The fundamental monograph of the outstanding French historian Jean Delumeau is devoted to the study of the origins and evolution of the culture of wine in the Renaissance and modern times. The book opens with a message about the amazing combination of the “psychology of a besieged fortress” and the “guilt complex” in the collective consciousness of Europe since the 14th century. A European man, afflicted with the “disease of conscience,” becomes his own main enemy. Calls to conversion and repentance, which became perhaps the main content of almanacs for reading, reinforced another thesis of the church - “... that Satan is everywhere, and therefore in the heart of every person.” Self-abasement and fear became an internal form of European civilization at the beginning New times: “To the “fear”, “fright”, “shock” and “anxiety” caused by various external threats arising from the elements or from people, two no less depressing feelings were added: the “nightmare” of sin and the “obsessive horror” of hellish torments. CONTENTS: Introduction: Cultural history of sinfulness 5 PART ONE. MACABRE AND PESSIMISM IN THE RENAISSANCE Chapter I. Contempt for the world and man 11 Chapter II. From contempt for the world to the dance of death 45 Chapter III. The duality of the macabre 109 Chapter IV. Chapter V. Mortal. man 188 PART TWO. THE FAILURE OF THE REDEMPTION? Chapter VI. The formation of confession. 245 Chapter VII. The prerogatives of the confessor 279 Chapter VIII. Chapter IX. “The Abyss of Perdition” and ideas about sin 385 Chapter X. Religious discomfort 416 PART THREE. INSTALLING FEAR OF THE LORDCatholic landsChapter XI. Dissemination of church edifications about the fear of God 449Chapter XII. “Think about it” 474Chapter XIII. Posthumous torment 505Chapter XIV. God with the “eyes of a lynx” 542Chapter XV. Sin and sins 569Chapter XVI. Ascetic model 602Chapter XVII. The difficulty of mandatory recognition 623Chapter XVIII. Catholic edification: experience of quantitative characteristics 646Protestant landsChapter XIX. “You are the word that strikes like lightning, You are eternity” 660Chapter XX. Topics common to Protestant and Catholic preaching 676Chapter XXI. Eschatology and predestination 701Conclusion 748