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This essay explores humanist responses to the style and rhetoric of biblical prophecy, focusing on the perceived differences between Isaiah, whose style was generally praised as urbane and forceful, and the other prophets, whose styles were seen as simple and rustic by comparison. Scholars have recognized Isaiah's elevated place among the writing Hebrew prophets in the history of Christian theology, worship, and art, but they have not considered the stylistic and rhetorical dimensions of Isaian exceptionalism, nor have they considered its implications for Reformation era theology and sacred rhetoric. I argue that, for early modern Protestants and Catholics, Isaiah was a central figure in the process of defining and evaluating prophetic style, and in turn the style and rhetoric of the Bible generally, because of the exceptional quality of his style, which allowed them to defend the stylistic quality and power of biblical writing against its detractors (real and perceived) by appealing to Isaiah, whom they presented as more eloquent and powerful than classical rhetoricians like Demosthenes and Cicero. I also argue that, for early Protestants, Isaiah was not only a central but also a complicating figure in this process, because his exceptional style often led them into disagreements over the character and quality of biblical style generally, as well as the implications of biblical style for the study and application of rhetoric in preaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Reformation, Luther and his followers looked for terrestrial and celestial portents, interpreting them as apocalyptic omens. The fiery appearance of aurorae lighting up the night sky made them especially suitable as signs of the end of the world. Although natural explanations existed for the causes of such celestial phenomena, moralistic writers preferred to see aurorae as admonitions of divine wrath in their literature of the last days. Korean historical records confirm that there actually was an increase in the number of aurorae seen in the mid-sixteenth century. This proliferation of aurorae, combined with the dissemination of printed accounts of their appearances, made these celestial wonders seem more quotidian than extraordinary. Ironically, the same evangelical authors who cited aurorae as ominous warnings simultaneously helped them seem less significant by drawing attention to how commonplace they had become in recent years. Rather than being naturalized, aurorae became ordinary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the growing acceptance of the notion of a "long" Reformation, studies of the cult of remembrance continue to use the Reformation, and the abolition of purgatory in particular, as a convenient boundary for study. The evidence of the Cave family of Stanford-on-Avon suggests that, although disorientating, the doctrinal change of the mid-sixteenth century was not necessarily a moment of breach in the community of the living and the dead. In studying the range of commemorative practices within one family, the retention and renegotiation of traditional practices becomes clear. Alongside the lingering significance of the temporal framework of intercession, the Caves relied upon domestic goods, with reformed households continuing to honor mementos associated with traditional religion. Throughout the Reformation period, funeral monuments emphasized the significance of the corpse in remembrance, while testators sought to fashion select communities of remembrance that would ensure the survival of their memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the best seller of the Spanish Golden Age, the Libro de la oración y meditación (Book on Prayer and Meditation). Released in 1554 by the Spanish Dominican Luis de Granada, the prayer book went through over one hundred editions by 1600, read and reproduced by both Catholics and Protestants in English, French, German, Italian, Latin, Nahuatl, Spanish, and Zapotec. Despite its popularity, Granada’s book has prompted surprisingly little scholarly research. This paper examines several editions of the book (in English, French, Italian, and Spanish) highlighting what was changed while repackaging the book for new audiences. The paper suggests similarities and differences in popular piety across national, linguistic, and confessional lines. Tracing the evolution of Granada’s book helps to test the strength of confessionalization in Europe when applied to prayer, and it offers a standard lens for discerning the evolving shape of religious communities straddling reformations in different localities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the heart of this article are two eyewitness accounts of the religious life of pre-Reformation Biberach an der Riß in Upper Swabia. Written between ca. 1531 and 1545 by two brothers who had remained Roman Catholic while their home city had converted to Protestantism, the two reports provide a virtually unparalleled glimpse into the material and visual culture of a small Imperial Free City on the eve of the Protestant Reformation. So far, the two narratives have been primarily mined for their portrayal of religious customs taking place within the city walls. Almost no attention has been paid to the fact that the two accounts chart the richly textured sacred landscape that unfolded in every direction in the peri-urban spaces just outside the town walls. Rather than looking at the pre-Reformation city from within, this article considers the late medieval urban space from the outside. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the Reformation studies in China contextualized within the academic framework of world history as it developed from 1949 to the present, including the diachronic changes that scholarship has experienced, its essential characteristics, current debates, and ongoing trends. Over the last seventy years, steady development and some unique characteristics of Chinese academic research are evident. The Chinese academic community has not existed as an isolated island. On the contrary, it has been closely linked to the international scholarly ecosystem and affected by the international political and ideological environment. This paper summarizes those impacts and three trends evident in China within the study of the Reformation, as well as within the study of world history as a whole, and pointed out the sprout of creating historical writing from “the other’s perspective”: a Chinese perspective of the Chinese academics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Margarethe, Princess of Anhalt (1473-1530), regent of the principality of Anhalt-Dessau from 1516 until her death, was the first female ruler to have to take a stand on the Reformation. A letter Martin Luther wrote her on 4 November 1519 indicates there existed a friendly relationship between them before she broke with him and worked to prevent the Reformation of her territory. Like Luther, Margarethe wrote devotional works, among them her Historia vom Leiden ... Christi, a lengthy passion meditation in verse. This work, published posthumously by her son, Georg III of Anhalt (1507-53), deserves to be ranked as an important and hitherto unrecognized example of the mediating theology (Vermittlungstheologie) of figures like Julius Pflug (1499-1564), Georg Witzel (1501-73), and Johannes Wild (ca. 1495-1554) who, before the Council of Trent (1545-63), sympathized with some of Martin Luther's theological ideas, yet remained loyal to the papacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses his experiences in online teaching of the Reformation. He mentions his usual storytelling technique and his desire to retain that online, his use of podcasts and short documentary films to enhance his lectures, and how he hopes to continue including such techniques after the return to the classroom.

An introduction is presented to a special section of articles arising from the conference panel entitled "Gaming to Learn," sponsored by the Sixteenth Century Journal for the fiftieth-anniversary annual meeting of the Sixteenth Century Society & Conference held in St. Louis, Missouri in October 2019.

The author discusses the relationship between early modern studies and contemporary society. She mentions the U.S. Alien and Sedition Laws of 1798 regarding the issues of free speech vs. sedition and noncitizens, the question of religious beliefs after the Reformation, and how these issues have reoccurred in contemporary society.

The author presents a semi-facetious forecast regarding the "Sixteenth Century Journal" on its centennial. He mentions the role of interdisciplinary research, the question of periodization of history and the focus on the Renaissance and the Reformation, and how literary scholarship has changed with the use of artificial intelligence

The author discusses the question of early modern studies in higher education. He mentions the expansion of research beyond the Renaissance and the Reformation, the need to bring early modern studies into broader cultural discussions, and how these support the continuation of early modern studies in the decline of humanities studies in the university.

The author discusses the relationship between early modern Europe and the U.S. He mentions the impact of the Protestant Reformation on the development of a consumer culture, the interaction of capitalism and imperialism, and the influence of the Great Awakening in the 1790s on U.S. society.

The author discusses the role of the historian in bridging early modern studies and contemporary society. He mentions the question of same-sex marriage and arguments against it that were similar to the marriage of clergy in Reformation Germany, the problem of contemporary fake news and its similarity to charges of blood libel, and the importance of historical support of contemporary issues.

The article critiques the book "Rebel in the Ranks: Martin Luther, the Reformation and the Conflicts that Continue to Shape Our World" by Brad S. Gregory, and it mentions how various Reformation era topics and personalities are covered in the book. Luther's teachings and the post-Reformation period are examined, along with religious disruptions and a decrease in the influence of religion on society.

The article the life of the late priest Martin Luther in relation to author Andrew Pettegree's book "Brand Luther: How an Unheralded Monk Turned His Small Town into a Center of Publishing, Made Himself the Most Famous Man in Europe--And Started the Protestant Reformation" and Luther's impact on the printing industry in Germany. Printers in Wittenberg, Germany in 1502-1517 are addressed, along with Luther's ability to communicate clearly with the public.

The article reviews the special volume of the Jesuit scholarly periodical "Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review; Reformation 500," vol . 106, no . 424 (2017/18), edited by Bruce Bradley, dealing with topics of the Reformation in Ireland.

The article reviews the volume 59, 2017 issue of the annual peer-reviewed Polish periodical "Odrodzenie i Reformacja w Polsce" (The Renaissance and Reformation in Poland).

This article presents an essay written by historians Gary G. Gibbs and Merry Wiesner-Hanks on the topic of the Reformation. They provide advice on teaching methods and strategies to engage students on the Reformation in world history courses, including utilizing students' creativity and imagination, as well as emphasizing different perspectives on the subject.

This article presents an essay written by historian R. Ward Holder on the topic of teaching about the Reformation. He comments on the importance of incorporating religious, social, and historiographical aspects of the Reformation and offers advice on teaching methods and strategies to further engage students on the subject.

The article reviews three 2017 exhibitions entitled "Lutheran Spring in Antwerp: Tolerance and Repression in the Sixteenth Century," held at Saint Andrew’s Church in Antwerp, Belgium; "Luther @ Leuven 1517-2017," held at the Maurits Sabbe Library, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Leuven, Belgium; and "Updating a Thousand Year Old Text: Erasmus, a Reformer?,” held at Erasmus House in Brussels, Belgium.

The article discusses the 16th century German theologian Martin Luther, including the author's considering him what is referred to as a word-prophet and his role in the Protestant Reformation. An overview of Luther's radical theology, including his perspective on Jesus Christ and the apostles sent by God, is provided.

The article discusses the impact that the Protestant Reformation, and 16th century German theologian Martin Luther's role in making the Reformation come about, had on the history of Germany, including on the Catholic Church. An overview of the Reformation's impact on German identity, including cultural identity, is provided.

In November 1617, Protestants across the Holy Roman Empire commemorated the one-hundredth anniversary of Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses. Traditionally, scholars have argued that a unity of message marked the first official centennial celebration in modern Western history. Equally important, however, were variations in the structure of Reformation Jubilee commemorations, which authorities used to address specific local concerns. In Strasbourg, officials responded to the spread of Tridentine reform in surrounding territories by organizing a festival centered on anti-Catholic polemics. Their Jubilee emphasized the citizenry's need to resist Catholicism as their forefathers had done one hundred years earlier. By contrast, Ulm's Jubilee portrayed Ulm as God's chosen city, a second Wittenberg that served as a guiding light for all Evangelicals. In both cities, the calculated nature of the collective memories broadcast through the Jubilee contradicts modernist narratives that draw clear divisions between the operation of memory politics before and after the Enlightenment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Erasmus laid the egg, Luther hatched it." Already in the early Reformation this popular quip suggested a direct, causal link between humanism and the Protestant Reformation. Yet Luther's precise debt to Erasmus has remained an elusive problem. This article reconsiders the issue by investigating how Luther read Erasmus's scholarship, focusing on two remarkable, little-studied examples: Erasmus's edition of Jerome and his Annotations to the New Testament. Luther's annotated copies reveal a deep ambivalence toward the humanist and a distinctly uncharitable reading style. Although Luther diligently collected welcome information, he excoriated what he regarded as Erasmus's desacralizing philological perspective and his malicious use of humor. Luther's perception of Erasmian humor in fact operated as an interpretative tool that enabled him to project his suspicions about Erasmus's skepticism and unbelief into the text. Documenting Luther's continued preoccupation with Erasmus, this article offers a reevaluation of Erasmus's intellectual significance for Luther's theological development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the 501st anniversary of the late priest Martin Luther's publication of his "Ninety-Five Theses" document in 1517 which is known as the "Reformation Year," and it mentions various books about Luther which were published in 2016-18, as well as information about a Luther-related conference which was held in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Panelists such as professors Rebecca Peterson and Kirsi Stjerna are mentioned.

The resurrection of the dead has been among the articles that defined Christian belief since the earliest days of the church. However, scholars have not considered its place in sixteenth-century debates about what it meant to be a Christian. Notably, the doctrine of bodily resurrection was a subject on which Christians in the Reformation remained remarkably united. Yet despite their basic agreement, sixteenth-century writers paid extensive attention to resurrection, and in so doing, they articulated very different understandings of why it mattered. Writings on resurrection by Martin Luther, Menno Simons, and John Calvin and texts promulgated by the Council of Trent each suggested that the promise of resurrection implicated a different relationship between Christianity and the human body, and in turn, it was to play a particular role in the formation of the true Christian community and the conduct of a Christian life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author investigates textual sources from early modern Denmark-Norway concerning women dying in childbed. Funeral works in particular, but also church ordinances and instructions to midwives and expecting women, exhibit a set of models for explaining this type of death. Framed by these models, the dead female body expressed central Protestant perceptions of mankind and salvation. The explanations of these deaths depended on the text genre and context in which they were given. The message accordingly changed from comfort or consolation to mediating the ideal image of women. This article contributes to the understanding of how evangelical theology was implemented in the conjoined kingdoms of Denmark and Norway, and how the new theology provided interpretations of the life and death of early modern women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an essay written by historian Amy E. Leonard on the topic of teaching about the Protestant Reformation. She comments on the importance of understanding the religious background and emotional aspects of the religious movement and the subsequent Catholic Counter-Reformation. She also offers teaching methods and strategies to further engage students.

This article presents an essay written by historian Denice Fett on the topic of teaching about Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation. She comments on the use of contemporary news and other print sources to map the spread of the movement throughout Europe. She also offers teaching methods and strategies to further engage students.

The article reviews the annual periodical "Odrodzenie I Reformacja w Polsce," (The Renaissance and Reformation in Poland), volume 60, edited by the dited by the Tadeusz Manteuffel Institute of History Polish Academy of Sciences.

Information is provided on the American Society of Church History's (ASCH's) roundtable sessions titled "Does the Reformation Still Matter? American, Global, and Early Modern Perspectives" and "Whither Reformation History" at the meeting of the American Historical Society (AHA) held in Denver, Colorado in January 2017. The conference's focus on the Protestant Reformation, including Protestant missions, Reformation research, historiography and modernity, is discussed.

This article analyzes the reactions of Catholic laymen to a 1578 sodomy trial held in Ghent. The recently established Calvinist city council had accused a number of mendicants of the crime to slander their religious opponents. The lack of official response from the clergy has led to the assumption that the laity also remained silent in the face of the slurs. Remarkably, a considerable number of Catholic laymen passionately attempted to rehabilitate the friars through the popular narrative genre of city chronicles, the Memorieboeken, even though sodomy was an unmentionable sin. Furthermore, chroniclers were still writing about the trial more than a century after the fall of the Calvinist regime. Clearly, the Catholic restoration of Ghent was accompanied by the stigmatization of old enemies. This particular sodomy trial not only shows how religious polemics could influence responses to deviant sexuality but also reflects the formation of an urban historical consciousness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the institutional response to the Iconoclastic Fury and the iconoclasm of the early 1580s in the southern provinces of the Netherlands. Although the restoration of Catholicism is more often associated with the early seventeenth century, this article demonstrates that the reconstruction of churches and reestablishment of worship took place a generation earlier in the immediate aftermath of the religious violence. Furthermore this restoration was a priority for the government in the Netherlands, in particular for Margaret of Parma and her son Alexander Farnese, as they sought to regain control of the region and assert the authority of the crown. In particular, they encouraged the use of the ecclesiastical rites of consecration and reconciliation to symbolize the cleansing and purification of the religious landscape after the profane actions of the iconoclasts and adherents of the Reformed faith. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1575 the men in the village of Goumoëns-la-ville voted to abolish the Mass and establish Reformed Christianity as the sole creed in their village. Agreements between the ruling Orte, Bern and Fribourg, devolved the determination of the village's religious adhesion to the residents themselves. For years, both creeds had coexisted in the village and this arrangement became the status quo that villagers upheld in a previous election. The evidence examined here reveals how rural clergy and residents, both Catholic and Reformed, negotiated religious change at a time when the ruling urban centers were hardening their confessional stances. It is argued that for the residents the choice was complex and involved more than religious sentiment alone. It demonstrates as well that a pragmatic coexistence had continued within the village that allowed residents to live in peace despite their confessional differences, until the vote. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article builds on recent advances in sensory anthropology to examine the significance of smell in late medieval and early Reformation ritual. It argues that late medieval ritual reflected and reinforced the power of smell to affect senses of boundary demarcation and transition between bodies, the world, and the divine. By removing incense from their rituals, early Reformers challenged this paradigm, effectively desacralizing the sense of smell. In many everyday contexts, its traditional associations persisted, but for early Reformers, smell no longer mediated between the human and the divine. The argument is developed by establishing how smells were embedded in the late medieval mundane and religious contexts, and then by demonstrating how Reformers rejected certain aspects of this paradigm, while retaining others. It demonstrates this in theory and practice. By adopting the sense of smell as a category of analysis, this article deepens the understanding of Reformation ritual as something that interacted with bodies in all modalities of perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Leipzig physician Caspar Kegler created novel alchemical plague cures in the early sixteenth century that were among the first brand-name medicines developed in German-speaking lands. Although Kegler is largely unknown today, he and his descendants secured his fame by promoting his secret cures and distributing his printed pamphlets throughout German-speaking lands between 1521 and 1607. This article argues that Kegler's work in creating and promoting novel cures represents a new sort of entrepreneurial activity among sixteenth-century physicians. Kegler's case raises questions about the role of vernacular print and commercial motives in transforming early modern medicine to a more empirical discipline and explores how alchemy, persistent epidemics, and the turbulence of the early Reformation encouraged medical and cultural change. Since Kegler predates Paracelsus, his case also illuminates the depth of alchemical activities among German physicians in the early sixteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how ordinary people—those below the ranks of the educated elite—understood and made use of conscience in the years after the Reformation. While much is known about the ideas of theologians and legal scholars regarding this issue, no other work has attempted to recover popular notions of conscience. This article argues that coroners' inquests reveal the early modern shift from the objective understanding of conscience to the newer, subjective understanding. Jurors and the kings' almoners employed conscience in different ways and for different purposes; the almoners' suits suggest that this shift in the understanding of conscience may have been a "bottom-up" movement in which the jurors utilized the idea of a subjective conscience while the almoner retained the older, objective conscience until later in the seventeenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Russia's place in the sixteenth-century European Reformation has remained largely an understudied subject in the West. Indeed, most early modern scholarship rarely crosses the Carpathians or Lake Peipus. Similarly, in Russia, scholars have not yet produced a systematic study of Ivan the Terrible's views vis-à-vis the Reformation. This article examines Ivan the Terrible's polemic against Protestantism within the context of the regional eastern European and larger, continental Reformation. For Ivan, Protestants constituted both internal and external threats, posing grave danger to Orthodox doctrine, Russian society, and the safety of Muscovy's borders. Theologically, in the czar's worldview, Protestants were heretics and schismatics par excellence, whose split from apostolic succession endangered not only Roman Catholicism, but the integrity of the Orthodox church as well. Socially, Ivan thought, Protestants championed moral degeneracy, while politically they threatened global and regional security by overwhelming neighboring European states with upheavals and revolt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extant historiography has created a historiographic ghetto, seldom considering Jewish sources as relevant to the larger narrative of European history. This has created two parallel, often disconnected areas of study, "European history" and "Jewish history' Archival materials show that Jews and Christians resided side by side and interacted daily in early modern Europe. Reformation Strasbourg and post-Reformation Poland, geographically and demographically diverse, offer new insights about the past by including sources about Jews. In Reformation Strasbourg, leaders of different Christian confessions jointly issued policies aimed at regulating daily interactions between Jews and Christians, despite simultaneously battling one another in the realm of faith and politics. In post-Reformation Poland, the physical presence of Jews recorded underscores their neighborly relations with Christians and further demonstrates the limits to the seemingly successful Counter-Reformation in Poland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]