"No Country for Old Men". Ireland, Europe and the Invention of the Confessional Divide (ca. 1600-1642)

模棱两可是人类的一种基本经验。但近年来，人文科学和社会科学的研究表明，社会处理模棱两可的方式非常不同，尤其是宗教模棱两可：它们要么容忍、缓和，要么试图摧毁它。在这种背景下，爱尔兰是一个特别有说服力的例子，因为17世纪爱尔兰出现的宗派边界似乎非常不透明、持久，对任何形式的宗教模棱两可都怀有敌意。本项目从忏悔模棱两可的角度分析了爱尔兰天主教在其形成阶段(即约1600年至1641/42年爱尔兰起义)的“忏悔化”。我认为，明确自己的教派的压力反过来又产生了伪装和欺骗的策略，随着受过大学培训的新一代神职人员试图影响爱尔兰社会的日常生活，这些策略变得越来越精致。因此，忏悔分歧的“发明”非但没有消除歧义，反而为新的宗教模糊形式提供了余地：越是迫切地期望遵守宗教正统，忏悔分歧就越明显，忏悔分歧就越精细，伪装就变得越多样。这一假设将分几个步骤进行检验。首先，我将确定一些传记案例，这些案例被特别好地记录下来，以强调忏悔正统是如何在爱尔兰社会中建立起来的，但也强调了在这一过程中发生的裂痕和差距。在此基础上，笔者将进行两个微观历史案例研究。在爱尔兰南部重要的海港沃特福德(案例研究1)，我问新一代神职人员是如何努力执行其忏悔正统观念的，以及教派界限是如何设定、改变和反对的。在都柏林(案例研究2)，我考察了忏悔式的“消除歧义”是否以及如何鼓励伪装策略，从而产生了新的歧义，而不是保证清晰度。为了实现这些目标，我们查阅了来自爱尔兰、英国和法国的档案资料。

Ambiguity is a fundamental human experience. But in recent years, research in the humanities and social sciences has shown that societies have very different ways of dealing with ambiguity, and with religious ambiguity in particular: they either tolerate, moderate or seek to destroy it. In this context, Ireland is an especially telling case, as the denominational boundaries that emerged in 17th century Ireland seem remarkably impervious, long-lasting and hostile to any form of religious ambiguity. This project analyses Catholic "Confessionalisation" in Ireland in its formative stages (i.e. ca. 1600 to the Irish Rebellion 1641/42) from the point of view of confessional ambiguity. I assume that the pressure to be unambiguous in terms of one's denomination generated, in turn, strategies of camouflage and deception that became increasingly refined as a new generation of university-trained clerics tried to influence everyday life in Irish society. Instead of eliminating ambiguities, the "Invention" of the confessional divide thus gave leeway to new forms of religious ambiguity: The more pressing the expectation to conform to religious orthodoxy, the more palpable the confessional divide, the more elaborate, the more versatile confessional camouflage became. This assumption is going to be tested in several steps. Initially, I will identify a number of biographical cases that are particularly well documented in order to highlight how confessional orthodoxy was constructed in Irish society, but also the fissures and gaps that occurred during this process. On that basis, I will conduct two micro-historical case studies. In Waterford, an important seaport in the south of Ireland (case study 1), I ask how the new generation of clerics tried to enforce its notions of confessional orthodoxy and how denominational boundaries were set, shifted and opposed. In Dublin (case study 2), I examine if and how confessional "disambiguation" encouraged strategies of camouflage and thus produced new ambiguities instead of guaranteeing clearness. To achieve those aims, archival materials from Ireland, England and France are consulted.