Intra-Confessional Polemics in the Reformation

2019 ◽  
Vol 88 (3) ◽  
pp. 629-644 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph Keen
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Religious Thought ◽  
Mutual Antagonism ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Religious Polemic

Although religious polemic is typically understood and studied as a phenomenon of mutual antagonism across the confessions—Protestant against Catholic and Catholic against Protestant—the growth of the early modern polemic traditions was the product of heated internal controversy. In a series of theses intended to point to rhetorical aspects of conflicts within the Lutheran and Catholic confessions, this paper brings forward features of polemical writings from the disputes between Gnesio-Lutherans and Philippists in the wake of the Augsburg Interim of 1548 and those between and among Jesuits and Jansenists in the seventeenth century. Early modern religious thought, I suggest, cannot be understood without attention to the fissures within the Lutheran and Roman Catholic traditions.

Meeting Lydgate’s Ghost: Building Medieval History in Seventeenth-Century England

2019 ◽  
Vol 71 (299) ◽  
pp. 251-271
Author(s):  
Mimi Ensley
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
British Library ◽  
John Lydgate ◽  
Medieval Romance ◽  
English History ◽  
The Past ◽  
Documentary Sources ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Historical Resources

Abstract This article examines a manuscript poem composed by the seventeenth-century author John Lane. Writing in what is now London, British Library, Harley MS 5243, Lane revives the medieval poet John Lydgate in order to re-tell the story of Guy of Warwick, famous from medieval romance. In Lane’s poem, Lydgate returns from beyond the grave to proclaim the historicity of Guy’s legend and simultaneously preserve his own reputation as a chronicler of English history. While some scholars suggest that Lydgate’s popularity declined in the post-Reformation period due to his reputation as the ‘Monk of Bury’, and while it is true that significantly fewer editions of Lydgate’s poems were published in the decades after the Reformation, Lane’s poem offers another window into Lydgate’s early modern reputation. I argue that Lane’s historiographic technique in his Guy of Warwick narrative mirrors Lydgate’s own poetic histories. Both Lane and Lydgate grapple with existing historical resources and compose their narratives by compiling the accreted traditions of the past, supplementing these traditions with documentary sources and artefacts. This article, thus, complicates existing scholarly narratives that align Lydgate with medieval or monastic traditions, traditions perceived to be irrecoverably transformed by the events of the Reformation in England.

“Constructing the Poor in Early Seventeenth-Century London”1

2000 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 450-463
Author(s):  
Claire S. Schen
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Poor Relief ◽  
International Conflicts ◽  
Early Modern Europe ◽  
Demographic Pressure ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Undeserving Poor

Historians of early modern Europe have become accustomed to the dichotomy of the deserving and undeserving poor, though they still debate the origins of the transformation of attitudes toward the poor and poverty. Historians have studied less carefully the ways in which these presumably static categories flexed, as individuals and officials worked out poor relief and charity on the local level. Military, religious, and social exigencies, precipitated by war, the Reformation, and demographic pressure, allowed churchwardens and vestrymen to redraw the contours of the deserving and undeserving poor within the broader frame of the infirm, aged, and sick. International conflicts of the early seventeenth century created circumstances and refugees not anticipated by the poor law innovators of the sixteenth century. London’s responses to these unexpected developments illustrate how inhabitants constructed the categories of die deserving and undeserving poor. This construction depended upon the discretion of churchwardens and their fellow officers, who listened to the accounts and read the official documents of the poor making claims on parish relief and charity.

Episcopal Tombs in Early Modern England

2004 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 654-680 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER SHERLOCK
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Early Modern England ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The Status ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church

The Reformation simultaneously transformed the identity and role of bishops in the Church of England, and the function of monuments to the dead. This article considers the extent to which tombs of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century bishops represented a set of episcopal ideals distinct from those conveyed by the monuments of earlier bishops on the one hand and contemporary laity and clergy on the other. It argues that in death bishops were increasingly undifferentiated from other groups such as the gentry in the dress, posture, location and inscriptions of their monuments. As a result of the inherent tension between tradition and reform which surrounded both bishops and tombs, episcopal monuments were unsuccessful as a means of enhancing the status or preserving the memory and teachings of their subjects in the wake of the Reformation.

Forgiveness and Consolation in the Religious Thought of Erasmus

1965 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 110-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas N. Tentler
Keyword(s):  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Religious Thought ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Religious Issue ◽  
Roman Catholics ◽  
The Church

No religious issue in the Reformation was debated more bitterly than the theory of the forgiveness of sins. To Roman Catholics forgiveness meant the sacrament of penance, and its necessity was so evident to John Eck that he called auricular confession ‘the nerves of our religion and of Catholic discipline'. To Luther forgiveness meant personal certitude and salvation by faith—it meant the destruction of the Roman Catholic sacrament of penance. So important were these doctrines to Lutheranism that Melanchthon could completely summarize Luther's contribution to the church as his teaching of'the correct manner of penance and the correct use of the sacraments'. Significantly, Melanchthon adds this proof that Luther's greatness lies in these reforms: ‘many consciences testify this to me'.

scholarly journals Zur Frage der Toleranz in der Epoche zwischen Reformation und Aufklärung

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hein Retter
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Mutual Recognition ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Early Modern Era ◽  
Modern Era

This article deals with the origins of religious tolerance in the modern era. It goes back to the early modern era, when intolerance by the Roman-Catholic church towards new reformative movements showed itself to be particularly pervasive. At the same time, the Roman-Catholic church faced opposition from regional princes and free imperial cities who had become powerful and frequently tended to lean towards the new faith. They demanded the acknowledgment of the reformative faith by the pope and the emperor. However, they could hardly be called tolerant towards other faiths in their own territories, especially in the case of minorities seeking public recognition of their alternative beliefs and religious practices. Stark intolerance eased off only when tolerance functioned as an inherent political necessity, in hopes of gaining large economic benefits, especially under secular rule yet hardly ever under that of the church. The results from an international conference presented here show that tolerance in the age of the Reformation cannot be confused with the mutual recognition of religious and cultural idiosyncracies, in the way these are often claimed nowadays when advocating for a peaceful coexistence of different groups in a pluralistic society. In the historical context of the early modern era, tolerance was a one-sided act –in hopes of political and economic advantages – towards gaining a kind of freedom which, in its overall effect, definitely involved risks of conflict. In this context, differing political structures such as the personal beliefs of the ruling prince influenced the different climates regarding tolerance in 16th- to 19th-century Europe.

Lord Deputy Chichester and the English Government’s ‘Mandates Policy’ in Ireland, 1605–1607

1991 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 320-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
John McCavitt
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Protestant Clergy ◽  
Counter Reformation ◽  
Church Of Ireland ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Way

One of the liveliest debates in recent early modern Irish historiography has concerned the ‘failure’ of the Reformation in Ireland and when this occurred. Originally Professor Canny took issue with Dr. Brendan Bradshaw on this topic. Canny rejected Bradshaw’s thesis that the Reformation had failed in Ireland by 1558 and argued that counter-reformation catholicism only triumphed in the nineteenth century. Other contributions were then made to the debate by Dr. Alan Ford and later Karl Bottigheimer. Ford considered the 1590–1641 period as crucial, while Bottigheimer favoured the early seventeenth century as the key era. In the light of the work of Ford and Bottigheimer, Canny reconsidered the issue in an article published in 1986. He rejected what he believed to be Ford’s overly-pessimistic assessment that the Church of Ireland clergy soon despaired of the Reformation’s success in the seventeenth century. Instead, it is contended, Protestant clergy and laymen alike were optimistic that penal prosecution might still pave the way for considerable advances at this time. Moreover, Canny further argued that Ford was ‘mistaken in treating the clergy as an autonomous group and mistaken also in allowing excessive influence to ideology as the determinant of policy’.

Calvin, Witsius (1636–1708), and the English Antinomians

2011 ◽  
Vol 91 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 229-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gert van den Brink
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Human Activity ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Defensive Strategy ◽  
Reformed Tradition ◽  
The Core ◽  
Investigative Tool ◽  
Good Works ◽  
The Reformation

At the core of the Reformation lies the belief that good works are excluded from man’s justification before God. Roman Catholic adversaries feared the rise of immorality and thus accused the Reformed of antinomianism. In this paper the term “doctrinal antinomians” is used for those who deny any human activity within the order of salvation. Within the Reformed tradition we do indeed find examples of such antinomians. As might be expected, they were highly criticised from within their own Reformed camp. However, as part of their defensive strategy they appealed to Calvin as one of their champions. This paper first investigates the manner in which the antinomians referred to him, and then goes on to consider whether their appeal is justified. In order to evaluate to what extent antinomian aspects can be detected in Calvin’s theology, the analysis of the antinomian position by Herman Witsius, a seventeenth-century Dutch theologian, will be used as an investigative tool.

scholarly journals The Attempts to Establish A Balance of Power in Europe During the Second Half of the Seventeenth Century (1648–1702)

1904 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 33-76
Author(s):  
M. G. Routh
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
The Other ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The One

The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 put an end to the war which had troubled Europe for thirty years, and which had its origin in the bitter religious hatred, intensified by political jealousy, of the partisans of the Reformation on the one hand, and of the adherents of the Roman Catholic Church on the other.

The Paper Parish: The parish register and the reformation of parish memory in early modern London

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Gordon
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Record Keeping ◽  
Communal Memory ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Early Modern London ◽  
Changing Practices ◽  
Parish Registers

This essay explores the development of parish record-keeping in early modern London, examining the implications of changing practices for communal memory. Building on the study of more than 50 parish registers, it investigates who wrote the parish records, how they were kept and how they were used. Many of the extant records are the product of a ‘memorial moment’ at the turn of the seventeenth century, involving a concerted attempt to re-order and re-present parish papers as memorial objects: the material representations of parish memory. These registers highlight the emergence of an ongoing communal investment in and oversight of record-keeping practices, while the evidence of annotations and corrections in parish registers demonstrates the persistence of oral forms of communal memory, contesting the textual record. The development of the parish register in the period thus emerges as a key site for renegotiating the forms and habits of parish memory.

American Missionary Motivation Before the Revolution

1962 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 216-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Pierce Beaver
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
New England ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Protestant Missions ◽  
The Revolution

Sources for discovery of the missionary motivation of the Indian evangelists and their supporters in seventeenth century New England are scanty. Nevertheless, the most compelling factors come clearly to view. The avowed missionary intent of colonization, as voiced in the Plymouth and Massachusetts Charters, was not one of these. The directors of the colonial companies might have had the notion of serving God and checking Roman Catholic political expansion through Protestant missions, but such an aim was of little force in the thinking of the colonist and his children. They were, indeed, creating a Christian commonwealth. They were completing the Reformation also in a place at the end of the earth. It had to be wrested from the heathen who possessed it. But this extension of Christendom was by the displacement of the heathen, not by their conversion.

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