Sex, honour and morality : about the precarious situation of servant girls in post-Tridentine Münster

Abstract

By examining different forms of deviance, this article asks how the religious reforms brought about by the Council of Trent affected issues of discipline and morality for women and men. My case study is the city of Munster, situated in the north of the Holy Roman Empire. Munster was exposed to powerful Protestant influences, which culminated in the notorious Anabaptist kingdom of 1534. After the defeat of radical Protestantism the city was returned to Catholicism and eventually a stringent programme of reform was enforced. The article shows how the Tridentine reforms influenced perceptions of gender and discusses how the women, and in particular servant girls, experienced these changes.