Lecture Five - Commotions

The fifth lecture explores the turbulence stirred up by the imposition and spread of religious change. One of the vernacular terms contemporaries used to describe such disturbances was ‘hurly burlies’. Others worried that the world was being turned upside down. From outbreaks of iconoclastic violence and sectarian riots to large scale rebellions, such ‘commotions’ were key elements of the confessional conflicts and wars that engulfed post-Reformation Europe. The antagonisms and passions that underpinned them are another dimension of the flux and instability that characterised societies divided by faith. Simultaneously, this lecture investigates evolving perceptions of the emotional and corporeal experiences of those transported by the Holy Spirit, which were increasingly diagnosed as forms of religious ‘enthusiasm’.

This article was published on 2025-07-09