Johann Sleidan (1506-1556) was the author of the first great history of the Protestant movement, and did much to influence how it was perceived by both Catholics and Protestants. In this new study, his life and works are comprehensively analysed for the first time, exploring his roles as both diplomat and historian. In so doing, much is revealed about how many moderate statesmen and scholars sought to bridge the growing confessional divide, and promote coexistence and how Protestantism began to search for, and manufacture, its own history independent of that espoused by the Catholic Church. Following these twin themes, this book offers a fascinating and timely look at an influential figure of the Reformation.
One of the major challenges faced by the emergent Protestant faith was how to establish itself in a hitherto Catholic world. A key way it found to achieve this was to create a common identity through the fashioning of history, emphasising Protestantism's legitimacy and authority. In this study, the life and works of one of the earliest and most influential Protestant historians, Johann Sleidan (1506-1556) are explored to reveal how history could be used to consolidate the new confession and the states which adopted it. Sleidan was commissioned by leading intellectuals from the Schmalkadic League to write the official history of the German Protestant movement, resulting in the publication in 1555 of De statu religionis et reipublicae, Carolo Quinto, Caesare, Commentarii. Overnight his work became the standard account of the early Reformation, referenced by Catholics and Protestants alike in subsequent histories and polemical debates for the next three centuries. Providing the first comprehensive account of Sleidan's life, based almost entirely on primary sources, this book offers a convincing background and context for his writings. It also shows how Sleidan's political role as a diplomat impacted on his work as a historian, and how in turn his monumental work influenced political debate in France and Germany. As a moderate who sought to promote accommodation between the rival confessions, Sleidan provides a fascinating subject of study for modern historians seeking to better understand the complex and multi-faceted nature of the early Reformation.
This three-volume work comprises over eighty essays surveying the history of Scottish theology from the early middle ages onwards. Written by an international team of scholars, the collection provides the most comprehensive review yet of the theological movements, figures, and themes that have shaped Scottish culture and exercised a significant influence in other parts of the world. Attention is given to different traditions and to the dispersion of Scottish theology through exile, migration, and missionary activity. The volumes present in diachronic perspective the theologies that have flourished in Scotland from early monasticism until the end of the twentieth century. The History of Scottish Theology, Volume I covers the period from the appearance of Christianity around the time of Columba to the era of Reformed Orthodoxy in the seventeenth century. Volume II begins with the early Enlightenment and concludes in late Victorian Scotland. Volume III explores the 'long twentieth century'. Recurrent themes and challenges are assessed, but also new currents and theological movements that arose through Renaissance humanism, Reformation teaching, federal theology, the Scottish Enlightenment, evangelicalism, missionary, Biblical criticism, idealist philosophy, dialectical theology, and existentialism. Chapters also consider the Scots Catholic colleges in Europe, Gaelic women writers, philosophical scepticism, the dialogue with science, and the reception of theology in liturgy, hymnody, art, literature, architecture, and stained glass. Contributors also discuss the treatment of theological themes in Scottish literature.
The Catholic Church is among the oldest, most secretive, institutions in the world, but in the sixteenth century a friar, Onofrio Panvinio, undertook ground-breaking investigations into the Church's history from Christ to the Renaissance. This study shows how his writings impacted on church and society, but also how he changed historical writing.
This book explores the part played by music, especially group singing, in the Protestant reforms in Strasbourg. It considers both ecclesiastical and ’popular’ songs in the city, how both genres fitted into people’s lives during this time of strife and how the provision and dissemination of music affected the new ecclesiastical arrangement.
What did people in Restoration England think the correct relationship between church state should be? And how did this thinking evolve? Based on the author's published essays, revised and updated with a new overarching introduction, this book explores the debates in Restoration England about "godly rule". The book assesses some of the crucial transitions in English history: how the late Reformation gave way to the early Enlightenment; how Royalism became Toryism and Puritanism became Whiggism; how the power of churchmen was challenged by virulent anticlericalism; how the verities of "divine right" theory revived and collapsed. Providing a distinctive account of English thought in the era between the two revolutions of the Stuart century, "Contesting the English Polity, 1660-1688" discusses the ideological foundations of emerging party politics, and the deep intellectual roots of competing visions for the commonwealth, placing the power of religion, and the taming of religion, squarely alongside constitutional battles within secular politics.
From the dawn of the early modern period around 1400 until the eighteenth century, Latin was still the European language and its influence extended as far as Asia and the Americas. At the same time, the production of Latin writing exploded thanks to book printing and new literary and cultural dynamics. Latin also entered into a complex interplay with the rising vernacular languages. This Handbook gives an accessible survey of the main genres, contexts, and regions of Neo-Latin, as we have come to call Latin writing composed in the wake of Petrarch (1304-74). Its emphasis is on the period of Neo-Latin's greatest cultural relevance, from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Its chapters, written by specialists in the field, present individual methodologies and focuses while retaining an introductory character. The Handbook will be valuable to all readers wanting to orientate themselves in the immense ocean of Neo-Latin literature and culture. It will be particularly helpful for those working on early modern languages and literatures as well as to classicists working on the culture of ancient Rome, its early modern reception and the shifting characteristics of post-classical Latin language and literature. Political, social, cultural and intellectual historians will find much relevant material in the Handbook, and it will provide a rich range of material to scholars researching the history of their respective geographical areas of interest.
Interest in the history of violence has increased dramatically over the last ten years and recent studies have demonstrated the productive potential for further inquiry in this field. The early modern period is particularly ripe for further investigation because of the pervasiveness of violence. Certain countries may have witnessed a drop in the number of recorded homicides during this period, yet homicide is not the only marker of a violent society. This volume presents a range of contributions that look at various aspects of violence from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries, from student violence and misbehaviour in fifteenth-century Oxford and Paris to the depiction of war wounds in the English civil wars. The book is divided into three sections, each clustering chapters around the topics of interpersonal and ritual violence, war, and justice and the law. Informed by the disciplines of anthropology, criminology, the history of art, literary studies, and sociology, as well as history, the contributors examine all forms of violence including manslaughter, assault, rape, riots, war and justice. Previous studies have tended to emphasise long-term trends in violent behaviour but one must always be attentive to the specificity of violence and these essays reveal what it meant in particular places and at particular times.
During the first half of the sixteenth century the Spanish Inquisition fought "Lutheranism" in a benign way, but as time passed the power struggle between those that favoured reform and the detractors intensified, until persecution became relentless under the mandate of Inquisitor General Fernando de Valdés. The power struggle did not catch Constantino by surprise, but the tables turned faster than he had expected. On 1 August 1558 Constantino preached his last sermon in the cathedral of Seville; fifteen days later he was imprisoned. Constantino's evangelising zeal is evident in all his works, but the core of his theology can be found in Beatus Vir, where he deals with the doctrines of sin and pardon, free grace, providence, predestination, and the relationship between faith and works. In his exposition of Psalm 1, Constantino does not resort to human philosophies but associates the spiritual fall of humanity with ugliness. In his exhortation to the reader, he states: "we shall plainly see the repulsiveness of that which seems so good in the eyes of insane men, and the beauty and greatness of that which the Divine Word has promised and assured those who turn to its counsel."
Die Wirkung Martin Luthers auf den Calvinismus war enorm. In diesem Band dokumentieren namhafte Autoren auf dem Gebiet der Lutherforschung und der reformierten Theologie die internationale Forschung zur Rezeption Martin Luthers im Calvinismus. Umfassend analysieren sie das Bild Luthers in unterschiedlichen calvinistischen Kontexten. Als Experten gelingt es ihnen, die zentralen Zusammenhänge zwischen lutherischem und calvinistischem Denken nachvollziehbar und präzise aufzuzeigen. Mit ihrem nachdrücklichen Hinweis auf die immense Wirkung Luthers auf den Calvinismus leisten sie insgesamt einen Meilenstein auf dem Weg zur Erforschung der Bedeutung Martin Luthers für die Geistesgeschichte Europas.
