Students’ Innocent Fun Religious Riots and Rites of Passage in 16th Century Cracow
Students’ Innocent Fun Religious Riots and Rites of Passage in 16th Century Cracow

Summary/Abstract: The main goal of this articles is to analyse the role of rites of passage in religious conflicts between Catholics and Protestants in early modern Cracow. In the article, several case studies of religious riots led by students of the Cracow University against Protestant funeral processions, weddings or churches were included. The key thesis of this article is that disturbing the rites of passage was a means of depriving Protestants of their social identity and – through the process of dehumanization – of their humanity. By interrupting weddings and capturing dead bodies during funerals Catholic perpetrators were trying to leave their opponents in the state of, to use Victor Turner’s phrase, “between and betwixt”, i.e. no longer having their previous status, but failing to acquire a new one. By disrupting the most holy Protestants ceremonies in such a humiliating manner, Catholics strove to show that their opponents lacked God’s support and their faith deserved to be considered nothing but an object of mockery. We would argue that, from perpetrators’ point of view, their actions were continuations of ritual activities started during Catholic feasts – transferring the cosmic struggle between Christ and Satan to the streets of early modern Cracow.

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