Both themes of this volume – the importance of courts and of religious life – have experienced a considerable renaissance within eighteenth-century studies in recent years. The present collection, stemming from a conference in 2002, is a notable addition to the existing literature that enhances our knowledge in a number of directions. Schaich has had the good fortune to assemble an able team of contributors all of whom are able to cast new and interesting light on the role and function that religion played at European courts in the eighteenth century.
The volume is divided into three main sections dealing respectively with personnel, everyday ceremonial, and state occasions. Within the individual contributions a number of common themes emerge. There is general acknowledgement that the role that religion played within court life was changing during this period. Much of this change can be attributed in some ways to a growing sense of ‘enlightenment’ across Europe, be it through an increasing interest on the part of a burgeoning public in the position of Jesuit confessors in France or the desire of the Whig regime in Britain to remove religious debate from the centre of political life. However, while ‘enlightenment’ may have been the harbinger of change, to characterize this change as leading to ‘secularization’ would be too simplistic. Several essays, especially those by Clarissa Campbell-Orr and J. C. D. Clark, take serious issue with an earlier historiography that saw a high road from the enlightenment to secularized modernity but dissatisfaction with this account is one of the themes that unites the contributors.
Derek Beales's essay on clergy at the Austrian court provides a virtuosic opening to the section on personnel. It is a model of concision and insight, beginning with a discussion of what the court was and then expertly tracing the fate of clergy at the Viennese courts in the eighteenth century. The plural is important because the role of clergy differed between the monarchical and imperial courts. While clerics were sidelined by Joseph II at the former, they continued to enjoy influence at the latter, not least because the management of the Reich still relied to a considerable extent on cultivation of the prince-bishops. Paul Bushkovitch's contribution on the Russian court enjoys the advantage, along with his fellow Russianists Simon Dixon and Lindsey Hughes, of being able to tackle a relatively under-researched area. All the contributions on Russia are at pains to stress that the history of the eighteenth-century Russian court is only in its infancy and is not nearly as advanced as court studies in other European countries. Yet the results offered here suggest that further study will be highly rewarding. Peter the Great transformed Russian court practice, reducing pilgrimage from its central place within court life through the introduction of new commemorations, particularly of military success. Yet, although Empress Anna began to introduce secular entertainments at court in the 1730s, religious festivals and processions were retained. Clergy retained a role both as masters of ritual and as communicators of ideas, especially through sermons. Bushkovitch's conclusion that although the clergy no longer had a monopoly of influence, they remained important is mirrored in Dixon's work on religious ritual and Hughes's contribution on imperial funerals.
Funerals, more generally, receive considerable attention. In addition to Hughes's piece on Russia, Eckhart Hellmuth discusses Prussia, Mark Hengerer writes about Habsburg funerals, and Michael Schaich considers changing British practice. Hellmuth contrasts the funerals of Frederick William I and Frederick II and explores how Frederick II's desire for a simple, non-Christian burial was systematically ignored by the Prussian state. Hellmuth argues (pp. 469–70) that this is best explained by thinking of the funeral as a ritual of transition that helped to cement the king's position as a national hero. This depiction of royal funerals as being more for the public than the court is in marked contrast to Schaich's account of a growing exclusion of the public from eighteenth-century British royal funerals. More and more, Schaich argues, royal funerals were becoming events simply for a courtly public.
The other piece in the section on state occasions is Chantel Grell's discussion of Louis XVI's sacre. Like Gérard Sabatier's piece on religious ritual and Nicole Reinhardt's discussion of French royal confessors, Grell wants to argue that religion was increasingly a problem for eighteenth-century French monarchs. Just as Louis XV being banned from communion brought the monarchy into disrepute, Grell contends that the very decorative scheme (neo-classical as opposed to gothic) implicitly deprived the coronation ceremony of its religious content (p. 358).
Prior to the main sections Michael Schaich provides a thorough historiographical overview and J. C. D. Clark provides his reading of current historiographical trends. Clark argues that earlier generations misunderstood the importance of both monarchy and religion. Those with sociological inclinations receive particular censure and Clark notes en passant that Talcott Parsons, Weber's translator, and Walter Bagehot were non-Anglican Protestants. He also contends that Weber himself has been widely misunderstood. Things have, however, started to look up in recent years.
Overall, Schaich has edited a wide-ranging and important volume. It is far from exhaustive (there is, for example, no coverage of either the Iberian or Italian peninsulas) but it will provide an exemplary point of departure for anybody wishing to tackle these issues in the future.
