Daily Life During The Reformation (24 page)

A woman was expected to know about herbs for seasoning in
cooking, salads, or sauces; she would know when each herb should be planted and
the best time to harvest it. Food was often highly seasoned with both herbs and
spice (especially meat that was far from fresh). Herbs were used for making
preserves, medicines, and cleaning preparations.

For insect stings, lemon balm was used either by drinking
the crushed leaves with wine or applying them directly to the skin. Fruits were
dried, vegetables pickled, and meats salted amongst other things for winter
supply.

Another wifely duty was to keep clothes clean, and she
often used ashes, bread, urine, vinegar, and egg whites in addition to soap and
water. Clothes were laid out on the grass to dry in the sun. In addition, she
took care of the chickens and bees and milked the cows. She also produced
cream, cheese, and butter. In many cases, the wife was also charged with making
malt and brewing beer: “the drink by which the household is nourished and
sustained since it was both consumed by the family and sold for profit.”

A CASE OF BETROTHAL AND MARRIAGE

Before a formal union of marriage, arrangements were
normally conducted by the families regarding a dowry and other matters of
concern.

Typical of the upper middle class, Felix Platter, son of
Thomas Platter, a student of medicine, conducted his courtship of Madlen
Jeckelmann in Basel in various stages. First was the formal introduction
(although they already knew each other). A luncheon was prepared to which
members of both families and friends were invited. Following a walk around the
Platter country estate, the formal luncheon was served. Then Felix entertained
the guests with music, playing the lute, and dancing.

Later came the official proposal to which Madlen’s father
consented after some hesitation. The only stipulations he made were that Felix
obtain his doctorate beforehand and that Madlen manage her father’s house as
well as her own during their first two years together.

This agreed, Felix was free to visit Madlen (who was always
chaperoned) daily. Otherwise, the engagement was to be kept secret until Felix
had completed his studies. When the day arrived for the long anticipated
wedding, the two fathers of the couple began arguing over dowry. Madlen’s
father, a surgeon, offered a quarter of her dowry in cash, the rest to be paid
in the form of a trousseau. Felix’s father, less well-off, finally agreed. The
wedding ceremony took place at the cathedral after a sermon and the exchange of
rings.

Next came the banquet, prepared with great care for between
150 and 200 guests. Fifteen tables were set up, and the food was served in four
courses consisting of appetizers, fish, roast, and dessert. Once this was over,
a choral recital and dancing followed. Later in the evening, they dined again
on fowl and various meats including pork, beef, and game. Wine from Alsace was
served throughout both meals. Once the speeches were finished, the young couple
said their goodbyes and slipped away to the nuptial bed.

A German Wedding

When Fynes Moryson wrote his travel memoirs, he had
something to say about marriage in the German-speaking areas of Europe, noting,
for example, that cities and towns in Saxony generally appointed a working day
for the marriage. Sunday was considered inappropriate since the celebration
involved heavy drinking. Before the feast, a colorfully dressed young man rode
through town to invite the guests. Beside him, a boy ran from house to house to
make sure somebody was home before the rider dismounted to extend the
invitation. Two youths attended the bride on her wedding day, carrying torches
before her wherever she went.

After dinner, dancing and drinking began either at the
house where the feast took place or at an inn, and those not invited to enjoy
the food could come and join the dancing. The men stood on one side of the room
and women on the other. The boys attending the bride brought the women across
the floor and presented them to the men with whom they were to dance. In one
incident a virgin maiden refused to dance with a certain man, and he gave her a
slap on the ear. Taken before a judge, the man was pardoned. He had done her no
harm, but she had disgraced him as a person unworthy to dance with her.

A gift of money was presented to the bride and groom just
after the feast, and the wealthy were expected to give more than those with
less means. Moryson also mentions that in many places he had “seene Cittizens
of good quality gather mony of the guests to pay the Musitions.”

Barrels of beer and wine were provided, and the groom
entertained the men. The bride entertained the women. The feasts were more
grandiose in some places while in others it was inexpensive, consisting of
smoked herring, raw beans, certain kinds of nuts, along with sliced bread that
was salted and peppered to stimulate a thirst for more drink.

MENU FOR FELIX PLATTER’S
WEDDING, NOVEMBER 1557

CHILD BEARING AND BAPTISM IN GERMANY

During the time a woman was in bed before or after giving
birth, anyone who entered the house presented her with a small gift of money to
help pay for the midwife and the nurse.

When a child was born in any level of society, there was a
celebration that would be of some material benefit, especially to the poor, as
each guest was expected to bring a gift. This occasionally took the form of
money. For the rich, some of the presents and the ceremony itself, could be very
extravagant. An invitation to be a godparent was an honor, and the final choice
of name for the child was the responsibility of the father.

Baptism followed soon after birth in the Catholic Church.
The baby was taken on a cushion covered in a white cloth to the priest who laid
a piece of white linen over its face as a symbol of purity. Godfathers and
godmothers were on hand (there could be any number of them) as the child was
immersed in the water of a fountain. An exorcism was read to rid the child of original
sin.

Children of royalty underwent more elaborate ceremonies.
Copious refreshments and the presentation of gifts followed. The duke of Saxony
invited the entire town when his child was born, and each person brought a
gift.

If a mother were not able to suckle the baby, a wet nurse
was hired. Unlike many other places, in Germany children were never sent away
from home to be suckled elsewhere.

The nature and benefit of baptism became a controversial
issue during the Reformation. At first, adult baptism took place when a person,
old enough to know what was happening, was welcomed into the Church. Baptism of
infants was conducted throughout Christendom in the Middle Ages. By the time of
the Reformation, there were Protestants who were sure that infant baptism
occurred in the Bible and should be continued, whereas others, a minority
(Anabaptists), were sure it did not, and only adult baptism was valid. Zwingli
believed there was no clear evidence in the Bible either way. The argument
revolved around an infant’s inability to consciously become a disciple of
Christ.

INFANTS

Married women were pregnant much of the time, and records
show that at least one-third of all children died before age five. Midwives
generally delivered the children, but sometimes they were inexperienced or
negligent.

Swaddling was encouraged to keep the child warm, and its
limbs straight, but on occasion babies were swaddled with their limbs in the
wrong place, causing permanent damage. The Catholic Church required abstinence
from sex if the mother was nursing a child, so many of those who could afford
it put their children in the hands of wet nurses for the first eighteen months
of their lives. Problems arose if the wet nurses were unhealthy, unclean, or
could not supply sufficient milk. In France, death rates as high as 75 percent
resulted when children were sent away to the provinces to nurse. They often
died on the journey.

If a nursing mother ran out of her own milk, the baby of a
poor family would be given cow’s milk, which frequently came from conditions
that were far from hygienic.

PARENTAL SUPERVISION

In Reformation Germany, raising of children was considered
the responsibility of both parents who prepared them for this and the spiritual
world. They should not be overindulged. In the middle of the century, Veit
Dietrich, pastor in Nurnberg, berated parents who were too permissive toward
their children. Corvinus, a Church man from Hesse, accused noble parents of
corrupting their children with materialism and lack of discipline, thereby not
encouraging their spiritual and intellectual growth. Erasmus summed up the
concern of the Reformists with morals and discipline when he said “human beings
are not born, but formed.”

In Germany, as elsewhere, most of the responsibility for
the child fell on the mother during the early years. Once the child of a poor
family reached six or seven, however, he or she came more under the control of
the father and was introduced to the working world. The son of a wealthy
burgher family at this age would perhaps learn to fence and ride a horse.

One couple’s letters to each other give some insight as to
a child’s requests to his father, a Nurnberg merchant, who traveled frequently.
Some of the items he asked for were stockings of various colors, boots, purses,
clothing, and spurs. His mother wrote that she was taking care of his
education, and when he reached six years, he was ready to enroll in Latin
school. The next year, he was taking music lessons after class each day and
writing each night.

Other rules for children of the middle and upper class
included neat hair, fresh, clean mouth, body and hands, orderly dress, good
manners, no yawning, no scratching, no loud laughter or shouting, and no
spitting. They should be obedient, and all children should pray regularly to
God, not to saints.

According to Erasmus, children should be forbidden to play
chess, dice, cards, and go swimming, as these games invoked “private greed.”
Rather, they should indulge in occupations that encouraged strong character and
teamwork such as dancing, running, singing, ballgames, and exercising. In the
presence of a teacher, fencing was also beneficial.

Girls learned to sew and embroider, and in England they all
had daily tasks such as the handling of wool and flax and carding and spinning
wool. In the upper classes, a young girl who was between childhood and marriage
was almost always surrounded by women servants. Families of more limited means
made sure their daughters remained under the watchful eye of a servant or
relative, protecting her from any contact with immodest or wanton behavior that
could cost her good name.

In poorer families, girls were taught not to “tap their
feet; . . . sit alone with a man . . . ; talk too much; . . . change friends
too often; . . . spend more than they earned if they worked for wages . . . or .
. . drink too much, gorge their food or indulge in light looks or laughter.”

Children were disciplined from about seven; and by the time
boys were 14 and girls were 12, they had reached an age when they could marry.
The Protestants considered that the moral character had been shaped by that
time.

Children were especially subject to many different diseases
such as measles and smallpox, which killed millions in the mid-sixteenth
century.

In peasant families, children were put to work as soon as
they were able to follow instructions, about age six or seven. Education for
the peasantry was not an option. Girls helped out at home until they were
married, or they went to work as servants. The father had full authority with
approval of the Church.

MIDDLE CLASS CHILDREN

Male children of merchants and artisans mostly followed in
the steps of their fathers. After the age of seven, children frequently lived
with families other than their own in order to learn a trade, but increasingly
their education became a matter for the school, which began at this time to
take the place of the family.

In Germany, children learned about religion and prayer,
cooperation with others within the family, and to rely on skill and acts rather
than on words in order to get on well in life. Honesty was a key value to
success, as were loyalty, obedience, and self-reliance. Well-known and
successful schools such as those in Strassburg served as models for both
Lutherans and Calvinists.

Girls learned about running a home and at first did not
attend school unless it was a small one. Further, they needed a dowry to bring
to a marriage, which had to be approved by the parents. In the German areas,
geese were often included as part of the dowry of a poor girl.

When both parents worked in a middle class family, children
were often sent off to boarding school where they slept in dormitories and ate
in a large dining room sitting on benches at long tables. Breakfast normally
consisted of bread, butter, and seasonal fruit. The midday meal comprised
pottage and occasionally meat pie. On fast days, they ate bread and salted fish
accompanied by vegetables such as peas or Lentils with buttermilk to drink.
Salads often began the meal, and cheese and fruit ended it. Supper was not a
heavy meal, offering bread, nuts, and fruit accompanied by diluted wine or ale.
Grace would precede the meal, and often a lively discussion would take place as
they ate. Afterwards, each boy would be given a basin of water and a new napkin
with which to wash and dry his hands. During all meals, the master watched the
boys closely to ascertain that their manners and comportment were correct.

ENGLISH CHILDREN

In Elizabethan England, frequently children of wealthy parents
were sent off to become wards of influential friends or family members who
could give them a proper, well-disciplined, religious upbringing, as well as
provide them with advantages that were not available within their own homes. As
wards, they were usually kept busy assisting at the table where they sometimes
could listen to intellectual guests conduct interesting conversation.

Boys in a wealthy or noble household might be sent away to
a squire’s home or a bishop’s palace to learn how to become pages, perhaps to
one day serve at the royal court. They were given some education in Latin,
rhetoric, math, and philosophy. When about 15 years old, they learned fencing,
riding, swordsmanship, and the art of war. Many would become high-ranking
soldiers; the others would serve the king or enter the Church.

In almost all cases, and at all levels of society, the
husband and father had the last word in family affairs.

CATHOLIC CHILDREN

Some differences occurred in the raising of Catholic
children. For example, they were acutely aware of sin that required confessing.
In the rituals of the Church, children were disposed to believe in miraculous
events and saints. Good Catholic parents reinforced these beliefs. The
sacrament of confirmation administered in early adolescence firmly anchored the
child to the Church.

DIVORCE

In Protestant regions in which marriage was not a holy
sacrament and divorce could be obtained, marriage courts made an effort to
bring reconciliation and harmony back into the household of separated couples.
When the estrangement could not be overcome, when no hope remained for
reunification, a divorce was granted, and the couples were free to remarry.
Incompatibility was not the only reason for divorce however. If a husband and
wife were forced to live apart due to exile of one or the other, and religious
persecution would follow if one followed the other, a divorce could be
obtained. In one known case, an Italian wife refused to live in Calvinist
Geneva where her husband went to reside, fearing persecution in Italy. Under
such conditions, forced to live apart, a divorce would be granted.

There were other pathways to free women from abusive
husbands that included bigamy, adultery, impotence (the purpose of marriage was
to have children) abandonment, and cruelty that threatened life.

WIDOWS

A middle class woman needed a dowry that would often
provide help for a young man of ambition to establish his own business. This
might consist of money, jewelry, household goods, or land. A contract drawn up
before marriage would include a clause giving the terms of the dower rights of
the bride in case of widowhood. Widows sometimes waived those rights in favor
of returning to their parents’ house or by remarrying.

Young widows were sometimes looked after by their families,
who immediately began the search for a new husband. Margaret Dakins of
Yorkshire’s first husband was killed in war. She met and subsequently married
Thomas Sidney with whom she had fallen in love in spite of the machinations of
the family to try to marry her off to someone else whom she disliked. After
three years, she was again a widow, and this same young man plied his suit once
more. As with many women in this situation, she gave in after much pressure
from her family.