Agnes Bowker's Cat: Travesties and Transgressions in Tudor and Stuart England

by David Cressy

Cressy examines how the orderly, Protestant, and hierarchical society of post-Reformation England coped with the cultural challenges posed by beliefs and events outside the social norm. Drawing on local texts and narratives he reveals how a series of troubling and unorthodox happenings--bestiality and monstrous births, seduction and abortion, nakedness and cross-dressing, excommunication and irregular burial, iconoclasm and vandalism--disturbed the margins, cut across the grain, and set the authorities on edge.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, European History, School, Crime

364 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

David Cressy is Humanities Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Ohio State University. His specialty is the a social history of early modern England, a topic on which he has published a number of monographs.

Reviews

[Arjun Mishra · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a macro-history; it is so weird and so interesting. The stories are just so wacky, like an Early Modern England Ripley's Believe It or Not. You have drunk townies baptizing horses and dogs. There are lay congregation members calling their ministers jackanapes, jackasses, knaves, rogues, and all the other brilliant English insults. There are rampant fears of a sect of Adamites, who run around naked to proclaim innocence. Of course, there is a woman who claimed to give birth to a black cat. This is just so fascinating in how much the stories reveal about Early Modern England via social history, fears, anxieties, and issues. The Tudor and Stuart eras were fraught with fears and anxieties. Correspondingly, every single action was interpreted as a sign of God's judgment. A truly rich history is recorded and explicated here. My only caveat is that it can be painful to read some chapters. The style does not lend itself to swift reading.

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

'Agnes Bowker's Cat' promises to provide a microhistory of misdemeanours and other lapses from societal norms in the hundred years between Elizabeth I's accession and Charles I's execution. It looks at aberrations such as a woman giving birth to a cat, recusants being buried in churches, court cases involving cross-dressing and infanticide. As should all microhistories, it then links these individual instances to wider themes and discussions. The first few chapters do just this, and do it very well. Close analysis of these individual cases turns many cherished beliefs on their heads, and the arguments Cressy provides are, by and large, watertight and convincing. Furthermore the text, although sometimes leaning towards the academic and assuming a certain level of background knowledge, is written with humour and a sympathy for the subjects. Perhaps there is a little bit too much postmodernism for some people's liking, but the approach is occasionally necessary and provides a different aspect to the tales.

However, in the latter half of the book, Cressy strays from social microhistories into a more generalized discussion of mid-seventeenth-century political and religious history. Gone are the individual stories that provided such colour to the first chapters, to be replaced by analysis of the iconoclasm and sects that have filled volumes of books covering the era. Yes, Cressy has tried to highlight alleged sects that the likes of Hill overlooked, but it runs the risk of being samey. There is little that seems original or new - the religious aspects are covered in any number of texts, while gender issues are covered in more detail by historians such as Laura Gowing. Perhaps this is me being unfair: after all, 'Agnes Bowker's Cat' was written 20 years ago, and it is quite possible that this is the book that inspired all these other works (and a quick flick through various bibliographies of later works would confirm this). But another broad (ish) discussion of aspects of the English revolution is not really what I feel this book had promised.

[Maddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A micro-history that's a macro-history; Cressy's use of vignettes to insinuate greater issues and problems facing Tudor/Stuart England was inventive and interesting, although his semi- narrative approach sometimes left me wondering what his point was. I realize that that was part of the point, that the stories were supposed to speak for themselves, but it took a little getting used to before I could fully appreciate the book. Overall, a very fun and compelling read, and highly recommended!

[Dinah]

[2000 edition] Fascinating evidence and commentaries from some unusual incidents. The testimony from female servants reveals a hint of often unheard voices.

[Farah Mendlesohn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, not just because it showed the weirder side of life but because Cressy (with one exception) did a fantastic job of exploring what we can tell from these local and often bizarre conflicts. One chapter that changed my understanding was the one on the burial of Mrs Horseman (at night, in secret and inside the church)/; I had not realised that Catholics of this period still thought themselves part of the body of the church and the churches as part of their own faith. This helps explain a lot about the choices made by English Catholics to fight for Charles.

I also really appreciated the chapter on Altars which supports my understanding that it is Laud who is the radical and Charles the religious fanatic bent on enforcing his own preferences for ritual and reverence on a population with a wide range of beliefs. We really need to stop using the term fanatic for Puritans. Many of them simply reflect the religious practice of their area.

The one chapter that fails is the one on Seduction, Deception and Distress. Bluntly, this is a man's take which utterly fails to see the clear signalling of rape, abuse and co-ercion (even the word seduction is a problem).

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy micro-histories and this is an interesting collection. Covering early modern England from reformation to revolution, it concentrates on bizarre incidents of monstrous births, cross-dressing etc. What intrigued me was that it showed what a time of extremes this was, compared to now. Conformity and transgression co-existed in this time of great change.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I envy Cressy's ability to mine archival sources for the most interesting stories. He can skillfully piece together bits of pieces of information to create a coherent narrative. He often has trouble convincing me that his stories aren't more reflective of the exception rather than the "norm." However, he successfully argues how understanding the "exception" can shed light on the "norm."

[Ricky Balas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes a little difficult to trudge through, but the stories are interesting and the research is well done.