Conclusions
In the scope of this chapter, it is evident that ‘good girls’ and ‘good boys’ were supposed to be brought up differently. Girls were to become chaste and modest women, preferably wives and mothers, whereas boys aimed to become honourable patriarchs and fathers.
Therefore, it is necessary to emphasise the importance and role of gender already in the case of very young children, even though this aspect gains more weight when talking about children in their teens. It also remains a fact that ‘good children’ were raised in families where the children’s own mother could be exposed to spousal disciplinary correction related to and because of the very same gendered roles; this means—in modern terms—domestic violence.Although the basic disciplinary act involved the ideals of teaching in a Christian manner—meaning with love and understanding—children could face many kinds of violence at home. This was, for the most part, grounded in the ideas of parents being masters of the mental and physical correction of their children. While this did not include unlimited means, it seems obvious that growing up in a society that allowed—and sometimes even encouraged—physical correction was a factor influencing children of all ages. It is quite likely that they absorbed this model of problem-solving and put it into practice in their own adulthood. This constituted a specific kind of knowledge transfer, a circle of violence that was passed on across the generations.10 Overall, the advice books of the early modern period supported the gendered family structure and made it look natural and desirable. Sweden was part of this pan-European approach promoting the continuity of the patriarchy.
Reforms in attitudes took place slowly and in much later times, mainly over the course of the nineteenth century. Disciplinary correction was not viewed as domestic violence until very recently, and it was generally criminalised during the latter half of the twentieth century.
As early modern society was largely based on the ideas of hierarchy, common people were not in a position to question the essence of the justification of disciplinary correction. Nevertheless, they could—and at least the authors of the period did—question the limits set upon it; up to a certain point, disciplinary means were understood as necessary instruments of societal order, but not all means were acceptable in raising ‘good children’. Finally, I claim that in the context of disciplinary correction and attitudes towards violence, gender, and family, the transfer of knowledge worked more towards respecting—and therefore upholding—tradition rather than generating change.Notes
1. ‘Ein frommer fürst sol ein solich gmut vnd hertz haben gegen sinem volck, als da hat ein guter hußvatter gegen sinem hußgsind. Dann was ist anders ein rych, dann ein groß hußgsind? Was ist ein künig, dann vyler menschen vatter?’.
2. Even though Centuries of Childhood has been criticised, it is worth noting that age had a different importance in earlier periods compared to today. See Ariès (1962, 15–32, 329–336).
3. ‘Och sasom naturen hafwer forordnat, at qwinnorna skole forholla sigh instängde i husen’.
4. ‘Sasom qwinnan är giord oansedt ey af hufwudet, dock icke af foten, utan af ett refbeen af sijdona, sa hafwer hon wäl intet lijka myndighet med mannen, utan är ringare än han och under hans lydno, men […] icke hanteras som nagon tiänarinna’.
5. The Wisdom of Sirach refers to ethical writings dating from around 200 BCE written by a Jewish scribe called Sira. It was not included in the Lutheran Bible but still accepted as a book proper for reading.
6. The testament was first published by Edward Bodemann in 1890, and it is also mentioned in Ozment 1999, 293.
7. ‘in der wildnuß von groben sawhirten, sonder wie herrnkinder in erbarkeit vnd aller tugent’; ‘boßhafftig gesprech macht boß sitten, auch bey frommen wirt einer fromm, bey schelcken ein schalck’.
8. Cited in Ozment (2010, 95). See also Hoffmann (1943, 21).
9. ‘hettestu mich gestrafft in der jugent, so wer ich nit zu der schand kumen’. The anecdote probably originates from the Roman philosopher Anicius Manlius Severinus Boëthius (c. 480–524 or 525 AD).
10. I have addressed the long duree continuity of attitudes and violence in my monographs (Lidman 2015, Lidman 2018).
Archival Material
Albertinus, Aegidius. 1602. Hauspolicey. München.
Albertinus, Aegidius. 1638. Hortulus muliebris quadripartitus. Thet är: thet qwinlighe konets lustgard (transl. by Ericus Schroderius).
Bible. King James Bible. 1611. http://raamattu.uskonkirjat.net, accessed 9 April 2018.
Brockenius, Zacharias. 1696. Huus-taflan, eller en Christelig, kort och enfaldig forklaring om the tre hufwud-standen, läre- ofwerhets och huushalds-standet, … uthaf then Helge Skrifft … stält och sammanfattat uti 10 predikningar af Zacharia Brockenio, pastore in Botkyrckia & Salem.
Carpzov, Benedict. 1638. Peinlicher sächsischer Inquisition- und Achtsproceß. Frankfurt a. M./Leipzig.
Dedekind, Friedrich. 1551. De morum simplicitate. Grobianus. Von groben sitten vnd vnhoflichen geberden. Worms.
De Glen, Jean-Baptiste. 1641. Oeconomia christiana, d. i. vollkommene christliche Hausshaltung (transl. by Ambrosius Kolb). Koln.
Lemwijk, Oloff Swensson. 1674. Sweriges devotion eller Betrachtelser och forklaring ofwer innewarande ahrs tree allmenne solenne taksäyelse etc. Stockholm.
Pauli, Johannes. 1522. Schimpf und Ernst. I Teil der ältesten Ausgabe von 1522 (edited by Johannes Bolte in: Alte Erzähler. Herbert Stubenrauch, Berlin 1924).
Perneder, Andreas. 1592. Imp. Caes. Justiniani Institutiones [Inst.]. Das ist ein Ausszug und Anleitung etlicher Keyserlichen und des heiligen Romischen Reichs geschribner Rechten. Ingolstadt.
Rotterdam, Erasmus von. 1521. Ein nutzliche underwisung eines Christllichen fürsten wol zu regieren.
Zürich.Rotterdam, Erasmus von. 1563. De civilitate morum puerilium. Hofische und züchtige Sitten.
Tornewall, Petrus Johannis. 1694. Dygdz och odygdz spegel i huus-hald och gemehna lefwerne, allom i hwart stand till nyttig paminnelse, och vnderwisning.
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