Moderate Voices in the European Reformation

Luc Racaut, Alec Ryrie

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9780754650218
• eBook ISBN:
  9781351917056
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

Between the religious massacres, conflicts and martyrdoms that characterised much of Reformation Europe, there seems little room for a consideration of the concept of moderation. Yet it was precisely because of this extremism that many Europeans, both individuals and regimes, were forced into positions of moderation as they found themselves caught in the confessional crossfire. This is not to suggest that such people refused to take sides, but rather that they were unwilling or unable to conform fully to emerging confessional orthodoxies. By conducting an investigation into the idea of 'moderation', this volume raises intriguing concepts and offers a fuller understanding of the pressures that shaped the confessional landscape of Reformation Europe. A number of essays present case studies examining 'moderates' who existed uneasily in the space between coercion and persuasion in Britain, France and the Holy Roman Empire. Others look more broadly at local and national attempts at conciliation, and at the way the rhetoric of moderation was manipulated during confessional conflict. These are all drawn together with a substantial introduction and analytical conclusion, which not only tie the volume together, but which also pose wider conceptual and methodological questions about the meaning of moderation.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Notes on Contributors
• List of Abbreviations
• Introduction: Between Coercion and Persuasion
• 1 Diplomacy, Evangelism and Dynastic War: The Brothers Du Bellay at the Service of Francis I
• 2 A Diagnosis of Religious Moderation: Matthew Parker and the 1559 Settlement
• 3 A Mini-'Colloquy of Poissy' in Brittany: Inter-confessional Dialogue in Nantes in 1562
• 4 Immanuel Tremellius and the Avoidance of Controversy
• 5 Cooperation and Confessional Identity in Mid-Tudor England: Three Berkshire Courtiers
• 6 National Church, State Church and Universal Church: The Gallican Dilemma in Sixteenth-century France
• 7 The Battle for Indifference in Elizabethan England
• 8 'Wolves and Weathervanes': Confessional Moderation at the Habsburg Court of Vienna
• 9 René Benoist: Scripture for the Catholic Masses
• 10 Moderation under Duress? Calvinist Irenicism in Early Seventeenth-century Royal Hungary
• Conclusion: Moderate Voices: Mixed Messages
• Index