insisted in treating such objects as if they were as sacralised as their Catholic equivalent (Scribner 1993: 483).

The problem the Protestant laity faced was that the magic of the medieval Church was removed, but that this intensified rather than lessened the anxiety concerning malign forces which undoubtedly existed in the real world (Scribner 1993: 487): ‘Deprived of the protective means inherent in the Catholic sacramental system, Protestants found themselves prey to anxiety that was hardly allayed by invoking the Protestant doctrine of providence’ (Scribner 1993: 486). This may also explain why belief in holy wells and water was so strong even though the Church condemned it as pagan, heretic and diabolic. Moreover, the power of the Devil and his demons was real, even though, as we have seen, this could also have a variety of benevolent outcomes. And from another perspective, in colonial Mexico the Devil was not necessarily seen as a terrible and frightening character, but more as a figure who gave hope to people in times of crisis, offering solace and conversation. Sometimes, it seems, the Devil solved people’s problems more directly and quickly than God, and that his magic was more efficacious than the magic of the Church (Behar 1987: 43–44). It is easy to see how some individuals – struggling to survive in a harsh world – might have clung to any supernatural agency that promised to improve their condition, not caring to question its provenance or moral status too deeply (Wilby 2000: 302). Thus, paganism was not only the ‘other’ religion, but it worked alongside Christianity, offering practical solutions: ‘paganism had plenty of deities…to be feared if you did not take the right steps 154

149-176 WaterChristianity Chap6.indd 154

17/01/2013 12:08

Magic, Science and Religion

to appease them, but paganism knew the right steps to take’ (Nock 1933: 104–105). And those who were in a pact with Satan were also granted extraordinary powers – such as the power of clairvoyance or great bodily strength (Reis 1995: 34). This was also true in England, where it was believed that the power of the Devil could have curative functions in society. Healing was the most characteristic skill of cunning women, which was either learnt from fairies or, as evident from a witch trial on the Orkney in 1629, from the Devil (Wilby 2000: 289). Such healing often involved water but belief in the workings of water was blasphemy. As the early bishop, Martin of Braga, said: ‘…to put bread in spring, what is that but the worship of the devil?’ (Ackroyd 2007: 287). The decline in magic within the Church established a hierarchical relation where God’s superiority and power went unchallenged: nothing miraculous could take place unless it was initiated and given by God. Hard work, prayer and penance could be rewarded in this life with prosperity and God’s grace, but from the Christian point of view the really important grace was not in this life but in the life hereafter. Holy water, however, functioned in other ways. The effects of holy water were believed to be immediate and direct – it functioned here and now. One reason, therefore, why belief in the power of holy water was not seen as a heresy by the common people, or as in opposition or contrary to being a good Christian, may relate to different scales and levels of a problem and to divine intervention. As shown, belief in the power of holy water did not disappear – on the contrary, magical springs became ‘holy wells’ associated with saints, but they were still used for magical healing and for divining the future. As Thomas argues: ‘[…] if the people were going to resort to magic anyway it was far better that it should be a magic over which the Church maintained some control’ (Thomas 1971: 48). Therefore, although there was a decline in magic in other belief systems, the role of water remained unchanged. Holy water and water rituals in Christianity mainly worked at a mundane level concerned with the problems of daily life: the prosperity of husbandry, successful crops, preserving health and family wealth and good fortune were the main concerns for common people, and for these concerns holy water as a sacramental and water from holy wells were believed to be more efficacious than prayers in Church. Even though the Church condemned the sacramental role of holy 155

149-176 WaterChristianity Chap6.indd 155

17/01/2013 12:08

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

water as Catholic, or as diabolic superstition and magic, water still played a fundamental role in the Christian worldview. In fact, it was water that triggered a separation between religion and science. But it was also water (and the hydrological cycle) that brought them back together, and this was the consequence of a new way of looking at nature through religion.

Religion and Science And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth. And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered. And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark. And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days (Genesis 7: 17–24).

Towards the end of the seventeenth century – the dawn of science as we know it today – the Flood became a highly debated topic and belief in the Deluge caused considerable difficulties for rationalists. Many new questions and problems arose. If the Deluge really did take place, for example, then surely it should be possible to trace where it happened. The problem was that if the Flood really was universal, then a number of questions arose that it was impossible to answer satisfactorily. Explorers in South America, for example, brought back animals and species that were unknown in the Old World, giving rise to the question: how did they get there in the first place? In The Anatomy of Melancholy, Robert Burton posed the question: Why so many thousand strange birds and beasts proper to America alone, as Acosta demands…were they created in sixe dayes, or ever

156

149-176 WaterChristianity Chap6.indd 156

17/01/2013 12:08

Magic, Science and Religion in the Noah’s arke? If there, why are they not dispersed and found in other countries? It is a thing (saith he) hath long held me in suspense; no Greek, Latin, Hebrew ever heard of them before, and yet as differing from our European animals, as an egg and a chestnut… (Burton 1990[1632]: 42).

The finds of rare species of animals in other parts of the world gave rise to doubts as to whether the Flood could have been truly universal. But there were other reasons as well. During the seventeenth century, growth in intellectual curiosity led some scientists to wonder where such an enormous amount of water could have come from; and, equally importantly, where it could have gone to after the Flood was over. Rationalists also claimed that if the earth was covered by salt water, it would have been rendered infertile. In response, Jean Clerc of Saumur, a London preacher, argued that the fresh water would have diluted the salt water (Allen 1963: 88). Hence, the truth of the Bible became a matter for doubt and debate, as the religious mind was challenged by the rationalist mind, although superstitious and religious beliefs continued to coexist for a long time. Thomas Burnet (?1636–1715) published his The Sacred Theory of the Earth in 1681, and a more popular version appeared in 1684 under the title The Theory of the Earth. In these books he gave detailed descriptions and scientific explanations of the Flood (Cohn 1996: 54–57; see Figures 31(a) & (b)). The Theory of the Earth represents a synthesis of two very different bodies of thought: on the one hand, the new mechanistic cosmology of Descartes; and on the other hand, the age-old theological tradition describing God’s curse upon the Earth (Cohn 1996: 58). The big questions that Thomas Burnet was concerned with were the nature of the world before the Flood, and the origin of the Flood and of mountains (Ogden 1947). These were important questions, and no less a scholar than Isaac Newton wrote to Burnet, saying: ‘Of our present, sea, rocks, mountains etc., I think you have given the most plausible account’ (Cohn 1996: 61). The rationalist demand for logic was not a problem for Catholic theologians, since the Flood was nothing but a miracle, and therefore no rational explanation was either possible or desirable (Cohn 1996: 43). Consequently, if the presence of the Flood waters was a miracle, its dissolution was equally a miracle. When, in the debate between the Clerks and the rationalists, the latter argued that if the sun dried up the water then there should be more water in the 157

149-176 WaterChristianity Chap6.indd 157

17/01/2013 12:08

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

(a)

(b) Figures 31(a) and (b). The hydrological cycle according to Thomas Burnet, Second Book 1685–1690[1965], pp. 166 & 169. The first illustration shows the river in the air where vapours rise from the torrid zones and move to the pole. The second illustration shows the rivers running from the poles to the torrid zones.

158

149-176 WaterChristianity Chap6.indd 158

17/01/2013 12:08

Magic, Science and Religion

sky than on the earth, the Church simply explained it as a miracle (Allen 1963). Apart from the answers themselves, which were thought provoking, the main problem was the cosmological implication of the questioning itself. From a religious point of view, the rationalist explanation was a serious heresy. Some of the early Fathers and theologians were against reason because, they said, it has no control of truth. Individual reasoning was, according to their view, the first step on the ladder of pride. In other words, it was the beginning of the great apostasy of Lucifer and, consequently, by challenging biblical authority evil would conquer the world. The underlying and key question was nevertheless whether faith or reason was the best (or only) source to knowledge and the truth. It was in this regard that the Protestants created ecclesiastical anarchy. According to Catholics, the Church was superior to the scriptures and all religious knowledge; but the Protestants enabled anybody to discuss scriptural matters (Allen 1963: 3–4). The relation between science and religion was an intimate one and, although religion was challenged by science on the one hand, it was religion that spurred the development of science on the other hand. This has its intellectual history in the understanding and ontological status of nature: was nature the work of God or the Devil? The old Church Fathers such as Origen, Jerome and Chrysostom believed that nature, and all external materialities, were diabolic and had to be combated – in the words of Chrysostom, one had to bring ‘the beast under control’ by ‘banishing the flood of unworthy passions’. Aquinas, too, claimed human domination of things (Harrison 1999: 91). Traditionally, bodies of water were seen as dreadful places fraught with dangers and demons. The sea was seen as evidence that the creation was unfinished, and the ocean was a remnant of the primeval substance which created a strong sense of repulsion. Thomas Burnet’s The Theory of the Earth had a special significance in this understanding, and it was referred to throughout the eighteenth century. The sea was seen as the most frightful sight that nature could offer, and the seashore was nothing but the ruins of the world. The ocean was an abyss, full of debris (Corbin 1994: 2–4). The demonic nature of the sea provided a justification for exorcism and, during the sixteenth century, sailors immersed relics in the waves (Corbin 1994: 7). Nature was a terrifying place: it was believed to be unfinished and literally the Devil’s place (Figure 32). 159

149-176 WaterChristianity Chap6.indd 159

17/01/2013 12:08

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

Figure 32. Spithead. Engraving by William Miller after J. M. W. Turner.

This worldview, however, was challenged and there was a fundamental shift in the perception of nature and in the role that God played: ‘A gradual shift occurred from the image of a terrible God who unleashes the torrents of the heavens to the reassuring sovereign who chose to harness the oceans and establish boundaries to it’ (Corbin 1994: 26). From nature being perceived as malign and dangerous it became a symbol of, and evidence for, God’s perfection and divine plan. Again, water and the Flood played a major role in developing and bringing about this change. This was represented first and foremost in the hydrological cycle. Natural theology was crucial in the process of erasing negative images of nature. As it is written in the Psalms, the Lord was admirable in waters: ‘Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens’ (Psalms 148: 4). Natural theology marked a fundamental change in thinking, and these physiotheologians saw the external world as a spectacle and an image given by God. Indeed, one of the most popular books of the time was Theology of Water, or Essay on the Goodness, Wisdom, and Power of God, published in 1734 by the German professor, Johann Albert Fabricius (Corbin 1994: 25). 160

149-176 WaterChristianity Chap6.indd 160

17/01/2013 12:08

Magic, Science and Religion

The physio-theologians rejected the idea of a world in decline that was supposedly a consequence of human corruption and sin. God had created a perfect external earth, which ever since the Flood had been stable. The main goal of natural theology was edification, and human beings’ five senses enabled man to understand God’s work. This idea of discerning the religious meaning of the world was possible through the investigation of how nature worked. The system of classification of the Swedish botanist Linnaeus was based upon just such a vision that actually revealed the plan of creation (Figure 33). Hence, ‘a close link developed between the collector’s

Figure 33. Cover page of Supplementum Plantarum Systematis Vegetabilium by Carolus Linnaeus the Younger, April 1782. 161

149-176 WaterChristianity Chap6.indd 161

17/01/2013 12:08

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

patience, the scholar’s curiosity, and the Christian’s piety’ (Corbin 1994: 24). Science and religion became two sides of the same coin, and although the scientific methodology differed from that employed by those engaged in alchemy, the practice of science was within the sphere of Christianity. Philosophers of the Enlightenment perceived the qualities of water, which provided and sustained life, as a sign of God’s love (Krolzik 1990). During the Enlightenment, water became the ‘fountainhead’ of spiritual knowledge and wisdom (Strang 2005: 106), and the developing awareness of the hydrological circle in particular changed conceptions of nature, from being seen as a dangerous and devilish place to a revelation of God’s master plan and perfect logic. This also had its scriptural basis in the Bible: For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it (Isaiah 55: 10–11).

During the period c. 1700–1850 the relation between religion and science was intimate and structured around water, and the concept of the hydrological cycle may be seen as a construct of natural theology rather than natural philosophy (see Farnsworth 2010). Yi-Fu Tuan gives a detailed analysis of the development of the notion and understanding of the hydrological cycle in his book, The Hydrological Cycle and the Wisdom of God: A Theme in Geoteleology (Tuan 1968). Scientists believed that by understanding nature they could attain knowledge of the wisdom of God. This is best testified to in Ecclesiastes (1: 7): ‘All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.’ Pierre Perrault’s Treatise on the Origin of Springs, published in 1674, was a hallmark in scientific thinking regarding the hydrological circle. According to Perrault, the water in the rain and snow that fell upon the earth was the cause and the origin of springs. This work was important with regards to water lore because it reflected a critical step away from the centuries-old perception that underground sources or forces produced the water in the world (Gribben 1992: 5). Another key figure in this scientific progress was 162

149-176 WaterChristianity Chap6.indd 162

17/01/2013 12:08

Magic, Science and Religion

John Ray, author of The Wisdom of God, published in 1691. The book became a great success and was reprinted in 12 editions, the latest as recently as 1827 (Tuan 1968: 7). The problem was, as Ray put it: But what Need was there (may some say) that the Sea should be made so large, that its Superficies should equal, if not exceed, that of dry land? Where is the wisdom of the Creator in making so much useless sea, and so little dry land, which would have been far more beneficial and serviceable to Mankind? (op. cit., Tuan 1968: 9–10).

The answer Ray gives is: ‘but if there were but half the Sea that now is, there would be also but half the Quantity of Vapours, and consequently we could have but half so many Rivers as now there are to supply all the dry land’ (op. cit., Tuan 1968: 10). Thus, the hydrological cycle explained all geological and topographical features. The rivers were fed by rain, which also explained why there were mountains, because they enabled the waters to flow to fields and back to the sea. Floods were also necessary to return the surplus water back to the sea after the earth was sated with rain (Tuan 1968: 14). All of this was part of the greater wisdom of the Creator. As Linnaeus writes, with regard to the hydrological cycle, in his Oeconomia Naturae (1791): The chief sources of rivers are fountains, and rills growing by gradual supplies into still larger and larger streams, till at last, after the conflux of a vast number of them, they find no stop, but falling into the sea with lessened rapidity, they there deposit the united stores they have gathered, along with foreign matter, and such earthy substances, as they tore off in their way. Thus the water returns in a circle, whence it first drew its origin, that it may act over the same scene again (op. cit., Tuan 1968: 117).

Understanding the water world had a crucial role in man’s idea of himself in the cosmological scheme of things, as well as in the development of science. And this understanding of nature as the wisdom and fountainhead of God may also add new light to the oft-claimed statement that the historical roots of our ecological crisis are to be blamed on Christianity. Lynn White put forward this theory in 1967 by arguing that the current ecological crisis is caused by the ‘orthodox Christian arrogance towards nature’ (White 1967: 1207). 163

149-176 WaterChristianity Chap6.indd 163

17/01/2013 12:08

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

The point of departure for this understanding has been seen to be Genesis (1: 28): And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Technological mastery of nature enabled exploitation and, according to White: ‘we shall continue to have a worsening ecologic crisis until we reject the Christian axiom that nature has no reason for existence save to serve man’ (White 1967: 1207). Today, during times of climate change and ecological crisis, there has been a call for a reinvention of a Christian theology of nature (e.g. Hendry 1980; Case-Winters 2007; Haughty 2007). Whether Christianity, backed by science, emphasised despotism or stewardship with regard to nature or not can be viewed from a water perspective. After the Reformation, natural theology saw nature as the wisdom of God and not the work of the Devil. This had enormous consequences for human beings’ relationship with the world, and the religious rationale became one of reconstructing paradise on Earth – in other words to perfect nature. In particular, the Protestant work ethic highlighted that the Garden of Eden had to be seen as an actual garden where Adam had carried out agricultural work. The paradise that God had created was by its very nature a paradise that had to be worked. As pious devotees, humans had to work. God had made men, according to Bishop Lancelot Andrews (1555–1626), ‘to labour, not to be idle’ (Harrison 1999: 99–100). Dominion over the earth was therefore seen as a recovered or restored dominion, closely related to the fall. The world Adam and his descendents inherited was not the earth in a natural state but a suffering and cursed earth. ‘The infertility of the ground, the ferocity of savage beasts, the existence of weeds, thorns, and thistles, of ugly toads and venomous serpents, all of these were painful remainders of the irretrievable loss of the paradisal earth’, Harrison argues. Consequently, human ‘dominion is held out as the means by which the earth can be restored to its prelapsarian order of perfection’ (Harrison 1999: 99–103). The infertile, cursed earth was a natural world lacking the life-giving waters, which takes us back to God as the provider of water, and how divine penalties 164

149-176 WaterChristianity Chap6.indd 164

17/01/2013 12:08

Magic, Science and Religion

were made manifest through drought, famine and catastrophe. Although created by God, the earth after the Garden of Eden was a harsh place, even if it nevertheless revealed the wisdom of God. As faithful devotees, humans had a moral obligation to restore nature to its original perfect state. Dominion over nature was not for the purpose of exploiting resources, but to erase the scars that humans had inflicted upon the earth by the Fall. Bacon wrote that the aim was to ‘recover the light over nature which belongs to it by divine bequest’, and John Flavell wrote in 1669 that the aim was ‘a skilful and industrious improvement of the creatures’ leading to ‘a fuller taste of Christ and Heaven’ (op. cit., Harrison 1999: 104). Thus, in this case, science and religion worked hand in hand, and it was the hydrological cycle that linked the different spheres and realms together. If the Church denied holy water from wells any magical or spiritual power or capacity, water was nevertheless an intrinsic part of the Christian worldview. The different discourses of water in Christianity can therefore be seen as high and low religious understandings, with theologians and commoners emphasising different aspects of water.

Sacralisation and Industrialisation The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Europe have been called the ‘Golden Age of Faith’. The Reformation emphasised justification by faith alone. Water was, on the face of it, stripped of any holiness, which included both the water used in baptism and the water in holy wells. If these waters had any spiritual or healing qualities and powers, it was seen as evidence of diabolic presence. Consequently, after the Reformation, the Church combated all kinds of magical superstition, which was often manifest in water. The questions that arise then are: first, how successful was the Reformation with regards to denying that the sacraments had any material role and could work automatically? And, second, were the Protestants able to desacralise holy water? Max Weber’s thesis in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism was that Protestantism created a capitalistic spirit (Weber 2006). This thesis has been challenged on empirical grounds. Based on an analysis of five sets of variables – measures of wealth and savings, the founding date of the principal stock exchange, extension of 165

149-176 WaterChristianity Chap6.indd 165

17/01/2013 12:08

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

railroad networks, distribution of the male workforce in agriculture and industry, and infant mortality – Delacroix and Nielsen have, for instance, argued that there is little evidence to support the hypothesis that the development of early capitalism was dependent upon the strength of Protestantism: Rather than any predisposition to industrial capitalist development based on religious beliefs, the history of industrialization strongly evokes a process of diffusion along gradients of geographical accessibility affected by both proximity and the presence of major waterways such as the Rhine (Delacroix and Nielsen 2001: 544).

Furthermore, Weber limited himself to the Protestant ethic in Calvinism, so Scotland ought to have progressed faster than England. And, although Weber described a historical connection, he did not give a historical analysis of that connection (Trevor-Roper 1967: 6–7). As discussed, one of Weber’s premises was that magic and superstition were eliminated. This included the working of the sacraments as a means of salvation. Although Weber may be correct that the Protestant ethic created a spirit of capitalism, his premise that magic was eliminated from the world cannot be proven with England as a case study. Rather it is the contrary: even though the Church tried to erase all belief in magic, and in particular belief in holy water, the water cult was so strong that it persisted despite both Protestantism and capitalism. One may even argue that the water cult defined parts of lay Christianity. Nevertheless, Protestants developed a coherent theological system whereby salvation could only be attained by justification alone; the Devil and his forces were mainly inner temptations, with the external world and holy water being as a consequence the works of the Devil. This belief system did not, however, meet the religious needs of the laity, who faced misfortune, calamity and sudden death in their daily lives. Both Keith Thomas and Jeffrey Burton Russell have argued that Protestants left the laity without any means to protect themselves against the Devil, save that salvation and renouncement of Satan could (only) come from prayer (and not from immanent powers in sacraments and holy water). People were, according to Russell, left ‘naked on a black heath at night, exposed to the winter winds of evil’ (Russell 1986: 31–33). 166

149-176 WaterChristianity Chap6.indd 166

17/01/2013 12:08

Magic, Science and Religion

People and animals suffered and died, and they were haunted by plagues and floods. Real life in a brutal world was harsh and difficult. Fear of plague stimulated the extreme fanaticism of the flagellation sects, but anxiety does not necessarily turn into guilt (Caroll 1981: 484–485), which is important in Protestant ethics. Thus, although collective misfortune such as flood and famine was seen as God’s penalty for sinful and immoral behaviour, which might have caused guilt, individual suffering was seen as the work of an external Devil. The Devil existed as a real and malign force. In such a world – where people faced the challenges of life – holy water was an apotropaic means that protected them from all kinds of misfortune and calamity. When the Protestant Church emphasised justification by faith alone, it created a religious vacuum, and the need of ordinary people to protect themselves may thus have strengthened belief in the miraculous and magical power of water. Therefore, rather than desacralising the external world, the Protestant denial of the sacraments seems to have given rise to a stronger belief in the effects of the sacramentals, which, as we have seen, for the laity to a large extent took the form of the use of holy water as an apotropaic means for all kinds of purposes. Originally, nature was seen as the Devil’s territory. When, later, nature was seen as the original Eden in a deteriorated state, this seems to have led to the domestication and industrialisation of nature within a worldview of perfecting God’s creation. Nevertheless, both worldviews are within the religious sphere regardless of whether it was the work of the Devil or of God, and in both cases the water worlds did not become desacralised. The Christian water world in pre-industrial England became more sacralised when nature was seen as God’s original Paradise on earth, even though the official view regarding this water and the hydrological cycle was that it had no magical qualities or inherent properties, or, in other words, it was seen as neutral water within the divine sphere. Nevertheless, common people continued with their water rituals, and belief in holy water’s magical and healing qualities was fundamental in lay Christianity long after England was industrialised. Thus, Weber’s premise that magic and superstition were eliminated from religion, creating a rational religion that favoured a capitalistic spirit, does not find empirical support in England, the very country where industrialisation began. Rather the contrary. Fortunate and prosperous capitalists may have perceived themselves as being the 167

149-176 WaterChristianity Chap6.indd 167

17/01/2013 12:08

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

elect ones, following Weber’s argument, but for common people the opposite was the reality – a point which Weber did not stress. Being part of the non-elect because of sinful behaviour was penalised by God via flood, plague and disaster. Personal wealth and health were within an eco-moralistic totality when the world was believed to be the unfinished product of the Devil, as well as when the earth was seen as Paradise in a deteriorated state. One may argue, therefore, that Protestants strengthened this belief rather than weakened it since an earth suffering from flood or drought (absence of water) was an index of the moral level of society. With the natural theology the whole earth became sacralised and a testimony to God’s wisdom and grace. With this in mind, one may consequently address Weber’s thesis from another perspective, because there was a close association between Protestantism and capitalism. One aspect, as mentioned, was the relation between human misfortune and the collective penalties imposed by God in the form of floods and plagues. The cursed earth would lack the lifegiving waters, causing drought and infertility, or the earth would be devastated by flood erasing sin as the original Deluge did. This change – from nature seen as the work of the Devil to the natural theological view whereby the world was viewed as being the actual remnant of the original Garden of Eden – had implications for how nature was perceived, used, domesticated and perfected. As discussed, the aim was to restore the earth to its prelapsarian order of perfection. To repeat John Flavell, writing in 1669 – the aim was ‘a skilful and industrious improvement of the creatures’ leading to ‘a fuller taste of Christ and Heaven’ (op. cit., Harrison 1999: 99–103). This implies that industrialisation and intervention in the different landscapes and waterscapes was a Christian act, enabling the devotee to get closer to Christ and Heaven. Hence, there is a close connection between the Protestant work ethics and the spirit of capitalism not because magic was eliminated from the sacraments and Protestantism offered a rational religion, but because natural theology sacralised nature so that perfecting and restoring Paradise on earth became a Christian duty. The close connection between, and the development of, natural theology and science, where the hydrological cycle testified to the wisdom of God, eradicated the negative image of nature. The Church still aimed to abolish all belief in any magical and curative functions of water, and denied baptismal water any capacity to ensure 168

149-176 WaterChristianity Chap6.indd 168

17/01/2013 12:08

Magic, Science and Religion

salvation. Despite this, the English waterscape with its thousands of holy wells became, at a structural level, part of the original but deteriorated paradise of Earth rather than being the domain and realm of the Devil. The water cult could therefore continue and develop alongside the process of industrialisation, aiming to perfect God’s creation. The pious devotee believing in the power of holy water and wells went hand in hand with the industrious capitalist whose success was seen as a sign of being one of the elect. Moreover, when cultivating and domesticating the land was seen as part of a religious commitment aimed at restoring paradise on earth, this would also have secured greater wealth, safety and prosperity, which within this religious worldview would have been seen as God not penalising people collectively to the same extent as before. Finally, when the belief that ‘Cleanliness is next to Godliness’ became dominant, water was again within the sphere of God rather than in the realm of the Devil. Together, the changes in attitude and beliefs with regards to water were crucial in the development of English society in the period from c. 1500 to 1800, developments that included theology, science, religion and industry. Weber’s thesis in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism – that there is a close relation between the Protestant religion and capitalism – remains valid, therefore, but not because it was a rational religion where magic and superstition were eliminated from the belief system. Rather, one may argue that the success of the relationship between Protestantism and capitalism was the intimate sacralisation of nature, where earth was seen as the original Eden in a deteriorated state. Given this plausible connection between religion and the development of capitalism, it is important to emphasise that this new ideology was neither a necessary nor sufficient condition for the development of capitalism and the resultant industrial revolution (Figure 34). One may argue that this connection is more a description of a condition that existed, rather than a premise and driving force in history itself. Given the earlier negative view of nature, when it was believed to be the work of the Devil, one might also imagine, in some other historical trajectory, that pious acts would have combated and conquered the Devil as nature. Although this was not the case in England, this is somehow reflected in the Netherlands where the reclamation of the land was a religious act and the newly acquired land was believed to be purified from 169

149-176 WaterChristianity Chap6.indd 169

17/01/2013 12:08

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

Figure 34. Botallack Mine, Cornwall. Engraving by William Miller after Clarkson Stanfield.

sin (Schama 1987: 35–37). But it was in England and not in the Calvinist Netherlands that the industrial revolution began. Thus, although the paths and trajectories of development in history could have taken other directions, one cannot reduce a historical explanation to only one factor. Nevertheless, it is important to emphasise that changing beliefs with regard to holy water, and water in general, had consequences for the actual historical development that occurred, and without understanding these belief systems and discourses of water one misses knowledge of historical processes. One may ask, then: how is it possible that so much of the theological debate between Protestants and Catholics on the one hand, and between Lutherans and Calvinists on the other, was concerned with holy water?

Holy Water and Christianity Although ‘sacred’ and ‘holy’ are human perceptions or constructions (in the sense that they are beliefs), the actual matter that is perceived as holy tends also to be conceived of as ‘natural’ (Insoll 2007a). Nature, however, often has ‘no clearly bounded categorical 170

149-176 WaterChristianity Chap6.indd 170

17/01/2013 12:08

Magic, Science and Religion

status at all’ (Ellen 1996: 18) and, as evident with water, it is nature, culture and religion at the very same time. Water may even define nature, culture and religion. Therefore, by using water to deconstruct nature, in studying religion and holy water one may analyse water as both unique and universal. It is nature and religion. It is unique, it is universal, it is the one and the many (Tvedt and Oestigaard 2010b). As discussed in Chapter 2, the ‘holy’ represents the numinous. In particular, for studies of water it is not sufficient simply to make a distinction between the realm of the holy and the realm of the profane, or simply to separate the sacred and the profane (Eliade 1993), for there are differences between the ‘holy’ and the ‘sacred’, and water may also exist within the religious realm as ‘neutral water’, or as the life-giving water that God has provided in the form of sufficient rain or bountiful rivers at the right time for the welfare of pious humans. But benevolent waters are only one aspect of divine waters. God may also send malevolent water in the form of hailstorms or flooding, or bring drought, in order to collectively punish sinful people and communities by purifying the earth. The original Deluge was, as we have seen, just such a penalty, and even though God promised that he would never punish the earth with such devastation again, this belief in God’s malevolent waters has been pervasive throughout history. Within the divine and celestial (or non-human and non-terrestrial) spheres, water has not been limited to the domain of God. The very same water that God used could become malevolent and evil and could be turned against God. In the Protestant worldview, the Devil actively used water, and manipulated its power for the benefit of humanity in order to turn people away from God. As we have seen, if holy wells had magical properties, healing functions and curative properties, then, unless sanctified by the Church, this was the work of the Devil. Evil and malevolent water could also take the form of devastating floods and deadly hailstorms, destroying fields and harvests. Furthermore, the Devil used water in his mockbaptism at the initiation of witches. Thus, the water that once was within the realm of God could change its attributes and become evil, within the realm of Satan. Consequently, on many occasions the same beliefs, uses, processes and places of water could be either the work of God or the Devil. Even among Protestants there was a belief that water was ‘Devilproof’. This had its origin in the Catholic baptism, where the Devil 171

149-176 WaterChristianity Chap6.indd 171

17/01/2013 12:08

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

was unable to afflict and demonise the baptismal water. The watertest of witch-hunts and witch trials was based on this same belief: the water was ‘Demon-proof’ and God would not allow witches to be immersed in the water, which would equate to being baptised. Thus, water was believed to have an immanent power. The water was not neutral but had a spiritual quality that gave protection against evil and the Devil. Although Protestants denied that water, and in particular baptismal water, played any role in ensuring salvation, or had any capacity to do so, water was believed to have powers in relation to the process of judgements for damnation. Water could neither save those who were destined for damnation, nor purify souls for salvation, but implicit in the belief in the water-test was the idea of a ‘Demon-proof’ substance that could not be sullied or defiled by evil. Paradoxically, this was the same belief that commoners shared when they employed holy water for all kinds of apotropaic purposes. Water safeguarded and protected people from malevolent forces, and from this perspective it was believed to be ‘Demonproof’ (even though the Church claimed, as we have seen, that if it worked it was actually a proof of the Devil). Similarly, when holy water from the many thousands of wells was used for any kind of curative or healing function, this was the work of the Devil unless the Church had sanctified these practices as being Christian. Protestants did not deny that holy water could realise miracles but, unless it was a part of the official Church and teaching, it was believed to be a heresy and diabolic. Thus, the actual beliefs that commoners held regarding the effects of holy water did not change or become eradicated with Protestantism – rather the opposite – but the question of the properties or holiness of water became high religious and theological matters defining major parts of the official religion. When Protestantism breached with Rome, a fundamental matter was whether baptismal water enabled salvation or only initiated the infant into a lifelong battle with the Devil through inner temptation. As seen, this question was of such importance to Protestants that they accused Catholics of already being damned, since the Devil had deceived them into believing that they did not have to fight the inner devil of temptation as the most important cosmic struggle against evil. Similarly, when Luther retained parts of the exorcism in the rite of baptism, the Calvinists accused the Protestants of being in league with the Devil. 172

149-176 WaterChristianity Chap6.indd 172

17/01/2013 12:08

Magic, Science and Religion

Thus, the very same water could be seen as both holy and evil. Catholicism saw the water used in baptism as holy, while for Protestants this was evidence of diabolic presence. Consequently, the battle between good and evil, between God and the Devil, was to a large extent structured around belief and the ritual uses of water, which was theologically incorporated into high religious discourse. There were, of course, other major controversies – such as the question of Purgatory – but the status and role of water had direct implications for worldviews, perceptions of nature and daily practices. With natural theology, negative images of nature were eradicated. The perception of nature as unfinished, and as the world of the Devil, was replaced with a view of it as the actual Garden of Eden in a deteriorated state. Nature had to be worked; the infertile and harsh conditions represented a state that was missing the necessary and life-giving waters. The hydrological cycle was proof of the order and logic of God’s creation and master plan. By understanding the role that water played in the world one could perceive the beauty of God. The topography of water thus changed the world – from a domain controlled by the Devil to God’s perfection. Similarly, changes in perceptions of water had important consequences for bathing and personal hygiene. When the external world was seen as the realm of the Devil, and the soul the spiritual temple of God, self-mortification was a means of purification and spiritual devotion in the cosmic battle between evil and good. The Devil of fornication in the bathhouses strengthened a belief that these places were evil, where hedonism and moral decay challenged Christian ethics and purity. Water was consequently a part of the realm of evil and the Devil, and it was seen as dangerous to the human body and health. From the early Church Fathers through to the Protestants, purity meant spiritual purity, which had nothing to do with hygiene and physical purity. The perception of personal hygiene was a very late construction, and for a long time Christianity was a hindrance to bathing and washing rather than advocating these practices. When eventually personal hygiene was seen as a means of religious piety, then cleanliness did indeed become next to godliness. Physical purity became a precondition for, rather than a threat to, ritual purity, but it took Christianity almost 2,000 years to develop these beliefs. 173

149-176 WaterChristianity Chap6.indd 173

17/01/2013 12:08

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

Water has had a pervasive role in Christianity throughout history. After the Reformation major changes in perceptions of water took place, which changed worldviews radically. Part of this process was the development of an intimate relationship between science and religion. To a large extent it was religious dilemmas within Christianity that triggered the rational and scientific mind. In particular, questions surrounding the Deluge challenged the authority of the Church. But despite such controversies, science developed together with religion and provided new worldviews for perceiving nature. Through investigating and understanding nature, one also understood God’s creations. Water has therefore had a crucial role in various Christian belief systems and worldviews. In Catholicism the baptismal water was holy with the immanent power of ensuring salvation. The water was believed to be holy because God’s saving power had been transferred to water as a substance and mediated by the clergy. This was in accordance with the theory of transubstantiation, whereby consecrated items can be holy and transfer divine grace. With Protestantism these beliefs and practices were eradicated, but the role of the water used in baptism had a particular theological importance, for it questioned the way God worked. Whilst the Catholic and Protestant laity both believed that the sacraments and the sacramentals worked automatically, Protestants stressed justification by faith alone. This was a fundamental difference in their beliefs regarding how God worked. Theologically it is represented in the theories of transubstantiation and consubstantiation. There was also the question of how the Devil worked and how it was possible to protect oneself from his evil and his demonic forces. According to Catholicism and the Protestant laity, holy water, the signing of the cross and the use of bells kept the Devil and his malign powers at bay. The Protestant Church, however, believed this to be superstition since nobody could control the power of God: God’s power and blessings were not in the hands of man. Prayer was the only solution and possible hope for salvation and protection from malevolent forces, and these would or could only be granted if the pious devotee lived in accordance with strict moral rules and guidelines. The Protestant ethic was, therefore, fundamental to salvation, and justification could only take place by faith alone. The Protestant ethic coincided with the development of the spirit of capitalism, 174

149-176 WaterChristianity Chap6.indd 174

17/01/2013 12:08

Magic, Science and Religion

but not because magic was eliminated, including the sacraments for salvation. Belief in water’s divine power continued despite the official Church’s claim that this was the work of the Devil. If there was a ‘Golden Age of Faith’, this faith and these beliefs were to a large extent structured around holy water and its magical power and protection. This was lay Christianity in practice, and since the laity was illiterate, this was also Christianity because as Christians they believed that holy water was the grace of God. The official Church may have seen these practices as idolatry and condemned them as such, but this belief in water goes beyond traditional idolatry due to the very character and function of water as both unique and universal – the one and the many. Hence, different types of water have been perceived as holy, sacred or neutral, even evil, and this relates to the very lives people lived, their daily problems, and how they believed that they – as Christians – could protect themselves from adversaries, malign forces, calamity and death. The omnipresence of water has enabled multiple, overlapping and contradicting beliefs with regard to the role and function of water in culture and Christianity after the Reformation. The real world in which people lived and suffered was a world of water: benevolent water in the form of bountiful rain and sufficient rivers for successful harvests; or malevolent water in the form of devastating floods, killing humans and destroying crops. The problems and solutions were related to water, and changes in the water world were perceived as being part of the greater religious scheme. The battle between God and the Devil was real, and it unfolded not only in celestial realms, since the Devil’s main aim was to challenge God by letting people betray him. It was in this world that the battle between good and evil took place, and humans were the main target for diabolic powers and temptations. Consequently, humans had to take precautions and protect themselves from these malign forces. The laity achieved this first and foremost with holy water as their weapon – not through prayer. The Church did not deny the healing, curative and protective effects of water, which in many cases they approved and sanctified themselves even though they denied that the water was holy as such. Although the Church opposed the former pagan water cults and practices, the pervasive belief in holy water continued after the Reformation. The laity truly believed in the healing and protective powers of water, and in this sense they shared Martin Luther’s view on baptismal water: ‘The one who 175

149-176 WaterChristianity Chap6.indd 175

17/01/2013 12:08

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

believes is the person to whom the blessed, divine water is to be imparted. If you believe that through this water you will be saved, it becomes a fact’ (Luther 1962: 231). Thus, apart from baptism, the fundamental question regarding the use of these waters in ritual and daily life was a simple one, but with grave consequences for this life and the life hereafter: was it the work of God or the Devil?

176

149-176 WaterChristianity Chap6.indd 176

17/01/2013 12:08

Glossary

As with all definitions, there will sometimes be numerous and even contradictory perceptions, explanations or demarcations of a term, an expression or a process. Moreover, the meanings of the words may also have different significance in various religions or among different groups of believers whether they are priests or laypersons. Therefore, this list pretends in no way to present an exclusive and categorical lexical compilation of definitions. Rather, the aim is to highlight some of the terms and the terminologies that have been used in this book (with the references in the main text) in order to facilitate and make the reading easier. Thus, these definitions and explanations are not intended to cover the whole or even parts of Christianity in an ahistorical context or in the sociology of religion as such. Instead, they aim to specify how certain concepts have been used and understood in this context with a particular reference to holy water and how and by which means the holy works. Lastly, although obviously these keywords have been written in alphabetical order, I have aimed to interlink them with each other, so reading them will present a brief introduction or summary of the book. Anabaptists. The term derives from the Greek word ana, meaning ‘again’, thus referring to those who were re-baptised or being baptised a second time. The Anabaptists were a radical movement of the Protestant Reformers emphasising adult baptism. Importantly with regards to the qualities of the baptismal water, they objected to any notion that the water as such was holy and contained divine qualities. Apotropaic. The term derives from the Greek apotropaios, signifying the act of turning away or warding off evil. In particular, holy water was believed to have this protective function and work as an 177

177-184 WaterChristianity Glossary.indd 177

17/01/2013 12:09

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

apotropaic means, and a controversial issue was whether holy water had the power to safeguard and protect commoners and laypeople against the Devil and his evils. Baptism. Christ means literally The Anointed One, referring to the baptism. There are several understandings regarding the role and function of baptism. At a general level baptism is a remedy against sin and in particular the original sin. On the one hand, it is claimed that baptism is necessary in order to open the Kingdom of God (whereas others say that it is impossible to open something that already is open), and, on the other hand, baptism is necessary in order to partake in Christ’s death. These two understandings are not mutually exclusive, and put the emphasis on the role of water (see Exorcism and Water). Calvinism. The theology advanced by John Calvin (1509–1564) and his followers. As a Protestant Reformist movement, Calvinism spread to England, Scotland, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and parts of Germany, central Europe and North America. Although part of the Reformation, Calvinism was in many cases not concurrent with Lutheranism. Calvin disagreed with Luther on issues about baptism and exorcism as well as the world and its institutions. Whereas Luther to a large extent saw the world as being under influence of the Devil, Calvin believed that the world was still created by God and every Christian was obliged to perfect this worldly part of the Kingdom of God (see also Predestination). Catholicism. The Roman Catholic Church is by far the largest Christian branch with more members than all the other Christian communities put together. The Roman Catholic Church has certain specific beliefs and doctrines other Church communities and in particular the Reformists opposed or rejected, which are not restricted to, but include: The Pope is God’s representative on earth; the Saints have a prominent position as mediators between humans and God; Purgatory exists (and it has been possible to reduce the time in the purgatorial fire through the Church); and holy water and other remedies work as long as they are consecrated by the Church (see Sacraments). Communion. See Mass. 178

177-184 WaterChristianity Glossary.indd 178

17/01/2013 12:09

Glossary

Consubstantiation. This is the doctrine regarding the Eucharist seeing Christ’s body and blood coexisting parallel with the consecrated bread and wine. From this perspective the bread and wine are sacred, but not holy with inherent divine qualities. Consubstantiation is the Protestant position, which differs radically from the Roman Catholic doctrine (see Transubstantiation). Devil and the diabolic. This relates both to the personification and the process of evil. In Catholicism the Devil was personified, although he and his works existed in numerous forms including temptation and witches. On the other hand, the most characteristic feature of Protestantism’s demonology was temptation, and the Devil was first and foremost an inner, diabolic tempting force. Consequently, according to the Protestants, in the battle against the Devil, holy water or any other external and material means were in vain (and believing that they worked was a true sign that those who adhered to such practices were already damned or in pact with the Devil), and the only remedy against the Devil was prayers. Ecclesiastical. Refers to what is relating to and what is appropriate to a church and its uses. Ecclesiology hence refers to the theological study of the Christian Church, or what constitutes the Church. The role of water and its functions in baptism is therefore crucial. Ex opere operantis. (See also Ex opere operato and Sacramentals.) This relates to the principles of how the holy works. When holy water and other sacraments were used in the Roman Catholic Church, they worked automatically (ex opere operato). When these items and in particular holy water was taken out of the Church and used by the laity for a variety of purposes including protection against the Devil, procuring fertility and so on, the sacraments became sacramentals and worked, following the Church, according to the principle of ex opera operantis, or in other words, it depended upon an officiating priest and a pious laity. According to the laity, however, they worked automatically apart from the Church’s domain and control. Ex opere operato. Opus operatum or the spiritual effects of a religious rite. This is the Roman Catholic principle and belief that the sacraments are holy and work automatically. The Protestants, on the 179

177-184 WaterChristianity Glossary.indd 179

17/01/2013 12:09

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

other hand, denied that the Catholics had the power to manipulate aspects of God’s supernatural powers. Exorcism. The rite that renounces Satan and his works was included in the Medieval Catholic baptism. The water in baptism was believed to have the powers to cast out demons. The water was not necessarily believed to be de-demonised, but rather demon-proof. Luther continued exorcism as part of baptism, whereas Calvin, Zwingli and their followers condemned it as a ‘papal relic’. In England there was also a change from seeing baptism as a rite where the Devil was combated to a rite that initiated the child to a lifelong battle against evil and the Devil (see Water). Hedonism. The term derives from the Greek word for ‘delight’. In its most basic form it is the philosophy of the pleasures. The Christians saw the lavish and sensual (including sexual) lifestyle of the Romans (and others) as a sign of evil and people being corrupted by the Devil. Any pleasures of the flesh – good food, wine and sex – became identical with evil and the works of the Devil, which also strongly influenced practices of washing and bathing as well as concepts of purity and hygiene (see Mortification). Holy. (See also Sacred, Consubstantiation and Transubstantiation.) The ‘holy’ differs from the ‘sacred’ in relation to divine qualities and processes. ‘Holiness’ may refer to the divinity and what is derived from the divinity, and as such it is truly divine. A Christian cross is not holy because it is not part of God or Jesus as divinities, but it may be sacred. Holy water, on the other hand, can be seen as attributes of the divinities and consequently possess divine qualities, and have for instance apotropaic power against the Devil, but the ascription of such qualities to water was a highly controversial question. Magic. The outcome of magic has resemblances to miracles in Christianity. With the help of medicines, sacrifices or other means (which may include water or the Devil), the magician produces something apparently out of nothing. Whereas Christianity and miracles are more directed to the Otherworld, magic works mainly in this world and is performed in secret. The Church did not deny that magic worked and existed, but unless such practices were sanctified by the Church and hence miracles, they were seen 180

177-184 WaterChristianity Glossary.indd 180

17/01/2013 12:09

Glossary

by the religious authorities as truly heathen and diabolic (see also Witchcraft). Mass. In the Church the ‘Mass’ is one of the names used to designate the Eucharist, the Holy Communion or the Last (or the Lord’s) Supper, being the source and summit of Christian life (see Consubstantiation and Transubstantiation). Mortification. This is a philosophy and the practice of self-denial or self-inflicted privation. In Christianity, where the soul was seen as the spiritual temple of God, the flesh and the outer world belonged to the realm of the Devil and his temptations. Self-mortification was therefore a means in the cosmic battle between evil and good, resulting in extreme fasting, absence of bathing (and obviously sex) and anything concerned with the flesh and pleasures. Ontology. This is the philosophy of what exists or the science of being. From the perspective of Christian believers the existence and omnipresence of God is beyond doubt, although others may perceive it differently. Regarding the question of the qualities of holy water, the ontological status of water has nevertheless been strongly debated and disputed among Christians. Is it truly holy and divine, mere ordinary and profane water, or is it within the realm of the Devil? Penance. Related to the Latin word poena, meaning penalty (see Sin), which is a fundamental aspect of Christianity. Given the precondition that humans are born sinners and conduct sins, penance is, on the one hand, a voluntary self-punishment to atone for sins, which may include prayers, fasting or mortification; and, on the other hand, punishments imposed by the Church. This also includes repentance or being remorseful for sins. Predestination. In Christianity, this is the doctrine that God has already and for eternity chosen those who he intends to save. The doctrine of predestination has particularly been associated with the Calvinists. Protestantism. A religious movement that started in northern Europe in the sixteenth century and has since spread throughout the world, 181

177-184 WaterChristianity Glossary.indd 181

17/01/2013 12:09

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

and today it is one of the three main branches of Christianity. Protestantism started as a protest and reaction against many of the Roman Catholic Church’s doctrines and (corrupt) practices. The main proponents were the German Martin Luther (1483–1546), the Swiss Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531) and the Frenchman John Calvin (1509–1564). Although the Protestants opposed the Catholic Church, there were huge theological controversies among themselves, resulting in the separation and consolidation of different Church communities. Purgatory. Theologically, Purgatory can either be seen as an antechamber of Heaven or a department of Hell, and the pains in Purgatory differed ideally from those in Hell since the former were characterised by good hope and grace, and the latter of despair and being doomed. Practically, there were also differences. The idea of purging in Purgatory is inevitably connected to the sinful flesh. In Purgatory the fire had expiatory and purification processes, whereas in Hell it should only torture and penalise the damned. Puritanism. This was a particular religious reform movement aiming to purify the Church of England for the remains of Catholic ‘popery’ in the sixteenth and seventeenth century. King Henry VIII breached with Rome in 1534, but during the reign of Queen Mary (1553–1558) England returned to Catholicism and many Protestants were exiled. King James of Scotland, who succeeded Elizabeth I as the sovereign in 1603 as King James I of England, was a Calvinist. Reformation. A religious revolution in Christianity, generally acknowledged to have been sparked off when Martin Luther posted his famous Ninety-Five Theses on the door of the Church Castle in Wittenberg in 31 October 1517. In 1521 Luther was excommunicated by the Catholic Church. Apart from a theological schism, the Reformation also brought about social, political and economical changes in Europe. Sacramentals. (See also Sacraments.) Sacramentals are sacraments (or holy objects) that have been blessed and then used outside the domain and control of the Church. In particular, holy water was believed to have multiple purposes and apotropaic functions and was used widely by the laity. The Roman Catholic Church did not categorically reject 182

177-184 WaterChristianity Glossary.indd 182

17/01/2013 12:09

Glossary

that the sacramentals worked automatically, whereas the Protestants condemned sacramentals, if they worked, as diabolic. Sacraments. A sacrament is a religious sign or symbol from which spiritual power is believed to be transmitted. In the Roman Catholic Church there are seven sacraments: the baptism, the confirmation, the Holy Eucharist, penance, anointing of the sick, Holy orders and matrimony (marriage). In the Roman Catholic Church it was believed that the sacraments were divine par excellence and worked automatically (ex opere operato), whereas Protestantism advocated justification by faith alone. This had particular importance in relation to holy water. Could it work miracles (even outside the domain of the Church) or was it only a symbol? Sacred. (See also Holy, Consubstantiation and Transubstantiation.) ‘Sacred­ ness’ points to consecrated items where the object are respected or venerated, but they are not the divine themselves and cannot be used in this way. The sacred may create an awe and religious commitment, but it is not the divinity itself. If the water in baptism is sacred, it has a religious function as a symbol, but the water in itself cannot ensure salvation or blessing, or protect the initiate against the Devil. Sin. To sin is in the simplest form the possibility to act against God, and having this possibility also involves (at least partly) free will. Moreover, and as a consequence within a religious logic, those who are sinners acting against God have to be penalised (see Penance) in, for instance, Purgatory and Hell after death. Apart from being in pact with the Devil, in Christianity all carnal and bodily pleasures were seen as sin and the consequences of diabolic temptations. Consequently, in the due course of history, the flesh and the body became synonymous with sin. Soteriology. The word derives from Latin salvatio and Greek so¯te¯ria, meaning salvation. Soteriology thus refers to the beliefs and doctrines about salvation, and the path and means ‘leading to salvation’. The role of baptism was fundamental in Christianity’s soteriology because without being baptised nobody could enter the Kingdom of God. Consequently, the role and (divine) qualities of the baptismal water was at the centre of theological discussions and controversies due to the stakes involved. 183

177-184 WaterChristianity Glossary.indd 183

17/01/2013 12:09

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism

Syncretism. The term aims to address the fact and processes where there are no uniform or ‘pure’ religions as such. There are always multiple and numerous, and often contradictory, perceptions, beliefs, practices and rituals ‘within’ a religion. There are also differences between ‘high religions’ or what priests preach or proclaim is the ‘true’ religion, and how the laity performs their rituals and have diverging opinions and beliefs, and the latter perceptions and practices are often influenced by older folk traditions. These differences have in many cases caused allegations of different heresies and diabolic practices, which eventually have led to prosecutions and separations of Christian branches from each other. Transubstantiation. This is the Roman Catholic doctrine regarding the Eucharist, seeing the bread and wine as changing fundamentally, the substances becoming the actual body and blood of Christ or his Real Presence. During the consecration of the items, the bread and wine hence become holy, and through the rite the believer physically and spiritually partakes in Jesus’s body and blood (see Consubstantiation). Water. In Christianity, is water, and in particular the water used in baptism, holy, sacred or neutral? Has water any supernatural and divine qualities and powers, which may even ensure salvation? Did holy water when sanctified in the Church work for other purposes, such as warding off evil, procuring health and wealth, and if water had these qualities, were they the work of God or the Devil? These were some of the fundamental stakes involved in the theological disputes during the Reformation, separating the Catholics from the Protestants and dividing the Reformers among themselves. Witchcraft. This is the practice of invoking supernatural forces aiming to control or harm people, events, husbandry and fertility in general. In Christianity, witchcraft was closely associated with the Devil and was seen as anti-Christian. The witches were believed to be in pact with the Devil, causing death and destruction and threatening the Kingdom of God. The witches were also believed to partake in sexual orgies and child cannibalism. In other traditions it is often distinguished between ‘black’ and ‘white’ magic, but in Christianity all witchcraft was seen as black magic and diabolic. And if water had magical qualities outside the Church, was it due to witchcraft and the Devil? 184

177-184 WaterChristianity Glossary.indd 184

17/01/2013 12:09

Bibliography

Abercrombie, N., S. Hill & B. S. Turner (1980). The Dominant Ideology Thesis, London: George Allen & Unwin, 1980. Ackroyd, P. (2007). Thames: The Sacred River, London: Chatto & Windus. Allen, D. C. (1963). The Legend of Noah. Renaissance, Rationalism in Art, Science, and Letters, Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Anderson, S. (2010). ‘Cultural ideas of water and swimming in modern Europe’, in T. Tvedt & T. Oestigaard (eds), A History of Water. Series II, Vol. 1. Ideas of Water from Antiquity to Modern Times, London & New York: I.B.Tauris, pp. 250–270. Aquinas, T. (1975a). Summa Contra Gentiles. Book One: God. Translated with an Introduction and Notes by Anton C. Pegis, FRSC, Notre Dame & London: University of Notre Dame Press. ——— (1975b). Summa Contra Gentiles. Book Four: Salvation. Translated with an Introduction and Notes by Charles J. O’Neil, Notre Dame & London: University of Notre Dame Press. ——— (1975c). Summa Theologiæ. Volume 57. Baptism and Confirmation. Latin text, English translation, Introduction, Notes, Appendices & Glossary by J. James and O. P. Cunningham, London: Eyre & Spottiswoode. ——— (1975d). Summa Theologiæ. Volume 56. The Sacraments. Latin text, English translation, Introduction, Notes, Appendices & Glossary by David Bourke, London: Eyre & Spottiswoode. Ashenburg, K. (2008). Clean. An Unsanitized History of Washing, London: Profile Books. Aston, M. (1988). England’s Iconoclasts. Volume 1. Laws Against Images, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Bachelard, G. (1994). Water and Dreams: An Essay on the Imagination of Matter, Dallas: Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture. Barasch, M. (2003). ‘Remembering the desert’, in S. Meyer (ed.), Egypt – Temple of the World. Studies in Honour of Jan Assmann, Leiden: Brill. Baroja, J. C. (1964). The World of Witches, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

185

185-200 WaterChristianity Biblio.indd 185

28/02/2013 13:56

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism Bartholomew, C. (1869). A Guide to the Turkish Bath, London: Ward, Lock & Tyler. Beasley-Murray, G. R. (1962). Baptism in the New Testament, London: Macmillan. Behar, R. (1987). ‘Sex and sin, witchcraft and the Devil in late-colonial Mexico’, American Ethnologist, Vol. 14, No. 1: 34–64. Behringer, W. (2004). Witches and Witch-Hunts, Oxford: Polity Press. Bell, C. (1992). Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice, Oxford: Oxford University Press. ——— (1997). Ritual. Perspectives and Dimensions, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Bernard, G. W. (1998). ‘The making of religious policy, 1533–1546: Henry VIII and the search for the middle way’, The Historical Journal, Vol. 41, No. 2: 321–349. Bernstein, A. E. (1982). ‘Esoteric theology: William of Auvergne on the fires of Hell and Purgatory’, Speculum, Vol. 57: 509–531. ——— (1993). The Formation of Hell. Death and Retribution in the Ancient and Early Christian Worlds, Ithaca & London: Cornell University Press. Berry, B. M. & R. S. Schofield (1971). ‘Age at Baptism in pre-industrial England’, Population Studies, Vol. 25, No. 3: 453–463. Binnal, B. G. (1945). ‘Some theories regarding eye-wells’, Folklore, Vol. 56, No. 4: 361–364. Boaistuau, P. et al. (1598). Histories prodigieuses et memorables, extraictes de plusieurs fameux autheurs, Grecs, & Latins, sacrez & prophanes, Vol. 1, Paris. Bodin, J. (1980). Selected Writings on Philosophy, Religion and Politics, Geneve: Droz. Bonar, H. (1860). Earth’s Thirst. Heaven’s Water-Springs, London: James Nisbet and Co. Bonneville, F. (1998). The Book of the Bath, London: Thames & Hudson. Bonser, W. (1937). ‘Praying in water’, Folklore, Vol. 48, No. 4: 385–388. Book of Common Prayer, The: and administration of the sacraments and other rites and ceremonies of the Church according to the use of the Church of England, together with the Psalter or Psalms of David pointed as they are to be said or sung in churches, and the form and manner of making, ordaining and consecrating of bishops, priests and deacons, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990. Bord, C. & J. Bord (1985). Sacred Waters. Holy Wells and Water Lore in Britain and Ireland, London: Granada. Bossy, J. (1983). ‘The Mass as a social institution 1200–1700’, Past and Present, No. 100: 29–61. Bourdieu, P. (1990). The Logic of Practice, Stanford: Stanford University Press. Briggs, K. M. (1962). Pale Hecate’s Team. An Examination of the Beliefs on Witchcraft and Magic among Shakespeare’s Contemporaries and His Immediate Successors, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

186

185-200 WaterChristianity Biblio.indd 186

28/02/2013 13:56

Bibliography Briggs, R. (1996). Witches and Neighbours: the Social and Cultural Context of European Witchcraft, London: Wiley-Blackwell. Brongers, H. A. (1977). ‘Fasting in Israel in biblical and post-biblical times’, in H. A. Brongers et al. (eds), Instruction and Interpretation: Studies in Hebrew language, Palestinian Archaeology and Biblical Exegesis, Leiden: E. J. Brill, pp. 1–21. Bruce, S. (1997). ‘The pervasive world-view: Religion in pre-modern Britain’, The British Journal of Sociology, Vol. 48, No. 4: 667–680. Budge, E. A. W. (1933). Legends of Our Lady Mary the Perpetual Virgin and her Mother Hannâ. Translated from the Ethiopic Manuscripts Collected by King Theodore at Makdalâ and now in the British Museum, London: Martin Hopkinson. Burnet, T. (1965)[1685–1690]. The Sacred Theory of Earth, London: Centaur Press Limited. Burton, R. (1989)[1628]. The Anatomy of Melancholy. Vol. I, edited by Thomas C. Faulkner, Nicholas K. Kiessling & Rhonsa L. Blair, Oxford: Clarendon Press. ——— (1990)[1632]. The Anatomy of Melancholy. Vol. II, edited by Thomas C. Faulkner, Nicholas K. Kiessling & Rhonsa L. Blair, Oxford: Clarendon Press. ——— (1994)[1632]. The Anatomy of Melancholy. Vol. III, edited by Thomas C. Faulkner, Nicholas K. Kiessling & Rhonsa L. Blair, Oxford: Clarendon Press. Bushman, R. L. & C. L. Bushman (1988). ‘The early history of cleanliness in America’, The Journal of American History, Vol. 74, No. 4: 1213–1238. Calvin, J. (1975). Selections from His Writings, edited and with an introduction by John Dillenberger, Montana: Scholar Press. Carroll, J. (1981). ‘The role of guilt in the formation of modern society: England 1350–1800, The British Journal of Sociology, Vol. 32, No. 4: 459–503. Case-Winters, A. (2007). Reconstructing a Christian Theology of Nature, Aldershot: Ashgate. Catholic Encyclopaedia: baptism, available at: http://www.newadvent.org/ cathen/02258b.htm#IV Châtel, F. (2010). ‘Bathing in divine waters: Water and purity in Judaism and Islam’, in T. Tvedt & T. Oestigaard (eds), A History of Water. Series 2, Vol. 1. Ideas of Water from Antiquity to Modern Times, London: I.B.Tauris, pp. 273–297. Chenye, G. (1724). An Essay of Health and Long Life, London: Ayer Publishing. Cohn, N. (1996). Noah’s Flood. The Genesis Story in Western Thought, New Haven & London: Yale University Press. Coley, F. C. (1887). Turkish Baths: Its History and Uses, London: Walter Scott.

187

185-200 WaterChristianity Biblio.indd 187

28/02/2013 13:56

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism Corbin, A. (1982). Le Miasme et le Jonquille, Paris. ——— (1986). The Foul and the Fragrant. Odor and the French Social Imagination. Harvard: Harvard University Press. ——— (1994). The Lure of the Sea. The Discovery of the Seaside in the Western World 1750–1840, Berkeley: University of California Press. Cranmer, T. (1548). Catechismus, London. Crotchet, D. (1902). ‘Wells Cathedral’, The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular, Vol. 43, No. 718: 786–794. Crouch, R. B. (1688). The Kingdom of Darkness: or, the History of dæmons, specters, witches, apparitions, possessions, disturbances, and other supernatural delusions and malicious impostures of the Devil, London. Croutier, A. L. (1992). Taking the Waters. Spirit, Art, Sensuality, New York: Abbeville Press. Csordas, T. J. (1990). ‘Embodiment as a paradigm in anthropology’, Ethos, Vol. 18, No. 1: 5–47. Cubitt, C. (2006). ‘Bishops, priests and penance in late Saxon England’, Early Medieval Europe, Vol. 14, No. 1: 41–63. Daniélou, J. (1961). Primitive Christian Symbols, London: Burns and Oates. Dante, A. (1994). Hell, translated, annotated and introduced by Steve Ellis, London: Chatto & Windus. Davies, J. G. (ed.) (1972). A Dictionary of Liturgy and Worship, New York: Macmillan. Delacroix, J. & F. Nielsen (2001). ‘The beloved myth: Protestantism and the rise of the industrial capitalism in nineteenth-century Europe’, Social Forces, Vol. 80, No. 2: 509–553. Delfin, R. R. (1989). ‘The Devil and his disciples in the lives of six saints’, The French Review, Vol. 62, No. 4: 591–603. Diamond, E. (2004). Holy Men and Hunger Artists. Fasting and Asceticism in Rabbinic Culture, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Doré, G. (1876). Dante Alighieris Divina commedia framstælld i teckningar / Gustave Dore; 135 pl. med førklarande text och kortfattad redogørelse før skaldeverkets innehåll af John Rosen, Stockholm. ——— (1880). The Bible Gallery, London. Douglas, M. (1994). Purity and Danger, London: Routledge. Drake, F. (1862). Anglo-Roman or ‘Turkish Bath’: Its History, Proper Construction, Present Status, and Various Uses, London: Ward & Lock. Duffy, E. (1992). The Stripping of the Altars. Traditional Religion in England 1400–1580, New Haven & London: Yale University Press. ——— (1993). ‘Cranmer and popular religion’, in P. Ayris & D. Selwyn (eds), Thomas Cranmer. Churchman and Scholar, Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, pp. 199–215. Eaton, R. M. (1993). The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204–1760, Berkeley: University of California Press.

188

185-200 WaterChristianity Biblio.indd 188

28/02/2013 13:56

Bibliography Eklund, J. (1976). ‘Of a spirit in the water: Some early ideas on the aerial dimension’, Isis, Vol. 67, No. 4: 527–550. Eliade, M. (1987). The Sacred & The Profane, San Diego & New York: A Harvest Book Harcourt Brace & Company. ——— (1993). Patterns in Comparative Religion, London: Sheed & Ward. Elias, N. (1978). The Civilizing Process. The Development of Manners. Changes in the code of conduct and feeling in early modern times, New York: Urizen Books. Ellen, R. (1996). ‘The cognitive geometry of nature’, in P. Descola & G. Pálsson (eds), Nature and Society, London: Routledge, pp.103–123. Evans, G. R. (1988). ‘John Donne and the Augustinian paradox of sin’, The Review of English Studies, New Series, Vol. 33, No. 129: 1–22. Evans-Pritchard, E. E. (1976). Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic among the Azande, Oxford: Clarendon Press. Fahlander, F. & T. Oestigaard (eds) (2004). Material Culture and Other Things – Post-disciplinary studies in the 21st century, Gotarc Series C, No. 61. Gothenburg. Farnsworth, R. (2010). ‘Water, its flux, its cycle, and its power: The romantic turning point in the history of the water idea’, in T. Tvedt & T. Oestigaard (eds), A History of Water. Series 2, Vol. 1. Ideas of Water from Antiquity to Modern Times, London: I.B.Tauris, pp. 124–146. Faulkner, J. A. (1917). ‘Luther and the real presence’, The American Journal of Theology, Vol. 21, No. 2: 225–239. Fisher, J. D. C. (1965). Christian initiation: baptism in the medieval West: a study in the disintegration of the primitive rite of initiation, London: SPCK. Firth, R. (1981). ‘Spiritual aroma: Religion and politics’, American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 83, No. 3: 582–601. Floyer, J. (1697). An Enquiry into the Right Use and Abuse of Hot, Cold and Temperate Baths in England, London. Ford, P. K. (1974). ‘The well of Nechtan and “La Gloire Lumineuse”’, in G. J. Larson (ed.), Myth in Indo-European Antiquity, Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 67–74. Fuller, R. (1995). The Brotherhood of the Common Life and Its Influence, New York: State University of New York Press. Furer-Haimendorf, C. von. (1957). ‘Review peasant society and culture: An anthropological approach to civilization’, Man, Vol. 57: 135. Galpern, A. N. (1974). ‘The legacy of late medieval religion in sixteenthcentury Champagne’, in C. Trinkaus & H. O. Oberman (eds), The Pursuit of Holiness in Late Medieval and Renaissance Religion, Leiden, pp. 141–176. Galvin, F. (1926). ‘Some notes on early Christian baptism’, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 46: 15–22. Geertz, C. (1968). Islam Observed: Religious Developments in Morocco and Indonesia, New Haven: Yale University Press.

189

185-200 WaterChristianity Biblio.indd 189

28/02/2013 13:56

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism Gerrish, B. A. (1988). ‘Discerning the body: Sign and reality in Luther’s controversy with the Swiss’, The Journal of Religion, Vol. 86, No. 3: 377–395. Goa, D., S. B. Plate & C. Paine (2005). ‘Editorial statement’, Material Religion, Vol. 1, No. 1: 4–9. Godbeer, R. (1992). Dominion: Magic and Religion in Early New England, Cambridge. Godelier, M. (1988). The mental and the material: thought economy and society, London: Verso. Gombrich, R. F. (1988). Theravada Buddhism. A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo, London: Routledge. Goody, J. (1986). The logic of writing and the organization of society, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Gordon, S. (1996). The book of miracles: from Lazarus to Lourdes, London: Headline Book Publishing. Goubert, J. P. (1989). The Conquest of Water. The Advent of Health in the Industrial Age, Cambridge: Polity Press. Green, M. (1986). The Gods of the Celts, Gloucester: Alan Sutton. Gribben, A. (1992). Holy Wells and Sacred Water Sources in Britain and England. An Annotated Bibliography, London: Garland Publishing Inc. Grimm, V. E. (1996). From Feasting to Fasting. The Evolution of a Sin. London: Routledge. Grislis, E. (1962). ‘Calvin’s doctrine of baptism’, Church History, Vol. 31, No. 1: 46–65. Guazzo, M. F., in J. Rodker (1929). Compendium Maleficarum. Collected in 3 Books from many Sources by Brother Franceso Maria Guazzo. London: Redwood Press Limited. Haitch, R. (2007). From Exorcism to Ecstasy. Eight Views on Baptism, Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press. Hamilton, S. (2001). The Practice of Penance 900–1050, Suffolk: The Boydell Press. Hansen, H. H. (1990). ‘Foot-Notes to the Arabian nights or the book of the thousand and one nights’, in E. Keck, S. Søndergaard & E. Wulff (eds), Living Waters. Scandinavian Orientalistic Studies, Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, pp. 89–98. Harnack, A. von (1961). History of Dogma II, New York: Dover. Harper, M. (1970). The Baptism of Fire, London: Fountain Trust. Harpur, J. (1994). The Atlas of Sacred Places. Meeting Points of Heaven and Earth, London: Cassell. Harris, R. (1999). Lourdes: body and spirit in the secular age, New York: Viking. Harrison, P. (1999). ‘Subduing the Earth: Genesis 1, early modern science, and the exploitation of nature’, The Journal of Religion, Vol. 79, No. 1: 86–109.

190

185-200 WaterChristianity Biblio.indd 190

28/02/2013 13:56

Bibliography Haughty, J. F. (2007). Christianity and Science. Toward a Theology of Nature, New York: Orbis Books. Hembry, P. (1990). The English Spa 1560–1815: A Social History, London: The Athlone Press. Hendry, G. S. (1980). Theology of Nature, Philadelphia: The Westminster Press. Hertz, R. (1996). Sin and expiation in primitive societies, Occasional papers No. 2. British Centre for Durkheimian Studies, Oxford. Hibbert, C. (1987). The English. A Social History 1066–1945, London: Grafton Books. Hillel, D. (1994). Rivers of Eden. The struggle for water and the quest for peace in the Middle East, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hinnells, J. (2000). Zoroastrian and Parsi Studies. Selected works of John R. Hinnells, Aldershot: Ashgate. Hocart, A. M. (1954). Social Origins, London: Watts & Co. Hope, R. C. (1893). The Legendary Lore of the Holy Wells of England: Including Rivers, Lakes, Fountains, and Springs, London: Elliot Stock. Hopkins, M. (1647). The Discovery of Witches, London. Huchingson, J. E. (1980). ‘The world as God’s body: a systems view’, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 48, No. 3: 335–344. Humphrey, C. & J. Laidlaw (1994). The archetypal actions of ritual. A theory of ritual illustrated by the Jain rite of worship. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Hunt, A. (1998). ‘The Lord’s supper in early modern England’, Past and Present, No. 161: 39–83. Insoll, T. (2001). ‘Introduction: the archaeology of world religion’, in T. Insoll (ed.), Archaeology and World Religion: 1–32. London: Routledge. ——— (2004a). ‘Archaeology and the reconstruction of religious identity in Africa (and beyond)’, Azania XXXIX: 195–202. ——— (2004b). ‘Syncretism, time, and identity: Islamic archaeology in West Africa’, in D. Whitcomb (ed.), Changing Social Identity with the Spread of Islam. Archaeological Perspectives, Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, pp. 89–101. ——— (2004c). ‘Are archaeologists afraid of gods? Some thoughts on archaeology and religion’, in T. Insoll (ed.), Belief in the Past. The Proceedings of the Manchester Conference on Archaeology and Religion: 1–6. BAR International Series 1212, Oxford. ——— (2004d). Archaeology, Ritual, Religion, London: Routledge. ——— (2007). ‘“Natural” or “human” spaces? Tallensi sacred groves and shrines and their potential implication for aspects of northern European prehistory and phenomenological interpretation’, Norwegian Archaeological Review, Vol. 40, No. 2: 138–158. Jensen, R. (1993). ‘What are pagan river gods doing in scenes of Jesus’ baptism?’, Bible Review, Vol. 9, No. 1: 35–41, 54–55.

191

185-200 WaterChristianity Biblio.indd 191

28/02/2013 13:56

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism Johnstone, N. (2004). ‘The protestant Devil: The experience of temptation in early modern England’, Journal of British Studies, Vol. 43: 173–205. ——— (2006). The Devil and Demonism in Early Modern England, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kelly, H. A. (1985). The Devil at Baptism. Ritual, Theology, and Drama, Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press. Kent, J. (2002). Wesley and the Wesleyans. Religion in Eighteenth-Century Britain, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kingsbury, J. B. (1950). ‘The last witch of England’, Folklore, Vol. 61, No. 3: 134–145. Kneipp, S. (1891). My Water-Cure as Tested Through More Than Thirty Years and Described for the Healing of Diseases and the Preservation of Health, Edinburgh & London: William Blackwood & Sons. Körntgen, L. (2006). ‘Canon law and the practice of penance: Burchard of Worm’s penitential’, Early Medieval Europe, Vol. 14, No. 1: 103–117. Kramer, H. & J. Sprenger (1971). Malleus Maleficarum, Translated with Introductions, Bibliography and Notes by Rev. Montague Summers. New York: Dover Publications Inc. Krolzik, U. (1990). ‘Secularization of nature during the early Enlightenment: conceptions of water circulation as an impulse for secularization’, in J. Fennema & I. Paul (eds), Science and Religion: one world – changing perspectives on reality, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, p. 213. Kvanvig, J. L. (1993). The Problem of Hell, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Lakoff, G. & M. Johnson (1999). Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and its Challenge to Western Thought, New York: Basic Books. Lawler, T. C. (1963). ‘Introduction’, in C. C. Mierow & T. C. Lawler, The Letters of St. Jerome. Vol. 1. Letters 1–22, London: The Newman Press, pp. 3–20. Leeper, J. L. (1902). ‘The Jordan River between the seas’, The Biblical World, Vol. 20, No. 6: 422–431. Le Goff, J. (1984). The Birth of Purgatory, London: Scolar Press. Lencˇek, L. & G. Bosker (1999). The Beach. The History of Paradise on Earth, London: Pimlico. Lettinga, N. (1993). ‘Covenant theology turned upside down: Henry Hammond and Caroline Anglican moralism: 1643–1660’, The Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 24, No. 3: 653–669. Levack, B. P. (2006). The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe, Third edition, London: Longman. ——— (2008). Witch-hunting in Scotland. Law, politics and religion, London: Routledge. Luther, M. (1962). Selections from his writing, edited and with an introduction by John Dillenberger, New York: Anchor Books. Mackinlay, J. M. (1893). Folklore of Scottish Lochs and Springs, Glasgow: William Hodge & Co.

192

185-200 WaterChristianity Biblio.indd 192

28/02/2013 13:56

Bibliography MacMullen, R. (1966). Enemies of the Roman Order: Treason, Unrest, and Alienation in the Empire, MA: Harvard University Press. Malinowski, B. (1926). ‘Magic, science and religion’, in J. Needham (ed.), Science, Religion and Reality, New York: The Sheldon Press, pp. 19–84. Manuel, F. E. (1968). A Portrait of Isaac Newton, Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Marius, R. C. (1978). ‘Henry VIII, Thomas More, and the Bishop of Rome’, A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies, Vol. 10: 89–107. Mauss, M. (2001)[1950]. A General Theory of Magic, London: Routledge. McCloskey, H. J. (1960). ‘God and Evil’, The Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 10, No. 39: 97–114. Melosi, M. (2000). The Sanitary City. Urban Infrastructure in America from Colonial Times to the Present, Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press. Mierow, C. C. & T. C. Lawler (1963). The Letters of St. Jerome. Vol. 1. Letters 1–22, London: The Newman Press. Miller, D. (1985). Artefacts as Categories: A Study of Ceramic Variability in Central India, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ——— (1987). Material Culture and Mass Consumption, Oxford: Basil Blackwell. ——— (1994). ‘Artefacts and the meaning of things’, in T. Ingold (ed.), Companion encyclopedia of anthropology, London: Routledge, pp. 396–419. ——— & C. Tilley (1996). ‘Editorial’, Journal of Material Culture, Vol. 1, No. 1: 5–14. Miller, W. (1836). Stanfield’s Coast Scenery. A Series of Views in the British Channel, from Original Drawings Taken Expressly for the Work, London: Smith, Elder and Co. ——— (1875). The Turner Gallery. A series of One Hundred and Twenty Engravings from the works of J.M.W. Turner, The Descriptive Text by W. Cosmo Monkhouse, London: Virtue & Co. M’Kenzie, D. (1907). ‘Children and wells’, Folklore, Vol. 18, No. 3: 253–282. Modéus, M. (2005). ‘Sacrifice and symbol. Biblical Šeˇla ¯ mîm in a ritual perspective’, Coniectanea Biblica Old Testament Series 52, Stockholm: Almquist & Wiksell International. Moreland, J. (1999). ‘The world(s) of the cross’, World Archaeology, Vol. 31, No. 2: 194–213. Moorman, J. R. H. (1973). A History of the Church in England, London: Adam & Charles Black. Murray, J. (1998). ‘Gendered souls in sexed bodies: The male construction of female sexuality in some medieval confessors’ manuals’, in P. Biller & A. J. Minnis (eds), Handling Sin: Confession in the Middle Ages, York: York Medieval Press, pp. 79–93. Murray, M. A. (1917). ‘Organisations of witches in Great Britain’, Folklore, Vol. 28, No. 3: 228–258.

193

185-200 WaterChristianity Biblio.indd 193

28/02/2013 13:56

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism Naphy, W. G. (1997). ‘Baptisms, church riots and social unrest in Calvin’s Geneva’, Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 26, No. 1: 87–97. Nischan, B. (1987). ‘The Exorcism controversy and baptism in the late Reformation’, Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 18, No. 1: 31–52. Nock, A. D. (1933). Conversion: the Old and New in Religion from Alexander the Great to Augustine of Hippo, Oxford: Clarendon Press. Nugent, C. (1983). Mask of Satan. The Demonic in History, London: Sheed & Ward. Obeyesekere, G. (1984). The Cult of the Goddess Pattini, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Oestigaard, T. (2003). An Archaeology of Hell: Fire, Water and Sin in Christianity. Lindome: Bricoleur Press. ——— (2004). Death and World Religions. Human responses to the inevitable, Bergen: BRIC Press. ——— (2005a). Water and World Religions. An Introduction, Bergen: SFU & SMR. ——— (2005b). Death and Life-giving Waters – Cremation, Caste, and Cosmogony in Karmic Traditions, BAR International Series 1353, Oxford. ——— (2006a). ‘River and rain: Life-giving waters in Nepalese death rituals’, in T. Tvedt & T. Oestigaard (eds), A History of Water Vol. 3. The World of Water, London: I.B.Tauris, pp. 430–448. ——— (2006b). ‘Heavens, havens and hells of Water – Life and death in society and religion’, in M. Leybourne & A. Gaynor (eds), Water: Histories, culture, ecologies, Perth: University of Western Australia Press, pp. 94–105. ——— (2006c). ‘Divine challenge for Nepalese river clean-up’, World water and Environmental Engineering, May/June 2006: 22–23. ——— (2009). ‘The materiality of hell: The Christian hell in a world religion context’, Material religion, Vol. 5, No. 3: 312–331. ——— (2010a). ‘The topography of holy water in England after the Reformation’, in K. V. Lykke Syse & T. Oestigaard (eds), Perceptions of Water in Britain from Early Modern Times to the Present: An Introduction, Bergen: BRIC Press, pp. 15–34. ——— (2010b). ‘Purification, purgation and penalty: Christian concepts of water and fire in Heaven and Hell’, in T. Tvedt & T. Oestigaard (eds), A History of Water. Series 2, Vol. 1. Ideas of Water from Antiquity to Modern Times, London: I.B.Tauris, pp. 298–322. ——— (2011). ‘Water’, in T. Insoll (ed.), Handbook of the Archaeology of Ritual and Religion, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 38–50. Ogden, H. V. S. (1947). ‘Thomas Burnet’s Telluris Theoria Sacra and Mountain Scenery’, ELH, Vol. 14, No. 2: 139–150. Olsen, B. (2003). ‘Material culture after text: Remembering things’, Norwegian Archaeological Review, Vol. 36. No 2: 87–104.

194

185-200 WaterChristianity Biblio.indd 194

28/02/2013 13:56

Bibliography Otto, R. (1959)[1923]. The Idea of the Holy, London: Penguin Books. Oxtoby, W. G. (1987). ‘Holy, Idea of the’, in M. Eliade (ed.), The Encyclopaedia of Religion, Vol. 6, New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, pp. 431–438. Parkin, D. (2005). ‘Evil’, in T. Barfield (ed.), The Dictionary of Anthropology, Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 171–172. Parry, J. (1994). Death in Banares, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Parsons, C. O. (1933). ‘Association of the white lady with wells’, Folklore, Vol. 44, No. 3: 295–305. Parsons, T. (1964). ‘Introduction’, in M. Weber, The Sociology of Religion, Boston: Beacon Press, pp. xix–lxvii. Percey, W. (1658). The compleat swimmer: or, The art of swimming: demonstrating the rules and practice thereof in an exact, plain and easie method: necessary to be known and practised by all who studie or desire their own preservation, printed by J. C. for Henry Fletcher, London. Petersen, N. R. (1986). ‘Pauline baptism and “secondary burial”’, The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 79, No. 1/3: 217–226. Radding, C. M. (1979). ‘Nature, fortune, and the passing of the medieval ordeal’, The American Historical Review, Vol. 84, No. 4: 945–969. Raitt, J. (1980). ‘Three inter-related principles in Calvin’s unique doctrine of infant baptism’, The Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 11, No. 1: 51–62. Rappaport, R. A. (2001). Ritual and religion in the making of humanity, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Reaske, C. R. (1972). ‘The Devil and Jonathan Edwards’, Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 33, No. 1: 123–138. Redfield, R. (1956). Peasant Society and Culture: An Anthropological Approach to Civilization, Chicago: Chicago University Press. Reis, E. (1995). ‘The Devil, the body, and the feminine soul in puritan New England’, The Journal of American History, Vol. 82. No. 1: 15–36. Reynolds, R. (1974). Cleanliness & Godliness, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Richard, J. W. (1901). ‘The beginning of Protestant worship in Germany and Switzerland’, The American Journal of Theology, Vol. 5, No. 2: 240–253. Ricoeur, P. (1969). The symbolism of evil, New York: Ariadne Books. ——— (1990). Time and Narrative. Vol. 3, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. ——— (2004). The Conflict of Interpretations. Essays in Hermeneutics, London: Continuum. Riggs, J. W. (1995). ‘Emerging ecclesiology in Calvin’s baptismal thought, 1536–1543’, Church History, Vol. 64, No. 1: 29–43. Russell, J. B. (1977). The Devil. Perceptions of Evil from Antiquity to Primitive Christianity, Ithaca: Cornell University Press. ——— (1981). Satan. The Early Christian Tradition, Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

195

185-200 WaterChristianity Biblio.indd 195

28/02/2013 13:56

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism ——— (1986). Mephistopheles: the devil in the modern world, New York: Cornell University Press. ——— (1988). Lucifer. The Devil in the Middle Ages, Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Sands, K. R. (1999). ‘Word and sign in Elizabethan conflicts with the Devil’, A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies, Vol. 31, No. 2: 238–256. Schama, S. (1987). The Embarrassment of the Riches. An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age, New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Scanlan, M. (1972). The Power in Penance. Confession and the Holy Spirit, Indiana: Ave Maria Press. Scarisbrick, J. J. (1983). The Reformation and the English People, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. Schmemann, A. (1976). Of Water and the Spirit. A liturgical study of baptism, London: SPCK. Schwyzer, P. (1997). ‘Purity and danger on the west bank of the Severn: The cultural geography of a mask presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634’, Representations, No. 60: 22–48. Scribner, R. W. (1987). Popular Culture and Popular Movements in Reformation Germany, London: The Hambledon Press. ——— (1993). ‘The Reformation, popular magic, and the “disenchantment of the world”’, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Vol. 23, No. 3, Religion and History: 475–494. Sheppard, E. (1879). The Hammam. A Rational Estimate of the Turkish Bath, London: Hardwicke & Bogue. Silverstein, T. (1938). ‘The passage of the souls to Purgatory in the “Divina Commedia”’, The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 31, No. 1: 53–63. Sluhovsky, M. (2002). ‘The Devil in the convent’, The American Historical Review, Vol. 107, No. 5: 1379–1411. Smith, J. I. & Y. Y. Haddad (1981). The Islamic Understanding of Death and Resurrection, New York: State University of New York. Smith, P. (1910). ‘Luther and Henry VIII’, The English Historical Review, Vol. 25, No. 100: 656–669. Smith, V. (2007). Clean. A History of Personal Hygiene and Purity, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Spinks, B. D. (1993). ‘Treasures old and new: A look at some of Thomas Cranmer’s methods of liturgical compilation’, in P. Ayris & D. Selwyn (eds), Thomas Cranmer. Churchman and Scholar, Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, pp. 175–198. Spufford, M. (1981). Small Books and Pleasant Histories, London: Methuen. Spurgeon, C. H. (1864). ‘Baptismal regeneration. Unabridged and unedited delivered on June 5th, 1864 at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington’, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Vol. 10, No. 573.

196

185-200 WaterChristianity Biblio.indd 196

28/02/2013 13:56

Bibliography Stanwood, P. G. (1989). ‘General introduction’, in J. Taylor (1989)[1650], Holy Living, edited by P. G. Stanwood, Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. i–lix. Stephenson, B. (2008). ‘Luther’s Thesenportal: A case study of a “ritualarchitectural event”’, Material Religion. The Journal of Objects, Art and Belief, Vol. 4, No. 1: 54–31. Strang, V. (2004). The Meaning of Water, Oxford: Berg. ——— (2005). ‘Common senses: Water, sensory experience and the generation of meaning’, Journal of Material Culture, Vol. 10, No. 1: 92–120. Tanner, J. S. (1988). ‘“Say first what cause”: Ricoeur and the etiology of evil in Paradise Lost’, PMLA, Vol. 103, No. 1: 45–56. Tarlow, S. (1999). Bereavement and commemoration: an archaeology of mortality, Oxford: Blackwell. Taylor, J. (1989)[1650]. Holy Living, edited by P. G. Stanwood, Oxford: Clarendon Press. Thomas, K. (1971). Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in popular beliefs in sixteenth and seventeenth century England, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. Tilley, C. (1989). ‘Interpreting material culture’, in I. Hodder (ed.), The Meaning of Things. Material Culture and Symbolic Expression, One World Archaeology 6, London: Harper Collins Academic, pp. 185–194. ——— (1996). An Ethnography of the Neolithic. Early Prehistoric Societies in Southern Scandinavia, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Trall, R. T. (1860). Water-Cure for the Million. The Process of Water-Cure Explained, New York: Davies & Kent. Trevor-Roper, H. (1967). Religion, the Reformation and Social Change, London: Macmillan. ——— (1969). The European Witch-Craze of the 16th and 17th Centuries, London: Penguin Books. ——— (1987). Catholics, Anglicans and Puritans. Seventeenth Century Essays, London: Secker & Warburg. Tuan, Y. (1968). The Hydrological Cycle and the Wisdom of God: A Theme in Geoteleology, Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Tvedt, T. (1997). En reise i vannets historie – fra regnkysten til Muscat, Oslo: Cappelens Forlag AS. ——— (2010a). ‘Why England and not China and India? Water systems and the history of the industrial revolution’, Journal of Global History, Vol. 5: 29–50. ——— (2010b). ‘Bridging the gap: A water system approach’, in W. Willy Østreng (ed.), Transference. Interdisciplinary Communications 2008/2009, Centre for Advanced Study, Oslo, available at: http://www.cas.uio.no/ Publications/Seminar/0809Tvedt.pdf ——— & Oestigaard, T. (eds) (2006a). A History of Water Vol. 3. The World of Water. London: I.B.Tauris.

197

185-200 WaterChristianity Biblio.indd 197

28/02/2013 13:56

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism ——— & Oestigaard, T. (2006b). ‘Introduction’, in T. Tvedt & T. Oestigaard (eds), A History of Water Vol. 3. The World of Water, London: I.B.Tauris, pp. ix–xxii. ——— & Oestigaard, T. (eds) (2010a). A History of Water. Series 2, Vol. 1. Ideas of Water from Antiquity to Modern Times, London: I.B.Tauris. ——— & Oestigaard, T. (2010b). ‘A history of the ideas of water: Deconstructing nature and constructing society’, in T. Tvedt & T. Oestigaard (eds), A History of Water. Series 2, Vol. 1. Ideas of Water from Antiquity to Modern Times, London: I.B.Tauris, pp. 1–36. Valeri, V. (1985). Kingship and sacrifice. Ritual and Society in Ancient Hawaii, Chicago: The University Press of Chicago. van Gennep, A. (1960). The Rites of Passage, Chicago: The University Press of Chicago. van Scott, M. (1998). Encyclopedia of Hell, New York: Thomas Dunne Books/ St Martin’s Griffin. Walker, D. P. (1981). Unclean Spirits. Possession and exorcism in France and England in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Walker, G. (2002). ‘Rethinking the fall of Anne Boleyn’, The Historical Journal, Vol. 45, No. 1: 1–29. Walzer, M. (1985). Exodus and Revolution, New York: Basic Books Inc., Publishers. Waters, D. (1967). ‘Duessa and Orgoglio: Red Crosse’s spiritual fornication’, Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 20, No. 2: 211–220. Wax, R. & M. Wax (1962). ‘The magical world view’, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 1: 179–188. ——— & R. Wax (1963). ‘The notion of magic’, Current Anthropology, Vol. 4, No. 5: 495–518. Weber, M. (1964). The Sociology of Religion, Boston: Beacon Press. ——— (2006)[1930]. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, London: Routledge. Wesley, J. (1986). The Works of John Wesley. Sermons III. 74–114, edited by Albert C. Outler, Nashville: Abingdon Press. White, L. (1967). ‘The historical roots of our ecological crisis’, Science, Vol. 155, No. 3767: 1203–1207. Wilby, E. (2000). ‘The Witch’s familiar and the fairy in early modern England and Scotland’, Folklore, Vol. 111, No. 2: 283–305. ——— (2005). Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits. Shamanistic Visionary Traditions in early Modern British Witchcraft and Magic, Brighton: Sussex Academic Press. Wright, L. (1962). Clean and Decent. The Fascinating History of the Bathroom & the Water Closet and of Sundry, Habits, Fashions & Accessories of The Toilet Principally in Great Britain, France, & America, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

198

185-200 WaterChristianity Biblio.indd 198

28/02/2013 13:56

Bibliography Wyman, W. E. Jr. (1994). ‘Rethinking the Christian doctrine of sin: Friedrich Schleiermacher and Hick’s “Irenaean type”’, The Journal of Religion, Vol. 74, No. 2: 199–217. Zguta, R. (1977). ‘The ordeal by water (swimming of witches) in the east Slavic world’, Slavic Review, Vol. 36, No. 2: 220–230. Zuck, L. H. (1957). ‘Anabaptism: Abortive counter-revolt within the Reformation’, Church History, Vol. 26, No. 3: 211–226.

199

185-200 WaterChristianity Biblio.indd 199

28/02/2013 13:56

185-200 WaterChristianity Biblio.indd 200

28/02/2013 13:56

Index

Adamic evil  28 adult baptism  61 adultery  80, 92, 95, 100–101, 112, 133, 137 affusion  48, 50 Alcott, William A.  108 Alousia (state of being unwashed)  94 American Revolution  139 Anabaptists for adult baptism  61 meaning of  64 Anatomy of Melancholy, The  106, 156 Apocalypse of Paul 21 apotropaic power  35, 123, 153, 167, 172 Aquinas, Thomas, St.  32, 50–55, 159 Arabian Nights, The 110 ascetic religion  5 asceticism, forms of  90, 95 aspersion  48, 50 Assertion of the Seven Sacraments against Martin Luther, An 67 Baal-worshippers 15 Bachelard, Gaston  77 bagnios 96 baptism 30 of adults  61 ceremony of  55, 58

and Christianity  16, 42 connections with the death of Christ 46 disasters and  133–141 effects of  54, 62 interpretation of  44–48 of Lord Jesus  43 meaning of  44 of newborn children  44–45, 52, 61–62 Pauline 46 public appropriation of  63 purpose of  16 rite of  31, 72 and ritual washing  44–50 role and qualities of water in  3, 7, 16, 52–53 Sarum Manual 72 types of  48–50 views of Aquinas, Thomas  50–55 Calvin, John  59–64 Defender of the Faith  67–70 Luther, Martin  55–59 Spurgeon, C. H.  64–67 ways for  48 Baptism, The (painting)  11 baptismal burial  46 Basel, Council of  57 bathhouses  95–96, 99–101, 110, 112, 173

201

201-210 WaterChristianity Index.indd 201

28/02/2013 14:05

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism bathing communal bathing  96–99 decline of  102 dangerous waters and hygiene 103–9 hammam (Turkish bath)  96, 110–112 hot and cold baths  103–109 oriental baths  110 steam bath  110 virtues of  109–112 Becon, Thomas  80 Bible, the holy  24 holy water in  37–39 Biblical Exodus  139 Bishop’s Book 70 Black Death of 1347–1350  101 Bogan, Zachary  137 Book of Common Prayer  70–75, 134 Briggs, Robin  80 Burnet, Thomas  157–158 Theory of the Earth, The 159 Burton, Robert  106, 156 Calvin, John  6, 9, 50, 58, 59–64, 154 Calvinism, theology of  85, 127 Protestant ethic in  166 Canterbury Cathedral  143 capitalism, development of  2, 166, 168–169, 174 Cartesian dualism  27 Catholic magic 33 superstition  58, 64 Catholic Church  51 attitude towards holy water  122 baptism, practice of  48–50 condemnation of public bathing 101 exorcism, practice of  31, 73 holy water, rejection of  35 and holy wells  125–133

power to manipulate God’s supernatural powers  31 prohibition against using the wells 120 Protestants disagreement with  32 seven sacraments of  30 view on sexuality  93 Catholicism  5, 14, 24–25, 31–32, 51, 56, 67, 79, 82, 122, 154, 173–174 Celtic festivals  130 chastity and spiritual cleanliness, concept of  94, 100 Cheyne, George  106 Christian Library, A 88 Christian Monastery of Fossanova 51 Christian’s prayer and a magician’s spell 152 Christianity baptism and  16 branches of  2 divine qualities of water, belief of 13–14 eschatological concepts in  28 evil water  26–30 Heaven in  21–22 holy water  5, 23–26, 155, 170–176 as a religion  4 ritual purity and physical purity 16 sexual temptation, evil of  92–93 water rituals in  155 Church of England  34, 45, 67, 69–70 circumcision 61–62 cleanliness and uncleanliness, concepts of  87 Cold Regimen  105–106 communal bathing  96–99, 108 decline of  102 Communion  5, 44, 116

202

201-210 WaterChristianity Index.indd 202

28/02/2013 14:05

Index Compendium Maleficarum  141, 147 Comte, Auguste  7 Conception and Birth of our Lady Mary, the Bearer of God, The 38 consubstantiation, doctrine of  25, 114, 174 corporal mortification  95 Cranmer, Thomas  69, 70–72 dangerous waters and hygiene hot and cold baths  103–109 virtues of baths  109–112 Dante’s Hell, descriptions of rain and cold weather  20 Decretum (handbook for confession) 94 Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ, A 71 Defender of Faith  66, 67–70 Deluge, as weapon against sin  134–136, 156, 168 story of  18–19 Demonologie 85 ‘Demon-proof’ substance, idea of  48, 172 descriptive evil  29, 30 Devil 82 Catholic 35 and exorcism  30–36 of fornication  27, 95, 100, 112, 173 and holy water  141–148 liquor 105 mark 146 water-test 143–144 diabolic evil  29, 30 disasters, as God’s penalty and baptism of the world  133–141 Discovery of Witchcraft, The 85

Dispensations Act 69 divine mercy  27 Doctrine of the Masse Booke, The 31 Douglas, Mary  88 ‘Drinking the waters of Jealousie’ 38 Ecclesiastical Appointments Act 69 Eden, characteristics of  12, 22, 89, 164–165, 167–169, 173 Edwardian Injunction (1547)  33 Elbe flood of 1523  139 Eliade, Mircea  24, 46 Encyclopédie Méthodique 104 Enlightenment  90, 162 Enquiry into the Right Use and Abuse of Hot, Cold and Temperate Baths in England, An 106 Epitome of the Treatise of Health, The 150 Essay of Health and Long Life, An 106 Eucharist (Holy Communion)  13, 16, 25, 30, 44, 52–53, 56, 62–63, 90, 113–16 evil in Christanity theory of  28–29 types of  29 evil temptation  82, 91 evil water, in Christianity  10, 26–30, 38 ex opere operantis  30, 153 ex opere operato  10, 30, 58, 123, 153 exorcism, principles of  48, 58–59, 71–73, 91, 117, 122–123, 159, 172 Catholic practice of  31 Devil and  30–36 as superstitious ceremony  59 Expedition of Humphry Clinker, The 109 eye-wells, tradition of  131

203

201-210 WaterChristianity Index.indd 203

28/02/2013 14:05

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism Fabricius, Johann Albert  160 famine  17–18, 29–30, 36, 131, 134, 138, 141–142, 165, 167 in Russia  143 as weapon against sin  137 fasting  87, 89–95, 100 processes involved in  91 as a sacrifice  91 types of  90–91 Floyer, John  106 Franklin, Benjamin  139 French Revolution  105 Ganga, River  24 Generosus, Edwardus  150 God commandments  56, 71, 137 consciousness, notion of  27 law  27, 41, 134 penalty for human disorder and disobedience  18, 141 Promised Land  42 word see Word of God Golden Age of Faith  3–7, 165, 175 Gombrich, Richard  1 Great Fire of London (1666)  138–139 Guazzo, Francesco Maria  141–142, 147 hallowings 72 hammam (Turkish bath)  96, 110–112 Heaven in Christianity, characteristics of  21–22 Hebrew Bible  11 hedonism  92, 96–103, 112, 173 Hell in Christianity, characteristics of  20–21, 27–28, 30, 46, 74, 78, 82, 99, 101, 132, 137– 138, 148 Hellfire 28 Henry VIII, King of England (1491– 1547)  67–68, 70, 96, 129

Hinduism 24 historic evil  28 History of Cold Bathing, The 106 holiness and unholiness, concepts of 87 Holy Dying 88 Holy Living  88, 95 Holy Poverty  94 Holy Spirit  23, 54, 59–60, 62–63, 73, 107, 124 holy water  2 baptismal practices and beliefs in  23, 33 belief in the power of  16 in the Bible  37–39 blessing of  4 and Christianity  5, 23–26, 155, 170–76 Church’s attitude towards  122 curative effects  130 Devil and  141–148 difference with sacred water  39 dual character of  26 effects of  57–58, 172 fee for using  4 importance of  23–26 of Lourdes  14, 24 magical effects and power  10 pollution of  116 Protestants’ rejection of  10 purifying capacity of  16 purpose of using  3–4 roles in annihilating sin  28 baptism 52 neutralising evil and witches  147 supernatural effects  26 holy wells Church and  125–133 Church’s prohibition against using 120

204

201-210 WaterChristianity Index.indd 204

28/02/2013 14:05

Index healing power of water  116, 118, 132 magical powers of  117 Pagan worship at  125 practice of selling holy water to households 122 quality of  117 St Cleer well, Cornwall  117 spiritual qualities of  129 use of water  120 hot and cold baths  103–109 Hot Regimen  105–106 human impurity  114 human repentance  27 human sin and misconduct on earth, water as penalty for  18 Hutchinson, Roger  82 hydrological cycle, concept of  1, 22, 158, 160, 162, 173 Hydrological Cycle and the Wisdom of God: A Theme in Geoteleology, The 162 Idea of the Holy, The  25, 115 immersion in water, act of  48 infant baptism  44–45, 52, 61–62, 91 Institutes 63 Jerome, St  15, 91–94, 159 Jesus Christ, Lord  15, 17, 25, 33, 42, 45–47, 52, 65–66, 70, 73–74, 90, 93, 102, 114, 134, 143 baptism of  43 death of  47 and institution of the sacraments 53 nailed to the cross  47 purification of water of the River Jordan 44 Jewish identity  15 Jewish ritual bath  42

Johnstone, Nathan  32 Jordan, River  11, 39–44, 73, 134 Judaism  11, 90 justification, doctrine of  4, 57–58, 70, 88, 122, 159, 165–167, 174 King’s Book 70 Kneipp, Sebastian  109 Lay Folk’s Mass Book 79 life-cycle rituals  87 living water concept of  23 qualities of  52 Locke, John  106 Lourdes, holy water of  14, 24 Lucifer – ‘the light bearer’  28, 78, 159 Luther, Martin  2–3, 6, 9, 27, 50, 53, 55–59, 62, 64–70, 128–129, 139, 153, 172 Lysthenius, George  59 magic after Reformation  149–156 in beliefs and practice  4 Catholic 33 contributions to the study of  152 effects of  151 Malinowski’s definition of  152 resemblances to religion  151 Malines, Council of  26 Malleus Maleficarum  142, 145–146 Mass  5, 30, 32, 70, 79–80 material culture, notion of  7–9 Medieval Church  30, 152, 154 metaphysical evil  29, 30, 134, 137 Milton, John  81 mitigation of sin, ways of solving problem of  27

205

201-210 WaterChristianity Index.indd 205

28/02/2013 14:05

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism moral evil  28–29, 38 morality, notion of  17, 27, 101, 137 mortification, philosophy of  60, 88, 89–95 Mount Carmel  15 natural theology  160–162, 164, 168, 173 necromancy, practice of  72 New Testament  15, 74 Newton, Issac  149–150, 157 Ninety-Five Theses  2, 182 numinous, concept of  25, 115, 171 odour of sanctity  94 Oecolampadius, Johann  62 Oeconomia Naturae 163 Old Testament  15, 37, 40, 56, 62 On Baptism 62 On the Use and Abuse of Baths 106 open-air bath  98 Order of the Bath  87 Order of the Communion, The 70 Ordo romanus XI, ritual of  51 osculum infame, practice of  83–84 Otto, Rudolf  25, 115 Pagan worship at wells  125 ‘papal relic’  59 Paradise in Islam, characteristics of 21 Paradise Lost 81 Pauline baptism  46 penance, aspects of  30, 44, 88, 89–95, 141, 155 Perrault, Pierre  162 Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and its Challenge to Western Thought 27 plague of 1665–1666  101, 137 pre-Christian rituals  6 predestination, doctrine of  3, 6

Protestant Christianity belief system  6 disagreement with Catholic Church 32 doctrine of providence  154 ethics  2, 10, 149, 166–167, 174 focus on complete divine sovereignty 34 rejection of holy water  10 sacraments of  30 Satan and Devil’s appearance  81 temptation 32 Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism  2, 3, 7, 149, 165, 169 Protestant Reformation  30 Protestantism  2–3, 5, 7, 14, 26, 32, 34, 70, 82, 86, 112, 122, 129, 138, 152–53, 165–166, 168–169, 172, 174 providence, Protestant doctrine of 154 public bathing see communal bathing purgatory, doctrine of  3, 20, 27–28, 50, 100, 106, 132, 138, 173 puritanism, notion of  3, 85, 88, 96–103 purity and impurity, concepts of  86–89, 116 rain-making rituals  15 Ray, John  163 Reformation  2, 4–6, 9–10, 16, 24, 38, 50, 58, 69–70, 87, 95, 102, 122, 127, 129, 165, 174 Christianity after  175 in England  66–67 magic after  149–156 propaganda for  80 Protestant  30, 79 religion approaches for analysis of  8

206

201-210 WaterChristianity Index.indd 206

28/02/2013 14:05

Index definition of  2 historic development of  3 and idolatry  8 and material culture  8 relation with water  7 role of materiality in  7 and science  156–165 Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century England  4, 149 religious conversion  5 religious dualism, notion of  9 religious identity  5, 9 religious life and practice  9–10 in England after the Reformation 10 religious purity  87–88, 101, 116 religious syncretism, notion of  5, 9 Ricoeur, Paul  27, 74 ritual and religious practices baptism see baptism holy wells see holy wells moral evils  29 role of water in  1, 24, 29 use of materiality in  8 ritual purity and physical purity, concepts of  87 ritual washing  44–50, 87 River of Honey  21 river of life see Jordan, River River of Milk  21–22 River of Oil  22 River of Wine  22 Roman baths  96, 110 Roman Catholic Church  3, 32, 51 Russell, Jeffrey Burton  79, 166 Sabbath 83 sacramentals  4, 6, 153, 167, 174, 179 water works and  116–124 sacraments  25, 122–123

of Catholic Church  30 definition of  61 of Eucharist  53 of faith  54 holy water and  123 and industrialisation  165–170 of Protestants  30 for salvation  175 Sacred and the Profane, The 24 ‘sacred books of the East’  24 Sacred Theory of the Earth, The 157 sacred water  24, 113 difference with holy water  39 salvation  7, 15, 24, 27, 33, 35, 51, 57–58, 60–61, 64, 71, 90–91, 136, 153, 169, 172, 174 by baptism  66 faith as requisite for  65 means for  3, 166 necessity for  120 path to  66 sacraments for  175 souls destined for  20 Sandys, Edwin  72 Satan  6, 15, 28, 33–36, 38, 71–74, 77, 81–82, 86, 91, 101, 141, 155, 171 as diabolic evil  30 existence of  85 exorcism and the renunciation of 48 Lucifer 78–79 and rite of baptism  31–32 salvation and renouncement of 166 supernatural and celestial powers 78 use of water in battle against God 29 ‘satanic’ evil  28 Scot, Reginald  85 Second Council of Arles  125 sensual pleasure  100

207

201-210 WaterChristianity Index.indd 207

28/02/2013 14:05

Water, Christianity and the Rise of Capitalism sexual desire, difference with desire for food  93 sexual temptation, evil of  92 sexuality, Church’s view on  93–94 sin 27 forgiveness of  63 as moral evil  28 roles of holy water for annihilating 28 types of  28 Smollet, Thomas  109 snatching wells  124 Sociology of Religion, The 2 Some Thoughts Concerning Education 106 sorcery  33, 124 soteriology 27 Spencer, Stanley  11 spirit cults  5 spiritual adultery and whorehunting, definition of  80 spiritual cleanliness  88, 94, 101 ‘spiritual’ fornication  80 spiritual power  52, 59, 120, 124, 148, 165 spiritual purity, importance of  87, 112, 173 spirituality materiality of  7–10 of religion  65 Spurgeon, C. H.  50, 64–67 steam baths  96, 102–3, 110 Stowe Missal 72 Stubbs, Philip  102 Succession Act 69 Summa Theologiæ 53 superstition  4, 14, 58, 64, 111, 127, 131, 156, 165–167, 169, 174 regarding character of water  26 Supreme Head Act 69 ‘swimming a witch’  145 see also water-test, of witch-hunts syncretism, notion of  5, 9, 81

Taufbüchlein 58 Taylor, Jeremy  88–89, 95, 100 temptation, aspects of  32–33, 35–36, 71, 73–75, 81–82, 86, 91–92, 95, 100, 124, 132, 166, 172, 175 Ten Articles 70 Thames, River  11, 109, 115, 139 superstitions with regards to 131–32 Theology of Water, or Essay on the Goodness, Wisdom, and Power of God 160 Theory of the Earth, The  157, 159 Thomas, Keith  4, 34, 149, 166 Topsell, Edward  102 transubstantiation, doctrine of  25, 44, 57, 62, 67, 71, 113–114, 174 Treatise on the Origin of Springs 162 Vatican 14 Vierlingh, Andries  140 View of the Threats and Punishments Recorded in the Scriptures, A 137 Virgin Mary  14, 24, 38, 129, 132, 144 virginity, concept of  92–93 Wagner, Bartholomew  123 Water and Dreams: An Essay on the Imagination of Matter 77 water cult  117–118, 122, 129, 166, 169, 175 festivals 130 water-cure (hydrotherapy)  106, 109–10 water in Christianity absence of, divine challenges  15–16 in the Bible  11–23 characteristics of  20

208

201-210 WaterChristianity Index.indd 208

28/02/2013 14:05

Index divine qualities of  13–14, 73 divinities and divine power  14–15 at doomsday and armageddon 19–20 forms and attributes of  22 healing power and working as a medium 16–17 in life-threatening forms  19–20 linking of divine and human realms 22–23 as moral index  17–18 in origin of cosmos and the Earth 12 as origin of life  12–13 as penalty for human sin and misconduct on earth  18 Promised Land  13 for purification and annihilation of human sins  16 quality of purity, loss of  55 relation with religion  7 as reward and grace in Heaven 21–22 role as a sacramental  124 role in ritual practices  1 as torment in Hell  20–21 transmission of disease  102 ‘water of correction’  38–39 see also holy water water-test, of witch-hunts  143–146, 172

water works and sacramentals  116–124 water worship  122, 126, 129 Weber, Max  2–3, 7, 10, 137, 149, 165–169 Weihwasser 57 Wesley, John  88, 108 White, Lynn  163–164 Wisdom of God, The 163 witch-hunt 147 characteristic of  84 water-test of  143–146, 172 witchcraft  34, 80, 83–85, 100, 124–125, 141, 143–144 witches Devil’s mark  146 discovery of  85 embodying evil  82–86 power to control weather to cause misfortune 142 preliminary test for  143–145 techniques for identifying  146 women’s spiritual and moral state 86 Wittenberg’s Schlosskirche (Castle Church) 128 Word of God  52–53, 56–57, 61, 74 Zoroastrianism 6 Zwingli, Huldrych  9, 58–59, 62–63, 180

209

201-210 WaterChristianity Index.indd 209

28/02/2013 14:05

201-210 WaterChristianity Index.indd 210

28/02/2013 14:05