Moral control and origins Malthusian reproductive system, case Belgium since 15 th C.

1. The politics of moral control and the development of the Malthusian
marriage system.
Flanders & Brabant, 1450-1790
Ron Lesthaeghe
Belgian Royal Academy of Sciences, Brussels

2. Visions of a New Civility & Family
Part 1
Early reactions against “Medieval Laxness”
• Examples: LIBER VAGATORUM, Das NARRENSCHIFF, MALLEUS
MALEFICARUM: the late medieval mind and the restoration of law and
order
The new Christian Model
• REFORMATION AND COUNTER-REFORMATION
• PERIODS OF FIRMER AND OF WEAKER CONTROL, FROM 1600 TO
1790.
Part 2
The Plural Model
• THE ROOTS OF POLITICAL “PILLARIZATION” : 1780-1850
• TWO SECULARIZATION WAVES, INDUSTRIALIZATION, AND THE
FIRST DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION, 1800-1900.
• THE “EMBOURGEOISEMENT” OF THE WORKING CLASS
• Part 3
The Revenge of History
• The rise of individual autonomy
• The 2nd Demographic Transition

3. Anthony of
Burgundy
(ca 1470)
“Stoof”
or
“Stove”
Stofa=
single
heated room
Illustration for
“Facta et Dicta
Memorabilia”

4. Jan Luiten van Zanden (2000): Estimating early modern economic growth. Eur Review of Econ. History, 4, 1-27
URBAN REAL WAGES
ca14701300 1800

5. “Much idleness and ill policy: for it is their own
cause and negligence that they so beg” (1532 -
Starkey)
Adriaan Brouwer (1606-38)
1494: Sebastian Brant :”Narrenschiff”;
1502: Robert de Balsac: ”Le droit chemin de l’hôpital”.
1510: Liber Vagatorum (32 editions between 1510 and
1529; one with Luther preface)
1516: T. More : labor should be obligatory; warns against
all those living “with contempt of God and all good men,
and obstinate rebellious mind against all law, rule and
governance”
1524: Erasmus: beggars are antisocial, but suggests
education as solution. Also Melanchton (1525), Juan Luis
Vives (1525) stress schooling.
Zwingli, Calvin, Frossard: idleness is sin, work is a
religious duty. Both church and state need an alliance to
combat idleness.
1522-1545 : grand scale pauper reforms in European cities
: registration. Unemployment => truants => crime.
“VULGUS NOSTRUM”, “LES GENS SANS AVEU”

6. Magister nomine Expertus in Truffis
(i.e. with proficiency in roguery)
written ca 1509, first ed. 1512 printed in
Augsburg by Erhart Oeglin aka Ocellus
•First known book on beggars
•Reaction to the swelling numbers of
beggars and rogues; first major round up
of beggars was in Basle in 1475.
•Book contains an elaborate typology of
beggars and their tricks.
•Also vocabulary of beggars’ German
slang “Rotweilisch”, other slang
vocabularies added in translations.

7. Hieronimus Bosch
Duerer, 1497
Sebastian Brant 1494 Das Narrenschiff – Stultifera Navis
The Ship of Fools describes over a 100 types of “silly” or
antisocial forms of behavior.

8. .
Heinrich Kramer &
Jacob Sprenger :
Hexenhammer
(Hammer of Witches)
1486
Treatise by 2 Dominicans and
Inquisitors in Cologne with
1. Proofs of existence of
witchcraft,
2. Description of actual forms
and their detection,
3. Advice to judges to combat it.
Printed 13 times between 1487-1520, 16 times 1574-1669.

9. Witchcraft : Executions
Recorded mainly between 1475 and 1700: 12,545 but
missing areas, missing years. Estimated : between 25,000
and 60,000
Areas : esp. Germany, Switzerland, Scotland, Northern Italy,
Eastern France and French-Spanish border. Later in the US
(Salem 1692).
Frans Francken II (1581-1642): The Assembly of Witches.

10. 1494 “Die Liebesnarrheit” in the
Ship of Fools:
Cupid shoots blindfolded while
Death lurks around your back,
and beggars and fools look on.
Clearly an attack on sexual
promiscuity, but before syphilis
spread from to New World to
Europe ; the disease was first
labeled as such by Italian
physician Girolamo Fracastoro in
1530 (Syphilis sive morbus
gallicus). By then most bath
houses had been closed.

11. Window shutter,
Geneva’s
municipal public
house
Musée Tavel

12. CHANGES IN THE NATURE OF CASES JUDGED BY
ECCLESIASTIC COURTS IN FLANDERS &
BRABANT, 1550-1794
SOURCE : J. DE BROUWER, 1971
PERIOD FORNICATIO
SIMPLEX
ABDUCTION
+
ELOPEMENT
ADULTERY
+
CONCUBINA
GE
PROSTIT
UTION
SEDUCT.
WITH
MARR.
PROMISE
BROKEN
MARR.
PROMISE
DIVORCE INCEST
+OTHER
REASONS
1550-
1600
55.3 4.2 18.7 0.0 9.7 1.8 1.7 .16
1601-
1650
11.6 0.9
40.0 10.1 15.3 1.8 7.4 17.9
1651-
1700
12.8 0.6 12.8 5.9 18.1 0.7 9.1 31.3
1701-
1750
5.4 0.0 2.9 0.5
33.5 12.1 11.2 33.3
1701-
1794
1.9 0.1 5.8 0.3
39.0 19.1 13.1 16.9

13. 1450-1550: Pauper & crime control, sexual controls, first witchcraft trials.
1550-1604 : Spanish reconquest of the Southern Low Countries, reconversion to
Catholicism, “Spanish fury”, end of Calvinist city republics (Ghent, Antwerp, Ostend).
Pop size declined by 30% in 35 years.
1600-1650 : Counter-reformation , end of witchcraft trials as Catholic control is re-
established, populist Catholicism, end of Flemish literature, Jezuits create elitist
education; Spain bancrupt. Beginning of documented demographic history.
1650- 1740 : “Spanish low countries” become buffer state, weakened control by state
and church, proto-industrialisation of countryside ( textiles).
1740- French Revolution : Austrian control over the SLC, economic decline, again
firmer control : prisons, forced employment in ateliers. But also Enlightenment among
elites & first Belgian independence (2yrs). Start of secularization.
French period (till 1815) and Dutch period (1815-1830): Catholic church under firm
state control. Industrialization takes off. 2 secular state universities founded.
1830 =>: Belgian independence, “pillarization” : Catholic – Liberal rivalry; Labour party
third pillar. Industrial expansion. After 1860 rapid rise real income & fertility/nuptiality
transitions.

14. Scherpenheuvel pilgrimage
Southern Low Countries: Spanish
reconquest & reconversion to
Catholicism
.Massive influx of Jesuits. Sunday Mass
& Vespers obligatory.
•New pilgrimages, processions, Virgin
Mary devotions, populist Catholicism.
•Publications in Flemish/Dutch banned (
all suspected of Calvinist/Orangist
propaganda)
•Literature restricted to “holy lives of
saints”.
•Elite education only (in Latin and
French) .
•Painting, architecture ...in function of the
Counter-Reformation (Baroque).
Albert & Isabella

15. Marriage Seasonality Index (100= 2/12) in Flemish
villages ( 17th C) and in Herstal (1750-99 ; 1900-10)
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUNE
JULY
AUG
SEPT
OCT
NOV
DEC
Polders
Herzele
Velzeke
Herstal18
Herstal 20

16. DEFINITION MLA INDEX OF MARRIAGES
DURING LENT AND ADVENT
• Approximation : Lent = March, Advent =
December ; averaged over 25 year
periods
• MLA-Index = Pct marriages March +
December relative to 2/12 or 16.67 pct
• Hence MLA-Index = 100 if no marriage
deficit occurs during closed periods.

17. Marriages in Lent + Advent : MLA-index in villages of Flanders and
Brabant ( 1600-1839 ) and in rural parts of all arrondissements ( 1841-
1886 ) -- AVERAGE LEVELS
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
1600-491650-741675-991700-241725-491750-741775-891790-991800-241825-391841-471851-561860-651870-761881-86
Counter-
Reform.
Wars with France
Austrian period
Joseph II
Spain
bankrupt
Anglo-Dutch French
period
Dutch
period
Belgian
independence
2nd secularization
wave

19. The “Malthusian”
Demographic System
1. NEOLOCAL : NOT 2 MARRIED
COUPLES UNDER SAME ROOF.
2. MARRIAGE ONLY POSSIBLE IF
NEW HOUSEHOLD IS
ECONOMICALLY INDEPENDENT.
3. NO PROCREATION OUTSIDE
MARRIAGE
Flanders & Brabant (1625-1850) :
Mean age first marriage women =
25 to 29
Pct illegit. births = 1 to 6 %
Pct premarital conceptions among first
births: 12 to 35 %

20. Conclusions Part 1: 1450-1800
• The period 1475-1540 constitutes a major turning point in the history
of continental European “Politics of Morality”.
• Demographic impact becomes visible after the Council of Trent, and
particularly at the beginning of the 17th Century.
• The “New Christian Civility” model needs continuous reinforcing.
• In Flanders, there is a clear trend from strong reinforcement in the
period before 1650 to weaker reinforcement ( MLA-indicator), and
then back to strong reinforcement after 1750 and esp. after 1770.
• This closely corresponds to economic changes (urban real wages &
rent of land).
• Operating mechanism seems to be concerns for law and order by
both civil and church authorities, with harsher control during periods
of economic hardship, high unemployment and larger “unattached”
populations.
• System works best when civil authority and church position is
strong; when either one is weakened, social control and
reïnforcement weakens as well.

21. Itinerant salesmen in the US 1895 and the Liber Vagatorum

22. TOWARD THE END OF THE MIDDLE AGES
BRUGES : Mean Annual Number of Executions and Pct. Shares Young in Executions and
Fines, 1385-1550 ( source: G. Dupont, 2001 )
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
1385-99 1400-19 1420-39 1440-59 1460-79 1480-99 1500-19 1520-39 1540-50
p.a.meannr,%(shares)
executns p.a.mean
executns % young
fines % young

23. 1625
Jacob Cats Treatise on
Marriage and Female
Duties in 6 Chapters :
Virgin, Courtship, Bride,
Wife, Mother, Widow.
…..but also comprising the male
“counter-duties”

26. “Al zendst den ezel ter scholen om leren-- gaat ene ezel blijven en zal geen peerd weder keren”
Breughel’s doubts about education ….
Send a donkey to school to learn -- A donkey it will stay, and not as horse return