Authority and Agency

Abstract

Early modern society linked authority to age: preachers and moralists imag- ined ideal youth as obedient to adult authority, located in Church, state, parents, teachers and employers. They also constructed negative stereotypes of disrespectful, idle and defiant youth.1 Youthful defiance of adult expecta- tions, and adult attempts at discipline, have been documented; this misrule is often described in terms of irreligion — young people neglecting church attendance, flouting Christian sexual morality, speaking blasphemously. Religion is identified with conforming youth.2