I agree with Richard Landes. But isn't engineered enthusiasm also enthusiasm?
The arousal of enthusiasm may be routinized--as with experienced crusade
preachers/recruiters or ecclesiastical fundraisers who knew exactly the sort of
results they hoped to achieve and were skillful enough to deliver those
results. Yet for the Christian crowd, its behaviour, its religious response was
real enough, however anticipated. Moreover, once ritualized, like Bianchi
processions in 1399, can crowd behaviour still be called 'spontaneous'? Or does
the question of anticipated or ritualized versus 'spontaneous' behaviour matter
much?
Gary Dickson
University of Edinburgh
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