Course Outline

Week One1. Introductory Meeting: Religious Life in Early Modern Europe 2. Popular Piety?: Religious Life on the Eve of the Reformation

Week Two1. Unpopular Piety?: Critics of the Church on the Eve of the Reformation2. Martin Luther

Week Three1. Ulrich Zwingli and the Swiss Reformation2. Peasants, Cities, and Princes

Week Four1. The Radical Reformation2. Calvin and the Reformation in Geneva

Week Five1. The Reformation in France and the Netherlands2. The Early Reformation in England

Week Six1. Seminar Preparation Session2. Group Seminar - The Reformation and Popular Culture

Week Seven1. Group Seminar - Print and Propaganda: Reformation Word and Image2. Catholic Reform in the Sixteenth Century

Week Eight1. Christians and Jews in Reformation Europe2. Sources and Historiography

Week Nine1. Seminar Preparation2. Group Seminar - Prophecy and Prophets in Reformation Europe

Week Ten1. Group Seminar - The Reformation, Magic, and the Supernatural2. Conclusions

1

Essay questions Is it accurate to view the reformation as a response to the spiritual anxiety of the

late medieval laity? Were there substantial differences between ‘official’ and ‘popular’ religion on the

eve of the Reformation? What does Erasmus’ changing attitude to Luther tell us about the relationship

between humanism and the Reformation? Why did Luther’s protest result in the division of western Christendom? Why did Luther’s message prove so attractive? ‘God hath opened the press to preach’. How important was printing to the spread

of the Reformation? Why was the evangelical movement of the 1520s and 1530s so popular in the

German cities? Should we view the events of 1525 as the ‘reformation of the common man’? What impact did Ulrich Zwingli have upon the spread of the Reformation in

Switzerland? Why were the Anabaptists feared and hated by Catholic and Protestant churches? What was more important to the radical reformation: social revolution or doctrinal

reform? Was Calvin’s reformation in Geneva a ‘revolution’? How central was predestination to Calvin’s theology? To what extent should the Affair of the Placards (1534) be seen as a turning point

in the history of the French Reformation? How can we explain the initial failure of the Lutheran Reformation in the

Netherlands? How much influence did the Continental Reformation have upon religious change

in England in the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI? What impact did the Reformation in England have upon the beliefs and practices

of the people by 1553? To what extent was Catholic reform in the sixteenth century simply an effort to

counter the Protestant Reformation? Do the Jesuits deserve to be seen as the ‘shock-troops’ of the Catholic

reformation? Why did the Reformation succeed in Germany but not across the rest of Europe? On what grounds is it accurate to claim that the Reformation had failed?

2

General Books and Reference Works   (useful for several of the seminars). 

Bietenholz, P.G., & Deutscher, T.B., eds., Contemporaries of Erasmus: Biographical

Register of the Renaissance and Reformation (1985-7).

Cameron, E., The European Reformation (1991).

Du Boulay, F.R.H., Germany in the Later Middle Ages (1983).

Dixon, C.S., ed., The German Reformation:  Essential Readings (1999).

Greengrass, M., The Longman Companion to the European Reformation (1998).

Hillerbrand, H.J., ed., The Oxford Encyclopaedia of the Reformation, 4 vols. (1996).

The World of the Reformation (1975).

The Protestant Reformation (1968) document collection

Johnson, P., Scribner, R., The Reformation in Germany and Switzerland (1993)

Johnston, A., The Reformation in Europe (1996).

Lindberg, C., The European Reformations (1994).

The European Reformations Sourcebook (2000).

Oberman, H., Masters of the Reformation. The Emergence of a New Intellectual

Climate in Europe (1981).

Ozment, S., Protestants. Birth of a Revolution (1993).

The Age of Reform 1250-1550 (1980).

Pettegree, A.D.M., ed.The Early Reformation in Europe (1992).  

The Reformation World (2000).

Po-Chia Hsia, R., ed., The German People and the Reformation (1988).

Raitt, J., ed. Shapers of Religious Traditions in Germany, Switzerland and Poland

(1981).

Scribner, R & Johnson, T., Popular Religion in Germany and Central Europe

1400-1800 (1996).

A TLTP tutorial “The Protestant Reformation” is accessible via the History

Department web site , and contains useful primary sources and analysis of events

3

(1.i) Popular Religion on the Eve of the Reformation

Blickle, P., 'Peasant revolts in the German empire in the late Middle Ages', Social

History, 4 (1979).

Revolution of 1525. The German Peasants War from a New Perspective

(Baltimore, 1981).

       ‘The Reformation and its late medieval origins,' Central European

History, 20 (1987).

Bossy, J., Christianity in the West, 1400-1700 (Oxford, 1985).

Cameron, E., The European Reformation  (Oxford, 1991).

Dickens, A.G., The German Nation and Martin Luther (London, 1974).

Duggan, L.C., 'Fear and confession on the eve of the Reformation,' Archiv für

Reformationsgeschichte, 75 (1984). 

Eltis, D.A., 'Tensions between clergy and laity in some western German cities in

the later Middle Ages.' JEH 43 (1992).

Holborn, H., History of Modern Germany, vol. I, The Reformation (London, 1969). 

Hughes, M., Early Modern Germany, 1477-1806 (Basingstoke, 1992) .

Kiermayr, R., ‘On the education of the pre-Reformation clergy’, Church History 53

(1984).

Lerner, R.E., ‘Medieval Prophecy and Religious Dissent’, P+P 72 (1976).

Ozment, S., The Reformation in the Cities (New Haven,1975).

The Age of Reform 1250-1550 (New Haven and London, 1980).

Scribner, R.W., 'Cosmic order and daily life:  sacred and secular in  pre-industrial

German society,' in K. von Greyerz, ed., Religion and Society in Early

Modern Europe (London, 1984).

'Ritual and popular religion  in Catholic Germany at the time of the

Reformation,' JEH, 35 (1984).

Popular Culture and Popular Movements in Reformation Germany

(London, 1987), caps. 1-2, 11 

'Elements of popular belief,' in Handbook of European history, 1400-

1600 : late Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Reformation ed.T.A. Brady,

Jr., H.A. Oberman, J.D. Tracy (Leiden / New York, 1994).

Swanson, R.N., Religion and Devotion in Europe, 1215-1515 (Cambridge, 1995). 

4

Swanson, R.N., Catholic England: Faith, Religion and Observance Before the

Reformation [available online from campus machines at :

www.medievalsources.co.uk/catholic.htm]

Zika, P., 'Hosts, processions and pilgrimages in fifteenth-century Germany’, Past and

Present, 118 (1988).

(1.ii) Humanism 

Bradshaw, B., ‘Interpreting Erasmus’, JEH 33 (1982).

Brann, N.L., 'Pre-Reformation humanism in Germany and the papal monarchy: a

study in ambivalence', J. Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 14 (1984).

Dickens, A.G., The German Nation and Martin Luther (London, 1974).

'Luther and the humanists,' in P. Mack, ed., Politics and Culture in

Early Modern Europe (Cambridge, 1987).

Grossmann, M., Humanism in Wittenberg 1485-1517 (Nieuwkoop, 1975).

Kirk, J., ed. Humanism and Reform (Oxford, 1991).

Kittelson, H., ‘Humanism and the Reformation in Germany’, Central European

History 9 (1976).

McGrath, A., The Intellectual Origins of the European Reformation (Oxford, 1987). 

Moeller, B., 'The German humanists and the beginning of the Reformation',  in his

Imperial Cities and the Reformation (Durham, 1972).

Nauert, C.G., Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe (Cambridge, 1995).

Scribner, R.W., Porter, R., Teich, M., The Reformation in national context

Cambridge,1994).

Spitz, L.W., Religious Renaissance of the German Humanists (London, 1963).

5

(2 Martin Luther

        

Bainton, R.H., Here I Stand (London, 1950).

Brooks, P.N., Seven-headed Luther : essays in commemoration of a quincentenary,

1483-1983 (Oxford, 1983).

Cameron, E., The European Reformation (Oxford, 1991).

Cargill Thompson, W., 'Luther's "tower-experience"', Studies in Church History, 15

(1978).

Dickens, A.G., 'Luther and the humanists,' in P. Mack, ed., Politics and Culture in

Early Modern Europe (Cambridge, 1987).

The German Nation and Martin Luther (London, 1974).

Contemporary Historians of the German Reformation (London, 1978).

Dixon, C.S., The German Reformation : Essential Readings (Oxford, 1999).

Lortz, J., The Reformation in Germany (London, 1968).

McGrath, A.E., Reformation Thought (Oxford,1993).

Oberman, H., Luther. Man between God and the Devil (New Haven, London, 1989). 

Reardon, B., Religious Thought in the Reformation (London, 1981).

Russell, R.W., 'Martin Luther's understanding of the Pope as Antichrist,' Archiv für

Reformationsgeschichte, 85 (1994). 

Scribner, R.W., 'The Reformation movements in Germany,' in New Cambridge

Modern History, vol. 2 (1990 edn).

Steinmetz, D.D., Luther and Staupitz, An essay in the intellectual origins of the

Protestant Reformation (Durham, N.C., 1980).

Strauss, G., Enacting the Reformation in Germany : essays on institution and

reception (Aldershot, 1993)

Todd, J.M., Luther. A Life (London, 1982).

The Treatises of 1520-1 may be found in RUL in various editions. Look for

                        Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation

                        The Babylonish Captivity of the Church

                        On the Freedom of a Christian

You can also access these online via the course website.

6

(3) Zwingli and the early Swiss Reformation

Gordon, B., ‘Switzerland’, in A.Pettegree ed., The Early Reformation in Europe

(Cambridge, 1992).

The Swiss Reformation (Manchester 2002)

Guggisberg, H., ‘The problem of failure in the Swiss reformation’, in E.Kouri, T.Scott

eds., Politics and Society in Reformation Europe (Basingstoke, 1987).

Johnson, P., Scribner, R., The Reformation in Germany and Switzerland (Cambridge,

1993). (documents)

Ozment, S.E., The Reformation in the Cities: the Appeal of Protestantism to

sixteenth-century Germany and Switzerland (New Haven, London 1975)

Potter, G.R., Huldrych Zwingli (London, 1977).

Zwingli (London, 1978).

Huldrych Zwingli (London, 1978). documents

Rupp, E.G., Patterns of Reformation (1969). Especially article on Oecolampadius

Snyder, A., ‘Word and power in Reformation Zurich’, Archiv fur

Reformationsgeschichte 81 (1990).

Walton, R.C., ‘Zwingli’, in de Molen ed., Leaders of the Reformation (Selingrove,

1984).

Wayne, J.W., ‘Church, State and Dissent. The crisis of the Swiss Reformation 1531-

1536’, Church History 57 (1988).

 

 (4.i) The Peasants' War 

Blickle, P., The Revolution of 1525 (Baltimore, London, 1982). 

Cohn, H.J., 'Anticlericalism in the German Peasants' War',  P. & P. 83 (1979).

Hillerbrand, H.J., 'The German Reformation and the Peasants' War', in The Social

History of the Reformation, ed. L. Buck & J. Zophy (London, 1972).

Karant-Nunn, S., 'Silver miners of the Erzgebirge,' Social History, 14 (1989) 

Laube, S., 'Social arguments in early Reformation pamphlets and their significance

for the German Peasants' War', Social History, 12 (1987).

7

Oberman, H., ‘The Gospel of Social Unrest. 450 years after the so-called Peasants

War of 1525’, Harvard Theological Review 69 (1976).

Ozment, S., The Reformation in the Cities (New Haven, 1975), pp. 97-108 

Robisheaux, T., Rural Society and the Search for Order in Early Modern Germany

(Cambridge, 1989), cap. 2 

Scott, T., 'The Peasants' War', HJ, 22 (1979)

'The Volksreformation of Thomas Müntzer', JEH, 34 (1983)

'Reformation and Peasants' War in Waldshut and Environs', Archiv für

Reformationsgeschichte, 69-70 (1979-80).

‘The Common People in the German Reformation’, HJ 1990

Freiburg and the Breisgau : town-country relations in the age of

Reformation and Peasants' War (Oxford,1986). 

Scribner, R.W., & Benecke, G., The German Peasant War 1525: New Viewpoints

(1979).

‘Images of the Peasant, 1514-1525’, Journal of Peasant Studies vol.3

(1975).

TLTP tutorial : The Peasant Reformation  and linked case study 'The peasants are

becoming aware' 

(4.ii) Cities and Princes

Abray, L.J., The peoples Reformation. Magistrates, Clergy and Commons in

Strasbourg 1500-1598 (Oxford, 1985).

Brady, T., ‘Phases and Strategies of the Schmalkaldic League’, Archiv fur

Reformationsgeschichte 74 (1983).

Ruling Class, Regime and reform in Strasbourg (Leiden, 1978).

‘In search of the godly city’, in R. Po Chia Hsia ed The German People

and the Reformation (Ithaca, 1986).

Turning Swiss : cities and empire, 1450-1550 (Cambridge, 1985).

Broadhead, P., ‘Politics and Expediency in Reformation Augsburg’, in P.N.Brookes,

ed., Reformation Principle and Practice (London, 1980).

8

Cohn, H., ‘Church property in the German Protestant Principalities’, in E.Kouri,

T. Scott eds., Politics and Society in Reformation Europe (London, 1987).

Hendrix, S., ‘Loyalty, Piety, or Opportunism. German Princes in the Reformation’,

Journal of Interdisciplinary History 25 (1994).

Hoss, I., ‘The Lutheran Church of the Reformation. Problems of Organisation

and Formation’, in L.Buck ed The Social History of the Reformation (1972).

Moeller, B., Imperial Cities and the Reformation (Durham, 1972).

Oberman, H., Masters of the reformation (Cambridge, 1986).

Ozment, S., The Reformation in the Cities (New Haven and London, 1975).

Po Chia Hsia, R., Social Discipline in the Reformation (London, 1989).

The German people and the Reformation (Ithaca, 1988).

‘The Myth of the Commune. Recent Historiography on City

and Reformation in Germany’, Central European History 20 (1987).

Rublack, H-C., ‘Is there a new history of the urban Reformation’, in E.Kouri,

T.Scott eds., Politics and Society in Reformation Europe (London, 1987).

Scribner, R., ‘Civic Unity and the Reformation in Erfurt’, in Popular Culture and

Popular Movements in Reformation Germany (London, 1987).

‘Why was there no Reformation in Cologne?’, BIHR 49 (1976).

Stalnaker, J.C., ‘Residenzstadt und Reformation. Religion, Politics and Social

Policy in Hesse 1509-1546’, Archiv fur Reformationsgeschichte 64 (1973).

Strauss, G., Luther’s House of Learning (Baltimore and London, 1978).

‘Success and Failure in the German Reformation’ P+P 67 (1975).

TLTP Tutorial : Nuremberg case study

9

(5) The Radical Reformation 

Bainton, R.H., 'The Left Wing of the Reformation,' in his Studies on the Reformation

(London, 1964).

Baylor, M., Revelation and Revolution. Basic Writings of Thomas Muntzer

(London, 1993).

Clasen, C.P., Anabaptism, A Social History (London, 1972).

'The sociology of Swabian Anabaptism,' Church History, 32 (1963) .

Cohn, N., The Pursuit of the Millennium (London, 1993).

Deppermann, K., 'The Anabaptists and the state churches,' in K. von Greyerz, ed., 

Religion and Society in Early Modern Europe (London, 1984).

Dickens, A.G., ‘The radical Reformation’, P+P 27 (1964).

Hillerbrand, H., ‘The origins of 16th century Anabaptism. Another look’, Archiv fur

Reformationsgeschichte 53 (1962).

Klaassen, W., 'The Anabaptist understanding of the separation of the church,' Church

History, 46 (1977).

‘Anabaptism – neither Catholic nor Protestant’, Church History vol. 4

(1981).

Mullett, M., Radical Religious Movements in Early Modern Europe (1980).  

Oyer, J., ‘Sticks and Stones did Break their Bones and Names Did Hurt them.

16th Century Responses to the Anabaptists’, Church History 4 (1985).

Packull, W.O., ‘Anna Jansz of Rotterdam’, Archiv fur Reformationsgeschichte vol.78

(1987).

& G.L.Dipple eds., Radical Reformation Studies (Aldershot, 1999)

Po-Chia Hsia, R., 'Münster and the Anabaptists,' in his German People and the

Reformation (Ithaca, 1988).

Potter, G., ‘Balthasar Hubmaier’, History Today 26 (1976).

Roper, L., 'Sexual Utopianism in the German Reformation,'  JEH, 42 (1991), & in

her Oedipus and the Devil (London, 1994). 

Rupp, E.G., Patterns of Reformation (1969).

Scott, T., Thoms Muntzer. Theology and Revolution in the German Reformation

(Basingstoke, 1989).

‘Thomas Muntzer’, JEH 34 (1983).

Scribner, R.W., 'Practical Utopias:  pre-modern communism and the Reformation’, 

10

Comparative Studies in  Society and History, 36 (1994).

Snyder, C.A., Anabaptist History and Theology (1995). 

Stayer, J.M., The Anabaptists and the sects,' in New Cambridge Modern History, vol.

2 (Cambridge, 1990 edn.). 

‘The Anabaptists’, in Handbook of European History, ed. T.A. Brady et

al (Leiden, 1995).

Williams, G.H., The Radical Reformation (London, 1962, 1992) 

        'Radical Reformation' in Oxford Encyclopaedia of the Reformation, ed

H.Hillerbrand, vol.3  (Oxford, 1996).

(6) Calvin and the Reformation in Geneva

Balke, W., Calvin and the Anabaptist Radicals (Grand Rapids, 1982).

Bouwsma, W.J., John Calvin : A Sixteenth Century Portrait (Oxford, 1988).

‘John Calvin’s Anxiety’, Proceedings of the American Philosophical

Society 128 (1984).

‘The quest for the historical Calvin’,Archiv fur Reformationsgeschichte 77

(1986).

Duke, A., Lewis, G., Pettegree, A., Calvinism in Europe, 1540-1610 : a collection of

documents (Manchester, 1992).

Duke, A., ‘Perspectives on European Calvinism’, in A.Pettegree, A.Duke,

G.Lewis eds., Calvinism in Europe (Cambridge, 1994).

Douglass, J.D., ‘Calvin’ s Use of Metaphysical Language of God’, Archiv fur

Reformationsgeschichte 77 (1986).

Eire, C., War Against the Idols. The reformation of worship from Erasmus to

Calvin (Cambridge, 1986).

‘Prelude to Sedition? Calvin’s Attack on Nicodemism and Religious

Compromise’, Archiv fur Reformationsgeschichte 76 (1985).

Gordon, B., ‘Calvin and the Swiss Reformed Churches’ in A.Pettegree, A.Duke,

G.Lewis eds., Calvinism in Europe (Cambridge, 1994).

Hall, B., John Calvin, Humanist and Theologian (London, 1956).

11

Hopfl, H.M., The Christian Polity of John Calvin (Cambridge, 1982).

Kingdon, R., Shapers of Religious Traditions in Germany, Switzerland, and Poland

(London, 1981)

‘Was the Genevan Reformation a Revolution?’, Studies in Church

History 12 (1975).

‘The Geneva Consistory in the time of Calvin’, in A.Pettegree,

A.Duke, G.Lewis eds., Calvinism in Europe (Cambridge, 1994).

McGrath, A., A Life of John Calvin (Oxford, 1990).

Monter, E.W., Calvin’s Geneva (1967).

Studies in Genevan Government (1964).

Mullett, M., Calvin (London, 1989).

Naphy, W.G., Calvin and the Consolidation of the Genevan Reformation

(Manchester, 1994).

‘The usefulness of Calvin’s Letters for the study of Genevan History’,

Archiv fur Reformationsgeschichte (1995).

Parker, T.H., John Calvin (Tring, 1975).

Potter, G and Greengrass, M., John Calvin (London, 1983). (documents)

Prestwich, M., International Calvinism 1541-1715 (Oxford, 1986).

Randell, K., Calvin and the Later Reformation (London, 1988).

Steinmetz, D.C., Calvin in Context (Oxford, 1995)

Wendel, F., Calvin (1978).

Calvin : the Origins and Development of his Religious Thought

(London, 1965).

TLTP Tutorial: Calvin and Geneva

12

(7.i) France

Baumgarter, F.J., France in the Sixteenth Century (Basingstoke, 1995).

Cameron, K., ‘Henri III : The Anti-Christian King’, Journal of European Studies

(1974).

Davis, N.Z., Society and Culture in Early Modern France (Cambridge, 1987).

Diefendorf, B., Beneath the Cross (Oxford, 1991).

Farr, J.R., ‘Popular Religious Solidarity in Sixteenth Century Dijon’, French

Historical Studies 14 (1985).

Febvre, L., ‘The origins of the French Reformation : a badly put question’, in P.

Burke ed., A New Kind of History (Cambridge, 1973).

Greengrass, M., ‘The Anatomy of a Religious Riot in Toulouse in May 1562’, JEH

34 (1983).

‘The psychology of religious violence’, French History (1991).

The French Reformation (Oxford, 1987).

Heller, H., ‘The evangelism of Lefevre d’Etaples’, Studies in the Renaissance 19

(1972).

‘Famine, Revolt, and Heresy at Meaux 1521-1525’, Archiv fur

Reformationsgeschichte 68 (1977).

Hempsall, D., ‘The Languedoc 1520-1546 : A study of pre-calvinist heresy’, Archiv

fur Reformationsgeschichte 62 (1971).

Holt, M.P., ‘Putting Religion back into the French Wars of Religion’, French

Historical Studies (1993).

Knecht, R.J., Francis I (Cambridge, 1982). (ch 9, 25)

‘The early reformation in England and France : a comparison’,

History 57 (1972).

Nicholls, D.J., ‘The Nature of popular Heresy in France 1520-1542’, HJ 26 (1983).

‘The Social History of the French Reformation’, Social History 9

(1984).

13

(7.ii) The Netherlands

Bergsma, W., ‘The Low Countries’, in R.Scribner, R.Porter, M.Teich eds., The

Reformation in National Context (Cambridge, 1994).

Crew, P.M., Calvinist preaching and iconoclasm in the Netherlands 1544-1569

(Cambridge, 1978).

Duke, A., ‘The face of popular religious dissent in the low countries’, JEH 26

(1975).

‘Building Heaven in Hell’s Despite : the early history of the reformation in the

towns of the Low Countries’, in Duke & Tamse eds, Britain and the

Netherlands 7 (1981).

‘The Netherlands’, in A.Pettegree ed., The Early Reformation in Europe

(Cambridge, 1992).

Krahn, C., Dutch Anabaptism (1968).

Limm, P., The Dutch Revolt (London, 1989).

Parker, G., The Dutch Revolt (London, 1979).

Pettegree, A., Emden and the Dutch Revolt (Oxford, 1992).

Foreign Protestant Communities in Sixteenth Century London (Oxford, 1986).

‘Coming to terms with victory : The Upbuilding of the Calvinist Church in

Holland’, in his Calvinism in Europe (Cambridge, 1994).

Tracy, J., ‘Heresy Law and Centralisation Under Mary of Hungary’, Archiv fur

Reformationsgeschichte 73 (1982)

14

(8) The Early Reformation in England

Bernard, G., ‘The Church of England 1529-1542’, History 75 (1990).

Brigden, S., London and the Reformation (Oxford, 1989).

Carleton, K., Bishops and reform in the English church, 1520-1559, (Woodbridge

2001)

Collinson, P., The Birthpangs of Protestant England (Basingstoke, 1998).

Craig, J., ‘Reformers, Conflict and Revisionism. The Reformation in 16th

Century Hadleigh’, HJ 42 (1999).

Davies, C., A Religion of the Word. The Defence of the Reformation in the Reign of

Edward VI, (Manchester 2002)

Davis, J.F., Heresy and Reformation in the South-east of England (London, 1983).

Dickens, A.G., The English Reformation (London, 1989).

‘The Early Expansion of Protestantism in England’, Archiv fur

Reformationsgeschichte 78 (1987).

Duffy, E., The Stripping of the Altars (New Haven, 1992).

The Voices of Morebath. Reformation and Rebellion in an English Village,

(New Haven and London 2001)

Haigh, C., English Reformations (Oxford, 1993).

The English Reformation Revised (Cambridge, 1987).

Heal, F., O’Day, R., Church and Society in England. Henry VIII to James I

(London, 1977).

Heal, F., The Reformation in Britain and Ireland, (Oxford, 2003)

Kellar, C., Scotland, England and the Reformation 1534-1561, (Oxford, 2003)

Litzenberger, C., The English Reformation and the laity (Cambridge, 1987).

Loades, D., Revolution in Religion. The English Reformation 1530-1570 (Cardiff,

1992).

MacCulloch, D., The Later Reformation in England 1547- 1603 (Basingstoke,

1990).

Tudor Church Militant. Edward VI and the Protestant Reformation

(London, 1999).

McClendon, M., The quiet Reformation : magistrates and the emergence of

Protestantism in Tudor Norwich, (Stanford, 1999)

Marsh, C., Popular Religion in Sixteenth Century England. (Basingstoke, 1998).

15

Marshall, P., Reformation England 1480-1642, (London 2003)

The Catholic Priesthood and the English Reformation, (Oxford, 1994)

Parish, H.L., Clerical Marriage and the English Reformation (Aldershot, 2000).

Redworth, G., ‘Whatever happened to the English Reformation?’, History Today 37

(1987).

Rex, R., Henry VIII and the English Reformation (Basingstoke, 1993).

‘The crisis of obedience. God’s Word and Henry’s Reformation’, HJ

39 (1996).

Ryrie, A., The Gospel and Henry VIII. Evangelicals in the Early English Reformation,

(Cambridge 2003)

Scarisbrick, J., The Reformation and the English People (Oxford, 1994).

Shagan, E., Popular Politics and the English Reformation (Cambridge,2003)

Sheils, W., The English Reformation 1530-1570 (London, 1989).

Tyacke, N., England's long reformation, 1500-1800, (London, 1998)

Wabuda, S., Litzenberger, C., Belief and Practice in Reformation England

(Aldershot, 1998).

Whiting, R., Local responses to the English Reformation, (Basingstoke, 1998)

The blind devotion of the people : popular religion and the English

Reformation, (Cambridge, 1989)

‘Abominable Idols. Images and Image Breaking under Henry VIII’, JEH,

35 (1984).

(9) The reformation and popular culture

Burke, P., Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe (London, 1978).

Davis, N.Z., Society and Culture in Early Modern France (London, 1975).

Hutton, R., The Rise and Fall of Merry England (Oxford, 1996).

Stations of the Sun (Oxford, 1996).

The English Reformation and the evidence of folklore’, P+P 148

(1995).

16

Kaplan, S.L., Understanding Popular Culture. Europe from the Middle Ages to the

Nineteenth Century (Berlin, 1984).

Karant-Nunn S., Reformation of Ritual (London, 1997)

Kinser, S., ‘Carnival at Nuremberg 1450-1550’, Representations, 13 (1986).

Muir, E., Ritual in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge, 1997).

Reay, B., Popular Cultures in England 1550-1750 (Harlow, 1998).

Roper, L., ‘Going to Church and Street : Weddings in Reformation Augsburg’,

Past and Present (1985)

Muchembled, R., Culture populaire et culture des elites (Paris, 1978).

Scribner, R., ‘Is the History of Popular Culture Possible?’, History of European

Ideas (1978).

‘Ritual and Reformation’, in his Popular Culture and Popular

Movements (London, 1987).

Wilson, S., The Magical Universe. Everyday Ritual and Magic in

Pre-modern Europe (London, 2000).

(10) Print and Propaganda

Andersson, C., 'Popular imagery in German Reformation broadsheets' in Print and

Culture in the Renaissance, ed. G. Tyson & S. Wagonheim (Newark, 1986).

& Talbot, C., From a mighty fortress : prints, drawings, and books in

the age of Luther, 1483-1546 (Detroit, 1983).

Brady, T., ‘The social place of a German Renaissance Artist. Hans Baldung Grien

at Strasbourg’, Central European History 8 (1975).

Chrisman, M.U., Lay Culture, Learned Culture:  Books and Social Change in

Strasbourg, 1480-1599 (1982).

‘Lay response to the Protestant Reformation in Germany’, in

P.N.Brookes ed., Reformation Principle and Practice (London, 1980).

‘Printing and the Evolution of Lay Culture in 16th century Strasbourg’,

in Po Chia Hsia The German People and the Reformation (Ithaca, 1985).

17

Cole, R., ‘The Dynamics of Printing in the Sixteenth Century’, in L.Buck, J.Zophy

and G.G.Coulton eds., The Social History of the Reformation, (1972)

Crick, R. and Walsham, A., The Uses of Script and Print 1300-1700 (2004)

Crofts, R., ‘Books, reform and the Reformation’, Archiv fur

Reformationsgeschichte 71 (1980).

Dickens, A.G., German Nation and Martin Luther (London, 1974).

Eisenstein, E., The Printing Press as an Agent of Change, vol. I (Cambridge, 1979).

Febvre, L., & Martin, H.J., The Coming of the Book:  the Impact of Printing, 1450-

1800 (London, 1990).

Gawthorp, R., Strauss, G., ‘Protestantism and Literacy in early Modern Germany’,

P+P 104 (1984).

Gilmont, J-F., The reformation and the book (Aldershot, 1998).

Michalski, S., The Reformation and the visual arts : the Protestant image question in

Western and Eastern Europe (London, 1993).

Moxey, K., Peasants, Warriors and Wives. Popular Imagery in the Reformation

(1989)

Ozment, S., The Reformation in the Cities (New Haven, London 1975).

Po Chia Hsia, R., The German People and the Reformation (Ithaca, 1988).

Russell, P.A., 'Common People and the future of the Reformation...to  1525',  Archiv

für Reformationsgeschichte, 74 (1983). 

Scott, T., 'The common people in the German Reformation,' HJ, 34 (1991) 

Scribner, R.W., The German Reformation (London, 1986)  .

'Reformation carnival and the world upside down', in Popular Culture

and Popular Movements in Reformation Germany (London, 1987). 

'Preachers and People' in ibid.

For the Sake of Simple Folk:  Popular Propaganda for the German

Reformation (Oxford. 1994).

‘Oral Culture and the Diffusion of Reformation ideas’, History of

European Ideas 5 (1984).

Strauss, G., Luther’s House of Learning (Baltimore and London, 1978).

TLTP tutorial: The Engraven Reformation  & linked case study

18

(11) The Catholic Reformation

Aveling, J.C.H., The Jesuits (London, 1981).

Bergin, J., ‘The Counter-Reformation Church and its Bishops’, P+P 165 (1999).

Birely, R., The refashioning of Catholicism 1450-1700 (Basingstoke, 1999).

Bossy, J., Christianity in the West (Oxford, 1985).

‘The Counter Reformation and the People of Catholic Europe’, P+P

87 (1970).

‘The mass as a social institution’, P+P 100 (1983).

‘The Social History of Confession’, TRHS 25 (1975).

Chatellier, L., Europe of the Devout The Catholic Reformation and the Formation of

a new Society (Cambridge, 1989).

Cochrane, E., ‘Caesar Baronius and the Counter-Reformation’, Catholic Historical

Review 66 (1980).

Davidson, N., The Counter Reformation (Oxford, 1987).

Delumeau, J., Catholicism Between Luther and Voltaire (London, 1977).

Evennett, H.O., The Spirit of the Counter Reformation (London, 1970).

Farr, J.R., ‘The pure and disciplined body. Hierarchy, Morality and Symbolism in

France During the Catholic Reformation’, Journal of

Interdisciplinary History 21(1991).

Fenlon, D., ‘Heresy and Obedience in Tridentine Italy (Cambridge, 1972).

Forster, M., The Counter Reformation in the Villages (Ithaca, 1992).

Gentilcore, D., ‘Methods and Approaches in the Social History of the Counter-

Reformation in Italy’, Social History 17 (1992).

Gibbons, M., Giambologna. Narrator of the Catholic Reformation (Berkeley, 1995).

Haliczer, S., Inquisition and Society in Early Modern Europe (London, 1987).

Harline, C., ‘Official Religion and Popular Religion in Recent Historiography’,

Archiv fur Reformationsgeschichte (1990).

Janelle, P., The Catholic Reformation (Basingstoke, 1971).

Jones, M.D., The Counter Reformation. Religion and Society in Early Modern

Europe (Cambridge, 1995).

19

Kamen, H., The phoenix and the flame : Catalonia and the Counter Reformation

(London, 1984).

Inquisition and Society in Spain (London, 1987).

Kelly, H.A., ‘Inquisition and the Prosecution of Heresy. Misconceptions and

Abuses’, Church History 58 (1989).

Martin, A.L., The Jesuit Mind (London, 1988).

Mullett, M., The Counter Reformation and the Catholic Reformation (London,

1984).

Nalle, S., God in La Mancha. Religious Reform and the People of Cuenca

(Baltimore, 1992).[also available online at http://libro.uca.edu/nalle/gmc.htm]

O’Malley, J., ‘Was Ignatius Loyola a church reformer?’, Catholic Historical Review

77 (1991).

The First Jesuits (Cambridge, 1993).

Catholicism in early Modern History. A Guide to research (St Louis, 1988).

Olin, J.C., Catholic reform from Cardinal Ximenes to the Council of Trent, 1495-

1563, (New York, 1990)

PoChia Hsia, R., The World of Catholic Renewal (Cambridge, 1998).

Quinn, P.A., ‘Ignatius Loyola and Gian Pietro Carafa : Catholic Reformers at

Odds’, Catholic Historical Review 67 (1981).

Rawlings, H., Church, Religion and Society in Habsburg Spain 1469-1665

(Basingstoke, 2000)

Schrader, W.C., ‘The Catholic Revival in Osnabruck and Minden’, Catholic

Historical Review 78 (1992).

Soergal, P.M., ‘Spiritual medicine for heretical poison : the propagandistic use

of legends in counter reformation Bavaria’, HR 17 (1991).

Wright, A., The Counter Reformation (London, 1982).

20

(12) Christians and Jews in Reformation Europe

Martin Luther, Of the Jews and their Lies, 1543 (online at

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/1543-Luther-JewsandLies-full.html)

Bodian, M., ‘"Men of the Nation": The Shaping of Converso Identity in Early

Modern Europe’, Past & Present 143 (1994)

‘In the Cross-Current of the Reformation: Crypto-Jewish Martyrs of

the Inquisition 1570-1670’, Past and Present 176 (2002)

Cohen, M. Under Crescent and Cross: The Jews in the Middle Ages (1994)

Edwards, J., The Jews in Western Europe [online source text accessible via campus

machines at http://www.medievalsources.co.uk/jewsinwest.htm]

Friedrichs, C., ‘Anti-Jewish politics in early modern Germany: Worms’, Central

European History, 23 (1990)

Funkenstein, A., ‘Basic types of Christian anti-Jewish polemics in the late Middle

Ages, Viator 2 (1971) 373–382

Hendrix, S., ‘Toleration and the Jews in the German Reformation’, Archiv für

Reformationsgeschichte, 81 (1990)

Israel, J., European Jewry in the age of mercantilism, 1550–1750, 1985

Po Chia Hsia, R., The Myth of Ritual Murder (1988)

Kamen, H., ‘The Mediterranean and the expulsion of Spanish Jews’, in: Past and

Present 119 (1988)

The Spanish Inquisition (1997)

Lea, H.C., A History of the Inquisition in Spain [available online at

http://libro.uca.edu/lea1/1lea.htm]

Lewis, B., Cultures in conflict: Christians, Muslims and Jews in the age of discovery,

(1995)

MacCulloch, D., Reformation: Europe’s House Divided 1490-1700 (2004) esp. ch.17

Marcus, J., The Jew in the medieval world. A source book: 315–1791 (1961)

Mellinkoff, R., Outcasts: signs of otherness in Northern European art of the later

Middle Ages, 2 vols., (1993)

21

Minty, J.M., ‘Judengasse to Christian Quarter: the phenomenon of the converted

synagogue in the late medieval and early modern Holy Roman Empire’, in

Popular religion in Germany and Central Europe, 1400–1800, ed. T. Johnson

and R.W. Scribner (1996) pp. 58–86

Nirenberg, D., 'Mass Conversion and Genealogical Mentalities: Jews and Christians

in 15th Century Spain', Past & Present 175 (2002)

Perry, M. & .Cruz, A.J., eds., Cultural Encounters. The Impact of the Inquisition in

Spain and the New World (1991) especially Part II. [Available online at

http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft396nb1w0/ ]

Rowan, S., ‘Luther, Bucer and Eck on the Jews’, Sixteenth Century Journal, vol.16

(1985)

Wood, D., (ed.), Christianity and Judaism, Studies in Church History 29 (1992)

(13) Prophecy and Prophets

Curry, P.,   Prophecy and power : astrology in early modern England (Cambridge,

1989).

Hsia, R.P-C.,   The World of Catholic Renewal 1540-1770 (Cambridge, 1998).

Jansen, S.L.,  Political Protest and Prophecy under Henry VIII (Woodbridge, 1991).

Kagan, R.L.,   Lucrecia’s Dreams. Politics and Prophecy in 16th century Spain

(London, 1995).

Kaplan, S.,   Understanding popular culture : Europe from the Middle Ages to the

nineteenth century (Berlin, New York, 1984).

Moore, S.H.,   ‘”Such perfecting of praise out of the mouth of a babe” : Sarah Wright

as child prophet’, Studies in Church History 31 (1994).

Niccoli, O.,   Prophecy and people in Renaissance Italy (Princeton, 1990).

Sabean, D.,  Power in the Blood. Popular Culture and Village Discourse in Early

Modern Germany (Cambridge, 1994). Ch.3

Scribner, R.W., Johnson, T.,  Popular Religion in Germany and Central Europe (New

York, 1996) ch.8.

Thomas, K.,   Religion and the Decline of Magic, (London, 1991).

22

Walsham, A.,  ‘”Frantic Hackett”: prophecy, sorcery, insanity, and the Elizabethan

Puritan movement’, HJ 41 (1998).

                         ‘”Out of the Mouths of babes and sucklings” : Prophecy, Puritanism

and Childhood in Elizabethan Suffolk’, Studies in Church History 31 (1994).

Wilks, M.  Prophecy and Eschatology (Oxford, 1994. Studies in Church History).

(14) The Reformation, Magic, and the Supernatural

Dixon, C.S., ‘Popular Astrology and Lutheran Propaganda in Reformation

Germany’, History 84 (1999).

Gentilcore, D., From Bishop to witch : the system of the sacred in early modern Terra

d'Otranto (Manchester, 1992).

Hillerbrand, H., The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation (Oxford, 1996) – article

on magic

Hutton, R., ‘The English Reformation and the evidence of folklore’, P+P 148

(1995).

Klaniczay, G., The Uses of Supernatural Power. The Transformation of Popular

Religion in medieval and Early Modern Europe (Cambridge, 1990).

Maxwell-Stuart, P.G., The Occult in Early Modern Europe (Manchester, 1999).

Monter, W., Ritual Myth and Magic in Early Modern Europe (Brighton, 1983).

Scribner, R., ‘Magic, Witchcraft and Superstition’, HJ 37 (1994)

‘Cosmic Order and daily life’ in his Popular Culture and Popular

Movements in Reformation Germany (London, 1987).

‘Sorcery, Superstition and Society : the Witch of Urach 1529’, in ibid.

‘The reformation and the disenchantment of the world’, Journal

of Interdisciplinary History 23 (1993).

Thomas, K., Religion and the Decline of Magic, (London, 1991).

Wilson, S., The Magical Universe. Everyday Magic and Ritual in pre-

modern Europe (London, 2001)

23

(15) Conclusions: Success and Failure

Bottigheimer, R., ‘Bible Reading, bibles and the bible for children in early modern

Germany’, P+P 139 (1993).

Brady, T., ‘From the sacral community to the common man. Reflections on

German Reformation Studies’, Central European History 20 (1987).

‘Peoples Religion in Reformation Europe’, HJ 34 (1991).

Cameron, E., European Reformation (1992), ‘Conclusion’

Edwards, M.U., Luther’s Last Battles. Politics and Polemics 1531-1546 (Ithaca,

1983).

Hendrix, S., ‘Luther's impact on the sixteenth century’, Sixteenth Century Journal, 16

(1985)

Karant-Nunn, S., ‘Neoclericalism and Anticlericalism in Saxony, 1555-1675’,

Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 24 (1994)

Kittelson, J.M., ‘Successes and Failures in the German Reformation : the Report from

Strasbourg’, Archiv fur Reformationsgeschichte 73 (1983).

Kolb, R., ‘Festivals of the Saints in Late Reformation Lutheran Preaching’,

Historian 52 (1990).

Lindberg, C., Reformations (1996), ‘Legacies’

MacCulloch, D., Reformation: Europe’s House Divided 1490-1700 (2003) ch.17

Oberman, H., The Impact of the Reformation (Edinburgh, 1994).

Parker, G., ‘Success and Failure during the first century of the Reformation’, P+P

1992.

Po Chia Hsia, R., Social Discipline in the Reformation (London, 1550-1750).

Scribner, R.W.,. Porter, R., Teich, M., The Reformation in National Context, 1994,

‘comparative overview’

Strauss, G., ‘Success and failure in the German Reformation’, P+P 67 (1975).

Luther’s House of Learning (Baltimore, 1978).

‘The reformation and its public in an age of orthodoxy’, in Po Chia

Hsia ed., The German People and the Reformation (Ithaca, 1985).

Enacting the Reformation in Germany : essays on institution and

reception (Aldershot, 1993)

24

Essay questions Is it accurate to view the reformation as a response to the spiritual anxiety of the

late medieval laity? Were there substantial differences between ‘official’ and ‘popular’ religion on the

eve of the Reformation? What does Erasmus’ changing attitude to Luther tell us about the relationship

between humanism and the Reformation? Why did Luther’s protest result in the division of western Christendom? Why did Luther’s message prove so attractive? ‘God hath opened the press to preach’. How important was printing to the spread

of the Reformation? Why was the evangelical movement of the 1520s and 1530s so popular in the

German cities? Should we view the events of 1525 as the ‘reformation of the common man’? What impact did Ulrich Zwingli have upon the spread of the Reformation in

Switzerland? What distinguishes the Swiss reformation from the German Reformation? Why were the Anabaptists feared and hated by Catholic and Protestant churches? What was more important to the radical reformation : social revolution or

doctrinal reform? Was Calvin’s reformation in Geneva a ‘revolution’? How central was predestination to Calvin’s theology? To what extent should the Affair of the Placards (1534) be seen as a turning point

in the history of the French Reformation? How can we explain the initial failure of the Lutheran Reformation in the

Netherlands? How much influence did the Continental Reformation have upon religious change

in England in the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI? What impact did the Reformation in England have upon the beliefs and practices

of the people by 1553? To what extent was Catholic reform in the sixteenth century simply an effort to

counter the Protestant Reformation? Do the Jesuits deserve to be seen as the ‘shock-troops’ of the Catholic

reformation? What impact did the Reformation have upon attitudes to Jews in sixteenth century

Europe? Why did the Reformation succeed in Germany but not across the rest of Europe? On what grounds is it accurate to claim that the Reformation had failed?

25

Seminar Discussion Questions

In preparation for classes, you should familiarise yourself with the recommended

reading and relevant source materials for each topic, and give some thought to the

questions for discussion for each session. The basic textbooks will be useful, but try to

get beyond these by reading some of the more specialist literature, either books,

articles, or essays in collected volumes. The course website includes links to useful

Reformation resources online.

Discussion Questions

Popular Religion & pre-Reformation Critics of the Church

What were the major features of the devotional and liturgical life of the church on the eve of the Reformation?

What opportunities were there for lay involvement and participation in the church Is it fair to argue that the late medieval church was obsessed with the burden of

sin? There are a number of theories regarding the origins of the Reformation, some

discussed in the first lecture (but see also Ozment Protestants ch.2). At this point in the course, which seems most sensible to you?

How enthusiastic were the laity about their faith? What were the most common complaints about the late medieval church? What is ‘anticlericalism’, and how important was it? Is there a difference between ‘popular’ religion and official teaching? How widespread was heresy and dissent on the eve of the reformation?

What do you understand by the label ‘humanist’? Why might humanist scholarship have created a climate in which the Reformation

was possible? How ‘orthodox’ were the humanists How did the humanists view the late medieval church and its practices? Debate, true or false: Erasmus was a heretic

26

Martin Luther

What were the main points of the 95 theses? How did Luther’s theology differ from that of medieval theologians – especially

on the issue of justification & the sacraments Why did the 95 theses create such a stir? What was an indulgence – and why were indulgences seen as such an important

issue? Why was the doctrine of purgatory controversial? What were Luther’s views on the clergy, priesthood and monastic orders : and

why did they pose a challenge to the status quo? Was Luther a revolutionary? Why might Luther’s teachings have proved attractive? And to whom? If you were in charge of the Inquisition in Saxony, what specific charges of heresy

would you have to bring against Luther? Erasmus was accused of laying the egg that Luther hatched – why did the two men

come to loathe each other? What were the most important components of Luther’s theology?

Zwingli and the Early Swiss Reformation

What was distinctive about Zwingli’s preaching – and why was it controversial? Compare Zwingli’s teaching with that of Luther What was the role of the secular government in the implementation of religious

reform? What sense do we get of the nature of post-reformation piety in Zurich from these

sources? How much influence did events in Zurich have over the Reformation in the rest of

the Swiss Confederation? How can we account for the differences in enthusiasm for the reformation among

the Swiss cantons? Is the division between Luther and Zwingli crucial to the history of the

Reformation?

Peasants, Cities and Princes

What evidence is there that the Peasants War was the consequence of Luther’s teaching?

How did the rebels seek to justify their actions? What do the views and actions of the peasants tell us about the spread of new

evangelical ideas? Does the Peasants War deserve to be seen as a watershed in the history of the

Reformation? What impact did Luther’s response to the Peasants have on the revolt and on the

27

spread of the Gospel? Why might Luther’s message have had an appeal in the towns & cities? Is Dickens right to view the Reformation as an ‘urban event’? Were there major differences between religious life in the towns and religious life

in rural communities? How was an urban reformation enacted (look at the case study for Nuremburg :

http://www.rdg.ac.uk/AcaDepts/lh/History/tltp/reformat/nurnberg/nurnberg.htm#etz1202)

What might have encouraged Luther to appeal to the German Nobility? Why might Luther’s ideas have been well received by them? To what extent were Luther’s hopes of princely support fulfilled? What accommodations / compromises were necessary as the Reformation became

institutionalised in the German lands? Were the settlements true to Luther's ideas, or was his vision compromised?

The Radical Reformation

The radicals reformers took the principle of ‘sola scriptura’ more seriously than Luther. Discuss

Was the radicalism of Müntzer and the peasant's revolt simply a logical extensions of Luther's teaching on authority, 'Christian freedom', and the priesthood of all believers.

Why did church and state view the Anabaptists as such a threat? Can we identify a common core of ‘anabaptist’ beliefs? What was more dangerous – Anabaptist views on religion or on social and

political structures? How representative was Muntzer of religious radicalism in the 1520s and 1530s? What would be the attraction of life in Munster? How can we best describe the beliefs of the radicals at Erfurt? Did the radical wing of the Reformation & events at Munster damage the

reputation and standing of the mainstream / magisterial reformers?

Calvin and the Reformation in Geneva

What were the major differences between Calvin and other Protestant reformers? Why was Calvin initially unpopular in Geneva? How did Calvin and his followers seek to ensure conformity? It is sometimes claimed that Calvin’s Geneva was a ‘theocracy’? What does this

mean, and is it a fair assessment? What were the advantages of the system of church order set out in the 1541

ordinance? How important was the Consistory to Geneva and the implementation of the

Reformation. Was this controversial? Consider the execution of Michael Servetus – an example of Calvinist tyranny or

an incident blown out of proportion?

28

Why was Calvinism popular outside Geneva? Was it essentially a faith for the literate town-dweller?

France and the Netherlands

What was the relationship between humanism and the Renaissance outside Germany?

What influence and impact did Martin Luther have in the Reformation in France and the Netherlands?

What impact did persecution have upon the shape of the Reformation in France and the Netherlands?

Did the early Reformation fail in France and the Netherlands? What were the main obstacles to the emergence of a popular Reformation in

France and the Netherlands? Which groups were most attracted to the Reformation?

The Reformation in England

How well did the English clergy meet the needs of their congregations? How much influence did continental Protestantism have upon the Reformation in

England? How consistent was Henry VIIIs Reformation? To what extent had the English church been ‘reformed’ by 1547? What were the most significant aspects of religious change under Edward VI? What evidence do we have of popular enthusiasm for the Reformation? What evidence do we have of popular antagonism to religious change? Which groups were particularly favourable or hostile to the Reformation? What were the main obstacles to the Reformation between 1529 and 1553? What factors contributed to the spread of the Reformation between 1529 and

1553?

Catholic Reformation

How successful was the Council Trent in fulfilling its objectives? ‘Henceforth religious orthodoxy would be defined as a narrow gate through

which few truths passed’ (O’Malley, The First Jesuits). Is this is a fair assessment of the effects of the Council of Trent?

What impact did the Jesuits have upon Catholicism in the sixteenth century? What contribution did Ignatius Loyola and Theresa of Avila make to early modern

Catholic piety? What role did the Popes play in the revitalisation of the church? How important were the secular princes to the Catholic reformation? Does the programme of reform undertaken by the Catholic Church deserve to be

seen only as a ‘Counter-Reformation’?

29

Christians and Jews in Reformation Europe

How had Jews been treated in the generations before the Reformation? What do we know of the history of Jewish communities in late medieval Europe?

What place did Jews have in Luther’s thought?And in the writings of John Calvin?

What were the main similarities and / or differences between Luther’s views on Judaism and those of his Catholic contemporaries?

Why were ‘ritual murder’ narratives so popular?And what arguments were put forward by their opponents and critics?What function did the narratives have in the era of the Reformation?

Success & Failure?

What did the reformers want to achieve? Were these ideals fulfilled? Over the course what factors did we say led to (a) success and (b) failure? How might we measure success and failure? What kind of evidence? How might the key personalities of the Reformations have measured success and

failure? Did they believe themselves to have succeeded? What evidence is there for (1) enthusiasm (2) apathy (3) coercion? What was the geographical scope of the reformations? Where did the

Reformations succeed, and where did they fail? Which groups gained most from the reformations / lost more from the

reformations? Reflecting on discussion in seminars, how far did the reformations change

popular religion and popular culture?

30