It was no accident that Saint Thomas' theory associated emotions with the body. Even before his day, mystics like Saint Francis, Christina Mirabilis, and Marie d'Oignies had made such an association a regular – though not, as with Thomas, a theoretical – part of their affective lives. In the fifteenth century some emotional communities highly valued bodily gestures – openly and publicly expressed – of ardor, joy, sorrow, and other emotions. In Johan Huizinga's famous and influential view, this made it an age of passionate extremes. He spoke of the “vacillating moods of unrefined exuberance, sudden cruelty, and tender emotions” in the medieval city; of a “surplus of tears” among the masses; of the “flaming passion and childish imagination” reigning in daily life; and of “the most primitive emotions of mutual loyalty” prevailing in relations between servants and masters.

Huizinga gathered his examples from the chronicles of the time. As we shall see, he missed much of their emotional import. But even had he gotten everything right, he would still mislead, for the chroniclers represent only one emotional community. For example, in the very same cities where Huizinga saw “vacillating moods of unrefined exuberance” were groups – the New Devout (or brethren of the common life) – whose highest values centered on “inwardness” and “interiority” rather than public display.

Across the Channel, English communities showed a similar variety. Margery Kempe, deeply influenced by the model of mystics, nevertheless brought the bodily expression of emotion to such an extreme that she alienated many – though by no means all – with whom she associated. Hers was presumably a small, but real, emotional community. The Paston family, which lived around the same time as Kempe and, in fact, not very far away from her, provides an example of a very different sort of emotional community. And there were many others I do not treat here. (For all the place names in this chapter, see Map 6.1.)

“Troubled, sad, and upset at heart”: the Burgundian chroniclers

Late medieval Burgundy was the dazzling creation of its dukes, the most important for our discussion here being Philip the Bold (1363–1404), John the Fearless (1404–19), and Philip the Good (1419–67).