Hausvater and Landesvater

Paternalism and Marriage Reform in Sixteenth-Century Germany

Datos Bibliográficos

ID9645690
AutoresJoel F Harrington (0000-0001-9582-9898, Vanderbilt University, autor de correspondencia)
Año1992
Volumen25
Número1
Páginas52-75
Fecha de publicación1992-03-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaCentral European History (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0008-9389 • E-ISSN: 1569-1616
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0008938900019701
OpenAlexW1969469989
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas1
Referencias citadas26

Long before Melanchthon and Erasmus drew their parallels, paternal and political authority had enjoyed a long and successful association in Greco-Roman thought. The apparent resurgence of this patriarchal metaphor in sixteenth-century European literature and polemic, however, has led some historians to suggest a more socially significant transformation in the actual legal or moral authority of one or both of these father figures. Beginning with the pioneering work of Phillippe Ariès many historians of the family, particularly Lawrence Stone, have identified the sixteenth century as a time of greater paternal authority within the household and the beginning of the modern nuclear family throughout most of Europe. Others, expanding on references by Aries and Stone to a new state paternalism, have focused on the political half of the patriarchal analogy, especially the almost ubiquitous association among sixteenth-century German authors of the Hausvater (head of the household) with the Landesvater (political ruler). For most of these scholars, paternalistic language was a natural and even necessary component of the ambitious absolutist state-building of early modern Europe

Art history · Economic history · Erasmus · Parallels · Paternalism · Political science · Politics · Ruler · Sociology · State (computer science · Classics · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Historical Legal Studies and Society · History · Law · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity