Theses and Dissertations Collection

This thesis analyzes how church courts shaped the morality of the laity and how the laity ceded some of their private rights in order to utilize the courts for their own benefit. Using the Genevan Registers and the York Cause Papers, I evaluate how the process of confessionalization was both a “bottom-up” and “top-down” process. I use case studies to show that the laity were involved in the process of confessionalization in two ways: censoring Catholic recusants and regulating morality. The laity learned how important, convenient and cheap the courts could be to settle their personal scruples and the records show the people regularly used them for their own benefit. The movement of society towards a moral, secularly regulated state was both the result of larger institutions and the inclination of the common man to assist in the change.