DAVID JONES

Modern Historical Outlines

c.1500
November/December 2000

Essay: "Popular culture was rarely more than a reaction to elite

culture, although the reaction was often delayed" Do you agree?
This statement makes the assumption that there were definitive popular and elite cultures in
the Sixteenth Century, which is in itself highly contentious. As Peter Burke puts it: "The term
popular culture gives a false impression of hegemony"i ii. There could not have been a two-
tier model dividing the elite and the popular. It ignores the gender issue – men and women
from the same social background did not have the same cultureiii. The American
anthropologist William Christian sees only localismiv. All that can be defined, broadly, are
three social classes: Princes and nobles; intellectuals, and the vast majority, the peasantry. The
divide is indeterminate. Nor was there a unified popular culture, but many sub-cultures that
are all interlinkedv. So it is impossible not to generalise. Nonetheless, there is evidence to
support the statement’s claim that mass cultures were often determined by a slow reaction to
the culture of the learned. There is more to the panoply of Sixteenth Century culture than that
however. Non-elite culture was an independent body, capable of vibrant development entirely
outside of the actions of the elite.
Many historians see festivals as a good example of how integrated Sixteenth Century
Culture could bevi. Even the highest classes were involved; they sang folk songs and attended
banquets. Admittedly they played a different role to the peasantry here – for them this was all
light relief – but the point is that this was not a society that lived apart. H.G. Koenisberger
disputes this, claiming that court festivals "had almost nothing in common, except perhaps the
love of food and drink, with public festivals"vii. Court festivals often had a popular as well as a
county audience but over the course of the Sixteenth Century they became increasingly
exclusive. Peasants, meanwhile, lived for festivals and carnivals. During lent meat, cheese and
sex were forbidden, so the celebrations preceding it were extreme. Sexual propriety and
violence were rife. There was no police other than local militias who were often involved in
violence themselves. Festivals are an indication of universal social prejudices – Jews were
jeered and forced to parade naked in some regions. During one particular party in Venice,
seventeen people were killed. This was a Europe-wide phenomena. In 1572 in England the St.
Bath's Day massacre occurred.
Both historians and the aristocracy of the time are divided over whether these festivals
represented a dangerous reaction against elite culture. Some see them as a useful safety valve
– the masses could briefly let off steam rather than damage the fabric of society. Machiavelli
wrote four songs for such festivities. Elites also used festivals as an occasion for political
purposes, hence the support of such Englishmen as Jonson, Herrick, Milton and Marvell. H G
Koenigsberger contends that while they "allowed men and women to carry out their individual
and collective fantasies" fantasies was all that they were. As soon as a festival ended society
returned to complete normality, as though preceding weeks of anarchy had never occurred.
Yet danger for the elite came in the fact that festivals emphasised and set a precedent for
turning the social order of the world upside down. They were an inversion of the God-given
David Jones Historical Outlines: 1550 Popular & Elite Culture

order of things. The story of Christmas in itself represents inversion of the social hierarchy.
Christ turned the social order on its head by being born in poverty. This inversion was often
harmless, as when Chimney sweeps covered themselves in flour on mayday. But the Principle
of peasants becoming May Queens and the appointment of Lords of Misrule was altogether
more sinister. It was the one time of the year that Mistrust for the establishment was tolerated,
as "forbidden behaviour and modes of expression were authorised"viii. To some extent they
were a display to undermine the magnificence of a ruler and his regime. Yet Festival imagery
is confusingly mixed. Military symbols were used threateningly, but festivals often contained
displays dedicated to the King and his achievements. Many of the aristocracy saw festivals as
an indecent if not dangerous attack upon their authority. Henry VIII banned all such
celebrations. However the Russian critic Mikhail Bakhtin refocuses the importance of the
transgression of boundaries. His definition of carnival and the carnivalesque is not that it was
an opposition to the elite but to “official culture”. He defines the popular as rebellious vitality
on a personal level, rather than the property of any social groupix. In regard to sport, popular
culture varied regionally but was rarely a reaction to elite culturex
The printing revolution first touched the educated classes, but it rapidly reached the
masses and effected them far more momentously. The printed forms which ordinary people
came across most often were produced by the educated, but they took hold of this material
and made it their own, giving it their own meaning in the process. People's knowledge of
current affairs was very slow. The majority of news was conveyed through priests. In terms of
current affairs, rather than reacting to elite culture, the peasants reacted to rumours. People
tried to fit news into a pattern that they already knew, to prophesise. For example, the works
of Nostradamus seemed to foretell the death of Henry VIII. Nonetheless, the printing
revolution meant that the masses did come in contact with elite culture to a greater degree. It
is an event that sped up popular reaction to elite culture. News spread more quickly and more
reliably, so Kings and governments had more control over manipulating them xi. Governments
realised how dangerous the printing press could be, so there was systematic censorship from
its inception. Royal and Government declarations were an implement of control. Printed
books, songs and ballads also became big business. They were designed to work on different
levels for different classes. In printed books there were visual aids and increasingly smalls
fonts of increasingly complicated information, to accommodate readers of different ability.
Ballads were often written to popular tunes but with Latin annotations for the educatedxii. This
was universal culture at its strongest.
Witchcraft and the persecution of other non-conformists, however, demonstrates
popular culture acting independently of the elite. Intolerance was held by society itself rather
than government control. This can be seen in Europe wide chariavari – skimmington rides xiii.
Governments generally disapproved of these, but there were never enough law enforcers in
villages to stop mobs of two or three hundred. Besides, this ancient custom reveals an
example of the elite reacting to popular culture – the lawful punishments they devised were
similar to traditional peasant acts of humiliation. The persecution of witchcraft is one of the
few areas where there were vast regional differences in popular culture. In most areas those
persecuted were women, but in Finland sixty percent were men. In Ireland there were few
executions at all, whereas a concentrated area around the Rhine saw a process of intense and
systematic killing. The portrait of witchcraft in popular culture is one that grew up on entirely
different terms to the type of witchcraft that interested the elite. Local witches were generally
ostracised old women living in poverty, in whose persecution malice was a defining
characteristicxiv. England was the only place where witches were believed to have familiar
spirits (cats, toads, spiders etc), it was also the only nation where the government was not
interested. Its educated classes certainly were however - the clergy focussed on the idea that

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witches had a pact with the devil. Macbeth’s witches were purposely similar to the kind of
Scottish witches that obsessed James I (James VI of Scotland) xv. Witches were again
portrayed differently on the continentxvi. There is some evidence to suggest that elite culture
affected the treatment of witches in popular culture. In England, where theorists play the
smallest role, the most women were killed. The demise of witchcraft in the latter half of the
Sixteenth Century was partly due to the difficulty in amalgamating village and educated
beliefs. It resulted in scepticism on both sides.
Religion was everywhere in the Sixteenth Century. It was a two way process involving
the church (the Catholic Church was an enormous organisation) and the population, from the
social elite through to the peasantry. It is another area where peasants participated differently
from the elite. Religion was used as a method of control. The church focused on the afterlife
as a reward, manipulating the peasantry into doing something worthwhile. Over the long term,
it seems that the initiative for reform comes from an elite, the upper clergy, before spreading
through society. It was part of a process of "civilising" which began as an attempt by elites to
control the behaviour of ordinary people. However, this was gradually internalised (up to a
point, among certain groups) and so became self-control. There is one example of a delayed,
but extremely vehement reaction to elite culture when popular culture began to absorb the
ideas of Luther. His idea that everyone should be able to read the Bible in their own language
was a form of spiritual disenfranchisement – power to the people. People began to question
various traditions of the Catholic Church – tithes, celibacy in priests etc. Some common
people picked up ideas that neither the authorities nor the reformers liked. The very traditions
of authority were destroyed. There was a rise in anti-clericism and a feeling that everyone
should share in the clergy's authority. German peasants questioned why Italians controlled
their church. In 1525 there were a huge series of peasant uprisings. Lutheranism was partly
responsible for the Peasant's War of 1524-26 in Germany – religion was one of the few issues
over which the peasantry would actively protest.
Generally however, the peasantry were apathetic towards improving their lot. The
"oppressed" masses did not want to break free. Despite numerous injustices they had little
interest in altering the fabric of their society. Various fantasies were popular, such as Land Of
Cockaigne in which there was no work and much food, yet it was never contemplated that this
as a reality. In Popular Culture In Early Modern Europe, Peter Burke claims that the
peasantry had five responses to injustice. They were either fatalistic, moralistic (in that they
enjoyed ideas such as taking from the rich and giving to the poorxvii), traditionalist (they felt
that any change was bad) or radical. The radicals wanted society to adopt new views based on
principles from the Garden of Eden, that there were no social distinctions when God made
man. However, even they were loath to actually do anything.
In conclusion, I do not agree with the original statement. It is far too vague – in many
ways there was no "popular culture" at all. Historian John Bossy viewed the Sixteenth
Century as a fragile "social miracle"xviii. Nonetheless, as H G Koenigsberger points out, there
is truth in the fact that the lifestyles of the common man and the elite "were very different
because of differences in wealth. Peasants tended to be less sophisticated in their domestic
lives and their entertainments"xix. Also, when the elite did influence popular culture it is true
that there was often a delay in their reaction, most notably in relation to reforms by the upper
clergy. However, as Peter Burke contends: "it is easy to overemphasise the active role of the
state in changing popular culture, at the expense of other historical agents, such as
publishers"xx. The importance of elites in influencing popular culture may be an ilusion which
comes about through a lack of evidence in terms of popular attitudes. Burke believes that this
lack of evidence makes any talk of village Luthers before the time of Martin Luther himself
"unwarranted speculation". Most importantly, the classes were all linked by various factors,

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including the same prejudices against foreigners. The most significant link was religiosity,
which contributed to the first of their universal fears – Hell and war.

1,975 Words.
Bibliography
Bossy, John Christianity In The West 1400-1700
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985

Burke, P Popular culture in early modern Europe Rev. reprint

Aldershot: Scholar Press, 1994.

Harris, Tim, Ed Popular Culture In England c.1500-1850

England: Macmillan Press, 1995
Especially for Problematising Popular Culture by Tim Harris ; Regional Cultures? Local Variations in Popular
Culture During the Early Modern Period by David Underdown ; The Gendering of Popular Culture in Early
Modern England by Susan Dwyer Adams.

Koenisberger, H.G, Mosse, G.L, Bowler, G.Q Europe In The Sixteenth Century: Second
Edition
London: New York: Longman, 1989

Sharpe, James The Bewitching Of Anne Gunter: A horrible and true story of football,
witchcraft, murder and the King of England
Bury St Edmund: Profile Books, 1999

Thomas, Keith Religion And The Decline Of Magic

England: Penguin, 1991

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i P.Burke, Popular culture in early modern Europe
ii "Cultures are seldom monolithic, even in primitive societes; they are certainly not so in complex, hierarchically
structured religiously diverse societies such as early modern England". Tim Harris' essay, Problematising Popular
Culture in Popular Culture In England, c.1500-1850.
iii In David Underdown's Regional Cultures? Local Variation in Popular Culture During the Early Modern Period (in
Popular Culture In England, c.1500-1850) hostility is pinpointed between the town and country in England. He goes
on, however, to point out that cultural ties were still very close – all areas had midsummer bonfires, bull-baiting and
cock-fighting matches. Religion often affected regional differences, more than the actions of the elite. There was a well
defined Catholic culture in Lancashire and other parts of the North. There was even evidence of old ethnic traditions –
Celtic in Wales and Jutish in Kent and Sussex.
iv This is investigated in depth in Susan Dwyer Amussen's essay The Gendering of Popular Culture in Early Modern
England (in Popular Culture In England, c.1500-1850)
v This is Peter Burke's view in Popular culture in early modern Europe. He is sensitive to regional differences but sees
his model, generally, as applying to the whole of Europe.
vi Bob Scribener has argued for the existence of single national cultures.
vii H G Koenigsberger, G L Mosse & G Q Bowler Europe In The Sixteenth Century
viii H G Koenigsberger, G L Mosse & G Q Bowler Europe In The Sixteenth Century
ix According to P. Burke in Popular culture in early modern Europe
x In The Bewitching Of Anne Gunter James Sharpe writes "what was described as football was more or less
institutionalised violence between villages or parts of villages". Football was played on the streets of urban areas as
much as in the countryside, and often resulted in fatalities. Sharpe continues: "football was not a game for the elite".
The puritans and James VI were both hostile. The divide continues in other sports – the aristocracy played tennis,
commoners played fives. As evidence that elite culture could conversely be a reaction to popular culture is the example
of cricket. It began as a popular game but was then taken up by the elite.
xi In the essay Literacy and Literature in Popular Culture: Reading and Writing in Historical Perspective (in Popular
Culture In England, c.1500-1850) Jonathan Barry sums up a debate: "If literate and popular culture were becoming
increasingly dissociated, then the capacity of the literate to capture popular tastes may have been declining, while if the
urge of the literate groups was to reform popular culture through the press, then we should view printed popular
literature as an aspect of elite efforts at cultural hegemony".
xii An argument between public figures Grey and Smith, held in ballads and therefore publicly, had interesting results.
Ordinary people began to join the argument by producing their own ballads and this degenerated the debate to a
slanging match. The elite ended the argument, as well as having started it, by having the instigators arrested.
xiii These were brutal, dehumanising attacks by mobs of ordinary people on anyone who fell outside the norm. Their
ancient, ritualistic element actually reinforced rather than damaged society – they gave persecution some, albeit broad,
limits.
xiv An example of this can be seen in the case study The Bewitching Of Anne Gunter, when a yeoman seemingly forced
his daughter to act fits as a pretence of witchcraft, in order for her to denounce a woman called Elizabeth Gregory as a
witch. She was a member of a family with whom the Gunters had shared bad blood.
xv Demonology was a book by James VI about witchcraft.
xvi They were portrayed as young women who flew naked, covered in rat’s blood. They met with the devil to perform
Black Mass.
xvii This can be seen in the myths of Robin Hood or, seperately at this time, Friar Tuck.
xviii John Bossy, Christianity in the West 1400-1700.
xix H G Koenigsberger, G L Mosse & G Q Bowler Europe In The Sixteenth Century
xx P.Burke, Popular culture in early modern Europe