A Tridentine Response

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.

Conclusion

This chapter 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 points out how Spain had still not reversed its policy on Jews while most parts of Europe had become rather more welcoming to Jews in the interim. It also looks into the Jewish communities of Amsterdam, Frankfurt am Main, Prague, and Venice that exceeded 2,000 people for the first time in the seventeenth century, joining other cities, such as Rome that had already achieved that population in the sixteenth century. The chapter recounts how Jewish communities sprung up in places which had not traditionally been a home to Jews, especially in Eastern Europe. It talks about England and France, which had been the first territories to expel their Jewish populations back in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries but had begun to reverse that policy in the seventeenth century.

Heightened Expectations

This chapter explores the Sabbatean movement as the most significant messianic movement since the first century BCE. It explains the context in which Sabbatai emerged, as well as its particular stresses that were apparent in the middle of the seventeenth century. It also highlights the enthusiasm for Sabbatai that drew on longer traditions of messianic thought that constituted the most important division between Christians and Jews. The chapter recounts the series of attacks against Jewish communities in Poland–Lithuania by Bogdan Chmielnicki and his army of Cossacks as part of a wider assault on the established order of that society. It also talks about the ruthless and highly unpopular Sultan Ibrahim, who had been Ottoman ruler since 1640 but was deposed and killed by his Janissaries in 1648.

Dashed Hopes

This chapter explores the radical dimension to the Protestant Reformation. It talks about Andreas Karlstadt, who took over the direction of the Reformation in Wittenberg and introduced a range of reforms after Martin Luther went into hiding between 1521 and 1522. It analyzes Karlstadt's written text on the main issues relating to Sabbatarian belief. The chapter looks at the Peasants' War that provided a different form of radicalism in the early stages of the Reformation. It explains that the Peasants' War was a series of partly coordinated uprisings that took place from 1524 to 1525 across central Europe among the lower orders, which constituted the largest popular uprising before the French Revolution.

A New Dawn?

This chapter focuses on the first waves of reform in the earliest decades of the sixteenth century in both the Catholic and Protestant realms. It addresses the issues associated with having large populations of Jews or Jewish converts in Spain and Italy through instruments such as the Inquisition and ghetto. The chapter looks into the reconsideration of the earliest Protestants of their relationship with Jews and Judaism. It explains how the Hebrew language and Jewish learning offered means for the nascent churches to revitalize Christianity and underpin their challenge to the established church. It also talks about the Jews that were often caught in the crossfire of the confessional conflicts in Christian Europe.

People of the Book

This chapter talks about identity as the heart of a fundamental issue associated with the Reformation. It recounts how the Protestants of Geneva and Rouen forced biblical names on children being baptized in order to make a bold and public statement of their intention to distance themselves from Catholicism. It explains how the use of names associated with the New and Old Testament not only embody the Protestants' great enthusiasm for the Bible, but how they also encouraged an identification specifically with the people of Israel. The chapter looks at John Calvin, who was a generation younger than Martin Luther and leader of the two largest movements associated with the Reformation. It compares Calvin and Luther's attitudes towards the Jews, in which Calvin has generally been considered the more sympathetic since he did not write anything that was as substantial and vicious as Luther's text.

Fault Lines

This chapter talks about the various forms of Protestantism that had been accepted by large swathes of the population of many territories in Europe. It also mentions political leaders that had adopted the Reformation, whether out of genuine commitment or as a means to achieve personal goals. The chapter recounts the introduction of Reformation in England and Scotland that was achieved with relatively little bloodshed. It describes the minor impact of Protestantism in other European countries, such as Spain and Italy, where stability was largely maintained. It also highlights the Wars of Religion that dominated the political and religious landscape of France through the second half of the sixteenth century and into the early seventeenth.

A Contested Inheritance

This chapter seeks to establish the position Jews occupied in Christian thinking and society by the start of the Reformation era. It explains the Reformation that inherited a wide range of contradictory and ambivalent attitudes from the ancient and medieval periods. It explains how Jews were valued positively because they were God's chosen people in the Old Testament and potentially a means by which Christians could better understand the origins of their faith. The chapter looks into the theological and economic grounds in which Jews enjoyed a privileged position in Christian society. It also discusses the relations between Christians and Jews that worsened in the later Middle Ages and how Jews became the victims of popular animosity and official discrimination.

Caught in the Crossfire

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.