Accepted Short Papers Fifteenth Annual REFORC Conference on Early Modern Christianity, May 19-21, 2026.
Latest update: March 20, 2026
Antonino Amato (University of Palermo | DREST): The Northen Nave: Simony and Ecclesiastical Patronage in the Elizabethan Consistory Court of York
Arne Bugge Amundsen (University of Oslo, Norway): A Lutheran Pulpit in an Age of Crisis. Panel: Staging the Lutheran Pastor: Case Studies Saxony and Norway
Ann-Kathrin Armbruster (Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn): Immersion – How Material and Linguistic Images from the Reformation Period Transcend the Boundaries of Time and Space. Panel: Recent Thoughts on Melanchthon and his Reception
Carsten Bach-Nielsen (Aarhus University): Visual Ecclesiology? Tablets of Pastors – a Significant Visual and Material Message in Post-Reformation Lutheran Churches
Carlos Gonzalez Balderas (KU Leuven): Clerical Consumers: Asian Textiles and Religious Life in Eighteenth-Century Lima. Panel: Text, Textile, and Theology 2: Materiality, Symbolism, and Identity
Marco Baretti (DREST | FSCIRE): Towards a New Church: Calvin and the Last Phase of His Correspondence with Louis Du Tillet
Jakub Basista (Jagiellonian University): A Remarkable Revelation of the Wandrings of the Church of England in Idolatry, Superstition, and Ceremonies…
Jessica Becker (University of Kent): The Spanish Catch: Traces of Phillip II’s El Escorial in Charles I’s Banqueting House
Peter Benka (Comenius University in Bratislava): Visual Culture in Hungarian Urban Reformation
Jan-Andrea Bernhard (Institut für Schweizerische Reformationsgeschichte, Universität Zürich): The Book as a ‘Precious Commodity’. Panel: The Book as Collector’s Item and Symbol in the Swiss Reformation / Das Buch als Sammlungsgegenstand und Symbol in der Schweizer Reformation
Thomas Betteridge (Brunel University of London): Reformation Drama and Allegory. Panel: Early Modern Literature and Religion: Character, Speech, and Embodiment
Ragnhild M. Bø (University of Oslo): ‘All that Arachne’s Art Produces Fully’: Netherlandish Poet-Painters on Textile Metaphors. Panel: Text, Textile, and Theology 2: Materiality, Symbolism, and Identity
Kathrin Borgers (Seminar für Kunst und Kunstwissenschaft, TU Dortmund): Purified Matter: Transformation and Redemption in Papier-Mâché
Andrii Bovgyria (University of Cambridge): Heretics and Blasphemers: Crimes against the Orthodox Church in Muscovy and the Ukrainian Hetmanate (17th – Early 18th c.). Panel: Crime, Power and Religious Order in 17th–18th-Century Eastern Europe
Gábor Bradács (independent scholar): Spiritual Presence and Historical Polemic: Eucharistic Theology in Early Modern Reformed Church Historiography
Gianmarco Braghi (University of Palermo | FSCIRE): Anonymity, Concealment, and Pseudonymity in the Early French Reformed Network of Congregations
Simon Burton (School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh): Ramism and the Re-Enchantment of the World: Re-Assessing Continuities with Medieval Devotion
Giulia Casella (Universität Hamburg): How Many Ways to Tell a Single Story? The Case of King Kāleb in the Jesuit Histories of Ethiopia. Panel: Early Modern Literature and Religion. Self and History in Jesuit Writing
Artis Celmins (Theological University of Apeldoorn): Edward Reynolds’ (1599 – 1676). Understanding of the Passions and Faculties of the Soul
Vanessa Chaise-Brun (University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne): The Materiality of the Cult of King Charles the Martyr: Blurring Boundaries between Catholicism and Protestantism
Jan Čížek (University of Ostrava): Massa Mosaica: Creation and Matter in Early Modern Mosaic Physics
Glenn Clark (University of Manitoba): The Trace of the Pauline Minister in The Comedy of Errors. Panel: Early Modern Literature and Religion: Character, Speech, and Embodiment
Ian Clary (Theological University of Apeldoorn): “Congenial Man of Conviction”: James Ussher (1581–1656) and Early Modern Irenicism
Alina-Maria Crăciun (Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca): Christian Materiality in the Diplomatic Negotiations of Moldavia and Wallachia with the Holy League (1594–1595)
Maria Crăciun (Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca): The Sounds of Silence, the Material Fabric of Worship and the “View from the Pew” in Early Modern Transylvanian Lutheran Churches
Brian Cummings (University of York): Erasmus & Materialism. Panel: Early Modern Literature and Religion: Classical Presences in Religious Discourse
Martin Deutsch: Temporary or Permanent? Materiality and Imagery in the Jesuit Ephemeral Displays
Nicolò Di Dio (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia): Jean Bodin, Philosopher of Harmony: the Golden Chain in Bodin’s Works
Damian Domke (Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften): Rethinking Olevianus on Justification: Heidelberg, Piscator, and Reformed Diversity
Matthias Ebejer (Archdiocese of Malta): Hospitallers and the Paradox of Materiality
Hallgeir Elstad (The Faculty of Theology, University of Oslo): Staging the Lutheran Pastor 2: Two Late 16th Century Norwegian Pulpits. Panel: Staging the Lutheran Pastor: Case Studies Saxony and Norway
William Engel (Sewanee: The University of the South): John Day’s Protestant Renovation of the English Catechism
Roberta Falcetta (University of the Republic of San Marino): “The Zimarra and the Cassock”. Church Asylum and Jurisdictional Conflicts in the Austrian Habsburg Kingdom of Naples (1722)
Jamie Ferguson (University of Houston): Language Shapes: Verse Divisions and the Printed Psalters of Campensis, Coverdale, Dolet, and Rej. Panel: Early Modern Literature and Religion: Literary Psalm Culture, Print, and Performance
Hanna Filipova (independent scholar): “He is fornicating and does not even consider it a sin”: The Lexicon of Lèse‑Majesté Cases Concerning Peter the Great’s Alleged Same‑Sex Relations. Panel: Crime, Power and Religious Order in 17th–18th-Century Eastern Europe
Karina R. Fischer (Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen): Splendour and Restraint: Stage Objects, Costumes, and Christian Materiality in Sixteenth-Century Esther Dramas. Panel: Text, Textile, and Theology 1: Inner Virtue and Outer Splendour
Vittoria Forliti (University of York): “Then will I dare the most, and vow the best”: Edmund Campion, Robert Southwell, and the Rhetoric of Free Speech in Early Modern Catholic Literature. Panel: Early Modern Literature and Religion: Self and History in Jesuit Writing
Thomas Fulton (Rutgers University): Tyndale’s New Testament at 500: Rethinking Its Lutheran and Erasmian Origins. Panel: Early Modern Literature and Religion: Biblical Interpretation and Translation
Eduardo Gross (Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora – Brazil): Melanchthon’s Reception in Brazil Regarding his Humanistic Contribution. Panel: Recent Thoughts on Melanchthon and his Reception
Dilshat Harman (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen): Materializing the Moral Choice: The Headwear in Dürer’s Small and Engraved Passions
Sabine Hiebsch (Theologische Universiteit Utrecht): Lutheran Material Culture in the Dutch Republic: Expression of a Religious Minority
Markéta Holubová (Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Ethnology): The Materiality of Czech Broadside Ballads with Christological Motifs
Gábor Ittzés (Debrecen Reformed Theological University): Three Last Wills – One Funeral: Frederick the Wise Prepares for Death
Luka Jakopčić (Zagreb University): Baroque Devotion as Experience Economy: Lepoglava Monastery and Aristocratic Patronage on the Habsburg Periphery
Verena Kessel (independent scholar): The Church Body as a Platform for Discourse. The Protestant Overpainting of Catholic Murals Using the Example of the Church in Lieberhausen (United Duchies of Cleves) until 1590
Gerard Kilroy (Ignatianum University in Krakow): “I see it feelingly”: Material Erasure and Physical Nostalgia for Vanished Rituals in Shakespeare’s Plays. Panel: Early Modern Literature and Religion: Memory, Materiality and the Imagination
Tímea Nemesné Kis (University of Tokaj): Places of Saints in Churches. Interior Design Solutions for the Placement of Relics in the Early Modern Period
Jakub Koryl (Jagiellonian University): Measuring the Meaning, Sensing the Sense: «De multiplici siclo et talento Hebraico» (1568) by Stanislaw Grzepski in Search of the Material Interpretation of the Bible. Panel: Early Modern Literature and Religion: Biblical Interpretation and Translation
Konrad Küster (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Musikwissenschaftliches Seminar): Rural Communities and Their Commitment to Ecclesiastical Art, 1400-1700: a Comparative Study
Michael Lapp (Univ. Frankfurt Main): Die hessischen Verbesserungspunkte von 1605ff. – Eine Theologie der Materialität
Urs Leu (Institut für Schweizerische Reformationsgeschichte, Universität Zürich): The Book as Symbol, Collector’s Item and Companion in 16th-Century Zurich. Panel: The book as Collector’s Item and Symbol in the Swiss Reformation / Das Buch als Sammlungsgegenstand und Symbol in der Schweizer Reformation
Jennifer Lewin (University of Haifa): Dreaming of the Bible in Shakespeare’s 2 Henry 4. Panel: Early Modern Literature and Religion: Literary Psalm Culture, Print, and Performance
Kunhang Li (Donghua University): Hunting World and Earthly Paradise——The Chained Animal Textile Patterns in 15th-16th Century International Gothic Paintings. Panel: Text, Textile, and Theology 2: Materiality, Symbolism, and Identity
Marie-Louise Lillywhite (Keble College, University of Oxford): Sacred Images and Confessional Identity in Early Modern Venice
Walentyna Łoś (Uniwersytet Jagiellonski): Materiality and Church Authority in the Development of Uniate Identity in the Late 18th Century: The Church Interior in the Right-Bank Ukraine. Panel: Crime, Power and Religious Order in 17th–18th-Century Eastern Europe
Tomasz Mantyk (Nicolaus Copernicus Univeristy of Toruń | KU Leuven): Relics, Images, and Votive Gifts: Materiality of Renaissance Miracle Stories from Poland
Yaakov Mascetti (Bar-Ilan University): The Rhetorical Sensorium: Materiality and Embodied Cognition in Early Modern English Preaching. Panel: Early Modern Literature and Religion: Memory, Materiality and the Imagination
Matthew McDaniel (Westminster Seminary California): The Beauty and Dignity of Our Bodies: Amandus Polanus’ Aesthetic Anthropology
Michael Mleczek (Pontifical University of John Paul II in Kraków; Archdiocese of Kraków): Materiality as Confessional Argument: Robert Bellarmine on Saints, Relics, and Images after Trent
Dávid Molnár (University of Tokaj): ‘Paturxica kardos!’: Material Loss and Spiritual Survival under Ottoman Rule in the Epistle of Pál Thúri
Guilherme Nabais Freitas (Trinity College, University of Cambridge): John Donne’s Devotional Plato: Reading Philosophy in the Jacobean Pulpit
Christian Neddens (Europäische Melanchthon-Akademie Bretten): God´s Spirit and Human´s Will – Melanchthon between Humanism and Reformation Theology. Panel: Recent Thoughts on Melanchthon and his Reception
Bonnie Noble (University of North Carolina at Charlotte): The Theme of Melancholy in the Paintings of Cranach the Elder
Timothy Nyhof (independent scholar): “Calleth those things which be not as though they were” (Romans 4:17 KJV). An Early Reformed Discussion on ‘Sacramental Naming’ and the Materiality of the Lord’s Supper
Peter Opitz (University of Zurich): Ulrich Zwingli’s De providentia: Theology or Philosophy?
Petr Pavlas (IP CAS, Prague | University of West Bohemia, Pilsen): God and Man, Soul and Body, Substance and Accidents: Leibniz on the Incarnation, Psychophysical Problem, and the Eucharist. Panel: Embodied Representations of the Metaphysical and Supernatural in Early Modern Non-Conformist Lutheranism
Joanna Pietrzak-Thebault (Uniwersytet Kardynała Stefana Wyszyńskiego w Warszawie): Braniewo and Elbląg – Catholic and Protestant Libraries Face to Face
Martin Pjecha (Czech Institute of Philosophy): The Politics of Motion in Johannes Comenius and Nicholas Cusanus
Svitlana Potapenko (National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine | Goethe University Frankfurt am Main): What Did They Steal? Materiality of the Koliivshchyna Rebellion in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1768). Panel: Crime, Power and Religious Order in 17th–18th-Century Eastern Europe
Catherine Powell-Warren (KU Leuven): “Filz de cloistre”: The Making of Lace as Béguine Devotion. Panel: Text, Textile, and Theology 1: Inner Virtue and Outer Splendour
Oksana Prokopyuk (National Preserve “Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra” | Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main): Donation and Commemoration: Making the Kyivan Orthodox Tradition in the Early Modern Period. Panel: Religious Traditions in Materiality in Eastern Europe
Marta Quatrale (Freie Universität Berlin): Against Uncreatureliness: Schwenckfeld, Eucharistic Materiality, and Luther’s 1540 Disputation
Emily Ransom (Belmont Abbey College): The Incarnational Imagination of Robert Southwell’s Exercitia et Devotiones. Panel: Early Modern Literature and Religion: Self and History in Jesuit Writing
Tarald Rasmussen (University of Oslo): Staging the Lutheran Pastor: Two 16th Century Saxon Pulpits. Panel: Staging the Lutheran Pastor: Case Studies Saxony and Norway
Markus Rathey (Yale): The Materiality of Music in the Early Reformation
Jacob Rhodes (Boston University School of Theology): Christ is All in All: A Post-Reformation Lutheran Understanding of Christ’s Omnipresence
Clarisse Roche (United Arab Emirates University): (Re)thinking Communion under Both Kinds in Sixteenth-Century Vienna: Objects, Practices, and Debates
Maria Roginska (University of the National Education Commission, Krakow): Material Erasure and Vernacular Imaginaries of the Reformation in English Parishes. Panel: Early Modern Literature and Religion: Memory, Materiality and the Imagination
Stefan Rohdewald (University of Leipzig): Religious Materialities in Transottoman Early Modern Contexts. Panel: Religious Traditions in Materiality in Eastern Europe
Martin Romatowski (University of Oslo): Condemned Objects: Immoral Materiality at the Bonfires of Fifteenth-Century Italy
Daniel Rossa (Marburg University): Facing Faith by Staging Communion. Interfaces to Economy by Sacramental Art and Liturgical Performance in Early Modern Christianity and Reformation
Patryk M. Ryczkowski (Vilnius University): Iosaphat redux: Josaphat Kuntsevych’s Relics through the Lens of the Translation Reports (1667). Panel: Materiality of the Saints: the Relics and Saints’ Representation across Confessions and Literary Genres
Steffie Schmidt (Osnabrück University): Witches in the Theatre
Brigitta Schvéd (Ludovika UPS | University of Pécs): Embodied Equilibrium: The Habsburg Monarchy, the Hungarian Cause, and the Performative Theology of Balance in English Political Sermons (1701–1714)
Joshua Scodel (University of Chicago): Edward Herbert’s Faith. Panel: Early Modern Literature and Religion: Classical Presences in Religious Discourse
Freya Sierhuis (University of York): Vondel’s King David in Exile and King David Restored: Psalm Culture and Embodied Performance. Panel: Early Modern Literature and Religion: Literary Psalm Culture, Print, and Performance
Rudolf Šimek (Department of Art History, Charles University, Prague): From Trent to the Long Nineteenth Century: Seals, Efficacy, and Traces of Use in Pilgrimage Copies of Our Lady of Svatá Hora
Jozsef Simon (University of Szeged): Active Shadows. Bálint Sárközi’s Dilemmas Concerning Ficino’s and Bruno’s Concepts of Matter from 1588
Nataliia Sinkevych (University of Leipzig): Peter Mohyla and the Cultures of Remembrance in Eastern Europe. Panel: Religious Traditions in Materiality in Eastern Europe
Marie Škarpová (Charles University, Prague): “Schutz und Schatz”: Texts on Relics of Prague Cathedral between Hagiography, Historiography, Itinerarium, Pilgrim’s Guide, Calendarium, and Inventory. Panel: Materiality of the Saints: the Relics and Saints’ Representation across Confessions and Literary Genres
David Brandon Smith (Goethe Universität, Frankfurt am Main): Martin Luther as Freedom Fighter? The Reformer’s Legacy in the Struggle for an Independent Namibia
Jillian Snyder (University of Notre Dame): Apocalyptic Laughter: The Materiality of Scorn and the Unveiling of the Stage Puritan. Panel: Early Modern Literature and Religion: Character, Speech, and Embodiment
Mattias Sommer Bostrup (Aarhus University): Johannes Wiedewelt’s Historical Park at Jægerspris: Religion and Patriotism in Enlightenment Denmark
Daniel Soukup (Institute of Czech Literature of the Czech Academy of Sciences): Eyes Wide Shut: Jewish Converts and Materiality of Early Modern Cult of Saints. Panel: Materiality of the Saints: the Relics and Saints’ Representation across Confessions and Literary Genres
Maria Kazimiera Staniszewska (independent scholar, Kraków, Poland): ‘Crucifixes and the Muscovite Image on the Wall’. Religious Artworks in the Households of the 17th Century Kraków
Anna Szyrwińska-Hörig (Universität Vechta): Material Objects Serving Theology: Johann Conrad Dannhauer and the Origins of Illustrative Didactic Narrative in Lutheran Theology. Panel: Embodied Representations of the Metaphysical and Supernatural in Early Modern Non-Conformist Lutheranism
Francis Taylor (University of York): Weeds and Wheat: Materiality, Vegetal Metaphor, and Constructions of Orthodoxy in Seventeenth-Century Sermons
Monica Teoldi (University of Milan): Constructing Sanctity: Material Devotional Practices in a Female Monastic Community in Seventeenth-Century Milan
Alessandro Tripepi (University of Milan): Tears of Blood and Ink: Creating a Hierarchy of “Anti-Saints” in 17th-Century Anti-Jesuit Polemics
Anna Vind (University of Copenhagen): Materializations of Luther in the 16th Century 1: Translations of Luther in 16th Century Denmark: Education, Theories and Methods. Panel: Materializations of Luther
Stefan Weise (Bergische Universität Wuppertal): Using Homer in Confessional Strife: the case of Philip Melanchthon and Laurentius Rhodoman. Panel: Early Modern Literature and Religion: Classical Presences in Religious Discourse
Jörg Wesche (Georg-August-Universität, Göttingen): Materializations of Luther in the 16th Century 2: Investigating Luthertexts with Digital Tools. Panel: Materializations of Luther
Mary Whittingdale (University of Cambridge): Fabricating Religious Work in 17th Century England. Panel: Text, Textile, and Theology 1: Inner Virtue and Outer Splendour
Ulrich A. Wien (Institut für Evangelische Theologie Campus Landau, RPTU): Man hu? – The Gap in the Late Medieval Communion Altar in Tobsdorf
Marcin Wisłocki (University of Wrocław): Visual Images as Meditational Tools in Lutheran Emblematic Devotional Books of the 17th- and 18th-Centuries
Susanne Wittekind (Institute of Art History, University of Cologne): Wood Carving Technique as a Statement of Religious Policy? Document Boxes in the Context of the Italian Observance Movement of the 15th Century
Jakub Wolak (Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences): The Chosen People of Poland, or Some Remarks on Theological Implications of the Resistance Theory in the Political Dialogues of Stanisław Orzechowski
Lucy Wooding (Lincoln College Oxford): The Performance of Prayer in the English Reformation
Helmut Zander (Université de Fribourg): The Dual Use of Ritual Church Inventory in the Early Modern Holy Roman Empire
Yuri Zazuliak (University of Leipzig): Charters as Material Bearers of the Ecclesiastical Orthodox Tradition in Galicia (Red Ruthenia) during the 15th-18th Centuries
Dmitry Zharov (Central European University): Performative Destruction and Confessional Conflict: Book Burning at the Jesuit School of Vienna in 1567