"No Country for Old Men". Ireland, Europe and the Invention of the Confessional Divide (ca. 1600-1642)

• Applicant: Dr. Matthias Bähr
• Subject Area: Early Modern History
• Term: from 2014 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 255912997

Ambiguity is a fundamental human experience. But in recent years, research in the humanities and social sciences has shown that societies have very different ways of dealing with ambiguity, and with religious ambiguity in particular: they either tolerate, moderate or seek to destroy it. In this context, Ireland is an especially telling case, as the denominational boundaries that emerged in 17th century Ireland seem remarkably impervious, long-lasting and hostile to any form of religious ambiguity. This project analyses Catholic "Confessionalisation" in Ireland in its formative stages (i.e. ca. 1600 to the Irish Rebellion 1641/42) from the point of view of confessional ambiguity. I assume that the pressure to be unambiguous in terms of one's denomination generated, in turn, strategies of camouflage and deception that became increasingly refined as a new generation of university-trained clerics tried to influence everyday life in Irish society. Instead of eliminating ambiguities, the "Invention" of the confessional divide thus gave leeway to new forms of religious ambiguity: The more pressing the expectation to conform to religious orthodoxy, the more palpable the confessional divide, the more elaborate, the more versatile confessional camouflage became. This assumption is going to be tested in several steps. Initially, I will identify a number of biographical cases that are particularly well documented in order to highlight how confessional orthodoxy was constructed in Irish society, but also the fissures and gaps that occurred during this process. On that basis, I will conduct two micro-historical case studies. In Waterford, an important seaport in the south of Ireland (case study 1), I ask how the new generation of clerics tried to enforce its notions of confessional orthodoxy and how denominational boundaries were set, shifted and opposed. In Dublin (case study 2), I examine if and how confessional "disambiguation" encouraged strategies of camouflage and thus produced new ambiguities instead of guaranteeing clearness. To achieve those aims, archival materials from Ireland, England and France are consulted.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants