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Reviews of Books
status quo. Men are also repeatedly upbraided for
having been the main obstacles to the politicalization
of women, and their reasons for doing so are judged by
today's rather than by their own standards. Furthermore, Radcliff never seriously examines the other side
of this complicated equation. In a society in which a
strict and often smothering form of Catholicism informed all aspects of daily life, there is reason to
believe that women themselves were loathe to cross
the threshold into the political arena precisely because
they accepted the church's definition of their identity
,and did not want to blur the boundaries between the
private and public spheres.
The fact that Radcliff raises more questions about
women's role in society than she can answer is not
meant as a major criticism of this provocative and
engaging study. This is a groundbreaking work that
should stimulate a number of fruitful historiographical
debates and discussions. It is also Radcliff's achievement to have written a book that is relevant not only to
specialists of modern Spain but also to historians and
social scientists interested in the development of mass
politics in Europe as a whole.
GEORGE ESENWEIN
University of Florida
GEOFFREY DIPPLE. Antifratemalism and Anticlericalism
in the German Reformation: Johann Eberlin von Gunzburg and the Campaign against the Friars. (St. Andrews
Studies in Reformation History.) Brookfield, Vt.: Scolar. 1996. Pp. x, 244. $74.95.
The role of anticlericalism in the early Reformation
has been the subject of intensive research since the
appearance of Hans-Jiirgen Goertz's Pfaffenhass und
gross Geschrei (1987). Goertz argued that anticlericalism belonged to the core of Martin Luther's theology
and that it was critical to both the theoretical and the
popular advancement of the Reformation. This thesis
has received intensive scrutiny and elaboration, above
all in a set of conference papers that were presented at
the University of Arizona and published in Anticlericalism in Late Medieval and Early Modem Europe,
edited by Peter A. Dykema and Heiko A. Oberman
(1993).
Dipple's study of Johann Eberlin von Giinzburg
(c.1455-1534) belongs in the context of this debate.
Eberlin was a Franciscan friar who left his priory in
Ulm in 1521 and became a remarkably prolific pamphleteer of the early German Reformation. Dipple
focuses on Eberlin's literary production between 1521
and 1526 and analyzes its anticlerical content. Within
this analysis, Dipple gives special attention to what he
calls Eberlin's antifraternalism: that is, the specific
criticism of mendicant orders alongside the censure of
monks and clergy in general. Eberlin's attacks on the
mendicants belong also to a particular campaign
against the Franciscans that was launched mainly from
Wittenberg in 1523 by a group of ex-Franciscans that
included Eberlin, Francis Lambert of Avignon, and
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Heinrich von Kettenbach. While Dipple believes that
this campaign and early Reformation antifraternalism
express continuity with a medieval antifraternal tradition, he also thinks it has to be related to the larger
context of Reformation anticlericalism, which it will
then illumine and clarify.
Dipple's analysis of Eberlin's works, therefore, proceeds on several levels at once. First, he enters into
debate with Eberlin scholars over the circumstances
and dating of Eberlin's pamphlets during the period
under study. Chapter two explicitly examines the composition of the best-known of Eberlin's early pamphlets, "The Fifteen Confederates" (1521). Chapter
five discusses the nature of the pamphlet "Against the
Profaners of God's Creatures" (1523) and reassesses
its place in the Eberlin corpus. Second, Dipple treats
Eberlin's pamphlets as a case study of the relationship
between medieval and Reformation anticlericalism
and the latter's significance. At this level, Dipple
emphasizes the precedents for Reformation anticlerical polemic that can be found in medieval writings,
especially the use of certain biblical types for denouncing the clergy. He also traces the development of
Eberlin's anticlericalism from a typically medieval and
humanist denunciation of the clergy's faults to a more
radical Reformation attack on the clerical order itself.
Finally, the specific campaign against the Franciscans
is analyzed in detail. This analysis, the first of its kind,
highlights Luther's role in the campaign and offers a
section-by-section comparison of Luther's own Judgment on Monastic Vows (1521) with the anti-Franciscan
pamphlets of Eberlin, Kettenbach, Lambert, Johannes
Schwan, Johannes Briesmann, and Heinrich Spelt. A
prolonged discussion of Kettenbach and of Johann
Rot-Locher in chapter seven illustrates how the antifraternal campaign could also be waged at some
distance from Wittenberg.
The major contribution of Dipple's book stems from
his analysis of Eberlin's works and of the anti-Franciscan campaign of 1523. I question, however, whether
either analysis sheds as much light on Reformation
anticlericalism as Dipple hoped it would. His main
point about anticlericalism is that Luther retreated
"from direct anticlerical agitation" and replaced his
early radical emphasis on the priesthood of all believers with the call for a "scripturally defined clerical
order" (p. 97). Dipple argues that Eberlin's pamphlets
confirm this shift as Eberlin came more and more
under the influence of Wittenberg. The problem with
this argument is not with Dipple's analysis of Eberlin
but with his portrayal of the role played by anticlericalism in Luther's development. Luther's initial attack
on the clerical estate did not seek to abolish the clergy
but to reject their superior spiritual status and to
subordinate them to the office of ministry in which
they served. Luther and his supporters, like Eberlin,
continually defined and defended this office against
the Roman hierarchy that supported the traditional
superiority of a clerical order. But no fundamental
shift occurred in the reformers' criticism of the clergy
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1621
Modern Europe
or in their definition of an evangelical ministry, and
Eberlin's writings do not document such a shift any
more than do Luther's.
Dipple would have done better to examine Goertz's
thesis more closely before adapting his analysis of
Eberlin to that platform. Nevertheless, his book remains an important study of Eberlin's pamphlets and
of the anti-Franciscan campaign, and it is a welcome
addition to Reformation studies.
SCOTT HENDRIX
Princeton Theological Seminary
MANUEL FREY. Der reinliche Burger: Entstehung und
Verbreitung burgerlicher Tugenden in Deutschland,
1760-1860. (Kritische Studien zur Geschichtswissenschaft, number 119.) Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und
Ruprecht. 1997. Pp. 406.
Manuel Frey's study of "the clean burgher" is part of a
rapidly growing literature about the formation of an
increasingly assertive middle class within a society in
which advocates of bugerlich values continued to confront serious obstacles from above and from below.
Conceptually clear and full of fascinating (albeit often
repulsive) descriptions, the book provides fresh insights into middle-class thinking and practice that are
readily accessible, highly informative, and generally
persuasive.
Frey concentrates on new ideas about bodily cleanliness and its relation to other aspects of human
character and society. Drawing heavily on the ideas of
Norbert Elias, he shows how, beginning in the period
of the Enlightenment, medical and administrative "experts" combated and revised the thinking of "premodern" groups (Catholic clergymen, nobles, and peasants) in two important respects. At a general level,
they redefined cleanliness as Reinlichkeit, which, in
contrast to the word Reinigkeit, had moral and social as
well as purely physical connotations. Whereas some
had regarded concern about filth as a mark of vanity
and others had actually prized filth (mainly excrement)
as being therapeutic, in the newer view, intolerance for
dirt went hand in hand with personal and political
probity. Clean bodies and clean environments indicated inner and spiritual as well as outer and physical
purity, they betokened readiness to participate dependably in industrial and commercial enterprises, and
they also served as necessary elements of "a nation
[that was to be] both pure and efficient" (p. 139).
More specifically, middle-class thinking moved away
from earlier notions of the cleansing process as one
that took place within bodies, which had been seen as
cesspools that needed to be evacuated in a variety of
ways: mainly by spitting, farting, defecating, and sweating. Much of this activity led to obviously unpleasant
odors, which those who possessed the means to do so
sought to mask by means of the use of perfumes. But
the physical cleanliness of the individual was increasingly being redefined as an aspect of her or his skin.
This condition was neither to be pursued through the
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removal of substances from within the body nor
through efforts to conceal bad smells via the application of pleasing ones. The appropriate means to
achieve the desired end was water, which was to be
enjoyed or endured, depending on one's social status,
in a variety of settings. These ranged from the warm
baths of the bourgeoisie to the cold showers that were
provided for members of the military, for inhabitants
of workhouses and prisons, and for other members of
the lower classes. In line with this thinking, there was
a great increase in the use of water more generally. Its
availability as a result of the introduction of new
technologies permitted not only increased bathing but
also other activities that went beyond the skin itself,
such as the laundering of clothes, the use of flush
toilets, and the cleaning of city streets.
Although key elements of Frey's narrative could be
read as a success story, he firmly opposes any such
interpretation. Toward the end of his study, he circumscribes the limits of whatever progress may have
occurred by reminding the reader of the quite primitive principles and practices that remained very much
alive among most inhabitants of the Bavarian countryside. More generally, throughout his study, he depicts
the men on whom he focuses as agents of a process of
social control that was entirely congruent with the
interests of the class to which they belonged. Middleclass experts sought, in his view, not only to advance
the cause of class formation but also to impose new
forms of discipline on their recalcitrant inferiors,
mainly in order to protect themselves against urbanindustrial threats from below, both epidemiological
and social. The reader thus gains the impression that
the crusade for cleanliness was largely a selfish conspiracy. One problem among others inherent in this
line of argument is, of course, that it runs counter to a
second, albeit subordinate argument that middle-class
objectives were in large measure compromised by
economic limitations on the percentage of the population that was entitled and enabled to benefit from
them. One may choose to criticize the bourgeoisie
either for having done too much or for having done too
little, but it is difficult to combine both lines of
criticism at the same time. Having pointed out this
inconsistency, I wish to conclude by emphasizing that
Frey makes a quite welcome contribution to both the
cultural and the social history of German modernization. His book gives the reader plenty to chew on, and
none of it is anywhere near as off-putting as the
premodern prejudices and practices that his protagonists sought to supersede.
ANDREW LEES
Rutgers University,
Camden, New Jersey
SHULAMIT S. MAGNUS. Jewish Emancipation in a German City: Cologne, 1798-1871. (Stanford Studies in
Jewish History and Culture.) Stanford: Stanford University Press. 1997. Pp. xii, 336. $49.50.
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1998