“So that I Never Fail to Warn and Admonish”: Pastoral Care and Private Conversation in a Seventeenth-century Reformed Village

Abstract

This chapter demonstrates how the pastor and parishioners of an early modern Swiss village negotiated privacy and exposure in their shared mission to create a Christian community. The chapter describes how, after witnessing the suicide of the school teacher of his parish in 1631, village pastor Hans Rudolf Fischer decided to keep a diary of the personal encounters with his parishioners, as well as minutes of the monthly local moral court sessions over which he presided. His notes, which span a period of ten years, present Fischer as a pastor eager to listen to and alleviate the sorrows of his parishioners, yet by no means shy to reprimand privately and publicly those he considered to lead a sinful life. The contribution shows how villagers established their own informal networks through private conversations and how parishioners and pastors were able to access, distribute, or control private information within the confines of their roles within the village.