Lawrence S. Cunningham
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195178067
- eISBN:
- 9780199784905
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195178068.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter explores the Protestant reaction against the Marian tradition of Catholicism, which was addressed by the reform of the Council of Trent. Topics discussed include the Catholic Reformation ...
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This chapter explores the Protestant reaction against the Marian tradition of Catholicism, which was addressed by the reform of the Council of Trent. Topics discussed include the Catholic Reformation and two conspicuous events which characterized the Marian character of Catholicism in the 19th century: the definition of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception by Pope Pius IX in 1854 and the rise of Marian apparitions and subsequent pilgrimage locations, most conspicuously at Lourdes in France.Less
This chapter explores the Protestant reaction against the Marian tradition of Catholicism, which was addressed by the reform of the Council of Trent. Topics discussed include the Catholic Reformation and two conspicuous events which characterized the Marian character of Catholicism in the 19th century: the definition of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception by Pope Pius IX in 1854 and the rise of Marian apparitions and subsequent pilgrimage locations, most conspicuously at Lourdes in France.
Simone Laqua-O'Donnell
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199683314
- eISBN:
- 9780191763236
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199683314.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History, History of Religion
Women and the Counter-Reformation in Early Modern Münster examines how women from different social backgrounds encountered the Counter-Reformation. The focus is on Münster, a city in the north of ...
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Women and the Counter-Reformation in Early Modern Münster examines how women from different social backgrounds encountered the Counter-Reformation. The focus is on Münster, a city in the north of Germany, which was exposed to powerful Protestant influences which culminated in the notorious Anabaptist kingdom of 1534. After the defeat of the radical Protestants, the city was returned to Catholicism and a stringent programme of reform was enforced. By examining concubinage, piety, marriage, deviance, and convent reform, core issues of the Counter-Reformation’s quest for renewal, this fascinating study shows how women participated in the social and religious changes of the time, and how their lives were shaped by the Counter-Reformation. Employing research into the political, religious, and social institutions, and using an impressive variety of sources, Simone Laqua-O’Donnell engages with the way women experienced the new religiosity, morality, and discipline that was introduced to the city of Münster during this turbulent time.Less
Women and the Counter-Reformation in Early Modern Münster examines how women from different social backgrounds encountered the Counter-Reformation. The focus is on Münster, a city in the north of Germany, which was exposed to powerful Protestant influences which culminated in the notorious Anabaptist kingdom of 1534. After the defeat of the radical Protestants, the city was returned to Catholicism and a stringent programme of reform was enforced. By examining concubinage, piety, marriage, deviance, and convent reform, core issues of the Counter-Reformation’s quest for renewal, this fascinating study shows how women participated in the social and religious changes of the time, and how their lives were shaped by the Counter-Reformation. Employing research into the political, religious, and social institutions, and using an impressive variety of sources, Simone Laqua-O’Donnell engages with the way women experienced the new religiosity, morality, and discipline that was introduced to the city of Münster during this turbulent time.
Leslie Tuttle
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195381603
- eISBN:
- 9780199870295
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195381603.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History, Political History
This chapter offers a social and demographic analysis of the large families who claimed pronatalist tax exemptions in Old Regime France between 1666 and 1760. Samples suggest that recipients were ...
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This chapter offers a social and demographic analysis of the large families who claimed pronatalist tax exemptions in Old Regime France between 1666 and 1760. Samples suggest that recipients were mostly members of urban middling groups including craftsmen and professionals. Demographically, their high fertility was the result of early, long‐lasting marriages and the employment of wetnurses. In social, economic and demographic terms, these families do not seem strikingly different from the French urban households who were beginning to adopt contraceptive practices during the same era. The chapter also reviews contemporary religious sources that not only forbade contraception, but that endowed marriage and prolific reproduction with positive spiritual value. It concludes with a brief study of the strategies some of the large families used to pass on assets and preserve harmony among their numerous progeny.Less
This chapter offers a social and demographic analysis of the large families who claimed pronatalist tax exemptions in Old Regime France between 1666 and 1760. Samples suggest that recipients were mostly members of urban middling groups including craftsmen and professionals. Demographically, their high fertility was the result of early, long‐lasting marriages and the employment of wetnurses. In social, economic and demographic terms, these families do not seem strikingly different from the French urban households who were beginning to adopt contraceptive practices during the same era. The chapter also reviews contemporary religious sources that not only forbade contraception, but that endowed marriage and prolific reproduction with positive spiritual value. It concludes with a brief study of the strategies some of the large families used to pass on assets and preserve harmony among their numerous progeny.
Richard Parish
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199596669
- eISBN:
- 9780191729126
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199596669.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
The book adopts as its theme Pascal's assertion that “Christianity is strange” (“le christianisme est étrange”), taken from the Pensées, and explores various possible understandings of the statement ...
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The book adopts as its theme Pascal's assertion that “Christianity is strange” (“le christianisme est étrange”), taken from the Pensées, and explores various possible understandings of the statement in terms of Catholic particularity, as it was expressed in the writing of the French seventeenth century. This was a period of quite exceptional fertility in a range of genres: apologetics, sermons, devotional manuals, catechisms, martyr tragedies, lyric poetry, polemic, and spiritual autobiography. The chapters consider a broad cross‐section of this corpus with reference to the topics of apologetics, physicality, language, discernment, polemics, and salvation; and evidence is drawn both from canonical figures (Pascal, Bossuet, Fénelon, St François de Sales, Madame Guyon) and from less easily available texts. The writer's aim is to explore all those features that the heritage of the Catholic Reformation brought to the surface in France, and to do so in support of the numerous ways in which Christian doctrine could be understood as being strange: it is by turns contrary to expectations, paradoxical, divisive, carnal, and inexpressible. These features are exploited imaginatively in the more conventional literary forms, didactically in pulpit oratory, and empirically in the accounts of personal spiritual experience. In addition they are manifested polemically in debates surrounding penance, authority, inspiration, and eschatology, and often push orthodoxy to its limits and beyond in the course of their articulation. The work aims thereby to afford an unsettling account of a belief system to which early‐modern France often unquestioningly subscribed, and to show how the element of cultural assimilation of Catholic Christianity into much of Western Europe only tenuously contains a subversive and counter-intuitive creed. The degree to which that remains the case will be for the reader to decide.Less
The book adopts as its theme Pascal's assertion that “Christianity is strange” (“le christianisme est étrange”), taken from the Pensées, and explores various possible understandings of the statement in terms of Catholic particularity, as it was expressed in the writing of the French seventeenth century. This was a period of quite exceptional fertility in a range of genres: apologetics, sermons, devotional manuals, catechisms, martyr tragedies, lyric poetry, polemic, and spiritual autobiography. The chapters consider a broad cross‐section of this corpus with reference to the topics of apologetics, physicality, language, discernment, polemics, and salvation; and evidence is drawn both from canonical figures (Pascal, Bossuet, Fénelon, St François de Sales, Madame Guyon) and from less easily available texts. The writer's aim is to explore all those features that the heritage of the Catholic Reformation brought to the surface in France, and to do so in support of the numerous ways in which Christian doctrine could be understood as being strange: it is by turns contrary to expectations, paradoxical, divisive, carnal, and inexpressible. These features are exploited imaginatively in the more conventional literary forms, didactically in pulpit oratory, and empirically in the accounts of personal spiritual experience. In addition they are manifested polemically in debates surrounding penance, authority, inspiration, and eschatology, and often push orthodoxy to its limits and beyond in the course of their articulation. The work aims thereby to afford an unsettling account of a belief system to which early‐modern France often unquestioningly subscribed, and to show how the element of cultural assimilation of Catholic Christianity into much of Western Europe only tenuously contains a subversive and counter-intuitive creed. The degree to which that remains the case will be for the reader to decide.
Joseph Bergin
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300150988
- eISBN:
- 9780300161069
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300150988.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
This book provides a synthesis devoted to the French experience of religious change during the period after the wars of religion up to the early Enlightenment. It provides an up-to-date and thorough ...
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This book provides a synthesis devoted to the French experience of religious change during the period after the wars of religion up to the early Enlightenment. It provides an up-to-date and thorough account of the religious history of France in the context of social, institutional, and cultural developments during the so-called long seventeenth century. The book argues that the French version of the Catholic Reformation showed a dynamism unrivaled elsewhere in Europe. The traumatic experiences of the wars of religion, the continuing search within France for heresy, and the challenge of Augustinian thought successively energized its attempts at religious change. The book highlights the continuing interaction of church and society and shows that while the French experience was clearly allied to its European context, its path was a distinctive one.Less
This book provides a synthesis devoted to the French experience of religious change during the period after the wars of religion up to the early Enlightenment. It provides an up-to-date and thorough account of the religious history of France in the context of social, institutional, and cultural developments during the so-called long seventeenth century. The book argues that the French version of the Catholic Reformation showed a dynamism unrivaled elsewhere in Europe. The traumatic experiences of the wars of religion, the continuing search within France for heresy, and the challenge of Augustinian thought successively energized its attempts at religious change. The book highlights the continuing interaction of church and society and shows that while the French experience was clearly allied to its European context, its path was a distinctive one.
Kenneth Austin
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780300186291
- eISBN:
- 9780300187021
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300186291.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This book examines the attitudes of various Christian groups in the Protestant and Catholic Reformations towards Jews, the Hebrew language, and Jewish learning. Martin Luther's writings are ...
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This book examines the attitudes of various Christian groups in the Protestant and Catholic Reformations towards Jews, the Hebrew language, and Jewish learning. Martin Luther's writings are notorious, but Reformation attitudes were much more varied and nuanced than these might lead us to believe. The book has much to tell us about the Reformation and its priorities, and it has important implications for how we think about religious pluralism more broadly. The book begins by focusing on the impact and various forms of the Reformation on the Jews and pays close attention to the global perspective on Jewish experiences in the early modern period. It highlights the links between Jews in Europe and those in north Africa, Asia Minor, and the Americas, and it looks into the Jews' migrations and reputation as a corollary of Christians' exploration and colonisation of several territories. It seeks to next establish the position Jews occupied in Christian thinking and society by the start of the Reformation era, and then moves on to the first waves of reform in the earliest decades of the sixteenth century in both the Catholic and Protestant realms. The book explores the radical dimension to the Protestant Reformation and talks about identity as the heart of a fundamental issue associated with the Reformation. It analyzes “Counter Reformation” and discusses the various forms of Protestantism that had been accepted by large swathes of the population of many territories in Europe. Later chapters turn attention to relations between Jews and Christians in the first half of the seventeenth century and explore the Sabbatean movement as the most significant messianic movement since the first century BCE. In conclusion, the book summarizes how the Jews of Europe were in a very different position by the end of the seventeenth century compared to where they had been at the start of the sixteenth century. It recounts how Jewish communities sprung up in places which had not traditionally been a home to Jews, especially in Eastern Europe.Less
This book examines the attitudes of various Christian groups in the Protestant and Catholic Reformations towards Jews, the Hebrew language, and Jewish learning. Martin Luther's writings are notorious, but Reformation attitudes were much more varied and nuanced than these might lead us to believe. The book has much to tell us about the Reformation and its priorities, and it has important implications for how we think about religious pluralism more broadly. The book begins by focusing on the impact and various forms of the Reformation on the Jews and pays close attention to the global perspective on Jewish experiences in the early modern period. It highlights the links between Jews in Europe and those in north Africa, Asia Minor, and the Americas, and it looks into the Jews' migrations and reputation as a corollary of Christians' exploration and colonisation of several territories. It seeks to next establish the position Jews occupied in Christian thinking and society by the start of the Reformation era, and then moves on to the first waves of reform in the earliest decades of the sixteenth century in both the Catholic and Protestant realms. The book explores the radical dimension to the Protestant Reformation and talks about identity as the heart of a fundamental issue associated with the Reformation. It analyzes “Counter Reformation” and discusses the various forms of Protestantism that had been accepted by large swathes of the population of many territories in Europe. Later chapters turn attention to relations between Jews and Christians in the first half of the seventeenth century and explore the Sabbatean movement as the most significant messianic movement since the first century BCE. In conclusion, the book summarizes how the Jews of Europe were in a very different position by the end of the seventeenth century compared to where they had been at the start of the sixteenth century. It recounts how Jewish communities sprung up in places which had not traditionally been a home to Jews, especially in Eastern Europe.
David W. Kling
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- August 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780195320923
- eISBN:
- 9780190062620
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780195320923.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History, History of Christianity
The long Catholic Reformation, which lasted from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, is one of the most active, intense, and expansive in the history of Christian conversion. This chapter begins ...
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The long Catholic Reformation, which lasted from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, is one of the most active, intense, and expansive in the history of Christian conversion. This chapter begins with an examination of the conversions of two profoundly influential Catholics from the Iberian Peninsula (Ignatius of Loyola and Teresa of Ávila) and then considers efforts by the religious orders to re-Catholicize Europe. With the Jesuits leading the way, the Church evangelized the masses, drawing them into a personal relationship with God by encouraging the very things Protestants condemned: cults of intercession, pilgrimages, concern with purgatory, feast days, adoration of Christ in the Eucharist, and devotion to the saints. The chapter then moves to a discussion of conversion in the context of religiously mixed communities (Catholics and Protestants) in the Low Countries and France and ends with a discussion of Pierre Bayle’s defense of free conscience as the basis of true conversion.Less
The long Catholic Reformation, which lasted from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, is one of the most active, intense, and expansive in the history of Christian conversion. This chapter begins with an examination of the conversions of two profoundly influential Catholics from the Iberian Peninsula (Ignatius of Loyola and Teresa of Ávila) and then considers efforts by the religious orders to re-Catholicize Europe. With the Jesuits leading the way, the Church evangelized the masses, drawing them into a personal relationship with God by encouraging the very things Protestants condemned: cults of intercession, pilgrimages, concern with purgatory, feast days, adoration of Christ in the Eucharist, and devotion to the saints. The chapter then moves to a discussion of conversion in the context of religiously mixed communities (Catholics and Protestants) in the Low Countries and France and ends with a discussion of Pierre Bayle’s defense of free conscience as the basis of true conversion.
Kenneth Austin
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780300186291
- eISBN:
- 9780300187021
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300186291.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter analyzes “Counter Reformation,” a terminology that implies the developments within the Catholic Church in the sixteenth century and beyond of reactions to the Protestant challenge. It ...
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This chapter analyzes “Counter Reformation,” a terminology that implies the developments within the Catholic Church in the sixteenth century and beyond of reactions to the Protestant challenge. It explains how historians generally prefer the term “Catholic Reformation” over Counter Reformation as it is more neutral and better able to accommodate the range of initiatives witnessed in the period. It also points out reform efforts that predate the Protestant challenge, in which a new ethos developed within the Catholic Church in the middle of the sixteenth century. The chapter talks about the fathers of the Council of Trent, who sought to address a wide range of issues relating to belief and practice. It looks at the “Tridentine” decrees that were implemented alongside various papal initiatives and efforts at the local level.Less
This chapter analyzes “Counter Reformation,” a terminology that implies the developments within the Catholic Church in the sixteenth century and beyond of reactions to the Protestant challenge. It explains how historians generally prefer the term “Catholic Reformation” over Counter Reformation as it is more neutral and better able to accommodate the range of initiatives witnessed in the period. It also points out reform efforts that predate the Protestant challenge, in which a new ethos developed within the Catholic Church in the middle of the sixteenth century. The chapter talks about the fathers of the Council of Trent, who sought to address a wide range of issues relating to belief and practice. It looks at the “Tridentine” decrees that were implemented alongside various papal initiatives and efforts at the local level.
Barbara B. Diefendorf
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- March 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190887025
- eISBN:
- 9780190887056
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190887025.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion, European Early Modern History
The introduction first explains why “planting the cross” is an apt metaphor for the renewal of monastic life that took place in the wake of France’s Wars of Religion. It introduces the six case ...
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The introduction first explains why “planting the cross” is an apt metaphor for the renewal of monastic life that took place in the wake of France’s Wars of Religion. It introduces the six case studies that make up the book and explains how each explores a particular question, or set of questions, about how Catholic reformers envisioned and implemented the changes commonly known as the “Catholic Reformation.” The cases show that “reform” was not simply imposed from above, nor was it fixed or completed with the adoption of a new constitution or rule. Arguments for a return to a religious order’s original purity or a life of greater austerity encouraged debate about how the order should best live out its rule. The introduction concludes with a summary of the circumstances that made religious reform so urgently needed and a brief overview of how the reform movement spread.Less
The introduction first explains why “planting the cross” is an apt metaphor for the renewal of monastic life that took place in the wake of France’s Wars of Religion. It introduces the six case studies that make up the book and explains how each explores a particular question, or set of questions, about how Catholic reformers envisioned and implemented the changes commonly known as the “Catholic Reformation.” The cases show that “reform” was not simply imposed from above, nor was it fixed or completed with the adoption of a new constitution or rule. Arguments for a return to a religious order’s original purity or a life of greater austerity encouraged debate about how the order should best live out its rule. The introduction concludes with a summary of the circumstances that made religious reform so urgently needed and a brief overview of how the reform movement spread.
Alexandra Walsham
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199243556
- eISBN:
- 9780191725081
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199243556.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
The conclusion uses the history of a Carmarthenshire holy well to restate the themes of the main chapters of the book. It re-emphasizes the way in which the Protestant and Catholic Reformations ...
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The conclusion uses the history of a Carmarthenshire holy well to restate the themes of the main chapters of the book. It re-emphasizes the way in which the Protestant and Catholic Reformations converged with other intellectual, aesthetic, and cultural developments to transform both the physical appearance of the early modern landscape and the beliefs and practices that clustered around it. It underlines the complex and contradictory effects of the religious changes of the period and argues that they served to re-define rather than undermine the presence of the sacred in the material world. It also highlights the way in which these developments reconstituted social memory and played a key part in the forging of confessional identities.Less
The conclusion uses the history of a Carmarthenshire holy well to restate the themes of the main chapters of the book. It re-emphasizes the way in which the Protestant and Catholic Reformations converged with other intellectual, aesthetic, and cultural developments to transform both the physical appearance of the early modern landscape and the beliefs and practices that clustered around it. It underlines the complex and contradictory effects of the religious changes of the period and argues that they served to re-define rather than undermine the presence of the sacred in the material world. It also highlights the way in which these developments reconstituted social memory and played a key part in the forging of confessional identities.
Barbara B. Diefendorf
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- March 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190887025
- eISBN:
- 9780190887056
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190887025.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion, European Early Modern History
The chapter examines efforts the Trinitarians of Provence made to reverse a long decline and to adapt their medieval order to reflect the new spiritual climate of the Catholic Reformation. The reform ...
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The chapter examines efforts the Trinitarians of Provence made to reverse a long decline and to adapt their medieval order to reflect the new spiritual climate of the Catholic Reformation. The reform was made by ordinary members despite opposition from their superior general in Paris, who envisioned reform only as a return to the order’s original rule. Founded to ransom Christian slaves in the Mediterranean, the order had fallen away from its rule and experienced declining vocations and impoverishment in the Wars of Religion. The chapter argues that the Provençal monks took their model of religious life from the reformed congregations of Capuchins and Recollects and not from a desire to return to some imagined primitive purity. They wanted to govern their houses in a more collaborative way, to better educate their priests, and to create a more spiritualized community with the interiorized personal piety that characterized the Catholic Reformation.Less
The chapter examines efforts the Trinitarians of Provence made to reverse a long decline and to adapt their medieval order to reflect the new spiritual climate of the Catholic Reformation. The reform was made by ordinary members despite opposition from their superior general in Paris, who envisioned reform only as a return to the order’s original rule. Founded to ransom Christian slaves in the Mediterranean, the order had fallen away from its rule and experienced declining vocations and impoverishment in the Wars of Religion. The chapter argues that the Provençal monks took their model of religious life from the reformed congregations of Capuchins and Recollects and not from a desire to return to some imagined primitive purity. They wanted to govern their houses in a more collaborative way, to better educate their priests, and to create a more spiritualized community with the interiorized personal piety that characterized the Catholic Reformation.
Kenneth Austin
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780300186291
- eISBN:
- 9780300187021
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300186291.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter focuses on relations between Jews and Christians in the first half of the seventeenth century, which was the era of the Thirty Years War. It highlights the conflict of the Thirty Years ...
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This chapter focuses on relations between Jews and Christians in the first half of the seventeenth century, which was the era of the Thirty Years War. It highlights the conflict of the Thirty Years War that provided the backdrop to further religious and political developments that shaped Jewish experiences. The chapter describes how the combative form of Catholicism took shape in the wake of the Catholic Reformation in various places, including the Holy Roman Empire. It looks into parts of northern Europe, particularly Germany and the Low Countries, that began to be more welcoming to Jewish populations. It also illustrates the contrast between repressive Catholicism and a more welcoming form of Protestantism.Less
This chapter focuses on relations between Jews and Christians in the first half of the seventeenth century, which was the era of the Thirty Years War. It highlights the conflict of the Thirty Years War that provided the backdrop to further religious and political developments that shaped Jewish experiences. The chapter describes how the combative form of Catholicism took shape in the wake of the Catholic Reformation in various places, including the Holy Roman Empire. It looks into parts of northern Europe, particularly Germany and the Low Countries, that began to be more welcoming to Jewish populations. It also illustrates the contrast between repressive Catholicism and a more welcoming form of Protestantism.
Barbara B. Diefendorf
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- March 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190887025
- eISBN:
- 9780190887056
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190887025.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion, European Early Modern History
This book examines how Catholic reformers envisioned and implemented changes to monastic life in late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century France. Scholars of France’s Catholic Reformation have ...
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This book examines how Catholic reformers envisioned and implemented changes to monastic life in late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century France. Scholars of France’s Catholic Reformation have tended to focus on the movement’s later stages and, taking a top-down approach, view it from the perspective of activist clerics seeking to impose a fixed idea of religious life. This study focuses instead on the movement’s beginnings and explores the aims and tactics of proponents of reform from different but overlapping perspectives. The six case studies draw from three regions—Paris, Provence, and Languedoc. The first chapters tell the story of religious caught in the direct path of the Wars of Religion, which reduced France to near anarchy in the sixteenth century. Chapter 1 tells of the difficulty traditional women’s orders had surviving—much less reforming themselves—in Protestant-dominated Montpellier. Chapter 2 examines the rebellion of Paris’s Feuillants against both their ascetic abbot and the king during the Holy League revolt. Chapter 3 recounts the implantation of the militant Franciscans called Capuchins in the Protestant heartland, Languedoc. Chapters 4 and 5 examine the struggle to reform two old orders—the Dominicans and Trinitarians—that had fallen into decay. Chapter 6 explores conflicting interpretations of Teresa of Avila’s legacy at France’s first Carmelite convents. The book illuminates persistent debates about what constituted religious reform and how a reform’s success should be judged. It shows reform to have been lived as an ongoing process that was more diverse, experimental, and experiential than is often recognized.Less
This book examines how Catholic reformers envisioned and implemented changes to monastic life in late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century France. Scholars of France’s Catholic Reformation have tended to focus on the movement’s later stages and, taking a top-down approach, view it from the perspective of activist clerics seeking to impose a fixed idea of religious life. This study focuses instead on the movement’s beginnings and explores the aims and tactics of proponents of reform from different but overlapping perspectives. The six case studies draw from three regions—Paris, Provence, and Languedoc. The first chapters tell the story of religious caught in the direct path of the Wars of Religion, which reduced France to near anarchy in the sixteenth century. Chapter 1 tells of the difficulty traditional women’s orders had surviving—much less reforming themselves—in Protestant-dominated Montpellier. Chapter 2 examines the rebellion of Paris’s Feuillants against both their ascetic abbot and the king during the Holy League revolt. Chapter 3 recounts the implantation of the militant Franciscans called Capuchins in the Protestant heartland, Languedoc. Chapters 4 and 5 examine the struggle to reform two old orders—the Dominicans and Trinitarians—that had fallen into decay. Chapter 6 explores conflicting interpretations of Teresa of Avila’s legacy at France’s first Carmelite convents. The book illuminates persistent debates about what constituted religious reform and how a reform’s success should be judged. It shows reform to have been lived as an ongoing process that was more diverse, experimental, and experiential than is often recognized.
Maria de San Jose Salazar
Alison Weber (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- February 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226734545
- eISBN:
- 9780226734620
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226734620.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Women's Literature
María de San José Salazar (1548–1603) took the veil as a Discalced (“barefoot”) Carmelite nun in 1571, becoming one of Teresa of Avila's most important collaborators in religious reform and serving ...
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María de San José Salazar (1548–1603) took the veil as a Discalced (“barefoot”) Carmelite nun in 1571, becoming one of Teresa of Avila's most important collaborators in religious reform and serving as prioress of the Seville and Lisbon convents. Within the parameters of the strict Catholic Reformation in Spain, she fiercely defended women's rights to define their own spiritual experience and to teach, inspire, and lead other women in reforming their church. María wrote this book as a defense of the Discalced practice of setting aside two hours each day for conversation, music, and the staging of religious plays. Casting the book in the form of a dialogue, she demonstrates through fictional conversations among a group of nuns during their hours of recreation how women could serve as very effective spiritual teachers for each other. The book includes one of the first biographical portraits of Teresa and María's personal account of the troubled founding of the Discalced convent at Seville, as well as María's tribulations as an Inquisitional suspect. Rich in allusions to women's affective relationships in the early modern convent, it also serves as an example of how a woman might write when relatively free of clerical censorship and expectations.Less
María de San José Salazar (1548–1603) took the veil as a Discalced (“barefoot”) Carmelite nun in 1571, becoming one of Teresa of Avila's most important collaborators in religious reform and serving as prioress of the Seville and Lisbon convents. Within the parameters of the strict Catholic Reformation in Spain, she fiercely defended women's rights to define their own spiritual experience and to teach, inspire, and lead other women in reforming their church. María wrote this book as a defense of the Discalced practice of setting aside two hours each day for conversation, music, and the staging of religious plays. Casting the book in the form of a dialogue, she demonstrates through fictional conversations among a group of nuns during their hours of recreation how women could serve as very effective spiritual teachers for each other. The book includes one of the first biographical portraits of Teresa and María's personal account of the troubled founding of the Discalced convent at Seville, as well as María's tribulations as an Inquisitional suspect. Rich in allusions to women's affective relationships in the early modern convent, it also serves as an example of how a woman might write when relatively free of clerical censorship and expectations.
Frank A. James III (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780814724439
- eISBN:
- 9780814760642
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814724439.003.0012
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
This overview chapter for the third part of the book covers the theologies of salvation in the Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation. It covers both the theology of the Reformers, in which ...
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This overview chapter for the third part of the book covers the theologies of salvation in the Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation. It covers both the theology of the Reformers, in which God’s declaration of righteousness is based solely upon the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and the ensuing Catholic “Counter-Reformation,” in which salvation had happened, is happening, and is yet to come.Less
This overview chapter for the third part of the book covers the theologies of salvation in the Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation. It covers both the theology of the Reformers, in which God’s declaration of righteousness is based solely upon the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and the ensuing Catholic “Counter-Reformation,” in which salvation had happened, is happening, and is yet to come.
Barbara B. Diefendorf
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- March 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190887025
- eISBN:
- 9780190887056
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190887025.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion, European Early Modern History
The conclusion argues that France’s Catholic Reformation benefitted from reform efforts initiated in Italy and Spain but was most profoundly shaped by France’s experience of religious war. The ...
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The conclusion argues that France’s Catholic Reformation benefitted from reform efforts initiated in Italy and Spain but was most profoundly shaped by France’s experience of religious war. The movement’s origins lay in the perceived need both to fight the spread of Protestant ideas and to raise standards of clerical behavior. Summarizing the diverse ways in which religious communities responded to the challenges of heresy and civil war, the conclusion further argues that the old religious orders, which had suffered greatly in the conflicts, found themselves at a serious disadvantage when wealthy elites shifted their patronage at the wars’ end to the new reformed congregations, whose penitential fervor and rigorous asceticism had captured their imagination. The new congregations grew at a rapid pace, while the old orders struggled to overcome wartime debts and destruction, fought to determine what reforms to enact, and pressured recalcitrant members to accept their programs for change.Less
The conclusion argues that France’s Catholic Reformation benefitted from reform efforts initiated in Italy and Spain but was most profoundly shaped by France’s experience of religious war. The movement’s origins lay in the perceived need both to fight the spread of Protestant ideas and to raise standards of clerical behavior. Summarizing the diverse ways in which religious communities responded to the challenges of heresy and civil war, the conclusion further argues that the old religious orders, which had suffered greatly in the conflicts, found themselves at a serious disadvantage when wealthy elites shifted their patronage at the wars’ end to the new reformed congregations, whose penitential fervor and rigorous asceticism had captured their imagination. The new congregations grew at a rapid pace, while the old orders struggled to overcome wartime debts and destruction, fought to determine what reforms to enact, and pressured recalcitrant members to accept their programs for change.
Andrew Dell'Antonio
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520269293
- eISBN:
- 9780520950108
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520269293.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
The early seventeenth century, when the first operas were written and technical advances with far-reaching consequences—such as tonal music—began to develop, is also notable for another shift: the ...
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The early seventeenth century, when the first operas were written and technical advances with far-reaching consequences—such as tonal music—began to develop, is also notable for another shift: the displacement of aristocratic music-makers by a new professional class of performers. This book looks at a related phenomenon: the rise of a cultivated audience whose skill involved listening rather than playing or singing. Drawing from contemporaneous discourses and other commentaries on music, the visual arts, and Church doctrine, this book links the new ideas about cultivated listening with other intellectual trends of the period: humanistic learning, contemplative listening (or watching) as an active spiritual practice, and musical mysticism as an ideal promoted by the Church as part of the Catholic Reformation.Less
The early seventeenth century, when the first operas were written and technical advances with far-reaching consequences—such as tonal music—began to develop, is also notable for another shift: the displacement of aristocratic music-makers by a new professional class of performers. This book looks at a related phenomenon: the rise of a cultivated audience whose skill involved listening rather than playing or singing. Drawing from contemporaneous discourses and other commentaries on music, the visual arts, and Church doctrine, this book links the new ideas about cultivated listening with other intellectual trends of the period: humanistic learning, contemplative listening (or watching) as an active spiritual practice, and musical mysticism as an ideal promoted by the Church as part of the Catholic Reformation.
Stefan Bauer
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198807001
- eISBN:
- 9780191844799
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198807001.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History, History of Religion
This Introduction presents Onofrio Panvinio (1530–68), an Augustinian friar who gained prominence as a historian of both the Catholic Church and Roman antiquity. Historiography in sixteenth-century ...
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This Introduction presents Onofrio Panvinio (1530–68), an Augustinian friar who gained prominence as a historian of both the Catholic Church and Roman antiquity. Historiography in sixteenth-century Rome and the interrelationship between history and theology have been awaiting a profound re-examination. Panvinio’s case enables us to trace changes in the approach to history-writing across the epochs of the Renaissance and the Catholic Reformation. This Introduction discusses Panvinio’s methods, which were modelled on humanist source criticism. It highlights differences between Panvinio and the more strongly confessionalized and dogmatized historiography (such as that of Cesare Baronio) which came after him. Lastly, there is a brief discussion of the terms Catholic Reform and Counter Reformation.Less
This Introduction presents Onofrio Panvinio (1530–68), an Augustinian friar who gained prominence as a historian of both the Catholic Church and Roman antiquity. Historiography in sixteenth-century Rome and the interrelationship between history and theology have been awaiting a profound re-examination. Panvinio’s case enables us to trace changes in the approach to history-writing across the epochs of the Renaissance and the Catholic Reformation. This Introduction discusses Panvinio’s methods, which were modelled on humanist source criticism. It highlights differences between Panvinio and the more strongly confessionalized and dogmatized historiography (such as that of Cesare Baronio) which came after him. Lastly, there is a brief discussion of the terms Catholic Reform and Counter Reformation.
Stefan Bauer
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198807001
- eISBN:
- 9780191844799
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198807001.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History, History of Religion
How was the history of post-classical Rome and of the Church written in the Catholic Reformation? Historical texts composed in Rome at this time have been considered secondary to the city’s ...
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How was the history of post-classical Rome and of the Church written in the Catholic Reformation? Historical texts composed in Rome at this time have been considered secondary to the city’s significance for the history of art. The Invention of Papal History corrects this distorting emphasis and shows how history-writing became part of a comprehensive formation of the image and self-perception of the papacy. By presenting and fully contextualizing the path-breaking works of the Augustinian historian Onofrio Panvinio (1530–68), this book shows what type of historical research was possible in the late Renaissance and the Catholic Reformation. Historiography in this period by no means consisted entirely of commissioned works written for patrons; rather, a creative interplay existed between, on the one hand, the endeavours of authors to explore the past and, on the other hand, the constraints of patronage and ideology placed on them. This book sheds new light on the changing priorities, mentalities, and cultural standards that flourished in the transition from the Renaissance to the Catholic Reformation.Less
How was the history of post-classical Rome and of the Church written in the Catholic Reformation? Historical texts composed in Rome at this time have been considered secondary to the city’s significance for the history of art. The Invention of Papal History corrects this distorting emphasis and shows how history-writing became part of a comprehensive formation of the image and self-perception of the papacy. By presenting and fully contextualizing the path-breaking works of the Augustinian historian Onofrio Panvinio (1530–68), this book shows what type of historical research was possible in the late Renaissance and the Catholic Reformation. Historiography in this period by no means consisted entirely of commissioned works written for patrons; rather, a creative interplay existed between, on the one hand, the endeavours of authors to explore the past and, on the other hand, the constraints of patronage and ideology placed on them. This book sheds new light on the changing priorities, mentalities, and cultural standards that flourished in the transition from the Renaissance to the Catholic Reformation.
Ulrich L. Lehner
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780190232917
- eISBN:
- 9780190232948
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190232917.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
The most cherished values of modernity are unthinkable without the eighteenth-century Enlightenment. Equal rights, the growth of democracy, and the idea of perpetual progress stem from thinkers who ...
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The most cherished values of modernity are unthinkable without the eighteenth-century Enlightenment. Equal rights, the growth of democracy, and the idea of perpetual progress stem from thinkers who lived 250 years ago but whose ideas are as attractive as ever. This book argues that while Catholic beliefs are commonly assumed to be at odds with modernity, most of the progressive reforms associated with the Enlightenment actually began to take shape during the Catholic Counter-Reformation two centuries earlier, and were staunchly defended by enlightened Catholics during the eighteenth century. This is the forgotten story of a progressive Catholicism that actively engaged with the world. Although this mode of thought declined in the nineteenth century, it reemerged powerfully at, and after, Vatican II (1962–1965).Less
The most cherished values of modernity are unthinkable without the eighteenth-century Enlightenment. Equal rights, the growth of democracy, and the idea of perpetual progress stem from thinkers who lived 250 years ago but whose ideas are as attractive as ever. This book argues that while Catholic beliefs are commonly assumed to be at odds with modernity, most of the progressive reforms associated with the Enlightenment actually began to take shape during the Catholic Counter-Reformation two centuries earlier, and were staunchly defended by enlightened Catholics during the eighteenth century. This is the forgotten story of a progressive Catholicism that actively engaged with the world. Although this mode of thought declined in the nineteenth century, it reemerged powerfully at, and after, Vatican II (1962–1965).