States and Societies in Early Modern Europe: A Revisionist Approach

The incremental nature of historical interpretation is amply demonstrated by the discussion of the nature of power in early modern Europe. In the late 1980s and early 1990s criticism of conventional views of absolutism—with their emphasis on the development of a strong state—was cutting edge, notably in 1992 with Nicholas Henshall rejecting the entire concept in his The Myth of Absolutism: Change and Continuity in Early Modern European Monarchy. The conceptual points that encouraged early revisionism can now be clarified by a mass of important new research. In particular, studies of court culture have mushroomed, leading to a revision of the idea that monarchs were royal bureaucrats and instead an emphasis on the synergies among their political, social, and cultural roles. There has also been a welcome thickening of the geographical network of our detailed knowledge of the period, notably with more work on Eastern Europe. It is easier now to bring the overseas activities of the European states of the period into the analysis. This is far less true, however, of the necessary comparative dimension with non-European powers, much of which still requires probing.

The key revisionist argument, that adjustment took place in terms of a relationship between rulers and elites defined by compromise, rather than by the workings of an authoritarian will, remains pertinent. These compromises were scarcely equal and often involved coercion, but they were compromises nevertheless. The essentially contractual nature of government inherited from the Middle Ages prevailed, whatever its constitutional or political form; and the conviction that rulers were answerable to God did not absolve them from the need to govern legally and to avoid arbitrary rule.

From Ruth Putnam, William the Silent, Prince of Orange: The Moderate Man of the Sixteenth Century (New York, 1895).

Historians now stress the shared features between Protestant and Catholic Europe, which necessarily diminishes the standard account that Protestantism produced expanding and well-organized societies, especially because of its supposed link to economic enterprise. The revisionist view also counters the traditional notion that Austria and Spain were somehow reactionary states and societies because of Catholic conservatism. Revisionists are also suspicious of the idea that the future lay with progressive, bourgeois societies, exemplified by the success of the Dutch Revolt in the 16th century, the decline of Spain in the following century, and the Austrian failure to regain control of the Holy Roman Empire in the Thirty Years' War. While the rise of French power in the 17th century does not fit easily into the standard account, its defenders argue that France was a rationally governed and successful state, in contrast to Austria and Spain. The standard account also holds Catholic conservatism responsible for the relative decline of the Mediterranean, with the center of gravity of European progress moving to the Atlantic periphery. In practice, religious difference was but one factor in a complex and far from deterministic situation. Moreover, the widespread desire for religious orthodoxy and order ensured that the church was markedly strengthened by both the Reformation and the Catholic response. As a result, the ideological framework of power was given new direction and energy for two centuries. This was more pertinent than abstract discussions over sovereignty, as the concepts of orthodoxy and heresy (if not always the issues) were easier to understand. Communion and the catechism had meaning in every parish, and were aspects of a divinely ordained civil society that offered the prospect of redemption through Christ's suffering and the ministry of the church to all believers.

In turn, it was necessary to contain the passions, for, in resisting sin and the devil, early modern Europeans were, whatever their situation, making themselves fit for God's mercy. In 1729 earthquakes in Florence were blamed on the impiety of the population and the wickedness of the clergy, leading to penances, processions, and the end of the opera season. Divine judgment on human conduct was at once a drama and a bargain that was given cultural force across the range of arts. Painting, sculpture, and sacred music all powerfully contributed but...