Social Discipline in a Single Town (Emden, 1558-1825) This charts on this page describe the content and intensity of social disciplining in the North Sea harbor town of Emden, located in the County of East Frisia, between 1559 and 1825. By the end of the sixteenth century, Emden had become predominantly Calvinist and was home to a consistorial court that policed the moral life of town residents and clergy. The data described comes from the records of that consistorial court, between 1558 and 1825. Each set of data describes the content and intensity of prosecution, by category, for seven five-year periods: 1558-1562, 1596-1600, 1645-1649, 1695-1699, 1741-1745, and 1821-1825. Image right: The city of Emden, Civitates Orbis Terrarum, Latin Edition (1575). Image source: Historic Cities.

The first chart shows the activities of the consistorial court in Emden, broken down by general category--"Dogmatic Discipline," "Moral Discipline," and "Other." The first of these categories refers to cases that came before the court involving such things as heresy and defection fromt he congregation. Noteworthy here is the relatively large number of cases involving the enforcement of doctrinal orthodoxy and orthopraxy during the first phase covered by these charts--the mid-sixteenth century, when confessional identities were still forming. Even at this early stage, though, "moral discipline" consumed the lion's share of the courts energies. All of these cases involved the morality of ordinary laypeople--marital, social, sexual, and so forth. In general, these data show, first, a sharp increase in prosecutorial activity during the seventeenth century, especially the latter half (the slump in 1596-1600 is probably attributable to the effects of the Dutch War and to political upheavals in Emden during the late 1590s). The seventeenth-century increase is traceable in almost every category of prosecution. Just as important, secondly, is the sharp drop-off in this activity during the eighteenth century: by the end of the century, prosecutions have all but ceased; those few which remain are limited to cases of divorce and abandonment.

This chart represents a break-down of the category, "Moral Discipline," into its sub-categories: (a) Married Life, Family and Parenting, (b) Sexuality, (c) Social Comportment, (d) Economy and Occupation, and (e) Capital Crimes. Although the distribution of activities among these subcategories was more consistent than the general categories, there were nevertheless important changes taking place. Cases involving "Social Comportment" dominated during the first phase -- these included offenses such as brawling, defamaion, lying, breach of contract, violation of sumptuary laws, gambling, dancing, drunkenness, uncleanliness, and "keeping bad company." In the seventeenth century, the consistory shifted its attention to the policing of married life and sexuality; then in the eighteenth century, its activities declined in all categories.

If we look at the sub-category "Sexuality," we find significant shifts taking place. The cases in this category all involved some form of illicit sex, be it adultery (extramarital sexual intercourse, excluding prostitution and sex with domestic servants), premarital sex, "harlotry" (i.e., working as a prostitute), "procurement" (contracting the services of a prostitute), homosexual sex, contraception, abortion, and bearing children out of wedlock. In this category, the dominant concern through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was with prostitution (in both aspects); then in the eighteenth century, attention shifts to premarital sex, either because prostitutes are no longer readily available to males or because the consistory decided to intervene against the common practice of couples to commence sexual activity at betrothal (as opposed to marriage).