Fourteenth Annual REFORC Conference on Early Modern Christianity, May 22-24, 2025.
Last update: April 18, 2025
Sivert Angel (University of Oslo): Theological Elites and Farmers’ Revolts in 16th Century Norway
Previous research has examined the numerous peasant uprisings in Norway during the 16th century to understand the nation’s economic history. Inspired by Thomas Kaufmann’s concept of the Peasants’ War as a media event, this paper investigates whether the Norwegian uprisings are part of a transnational discussion about authority. It considers the Norwegian priest Peder Claussøn Friis’s 1595 work “A Report on the Tithe in Agder,” firstly to see how it addresses the peasant uprisings, and then to explore its references to contemporary German Lutheran literature. The paper aims to answer the following questions: Does Friis interpret the events in Norway in light of German Lutheran notions of rebellion and unrest? Are there different assessments of authority and legitimacy in Norway compared to German Lutheran theologians? What characterises the attitudes of the Norwegian theological elite towards the peasant uprisings? What religious and theological notions are attributed to the peasants?
Konstantin Anikin (Martin-Luther-Universität Halle Wittenberg): Rolle der Bogomilen im Denken der Pietisten und der “lutherischen Orthodoxie”
Im Vortrag soll am Beispiel der theologischen Auseinandersetzung zwischen Pietisten und lutherischen Orthodoxen gezeichnet werden, wie die umstrittene und im Osten verdammte Glaubensbewegung das Denken der beiden Parteien prägte. Während die Protestanten im Einklang mit der frühen Kirche die alten Häretiker anprangerten, suchten die Pietisten wie Gotfried Arnold (1666–1714) in seiner “Unpartheyischen Ketzerhistorie”, diese zu rechtfertigen, ja sich mit diesen zu identifizieren. In diesem Zusammenhang bekommt die im 10. Jh. in Byzanz verfolgte Bewegung der Bogomilen den Anstrich des wahren Christentums, das zu Unrecht seiner Rechte auf Existenz enthoben wurde. Solcher Standpunkt bewegte die Opposition dazu, die bogomilische Lehre eingehend zu studieren, was man an einer Breite der Schriften von etwa J.C. Wolf (1683–1739) oder J.A. Fabricius (1668–1736) gut erkennen kann. Bei der Beschäftigung mit den bogomilischen Schriften kristallisiert sich nicht nur die hervorstechenden Unterschiede der Herangehensweisen an die byzantinischen Quellen heraus – etwa die von Euthymios Zigabenos oder Anna Komnene -, sondern auch zeigt sich eine neue Perspektive des Umgangs mit dem Begriff “Häresie”, die für die Vertreter des Pietismus beinahe einem unumstrittenen Dogma gleichte.
Paolo Astorri (University of Copenhagen): Controlling Rebellious Thoughts: Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction on Thoughts in Protestant and Catholic Territories
Can the Church oblige someone to perform mental acts, such as specific thoughts? For example, can it require a priest to maintain attention while praying, or is this a matter that must be left to God alone? The prevailing opinion has been that the Church cannot impose obligations regarding purely internal acts and cannot pass judgment on them. However, the great canonist Adrian of Utrecht (Pope Adrian VI, 1459-1523) argued that the Church could, in some cases, demand internal acts, particularly as a modus—a way of carrying out certain functions, such as praying devoutly. Tommaso de Vio (Cardinal Cajetan, 1469-1534) asserted that while the Church cannot impose purely mental obligations, it can require internal acts insofar as they manifest in external behavior. Similarly, the Jesuit theologian Francisco Suárez (1548-1617) recognized certain sins that incur punishment ipso facto, without the need for a judgment—for instance, a judge who omits a duty out of love or hatred, or cases where a good intention is required in an act of devotion. In the Protestant world, such positions seem to find no foothold. Ecclesiastical jurisdiction must not encroach upon the realm of thoughts. Hidden sins—those that are not manifested through any public action or omission—should not be subject to inquiry, not even by pastors, writes Friedrich Balduin (1575-1627), a prominent Lutheran theologian. This implies a distinction between Catholic and Protestant teachings, with the former exerting broader jurisdiction over thoughts. This paper aims to examine this difference by exploring the writings of several Catholic and Protestant theologians, including Juan de Medina’s De poenitentia, restitutione et contractibus (1581), Francisco Suárez’s De censuris in communi (1603), and Friedrich Balduin’s Tractatus de casibus conscientiae (1628).
Ruth Atherton (University of South Wales): Rebel with a Cause: Andreas Osiander and Pastoral Ministry in Nuremberg, 1522-1548
A direct contemporary of Martin Luther, Andreas Osiander became a leading reformer largely based in the imperial city of Nuremberg. He was elected as preacher of St. Lorenz Church in March 1522 and became the city’s principal evangelical preacher until the late 1540s when he left the city under a cloud. His views regarding secular jurisdiction, clerical authority, and his emerging doctrine of justification set him at odds with Lutheran colleagues in Nuremberg and beyond. Set against the backdrop of the socio-political climate in Nuremberg and focusing on Osiander’s ministry, catechisms, sermons, letters, and church order, this paper has three objectives. Firstly, it seeks to demonstrate that Osiander’s later dissent originated in his earlier career, rather than appearing in the late 1540s. Secondly, it suggests that there is a connection between Osiander’s views of justification – which were condemned roundly by other reformers – and his public defence of clerical authority. Finally, while Osiander was perceived by contemporaries to be divisive, arrogant and, ultimately, heretical, a final aspect of the paper considers the practical manifestation of his theology and demonstrates that Osiander was committed to developing a community of care for his parishioners in Nuremberg through grounding his ministry in consolation and comfort. His responses to catastrophes, in particular plague and the threat of war, will be examined as case studies. Overall, in offering new insights into his life and ministry, this paper presents Osiander in a different light than has current scholarship.
Doron Avraham (Bar Ilan University, Israel): Rebellion within Limits: German Pietism and the Contestation of Established Order
In the second half of the seventeenth century German Pietism emerged as a movement of religious awakening that aimed at a new kind of faith, that of Herzens-Religion. The movement, which spread throughout the territories of the Holy Roman Empire, challenged certain premises of Orthodox Protestantism and its “declaratory” salvation. Emphasizing the importance of the emotional and individual belief in God, Pietists celebrated the transformation of the believer and his Wiedergeburt. In my paper I wish to cross beyond the theological features of Pietism, and focus on its contestation of absolutism and social hierarchy. Certainly, German Pietism was not a revolutionary strand, but many of its members challenged the mounting power of monarchs and their alliance with the orthodox church. This was manifested in the rebellious nature of Pietism, namely through criticism against the association between throne and altar, the establishment of social relief institutions, toleration toward Jews, and the formation of alternative religious practices. Philipp Jacob Spener, for instance, defied the monarchs’ authority over the free consciousness of the believer. Countering the luxurious life of aristocrats, Pietists like August Hermann Francke initiated philanthropic associations for poor relief. Christoph Hochmann von Hochenau called for the restitution of Israel without demanding Jews’ conversion. And there were many Pietists who practiced the Konventikel that replaced the established church’s rituals. By qualitative and philological analysis of Pietists’ texts I will try to demonstrate that although there were different shades within Pietism, the importance of the movement did not necessarily rest on its theology. Rather, it offered an alternative political, social and cultural order that was practiced in reality through Pietists’ own efforts. Theirs was not an upheaval against existing authorities, but a rebellion against unjust practices and thus it remained within limits.
Dorottya Piroska B. Székely (Eötvös Loránd University – Faculty of Humanities): An Archbishop and his Network – Political and religious issues of the Kingdom of Hungary at the End of the Seventeenth Century
In the second half of the Seventeenth Century, the Viennese court had severe conflicts to handle in the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary: not just diplomatic, but also military issues with the Ottoman Empire, the Principality of Transylvania and from the 1670’s the Kuruc movement. Besides religious issues, the common interest between the prince of Transylvania and the generals of the Kuruc movement was that neither wanted to accept Habsburg’s leadership. György Szelepcsényi, the Archbishop of Esztergom was one of the most formative individuals of seventeenth-century Hungary: he participated in the political life of Hungary first as a chancellor (1644–1666) and a royal governor (1667–1681). Between 1666 and 1685, he served as the Archbishop of Esztergom and the leader of the Hungarian Catholic Church. His social network was quite extensive, the main figures from the different levels of both the Hungarian and imperial political circles belonged to it, which made him a perfect mediator not only between the Viennese Court and the Hungarian elite but also the generals of the Kuruc movement. In my lecture I would like to present not only the military and political activity of the Kuruc movement but also the role of Szelepcsényi – as Archbishop and royal regent – in the communication of the Viennese Court from 1670 onward with the leaders of the rebellion, Mihály Teleki and Imre Thököly. I will focus on the religious issue of the rebellion: was the freedom of religious practice used by leaders for political purposes or was the Movement’s main motivation? How the conflicts in the territory of Upper Hungary – the occupation of the churches, the trials against the preachers – were part of the Catholic Church’s, and especially György Szelepcsényi’s successful, but harsh campaign against the Movement and the Protestantism in these years.
Luca Baschera (Universität Zürich, Institut für Schweizerische Reformationsgeschichte): Prophets and Grammarians: On the Purpose and Method of Higher Education in Reformation Zurich
After years of preparation, in July 1525 Zwingli’s plan could finally come to fruition: from then on learned scholars would give on a daily basis public and free lectures in Latin on theology, rhetoric, dialectic and poetics. This marked the beginning of the history of higher education in Zurich, which was due to culminate in the foundation of the university of Zurich three centuries later. But what was Zwingli’s intention in giving birth to those public lectures? Which models inspired him and how should his purposes be fleshed out in the classroom? The paper will address these questions by pointing to the essential connection that, according to the Zurich Reformers, linked together prophecy and grammar.
Peter Benka (Department of Slovak History, Faculty of Arts, Comenius University in Bratislava): Between Loyalty and Rebellion: Upper Hungarian Royal Towns in the 17th Century
Uprisings against Habsburg rulers represent an important part of the political and confessional developments of the Hungarian history in the 17th century. The rebellions were mostly led by members of aristocracy, and also among the participants nobility played a major role. Nevertheless, the royal towns of the region were – willingly or under the pressure of circumstances – often involved, too. The aim of the paper is to focus on the strategies that were developed in the royal towns in the process, both on the level of discourse as well as practical politics. On the one hand, the free royal towns were specifically bound to the Crown due to their legal status and their loyalty was thus expected. On the other hand, their Protestant (more specifically Lutheran) confession provided also common ground with the noble rebels. What were the legal, political, or theological arguments that were used to explain the town’s political stances – for or against the participation in the rebellion? How did the political decision-making look like? What were the procedures and institutions that were involved, both on the level of individual towns and the regional town association?
Trevor Brisbin (United Church of Canada): Radical Reformation as Rebellion: Two Anabaptists, Empire, and the Subversion of Religious Hegemony
Although the rise of Anabaptism in the 16th century began as a theological off-shoot of the Protestant Reformation, its belief structure evolved into a theologically grounded act of socio-political defiance. In this paper, I argue that Anabaptism, seen through the lens of Menno Simons (1496–1561) and Conrad Grebel (1498–1526), constituted an explicit rejection of the historical entanglement between religious institutions and state power. Through adult baptism and intentional nonviolence, Anabaptists disrupted prevailing structures of authority, challenged the coercive power of church-state alliances, and laid the foundations for a vision of egalitarian community. The first section of the paper provides a brief historical synopsis of Anabaptism’s emergence within the broader Reformation context, with a focus on Simons & Grebel. The second and most substantial section examines two key Anabaptist practices as political subversions. First, Grebel’s insistence on adult baptism as a voluntary act of faith directly challenged the prevailing system in which infant baptism served as a mechanism for state citizenship and church membership. His 1525 rebaptism of fellow believers in Zurich defied both Ulrich Zwingli and Swiss magistrates, marking it as an act of political rebellion as much as theological heresy. Second, Simons’ doctrine of Gelassenheit and nonviolence functioned as an explicit rejection of the coercive power structures governing Europe’s religious and civic institutions. Far from being a form of passive resignation, Simons’ commitment to peace represented active resistance to imperial domination. The final section situates Anabaptist resistance within a broader historical trajectory and considers its relevance for contemporary conversations. Here the aim is to illuminate how a 16th-century movement of religious rebellion continues to challenge modern conflations of power and faith.
Theo Brok (Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam): Crafting the History of Early Modern Dutch Anabaptism: The Legacy of Willem Kühler (1874-1946)
In historiography, Willem Kühler is often regarded as a biased historian. Nevertheless, his work was pioneering in providing its comprehensive and scholarly analysis of the (rebellious) origins and development of Anabaptism in the Netherlands. Kühler’s examination of Socinianism exemplifies his broader approach to the radical reform movements of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, emphasizing their theological innovations and their role in the wider context of religious dissent. The presentation aims to explore Kühler’s contributions and evaluate the impact of his work on subsequent scholarship. Although only occasionally cited today, Kühler’s work remains valuable for its influence on the evolving perceptions of Anabaptist history since the nineteenth century. It is often overlooked that Kühler, who was appointed as a professor at the Doopsgezind Seminary and later as a professor of church history at the University of Amsterdam shortly before World War I, was among the first historians of his generation who diverged from nineteenth-century perspectives. Like many of his contemporaries, Kühler recognized that the significance of past events is not inherent in the events themselves but is instead shaped by how later generations interpret them. This marks a historiographical shift that transformed the understanding and valuation of history and, more importantly, reflects a paradigmatic move away from an ‘ideological’ perspective in Anabaptist historiography.
Niels de Bruijn (KU Leuven): ‘Rebellious’ Thoughts on Usury in Early Modern Arminianism and Jansenism
In the early modern period changed commercial practices induced Christian theologians to conditionally allow lending at interest. In doing so, they ‘rebelled’ against the medieval Aristotelian view that money was sterile. This more lenient approach towards lending at interest is found across the entire early modern confessional divide. Yet, the arguments for adopting such leniency varied. Jesuits such as Molina (1535-1600) and Lessius (1554-1623) still heeded the Aristotelian framework. Calvin (1509-64), however, rejected not only the medieval Aristotelian theory of the sterility of money, but also aimed his arrows at the ‘scholastic’ invention of the risk of non-repayment as a sufficient title to charge a surplus above the principal loan; whether a charge of interest was licit depended on the fact whether loans were granted to the poor or to the rich. Less explored in the usury debate is the connection between the doctrines of salvation and lending at interest of Arminians and Jansenists and their effect, if any, on legal scholars adhering to these respective creeds. Arminian (1560-1609) and his followers adhered to a theory of salvation based on ideas which closely resembled the Jesuit Molina’s theory of middle knowledge. In this, they rebelled against mainstream protestant doctrine of salvation by faith alone. Did Arminian jurists (e.g. Grotius (1583-1645)), then also adopt the Jesuit theory on usury? A similar question can be posed for Jansenism. Rebelling against the mainstream doctrine of salvation of the Catholic Church, followers of Jansenius (1585-1638) leaned toward a Calvinist approach to salvation based exclusively on faith, not works. Did Jansenist jurists such as Pothier (1699-1772) then also adopt a Calvinist view on usury? In answering these questions, the paper explores to what extent ‘rebellious’ attitudes on the doctrinal plane influenced the views of the more practically oriented members of the Arminian and Jansenist confessions.
Benedikt Brunner (Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena): A Dangerous Man with a Dangerous Book? Melchior Hoffman and the Anabaptist Dominion of Münster
The furrier Melchior Hoffman (1495–1543), a radical lay preacher and reformer with close ties to the early anabaptist movement was seen by some of his contemporaries as a dangerous, rebellious man. Others saw him as an incarnation of the prophet Elijah, at least for some time. Hoffman was an apocalyptic thinker and a spiritualist exegete. My paper examines the ‘dangerous book’, his interpretation of the Revelation of 1530. It asks in particular what emotionalising and socially critical elements his interpretation contains. In conclusion, a new look will be taken at how this book had an impact in the context of the Anabaptist Dominion of Münster. The key question to be addressed is whether the classification as dangerous is justified in this context.
Benedikt Brunner (Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena): Christ in me. The Pastoral Dimension of Osiander’s Controversial Christology
For a long time, Andreas Osiander was the most important reformer and an undisputed leader in Nuremberg. Without making a fuss, he built up the Protestant Church in the imperial city of Nuremberg with great authority, and for a long time there was no doubt about his orthodoxy. When he had to move to Königsberg in the Duchy of Prussia after the Interim, he increasingly came under criticism due to his specific doctrine of justification. Central to this was his conviction that Christ should dwell in the heart of man. This then had certain ethical implications for one’s way of life. My paper asks whether this special theological doctrine also had pastoral objectives that have been neglected by previous research.
Priscilla Bucher (Aix-Marseille Université): Religious Reform or Political Coup? Rethinking the Confrontation between Mary of Guise and the Lords of the Congregation during the Scottish Reformation (1557-1560)
The rebellion led by the Lords of the Congregation in Scotland in 1559 and 1560 has been widely interpreted by historians as a primarily religious confrontation between Protestant lords and the Catholic regent Marie de Guise, ruling the kingdom on behalf of her absent daughter Mary Stuart. Inspired by the sermons of John Knox, the lords engaged in open conflict with the regent from 1559 onwards, taking several towns and ecclesiastical centres by storm and carrying out large-scale iconoclasm. Awaiting reinforcements, Marie de Guise took refuge in Edinburgh Castle, but her death in June 1560 marked the advent of Protestantism and the victory of the Lords of the Congregation. Scotland adopted the Presbyterian system and continental discipline as soon as the Scottish Reformation Parliament was established in August 1560, with the Book of Discipline being drawn up in 1561 and the Book of Common Order in 1562. However, this confrontation needs to be reconsidered, not only through the prism of religion, but also taking into account the underlying political issues. According to her, the rebellion intended to usurp her power as regent and depose her and her daughter. Marie de Guise’s greatest argument was the increased nationalism of the Scots, who wanted to break the Auld Alliance and move closer to England. Finally, the rise of reformist arguments in the 1550s brought into question the authority of the regent and the ability of a woman to govern a kingdom, especially if she was a foreigner and a Catholic. These concerns were voiced by reformers such as John Knox, and were quickly adopted by the Scottish nobility. This criticism of female power moved from denunciation and open revolt to the implementation of political and judicial means to openly organise the removal of the regent. The consecration of Protestantism was thus coupled with an absolute rejection of the female authority in place, with the de jure deposition of Marie de Guise in 1559.
Konrad Buzała (The Christian Theological Academy in Warsaw): Reformation and Counter-Reformation Origins of Modernity: Two Opposing Narratives in the Works of Brad S. Gregory and Richard H. Popkin
To what or to whom do we owe the advent of modernity? Given its complexity, this question is still hotly debated among historians, sociologists, and theologians. Moreover, modernity is often evaluated very differently, because depending on the worldview adopted, some willingly acknowledge it as desirable progress, while others readily see it as a rebellion against all that was good. The goal of the paper is to illustrate how conversely the story of the origins of modernity can be told, especially as the religious context comes into play. The author will create a space for an encounter between narratives held by two scholars, who try to answer the question of the roots of modernity. The first is the perspective of Brad S. Gregory, expressed in his book entitled “The Unintended Reformation: How a Religious Revolution Secularised Society”. He insists on the standpoint that it was the Reformation and revolutionary attitude of its adherents that unintentionally brought to our world problems such as the disappearance of a unifying metanarrative, extreme individualism and its attendant capitalist consumerism, the disenchantment of reality and, consequently, secularisation. The second, less popular approach is that of Richard H. Popkin, author of “The History of Scepticism: From Savonarola to Bayle” and other relevant publications. He presents a divergent point of view, according to which it was rather the Counter-Reformation, due to the scepticism promoted by its representatives, that was behind the causal sequence that ultimately led to the phenomena usually associated with modernity. The paper aims to give a fair account of the two narratives, to compare them carefully with each other, and to reflect critically on what we can learn today from Gregory’s and Popkin’s proposals.
Ian Campbell (Queen’s University Belfast): Jesuit versus Franciscan Understandings of Natural Law, Religion and Rebellion
Jesuit theologies of resistance to tyranny were notorious among Catholic and Protestant monarchs across early modern Europe. Historians have written extensively about the ways in which these Jesuit theologies of resistance, could, in the right time and place, be transformed into ideologies of political action. Consequently, the hostility and suspicion with which monarchs like James I of England felt towards these Jesuit theologies were well-grounded. Jesuit theologians, like Juan de Salas (1553-1612) also composed elaborate surveys and taxonomies of the kinds of natural law that were advanced by different Catholic traditions, from the Thomists and Scotists to those who followed Ockham. These Jesuit taxonomies of natural law are well-known thanks to the work of Annabel Brett and others. But Franciscan taxonomies of natural law, such as those composed by John Punch (1599/1604-1661) are much less well known. Was the Catholic tradition of natural law different when seen from a Franciscan perspective? What do these taxonomies tell us about the theorisation of early modern natural law? And did the different Jesuit and Franciscan theologies of natural law encourage the development of different ideologies of resistance? This paper will analyse the taxonomy of natural law offered by John Punch in his Commentarii Theologici, 4 vols. (Paris, 1661), and its connection to Franciscan ideologies of resistance.
Mei-Hsin Chen (University of Navarra): Martin Luther’s Stance on Religious Images: A Moderate Approach to Iconoclasm
This paper examines Martin Luther’s distinctive perspective on the use of religious images in comparison to that of other Protestant leaders. In contrast to contemporaries such as Andreas Karlstadt and John Calvin, who were vehemently opposed to the use of images in worship, Luther did not advocate for the violent destruction of these images (iconoclasm). He held the view that while the veneration of images was inappropriate, images themselves could be tolerated as long as they were not objects of worship. Luther’s perspective permitted the utilization of images as mnemonic devices to bolster preaching and personal devotion, thereby undermining the symbolic and cultic significance traditionally ascribed to religious art in Catholicism and Orthodoxy. This resulted in a change in the function of religious images, with a shift towards more secular and everyday themes in art. Luther’s indifference to images contributed to a fundamental transformation in religious art, with a shift in emphasis from visual representations to textual and verbal elements. The author of this paper underscores the stark contrast between Luther’s moderate stance on images and the vehement iconoclasm of Karlstadt, who regarded images as inherently detrimental and idolatrous, advocating for their complete eradication from places of worship. Luther, however, saw value in images for personal remembrance, aligning more closely with the practice of keeping family photographs rather than objects of veneration. This nuanced stance reflects Luther’s broader theological views, where the word and scripture held primacy over visual representations, fundamentally altering the role and perception of religious art in Protestantism. This shift also paralleled broader cultural changes brought about by the advent of the printing press, which emphasized the dissemination of text over image.
Maria Craciun (Babes-Bolyai): The Reformation of the Common Man: Confessional Diversity and Social Strife in Early Modern Transylvania
Starting from the analysis of events that have taken place in the town of Cluj in 1573, labelled as a ‘strike’ in the Romanian historiography written in the 1950s, this paper explores the ‘popular Reformation’ in early modern Transylvania by addressing the blending of the confessional and the social in the confessionalization strategies of the elites. Moreover, by attempting to unravel the appeal of evangelical discourses to the ‘common folk’, this paper aspires to a better understanding of popular appropriation of these ideas in urban context. As opposed to previous readings of the events, which focused on their spontaneous or staged nature, rivalries and ‘national’ antagonisms, this paper will argue in favour of complex and entangled causes, as master silversmiths from Sibiu refused to hire journeymen and to train apprentices from Cluj. While older literature placed the entire conflict under the label of ‘class struggle’, the current attempt to understand the matter will consider social and confessional disciplining, as depositions during the trial suggest that master artisans from Sibiu were wary of employing journeymen from Cluj for fear that they might spread ‘heretical’ ideas, no doubt referring to the fact that Cluj had become a mostly Antitrinitarian town. Based on depositions of witnesses who suggested that conflicts in the workshops were fueled by confessional debates, the paper will argue that the middling segment of urban society engaged with confessional discourses espoused in public space and with confessionalizing strategies forged by the urban elites, to the point of fine-tuning their own ‘political voice’. This will lead to a discussion of the confessional policies of the Lutheran Church which, after 1572 and the laws against innovation, vacillated between supporting Lutheran Orthodoxy or the alluring alternative of Crypto-Calvinism.
Ben Crosby (McGill University): Richard Hooker, Guy de Bres, and the Rhetoric of Anabaptist Violence in Elizabethan England
Although Anabaptism scarcely existed in England, the spectre of it played a significant role in polemical writing throughout the English Reformation. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, conformist divines sought to discredit their disciplinarian opponents by associating them with Anabaptists, and Anabaptists with violence — to which Puritan writers responded by vehemently rejecting the accusation. This paper explores the rhetorical construction of Anabaptist violence in one significant example of conformist writing: the preface of Richard Hooker’s Of the Lawes of Ecclesiasticall Politie. I will show how Hooker uses Guy de Bres’ La Racine, source et fondement des Anabaptistes to show the dire consequences of nonconformist argument by connecting it to Anabaptist disorder of the first half of the sixteenth century. I will argue that Hooker’s deployment of these anti-Anabaptist and anti-radical tropes demonstrates the continued rhetorical power of the examples of the Peasants’ War and Münster across space and time in sixteenth century Europe.
Sarah Killam Crosby (McGill University): To “study in the book of the crucifix”: Katherine Parr’s Theology of the Atonement in The Lamentation of a Sinner
Katherine Parr, the sixth and surviving wife of Henry VIII, has lately received scholarly attention for her likely composition of a collect in Cranmer’s Prayer Book. However, some other aspects of Parr’s theology, such as her doctrine of the work of Christ, remain largely unexplored. This paper examines Parr’s theology of the cross in her mature work, the Lamentation of a Sinner, and the way in which she uses it to buttress her presentation of the Reformation doctrine of justification by faith. I argue that, like other Protestant theologians such as Luther and Calvin, Parr did not adopt merely one atonement “model”. Rather, she uses several intertwined theological motifs to explicate the doctrine of redemption. These include an emphasis on the victory of Christ over sin, Satan, and death, Christ’s satisfaction-making work, and his deliverance of his people. These themes are interwoven with meditations on the crucifixion and discourses on the effects and applications of Christ’s work in order to support Parr’s iteration of the doctrine of justification by faith.
Sofia Degli Esposti (University of Pavia): Loyal Subjects or Rebels? England, the Huguenots, and Political Justification in the Wars of Religion
“They dyd helpe the kinge to chastise the rebelles, and the Queene your mistres dothe comforte his rebelles” affirmed the Duke of Guise, engaging Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, the English ambassador to France, about Elizabeth I’s support for the Huguenots in the first French War of Religion. Throckmorton replied: “I sayd, your majestie did repute them for no rebelles, but the kinge’s good subjected.” This exchange captures the diplomatic and political complexities surrounding the categorization of the Huguenots as rebels due to their religious and political stances. Indeed, Quentin Skinner identified the Protestant propaganda of the Wars of Religion as driven by a critical need for the Huguenots to dispel accusations of rebellion and to establish legal and propagandistic justifications for their actions (Skinner, 1978). England, intervening in the first French War of Religion similarly sought to frame its involvement as a defense of the French king’s loyal subjects rather than as support for insurrection. This paper thus analyzes England’s justification for supporting the Huguenots during the first War of Religion, examining, through a comparative approach, the use of legal and rhetorical strategies by England and French Huguenots to legitimize their actions. This will shed light on how England’s position in the Wars of Religion was shaped by a reinterpretation of rebellion and legitimacy offered by Huguenot propaganda which was rooted in the deeply connected discourses that followed the Amboise Conspiracy and the Scottish rebellion of the Lords of the Congregation, even if with some differences. It focuses in particular on how the English navigated the label of “rebel” imposed by the Guises, trying to disentangle the concepts of rebellion and religion and to avoid portraying the conflict as a religiously driven revolt.
Stefaniia Demchuk (Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv): Baroque as Rebellion: The Politics and Iconography of Status and Power in Early Seventeenth-century Ukraine
Treating the so-called Ukrainian Baroque as a style that corresponded with the political revival in Ukraine is commonplace. Moreover, some scholars identify it as a national style – an expression of a nation’s creative spirit – an idea that stems from the Hegelian paradigm of history. It is easy to arrive at such conclusions, as the figure of Ivan Mazepa, one of the greatest political leaders and patrons of art in Ukrainian history, is closely associated with the innovations introduced by Ukrainian Baroque. However, the unity of Ukrainian Baroque as a style disintegrates upon closer examination of its visual idioms. Rather than an imported style simply adapted to local needs and expectations, it reveals a complex coexistence of post-Byzantine Orthodox formulas with Renaissance elements, Mannerist forms, and anti-classical Baroque details. In my paper, I will examine how Ivan Mazepa and his entourage used various artistic forms (painting, engraving and architecture) as a tool for self-legitimation and self-promotion to explore how these practices came to be regarded as a rebellion against the Tsardom of Russia. I will also compare their visual strategies with those of their European peers to identify patterns and specific characteristics in the Ukrainian context.
Nicolò Di Dio (Italian Doctoral School of Religious Studies): The “Exhortation aux Princes” and the Struggle for Religious Pacification in France: the Rise of Civil Tolerance
The paper focuses on the birth of civil tolerance as a political strategy of pacification in the French religious wars during the XVI century. It belongs to my doctoral research on the history of tolerance in the modern age. Indeed, Tolerance gives an important perspective on the connection between religious and political power and enlighten secularization process as a strategy to neutralize internal conflict between parties. I choose to study the “Exhortation aux Princes” to deepened the particular situation of the French religious context. It is an anonymous speech delivered during the extraordinary états généraux in January 1561. It explains very well the political and social tension of the period, it shows the parties who were struggle for power (Romans, Lutherans and Humanists) and the link between the interest of the political and religious actors. My paper will follow this scheme: 1. Introduction to the historical and philosophical context (France in middle of the XVI century); 2. Analysis of the text; 3. Consequences. I think the “Exhortation aux Princes” is an interesting works for a different kind of reasons: 1. It is one of the first tolerance speech and anticipate the subsequent production of paper and codex in favour of tolerance; 2. It contains the archetypical characteristics of the future tolerance works: biblical exempla, important episodes of the past, importance of religion in the society, primacy of the mono-confessional model of devotion, proposal of a compromise as last solution for peace; 3. It provides an overall picture on the different factions and events of the period; 4. It is one of the first speech that introduce the passage between religious tolerance to civil tolerance.
Sonam Dickey (University of Mysore): Silent Resistance: Buddhist Nonviolent Rebellion and Monastic Dissent Against Political and Religious Authority
Rebellion is often associated with conflict and confrontation, but within Buddhist traditions, resistance has frequently taken a different form—one rooted in nonviolence, self-discipline, and spiritual defiance. This paper examines how Buddhist communities, particularly monastic orders, have historically engaged in rebellion not through force, but through ethical dissent, civil disobedience, and inner transformation.
Damian Domke (University of Heidelberg, History Department): Against Adversaries, Tyrants and the Antichrist. Amandus Polanus (1561-1610), his Political Calvinism and the Uprising in Opava at the Beginning of the 17th Century
Amandus Polanus von Polansdorf (1561-1610) has rightly been recognised by scholars as the “most important mediator between the centres of Western European Calvinism and the Bohemian lands”. As a Calvinist theologian, he developed a theology of the state and dealt with questions of resistance to state power. In my paper, I will pursue the following questions: 1) How exactly was Polanus’ Calvinist doctrine of the state shaped? 2) In which cases did he allow resistance and how did he justify it? I will then show how Polanus tried to influence the uprising in Opava – his home town – in 1602 with his theology. In Opava, Cardinal Franz von Dietrichstein had deprived the local Protestants of their church, which triggered fierce resistance on the part of the Protestants, who were ultimately punished with imperial ostracism in 1607. The events in Opava are part of the Habsburgs’ harsh process of re-Catholicisation in the Bohemian lands and are on a par with the events in Klostergrab and Braunau on the eve of the Thirty Years’ War. My paper is therefore also an attempt to show which direct influences of theologians can be proven to have contributed to fuelling social tension at the beginning of the 17th century.
Colin Donnelly (Virginia Theological Seminary): Rebellion and Radicalism in Early English Evangelical Theology
The English Reformation is widely regarded as among the most centralized of any that occurred in Europe, and royal authority in religion is foundational to the English church it produced. Later English Protestant ‘radicals’ are therefore viewed as deviating from a ‘magisterial’ norm. However, the earliest English evangelicals of the 1520s and early 1530s were political radicals whose critiques of the existing church applied equally to any human being claiming the power to dictate belief to Christian consciences, including that of the monarch. They experimented with notions of (limited) freedom of religious belief, spiritual baptism ungoverned by the external structures of church or state, and religious authority radically decentralized to each believer. The English Reformation therefore has its roots in religiously motivated rebellion. At the core of early English evangelicalism was the notion that conflating human and divine laws was idolatrous, and therefore many of the core practices that had come to characterize late medieval Christianity (such as Eucharistic devotions, prayer to saints, Purgatory, the performance of fixed penances) not only lacked foundation, but were actively blasphemous, because they treated mere human traditions as if they were divine commandments. Attacking these traditions necessarily, therefore, entailed attacking the legitimacy of the authorities which had established them, and the critiques made of ecclesiastical authorities applied equally to concepts like the royal supremacy. In seeking to detach convenient doctrines from this package without accepting its political radicalism, Henry VIII and his ministers established a church with a contradiction at its core. Later religious skeptics of royal authority in religion did not, therefore, deviate from a royalist norm, but rather reflected a fundamental aspect of English evangelical thought, with origins in the very earliest days of the English Reformation.
Aneke Dornbusch (Universität Bonn): A Female Revolt in Augsburg? The Curious Case of Katharina Vöglin
In the “Literaliensammlung” of the Augsburg city archive, there is a bundle of letters and witness accounts related to an incident that occurred in the Church of St. George in June 1527 during a Protestant service. A group of women, all maids to Catholic clergymen, were reported to have disrupted the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, insulting both the congregation and the ceremony itself, and handling the Eucharistic wafer inappropriately. The documents reveal that a thorough investigation was conducted, culminating in the expulsion of one of the main suspects: Katharina Vöglin, a maid to the Auxiliary Bishop of Augsburg. Among the records are two letters written (or dictated) by Katharina, shedding light on her fate following her expulsion. These unique documents offer a rare glimpse into the experiences of female convicts and the societal challenges they faced. The incident is as fascinating as it is perplexing and has never been fully analysed. Are the witness accounts reliable, despite contradictions with Katharina’s own narrative? What motivated these women, as well as their accusers? Should the event be understood as a reflection of the religious conflicts of the time – given that it took place in a recently “evangelised” chapel within a Catholic church – or does it suggest a distinct form of “feminine” Catholic revolt? Furthermore, what can the treatment of Katharina Vöglin reveal about the role of women in Augsburg’s society and religious life during the early modern period? This paper aims to reconstruct the incident using the “Vöglin” file and supplementary material from the Augsburg city archive, including city council protocols. It will contextualise these findings by examining the religious landscape of Augsburg at the time, local “anti-clerical” revolts as a form of action during the Reformation and the societal roles of women in this period.
Marek Druga (Institute of History of Slovak Academy of Sciences): The Waldensian Campaign against the Saints. On One aspect of Waldensian Theology and Preaching at the Turn of the 14th-15th Centuries
The paper deals with one of the important aspects of the Waldensian resistance against the traditional theology and beliefs of the Roman Church – the rejection of veneration of the saints. From the 1170s onwards, Waldensian criticism affected a wide range of articles of faith and norms, linked to ecclesiastical structures, beliefs and practices. One of the essential points of Waldensian theology and preaching was a set of related themes rejecting the postmortem possibility of forgiveness of sins. In this corpus of theological issues may be included the rejection of the existence of purgatory or purgatorial fire, prayers for the dead, indulgences, and reverence for the saints. The paper briefly presents the reasons and genesis of the Waldensian negation of the intercessions of the saints, so significant for the Catholic Church. The essence of the paper, however, is an analysis of sources – anti-Waldensians treatises and fragments of Inquisition records – from the end of the 14th and the beginning of the 15th century, with special attention to the sources connected with the Inquisition of Peter Zwicker and Martin of Amberg, especially treatises Cum dormirent homines, Errores hereticorum Valdensium and some related texts. The paper develops reflections on the causality between the increasing importance of the Catholic narrative of the intercession of saints for sinners in life and after death (in purgatory), and the importance of the rejection of prayer to saints by Waldensian preachers in the late Middle Ages. The article attempts to place the particular theological problem of veneration to the Blessed Virgin Mary and other saints in the broader historical and religious context of a time in which not only the late medieval Waldensians, but also other religious communities and personalities representing the emergence of new reform movements, were turning against Church doctrines and beliefs.
Ruth Ferris and Deirdre Raftery (University College Dublin): Soldiers of Christ and ‘Galloping Girls’: Rebellion, Conformity and Early Modern Influences on Institutes of Women Religious (Nuns) in the 18th and Early 19th Centuries
This paper aims to explore how some early modern influences were threaded through the daily lives of women religious (nuns) in late eighteenth and early the nineteenth century. On the one hand, training in the convent novitiate prepared women religious to take a vow of obedience; on the other hand, their daily readings – including the lives of the saints – encouraged them to display courage, and to take up the ‘blade for the splendid cause’: the salvation of souls. Nuns were given the name of a saint when they were professed, linking them symbolically and spiritually with the virtues of that saint. The ideals of soldierly action of St Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556) for example, was to be internalised by novices and nuns. Eventually, as teaching sisters or nurses, these women would enter the ‘battlefield’ on which they would fight to save souls. The paper focuses specifically on the significance, for novices and nuns, of studying their religious Rule and Constitutions. The Rule of St Ignatius, as adapted for two institutes of women religious (the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the Religious Sisters of Charity), is discussed in this paper, to consider how it was interpreted by nuns who were viewed, variously, as either ‘soldiers of Christ’ or rebels (‘galloping girls’ / ‘walking nuns’). The adoption of the Ignatian model by Mary Ward (1585–1645) when she founded the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1609, would continue to influence the ministry and lives of other congregations for women, including those founded in the early nineteenth century (eg. Loreto Sisters and the Irish Sisters of Charity). Though Ward was, at one point, condemned by Rome as a rebel and heretic, her model of religious life would attract other institutes and congregations, members of which had to learn to walk a fine line between rebellion and conformity, within the institutional Catholic Church.
Erik Sporon Fiedler (University of Copenhagen): Rebelling against the Care for the Sick and the Poor? The Case of the Monte di Pietà in Light of the Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was amongst other things a rebellion against the many social arrangements and institutions under the auspices of the Catholic Church that provided care and relief to the poor and those in need. Luther’s accusations against the allegedly sham sanctity of monastic orders and confraternities thus also challenged the “welfare system” of the Catholic world. However, in practice, there was not just change but also continuity and adaptation. As a prism onto this problem-field, the paper situates the discussion of institutional and ideational transformation, in a small investigation and reflection on the example of the Italian institutional pawnbroker Monte di Pietà and its transposition north of the Alps. The Monte di Pietà was closely related to the mendicant order of the Franciscans, but adapted to the wider religious, social, economic, and political framework of the cities in which it was established and became administered by local confraternities. In the German territories of the Holy Roman Empire only two pawnbrokers modeled after the Italian example was set up. One in Augsburg (1603) and one in Nürnberg (1618). Functioning as municipal lending institutions, the Pfand- und Leihhäuser of Augsburg and Nürnberg were explicitly constructed after the Italian model (Skambraks 2023, 2024). Apparently in demand, it is worth asking why these institutions did not spread easily north of the Alps? One answer could be that the religious differences between areas embracing Protestantism, and the connection of the Monte di Pietà to the Catholic Church proved a real hindrance. However, both Nürnberg and Augsburg adopted the Reformation. Nürnberg in 1525 and Augsburg (at least for a while) in 1537. By using the cases of the Pfand- und Leihhäuser of Augsburg and Nürnberg as a prism the paper examines and discusses how ideas and spaces of the Catholic Church became contested, repurposed and reused after the Reformation.
Hanna Filipova (University of Gothenburg) | Erik Zitser (Duke University): “Bacchus’ Ecclesiastical State”: Offensive Political Humor and the Formation of Peter the Great’s Counter-Court
On the basis of the contemporary accounts of early-18th-century Russian royal misrule, this presentation seeks to analyze how Peter the Great used offensive political humor to create an alternative community in opposition to the prevailing power structures at the late Muscovite court. The focus of this political analysis of elite festive culture during the Russian Baroque is the mock religious ceremonies and processions organized on the grounds of the suburban royal estate of Novo-Preobrazhenskoe (New Transfiguration) by an informal group of courtiers who supported the tsar’s supposedly divinely ordained mission to “transfigure” his realm as he saw fit. Under the guise of socially acceptable seasonal play, the organizers of these sacred parodies created an alternative community of laughter that subverted and challenged the authority of the prominent individuals, groups, and institutions based in the Russian capital, especially the Orthodox Church hierarchy that legitimized royal authority and underwrote notions of proper behavior. The Muscovite political elite’s commonly shared belief in honor, piety, and decorum partly explains the royalist party’s use of religious blasphemy and sexual humiliation as mechanisms for establishing in-group and out-group solidarity. By managing affects and mobilizing loyalties, the ceremonies of “Bacchus’ Ecclesiastical State” helped Peter to cultivate interpersonal trust, cement his political base, and enact a charismatic scenario of power that discursively positioned him as the sole, and politically unquestioned source of all strategic decision-making in Muscovy.
Cristina Fontcuberta (Universitat de Barcelona): Image, Religion and Rebellion. Use and Absence of Combative Art in Early Modern Catalonia
The essential role of art in the confessional conflicts of modern Europe is well known. The propagandistic nature of these images and their critical function against opponents has been extensively studied. However, compared to the great diffusion of the combative graphic world in Germanic and Central European territories, in the south of the continent this theme did not have the same presence. The reasons for this visual gap are diverse, but they are related to the royal and ecclesiastical control of the images and to a lesser rooting of the new Christian confessions. In this context, and delving into the Hispanic world, the works of art did not represent the satire of the opponents from the rebellion, but personified the triumph from power over dissent. So, for example, some works promoted by the royal court showed the rebels in an ignominious way, as it appears in an engraving that illustrates the heroic poem for Felipe IV Sevilla restaurada (1632). At a time when the Hispanic Monarchy had established itself as the defender of Catholicism, these visual attacks were aimed at those who questioned Catholic and political hegemony. Not only were Muslims and Protestants despised, but also the territories raised in the rebellions of the 1640s. One of these regions was the Principality of Catalonia, in which part of the population aligned with the French army and promulgated the separation of the Spanish monarchy in the so-called “War of the Reapers”, in which they accused each other of infidels. Again, no combative images are preserved, as was the case in other latitudes. Otherwise, the local saints did become the guardians of these struggles and their images were linked to war discourses. On the other hand, the growing importance of religious orders such as the Jesuits caused confrontations with civil power and these disputes can be partially traced in some images. In this communication we want to give an account of some iconographies in Catalan territory.
Monika Frazer-Imregh (Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Hungary): Rebellion Against Late Scholastic Philosophy – Ficino’s Return to Augustine and Neoplatonic Arguments for the Immortality of the Soul. Panel: Rebels or Innovators? Thinkers in Early Modern Christianity
The intellectual currents of the second half of the Quattrocento were characterized by a seething, belligerent atmosphere in which (for over a century then) everyone fought against everyone else. In this continuous philosophical-theological battle, a new ideological trend, humanism, emerges, the center of which – following ancient models – is man, whose dignity given by God seemed to be lost in the final, declining era of scholasticism. Medieval metaphysics, which combined the natural philosophy of Aristotle with Christian theology, was strongly attacked from two directions: the politically oriented Averroism of Marsilio da Padova (c. 1280–1343) and the nominalism of William of Ockham of Oxford (c. 1280–1349). The denial of Augustinian principles did not only occur at the political level, but also targeted medieval Christian theology. The naturalism of the Averroists, on the one hand, and the physicalism of the Ockhamists, on the other, worked in the same direction: both led to the devaluation of medieval metaphysics, which intertwined physics and theology. The Averroists’ tool for this is not dialectics, which examines nature, but rather dissects Aristotle’s texts; the Ockhamists’ tool is a spectacular parade of definitions. Marsilio Ficino, the father of Renaissance Neoplatonism, was the first in Christian philosophy to reject these late scholastic methods. His most significant work on religious philosophy is the eighteen-book Theologia platonica, which he began writing in 1469 and completed in 1474. The work is subtitled De immortalitate animorum (On the Immortality of the Soul), which both alludes to Proclus’ work of the same title and contradicts Averroes’ thesis that the human soul itself disintegrates at death. To prove this, he also calls upon the works of the early Christian church fathers, including Eusebius and Augustine, whose work with a similar title (De immortalitate animorum) he also used. In my lecture, I intend to show how, in chapters 5, 6, and 7 of Book XII, Ficino uses Augustine’s arguments to justify his own thesis regarding the immortality of the soul.
Emma Gabor: Healers or Heretics? Witchcraft and Christianity in Early Modern Europe
The early modern period represented the zenith of witchcraft and witchcraft persecutions in Europe, realities which were results of societal, political, as well as religious struggles. On the one hand, there existed strong, distinct hierarchies of magic, such as the difference between witchcraft and sorcery, pointing to social tensions between higher and lower forms of knowledge, reflecting religious and political orders and respective social classes. On the other hand, important magical practices were intrinsically utilized by women, such as midwives and folk healers; their positions were often targeted with accusations of witchcraft, as they represented a threat to the patriarchal norms of the time. Indeed, women’s roles in healing and childbirth were vital, and were seen as a threat by authorities seeking ultimate control over spiritual and social order. This was exemplified by literature such as the Malleus Maleficarum, pushing for campaigns of repression against alleged witches across Europe, or alternatively the myth of the Sabbat, both of which demonized the witch’s image and caused the masses to turn on their own neighbours. Therefore, this paper explores how early modern witchcraft was both tied into and offered an alternative to religion, and represented a rebellious act against societal constraints. Furthermore, we will understand how magic was deeply embedded into local cultures across Europe, and how much of its roots lay in Christian rituals and practices, such as in spells or herbal medicine. In conclusion, this paper looks to comprehend the intersections between magic, gender, and religious rebellion, placing witchcraft as both a threat and a foundation of Christian collective identities in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in Europe.
Giovanni Gellera (University of Geneva): Between Rebellion and Continuity: the Case of John Mair and His ‘Network’ (c.1500-1530)
Before it was a political and social rebellion, the Reformation was an intellectual and spiritual rebellion. The reformers and humanists promoted the idea that they were breaking with tradition and setting European culture on a new path. This narrative has become the main framework for interpreting the Reformation period, but it has also led to distorted perceptions of certain aspects and figures, which recent research has begun to assess in their own right. This paper draws attention to an understudied case of the complexities of intellectual ‘rebellion’ at the dawn of the Reformation: the Scots John Mair (c.1467-1550) and his remarkable network of students. Active in Paris and Scotland from about 1500 to 1530, Mair was himself a man of the old system, but his teaching influenced thinkers who had a major impact on the Reformation, such as John Calvin and John Knox, and more generally on the many reforms of the sixteenth century, such as Juan Luis Vives, Francisco de Vitoria and Ignatius of Loyola.Mair’s students departed from tradition in their own ways, but a new focus on their common education allows for a more precise examination of the starting point of their intellectual trajectories. The paper will show that they were marked by an interplay of ‘rebellion’ and ‘continuity’. In addition to the much-discussed rejection of the scholastic method, the middle way between realists and nominalists that dominated late medieval scholasticism, of which Mair was a leading proponent, was seen as inadequate to respond to the new cultural and spiritual demands of defining and demarcating confessional identities. However, the rebellion did not take place in a vacuum; Mair’s students retained and reformulated key aspects of their education such as positive theology, the ‘moral turn’ in theology and the moderate use of rationality in matters of faith.
Marco Giardini (independent scholar): (Pseudo-)Joachim and the Call to Church Reform in Germany: Different Appropriations of Joachimite Propheticism at the Beginning of the Reformation
With the first printed edition of works written by Joachim of Fiore or attributed to him in the first quarter of the 16th century, the popularity of the Calabrian abbot increased across Europe. At the beginning of the Reformation in Germany, in particular, many Catholic and Lutheran authors alike turned their attention to the Joachimite and pseudo-Joachimite prophetic production, which could provide a powerful support for speculation on Church reform within an eschatological context. The paper intends to compare three different approaches to the prophetic material at time attributed to Joachim of Fiore, but in reality produced by late-medieval groups (in particular Spiritual Franciscans) which drew their prophetic inspiration from the authentic writings of Joachim. For this purpose, two sources will be taken into consideration: on the one hand, the Onus Ecclesiae Flugschrift, published in 1524 and attributed to Berthold von Pürstinger, largely inspired by Ubertin of Casale’s end-times periodizations, merged with other fourteenth-century prophetic material which originally re-elaborated Spiritual Franciscan expectations on Church reform; on the other hand, Andreas Osiander’s edition of the Vaticinia de summis pontificibus, appeared in 1527 and titled Eyne wunderliche Weyssagung, which likely represented the first comprehensive appropriation of Joachimite material from a Lutheran perspective. These sources will be finally compared with Thomas Müntzer’s 1523 positive assessment of another pseudo-Joachimite work, the Super Hieremiam commentary, with which the radical reformer expressed his general agreement. Through this comparison, the paper intends to shed light on the sixteenth-century reception of (pseudo-)Joachim in German-speaking areas and its impact in shaping different strands of Church reform within the multifaceted confessional landscape originated at the beginning of the Reformation.
Anja Goeing (Universität Zürich, Institut für Schweizerische Reformationsgeschichte): Agents of Practice: Students and Networks at the Schola Tigurina in the 16th Century
This paper examines the pivotal role of students at the Schola Tigurina in transforming Zurich into an intellectual and cultural nexus of Reformed Europe. Moving beyond the institution’s well-documented theological and academic achievements, it highlights the active participation of students as carriers and disseminators of scholarly methods. Through their studies and networks, they facilitated the integration of academic practices into the social fabric of Zurich, influencing fields as diverse as municipal administration and artisanal trades. Special attention is given to the emergence of “vernacular humanism,” where traditional professions merged with learned methodologies, fostering an academic culture that resonated across both elite and popular spheres. By analyzing case studies and archival materials, this paper reveals how the interplay between academic training and broader cultural practices at the Schola Tigurina created a distinct intellectual identity for Zurich, one that balanced local traditions with European scholarly innovations.
Aza Goudriaan (ETF Leuven | Protestant Theological University, Utrecht): Gisbertus Voetius and Scholastic Views of Ignorance and Sin
In the Summa theologiae, Thomas Aquinas described the effects of original sin as four “wounds” afflicted upon human nature, i.e. on intellect, will, the irascible appetite and the concupiscible appetite. The wound of the intellect consisted in not knowing the truth, i.e. in ignorance. The damage done by original sin was aggravated by actual sins that obscured human reason (I/II, q. 85, art. 3). In a 1636 disputation on original sin, the Reformed theologian Gisbertus Voetius (1589-1676) cited approvingly the Jesuit Martin Becanus who cited these four wounds mentioned by Thomas, claiming that this was in fact the “common opinion of Catholics and Calvinists (communis sententia Catholicorum et Caluinistarum).” How far the shared conviction went is not entirely clear however. Ignorance was the topic of several university disputations written by Voetius and defended by his students in Utrecht in 1655: three disputations on ignorance, two others on “learned ignorance.” When in this context answering the question “whether ignorance is a sin and by itself cause of sin?,” Voetius seemed to distance himself from the scholastics who, in line with Thomas (S. Theol. I/II, q. 76, art. 1), he writes, tended to give a negative answer. Considering that Voetius in another context criticized Roman Catholic theologians for defending the ignorance that was inherent in “implicit faith,” this paper raises the question whether Voetius’s interactions with scholastic theologians (both medieval and contemporary) show, in comparison, a greater inclination to associate ignorance with sin and, by implication, a stronger impetus to overcome ignorance and pursue knowledge.
Jake Griesel (George Whitefield College, Cape Town): John Pearson’s defence of prayer book and King in Parliamentarian Cambridge amidst the early English Civil War (1643)
John Pearson (1613–86) was the master of Trinity College and Lady Margaret’s Professor of Divinity at Cambridge after the Restoration, before becoming bishop of Chester. Universally regarded as one of the pre-eminent theologians of the post-Restoration Church of England, Pearson was particularly known for his Exposition of the Creed (first edition 1659), which served as the standard Anglican theological textbook right up to the late nineteenth century. Long before these accolades, however, in the late spring of 1643, amidst the fury of the English Civil War, the firm royalist episcopalian Pearson preached before the University of Cambridge a strikingly anti-puritan sermon, in a city then in Parliamentarian (and thus puritan) hands. With the Westminster Assembly set to commence mere weeks into the future (with its known intentions of replacing the Book of Common Prayer with a Directory of Worship), Pearson delivered before the university a daring vindication of the prayer book while simultaneously denouncing King Charles I’s enemies. This paper will consider this sermon in its context.
Dario Gurashi: Dissimulandi nescius: Agrippa and Nicodemism. Panel: Rebels or Innovators? Thinkers in Early Modern Christianity
Despite the century-long disrepute as a sorcerer and a primae classis hereticus, Agrippa von Nettesheim was, in fact, a Renaissance humanist with a profound theological vocation. His commitment to the revitalisation of Christendom, informed by the teachings of Erasmus of Rotterdam and Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples, was underpinned by a combative concept of culture based on two key elements: the extraordinary qualities of the human mind and the belief in magic, which he reframed as divine transformative wisdom. Nevertheless, scholarly criticism has identified inconsistencies in Agrippa’s religious vision, particularly in relation to his assessment of the Protestant Reformation. This has prompted scholars to focus on the contradictory statements within Agrippa’s correspondence, which would portray him as a master of dissimulation. This paper challenges the framing of Agrippa’s confessional positioning within the context of Nicodemism. It discusses his evaluation of Luther’s theological contribution and re-asserts the subversive message of his religious magic.
Phillip Haberkern (Boston University): From Movement to Church: Bohemian Reflections on Ending a Revolution
In her fascinating book On Revolution, the political philosopher Hannah Arendt noted that one of the great obstacles to successful revolutions was their capacity to put a limit on change. Put another way, how could leaders of revolutionary movements break the cycle of constantly overturning what they had just created? Certainly, the French Revolution never succeeded in answering this question, and many other efforts to recreate social, political, and religious regimes have similarly foundered. Arendt argued that the most successful revolutions managed to create institutions that consolidated the radical gains they had made, but also built in the means for further (if limited) change. This paper will explore the applicability of Arendt’s insights about revolution by examining the establishment of the Utraquist church in Bohemia in the wake of the Hussite Revolution (c. 1435-1436). Specifically, it will examine how the leaders of this church sought to establish their ties to the Hussites’ revolutionary achievements while also constructing frameworks for toleration or further theological evolution. In doing so, this paper will both push back against traditional historiographical arguments that see the Utraquists’ negotiations with the Council of Basel as a tragic surrender of Hussite ideals and explore the ways in which the transition from the revolutionary Hussite movement to the established Utraquist church may have served as a template for sixteenth-century reformers, propagandists, and their political patrons.
Joar Haga (VID Specialized University): Ecclesial Communication during the Great Nordic War (1700-1721)
The great Nordic war (1700-1721) involved two Lutheran kingdoms, among others, fighting over the supremacy in the north. Among other things, military expenses were many times higher than at the beginning of the seventeenth century. How was the war – particularly the financial burden that the war effort implied – justified? As absolute monarchs “of God’s grace”, both Sweden and Denmark-Norway could expect support from the churches. For Sweden, the centennial of the 1593 Uppsala Assembly in 1693 provided the opportunity to frame the country as a “Zion in the North”. Bishop Haquin Spegel wrote poems about the king as the leader of God’s chosen people. Sermons were held with the same intention. In Denmark’s case, the king was the head “from the highest to the lowest” in the church, and king Frederick 4. (r.1699-1730) let himself be praised as the king of Israel. In sermons, prayer days and thanksgiving services supported this message. The contribution attempts to compare the Swedish and Danish constructions of the emerging nation-states as “the king and his people” during this war. A specific interest will be the use of the confessional element.
Endre Ádám Hamvas (HUN-REN RCH, Moravcsik Gyula Institute; Department for Medical Communication and Translation Studies Albert Szent-Györgyi Medical School University of Szeged): Hannibal Rosseli’s Pymander: the Corpus Hermeticum and the Catholic Revival. Panel: Rebels or Innovators? Thinkers in Early Modern Christianity
During the early modern era, the newly discovered Hermetic writings, particularly the Corpus Hermeticum, played a key role in some religious reform attempts. Marsilio Ficino, the translator of the Latin texts, had already heavily Christianized the Corpus Hermeticum, also known as Pymander. Lodovico Lazzarelli’s Crater Hermetis is another famous example of efforts to provide a Christian interpretation of the Hermetic writings. Less well known is that certain clergy members, like the Franciscan Francesco Zorzi and Hannibal Rosseli (1525–1593), also engaged with the Hermetic corpus. Rosseli, who lived and worked as an acclaimed scholar and preacher in Krakow for a significantly long time, wrote a multivolume commentary on the first part of the Corpus Hermeticum, producing an extensive Catholic theological work that used Hermetic texts as a foundation for theological argumentation. Interestingly, the final volume was released by a different publisher and under a different title than the earlier ones, possibly due to concerns about heresy. In this presentation, I will briefly discuss the importance of Rosseli’s work, contextualize it within the intellectual and religious climate of the period, explore its potential links to Zorzi’s De Harmonia mundi, and analyze how Pymander relates to Catholic counterreformation and religious revival. Finally, I will attempt to explain why the work might be considered threatening to the Catholic faith.
Sabine Hiebsch (Theologische Universiteit Utrecht): Aggressions against Lutheran Congregations in the Dutch Republic
In the Dutch Republic, the Lutherans were one of the tolerated religious minorities. They had to function under non-Lutheran authorities and opposite the Reformed Church that had the role of the public church, with the most privileges, financial support, and visibility. By 1700, 41 Lutheran congregations had emerged. They were exposed to various forms of aggressions, particularly in their start-up periods, but also in later years. These aggressions were directed, for example, against the pastors, against the religious gatherings, and against the church building activities. In my paper I will analyze a few case studies from various regions of the Republic to show who the aggressors were, and to discuss the strategies the Lutheran congregations developed to deal with these aggressions in order to survive and prosper as religious minority.
Bernhard Holl (University of Potsdam): Defeated, yet Victorious: the Toledo Rebellion of 1449 and the Lasting Effects of its Pure-Blood Agenda
The Toledo rebellion of 1449 saw the first attempt in Castilian history to legislate directly against Jewish converts to Christianity: so-called “limpieza de sangre” (purity of blood) was required of anyone holding office or dignity. Although the rebellion was crushed within a year, anti-Jewish and anti-convert sentiment survived and grew in strength. Theologians and jurists repeatedly argued that no distinction should be made between so-called Old and New Christians, but despite royal and papal decrees to the same effect, the pure-blood ideology prevailed. As early as the turn of the fifteenth century, an increasing number of cathedral chapters, monasteries, university colleges and other institutions began to adopt formal statutes of “limpieza de sangre”. How could a sentiment that was so alien to the missionary spirit of Christianity take hold in a society that was founded on the same religious principles? How could a doctrine tantamount to heresy become, over time, a social paradigm sanctioned by the Church and the Crown? In this brief presentation, I will explore the motivations and strategies of Old Christian vanguard that ultimately succeeded in establishing an exclusive, hereditary understanding of Christian identity previously unthinkable.
Andrew Hope (University of Oxford): Echoes of the Oldcastle Revolt in the N-Town Plays: Jesus as Heretic and Traitor
The revolt led by Sir John Oldcastle in 1414 against Henry V. drew much of its inspiration and support from the ideas and personnel of Lollardy, yet it had revolutionary political aims and was indubitably treasonous. As a result those convicted of participation in it suffered penalties associated both with treason and with heresy. In the medieval cycle of plays known as the N-town plays, probably written a few decades after the revolt and designed to be played in various different towns, Jesus is unusually, and perhaps uniquely, condemned to suffer the penalties of both treason and heresy. It was normal for such plays to be presented as occurring in a contemporary setting, with contemporary officials and institutions. This paper will look at the implications of Jesus being associated with what would have been seen as a supremely malevolent movement in a dramatic presentation which was, as far as it is possible to tell, orthodox in design and intention.
Mark Hutchinson (University of Gloucestershire): Christian Political Action and Conceptions of Estate in German and English Exchanges over the Crisis in the Palatinate, c. 1618-1624
When, in 1619, Frederick V of the Palatinate accepted the crown of Bohemia, he justified his action, which challenged the authority of the Emperor Ferdinand II and precipitated the Thirty Years’ War, by the need to uphold the public order, rights and responsibilities connected to the estates of the empire. Political action concerned the maintenance of the Christian moral and ethical order as embodied by the different Stände. An English reading of estate was more ambivalent, often referring to the contingent condition, standing or estate of a particular group. In English pamphlet translations and wider letter exchanges, the actions of Frederick and his associates were often recast by English protestants in terms of a reason of state analysis, which advised reason of state calculations aimed at destabilizing the estate or standing of those who opposed the Palatinate. In this respect, the paper suggests that different German and English conceptions of estate fed into two different views of acceptable Christian political action.
Gábor Ittzés (Debrecen Reformed Theological University): The Death of Frederick the Wise and the Birth of the Lutheran Funeral Sermon
Elector Frederick the Wise of Saxony, an “Oscar winning” actor in a supporting role in the drama of the Reformation, died five hundred years ago in May 1525. After briefly reviewing the broader context and Frederick’s life, I will largely focus on his last days at Lochau and his funeral in Wittenberg. Using contemporary sources such as Georg Spalatin’s biography of the Elector, I will reconstruct his final hours and review the preparations for his burial in the Castle Church in Wittenberg. I will discuss the questions that confronted the organisers, consider the options, and summarise the ritual and liturgical choices made. The funeral itself was a twofold event, spread out over two days. Both liturgies featured a sermon by Martin Luther on a key resurrection passage of the New Testament (1Thessalonians 4:13–18). I will discuss these orations, including their instructive differences, with a short outlook on their effective history. The funeral sermon developed into a major homiletic genre by the middle of the sixteenth century and flourished for another two hundred years, especially among Lutherans. The Reformer’s speeches over the corpse of Frederick the Wise are the first recorded instances of the emerging new genre and are considered foundational to it. Luther’s sermons thus have a significance beyond their immediate historical context. — Research for this paper was supported by Debrecen Reformed Theological University.
Maria Luísa Jacquinet (Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa): Echoes of the Reformation in the Catholic Refugee Communities in the 16th and 17th Centuries Portugal: a Case Study
This communication examines the spread of Protestant Reformed ideas during the period of the Wars of Religion (sixteenth and seventeenth centuries) in Portugal through a compelling case study: the trial of António de São Patrício, an Irish Dominican accused of Protestantism by the Inquisition. What makes this case particularly intriguing is that Friar António was part, as a theology student, of a community specifically established to shelter Catholic refugees, the Convent of Corpo Santo in Lisbon. Through analyzing this case and its broader context, the study investigates both the mechanisms of doctrinal porosity and the specific response of the Inquisition within its complex institutional framework. Moreover, this research contributes to an emerging historiographical consensus that challenges traditional views of Portugal’s impermeability to Erasmian and Protestant influences, despite the period’s robust mechanisms of social control and discipline.
Leonhard Jungwirth (Evangelisch-Theologische Fakultät der Universität Wien): The Reception of the Peasantsʼ Wars in Austrian Protestantism
The Peasants’ Wars of 1525 and 1626 played a significant role in Austrian Protestant memorial culture. Over the centuries, they have been interpreted and instrumentalized in various ways, albeit with substantial differences. The Upper Austrian Peasants’ War of 1626, perceived as a defensive struggle against the Counter-Reformation, was positively integrated into the identity formation of the Protestant minority. In contrast, the Peasants’ War of 1525 remained intentionally marginalized for a long time due to its transformative character. The interpretation of both uprisings was heavily influenced by shifting political, social, and ecclesiastical contexts. In particular, the Upper Austrian Peasants’ War developed into a veritable popular myth over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries. Against this backdrop, Protestant remembrance of “1626” served to construct a distinct and explicitly Protestant victim narrative, portraying Protestantism as a suffering community. This self-victimizing narrative became increasingly politicized and ideologized in the 1930s, also by incorporating and adapting elements of “1525”. After 1945, this Protestant victim narrative was depoliticized and reconstituted as a martyr narrative, shaping the self-image of the postwar Protestant Church. At the same time, the events of 1525 remained a historical episode that could scarcely be integrated into Protestant identity politics, given the long history of theological and ethical controversies as well as the self-affirming demarcations within Protestantism.
Jan van de Kamp (Theological University Apeldoorn): Reformation, Education and Rhetoric: Declamations at Wittenberg University, 1519-1560 and the Role of Philipp Melanchthon
In research on Reformation and education, Philipp Melanchthon of Wittenberg is considered the ‘Praeceptor Germaniae’, teacher of Germany. Indeed, Melanchthon’s reforms exercised great influence on (university) education in Wittenberg and beyond. However, the question is to what extent the title ‘Praeceptor Germaniae’ actually reflects historical reality or whether it is part of the veneration Melanchthon already received during his lifetime. Did Melanchthon stand on a solitary height or did he cooperate closely with his colleagues at Wittenberg University in the educational reform? To gain a better understanding of the educational concept at Wittenberg and Melanchthon’s role in it, I want to study one of the components of the reforms, that is, declamations, introduced as a rhetorical exercise for students. Older research argues that Melanchthon drafted all of these, newer research questions this. This makes one curious as to what Melanchthon’s actual role was.
Brandt Klawitter (NLA University College): Sex and Self-defense: The Surprising Significance of the Natural Affects in Reformation Wittenberg
Although the idea of natural affection/στοργὴ is afforded only marginal mention in Scripture, recent scholarship has argued with surprising force for the important role this concept had in reformation Wittenberg. Natural affections were understood as having been implanted in creation and their ongoing presence proved significant not only for Wittenberg’s rejection of monastic celibacy, but also Wittenberg’s simultaneous advocacy of marriage. Nevertheless, the reach of these affects in reformation Wittenberg extended even further than the monastery and the household. Indeed, natural affection included not only ideas of innate attraction, but also corresponding notions of preservation and defense of life and relation. Thus, the concept of natural affection also was poised to serve an important role in discussions of self-defense and its innate justification – both at the individual and the societal level. This paper will therefore seek to explore the reach of these natural affections and also to probe the limitations of their power. Philipp Melanchthon’s thought will stand in the foreground of this investigation, but his fellow reformers – to the extent practicable and applicable – will also come into its purview.
Christine Kooi (Louisiana State University): Theological Rebellion in 1572
The year 1572 was a pivotal one in the history of the Reformation. Deadly violence between Reformed and Catholic broke out in both France and the Low Countries. Reformed Protestant groups rebelled in the Netherlands to violently overthrow a Catholic regime, while in France the Huguenots found themselves having to resist a murderous royalist onslaught. Meanwhile in England, Puritan rejection of the Elizabethan Settlement broke out in the form of the Admonition to Parliament. This paper will examine these events in the light of the growing international character of the Reformed movement, and offer an analysis of how the Reformed rebellions of the year 1572 cemented the permanent dissolution of Latin Christendom. Specifically, this paper will analyze two polemical texts published in 1572, the Admonition to Parliament and De hemelvaert des eersten ende oversten der Chistenen in Nederlandt vervolghers. The first attacked the Church of England, the second the Catholic Church in the Low Countries. I will examine and compare them as examples of the kind of theological rebellion that the fraught confessional atmosphere of 1572 produced. Both texts called for not only a rejection of their respective established churches but also a vigorous redrawing of the sacred boundaries between true and false religion.
Jakub Koryl (Jagiellonian University, Krakow): The Responsibility for Philosophy in the Encounter with Theology: A Lutheran Alternative Take on Philosophy
The proposed paper aims at reconstructing of the Lutheran idea of philosophy as a discursive exercise deliberately self-dependent and separated from theology. This conception was quite an alternative to and unprecedented project compared to all philosophical currents of the time. Therefore the purpose of this paper is to address the principle of segreganda est philosophia a theologia, a concept formulated by Luther and subsequently adopted as a foundational element of Lutheranism. From its inception, this principle was conceived as an alternative to the Christian Aristotelianism of scholasticism, it took the form of a protest or even an intellectual revolt against long-established and repeated standards of thought, and it eventually developed into one of the hallmarks of Lutheran phenomenology and hermeneutics in the mid-20th century. This paper looks then at Martin Luther’s impact on Martin Heidegger and Gerhard Ebeling, highlighting their close connection and its significance to the development of Lutheranism at the crossroads of philosophy and theology. In examining the impact of the principle segreganda est philosophia a theologia, I will not be interested in Luther’s views on philosophy. Instead, the central question is what specific idea of philosophy Luther could claim as his own and thus practice it without ceasing to be a theologian. Important to understanding this principle will be its intellectual milieu, the parallel attempts of Philip Melanchthon, and its subsequent impact, which consciously drew on Luther’s philosophical experiences, seeking continuity and complementarity with them. So the quest for an alternative idea of philosophy and thus the very philosophical revolt begins with Luther, runs through Heidegger’s phenomenology and ends up with Ebeling’s hermeneutics.
Milda Kvizikevičiūtė (National Museum of Lithuania): Religious Aid Across Borders: How Lithuanian Protestants Sought Support in the 17th Century
In the 17th century, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was renowned for its relative religious tolerance, yet Protestant communities faced increasing challenges due to the growing influence of the Counter-Reformation. In response, Jan Kraiński (treasurer of Bogusław Radziwiłł) published “A Relation of the Distressed State of the Church of Christ: Professing the Protestant Religion in the Great Dukedom of Lithuania” (London, 1661) as a means to garner financial and moral support for the struggling Protestant churches. His pamphlet presented a stark contrast between the Protestant and Catholic positions. The need for such an appeal arose from multiple factors: the Catholic Church’s reclaiming of property, a decline in Protestant patronage among the nobility, and the economic devastation caused by ongoing wars. Krainski’s pamphlet was not merely a lament but an early example of a crowdfunding attempt, leveraging international Protestant solidarity to secure aid from England and the Netherlands. His efforts reflect broader patterns of transnational religious aid in early modern Europe. This paper examines Krainski’s pamphlet in the context of 17th-century religious struggles in the GDL, exploring its rhetorical strategies, historical backdrop, and effectiveness as an early example of Protestant fundraising efforts.
Tapio Leinonen (University of Helsinki | University of Eastern Finland): Responding to the Revolts: Martin Luther on Masculinity and Leadership
This paper investigates Martin Luther’s teaching of ideal leadership attributes through concepts of masculinity. The paper asks how the desired leadership qualities overlap with the masculinity ideals of late medieval society and Luther’s Reformation theology. Through analysis of the biblical Lectures on Deuteronomy as a Fürstenspiegel to the first Lutheran leaders, the paper connects Luther’s leadership ideals to Luther’s biblical interpretation of the character of Moses as a model to the first Lutheran ecclesial and governmental leaders. The paper examines the ideal masculinity and leadership qualities established by Moses and the masculinity Luther connects with the character of Moses himself. The paper connects Luther’s theology developed in the Lectures to his responses to the Peasants’ War and, thus, sheds light on the process behind Luther’s thought in his often-quoted pamphlets written after witnessing the devastation of the revolts in Eisleben. Luther’s political audience experienced drastic shifts in a short time with Elector Frederic’s death and Ducal Prussia’s establishment. Responding to the violence of the Peasants’ War by encouraging the princes to extinguish the revolts with force affected the way Luther’s theology was received for centuries. Examining Luther’s theological argumentation in a wider context sheds light on the strict and short pamphlets. Following the example of Moses, Luther intended his teaching to be firmly rooted in faith and applicable to a certain historical context by the new Lutheran rulers. Luther’s teaching of law, fair and just judgment, contextual understanding, and promoting peace have their roots in the ideals connected with masculinity and leadership in late medieval society.
Anna Lerch (University of Bern, Faculty of Theology): Fighting Nuns? Female Resistance during the Reformation
This paper examines the intersection of religion and rebellion through the lens of female monastic communities during the Reformation, with a particular focus on their responses to the upheavals of “Klosterstürme” (monastery storms). The rebellious monastic upheavals of the 16th century posed an existential threat to female monastic communities. The paper analyses three documented cases in present-day Switzerland to show how monastic women resisted external threats, including forced entry into sacred spaces, the destruction of religious artefacts, and physical and symbolic violence against their communal life. There is evidence of both physical resistance and non-violent action. The paper also addresses the narrative aspects of resistance, examining how these events were commemorated and interpreted in contemporary accounts. This paper posits that the defence of monastic life by these women can be understood as a form of rebellion. The objective was not to overthrow the prevailing power structures but to preserve a religious community against forces seeking to dismantle it. Within the theme of Religion and Rebellion, this paper presents an alternative perspective on rebellion within Christianity, where resistance emerges not as an organized uprising but as a collective struggle to defend spiritual identity, communal and personal integrity. The focus on women’s agency in the religio-political conflicts of early modern Europe offers insights into rebellion during the Reformation and contributes to discussions on marginalised voices in historical conflicts.
Urs Leu (Institut für Schweizerische Reformationsgeschichte der Universität Zürich): Zwingli’s “Hohe Schule” and the Reformed Book Culture in Zurich
In 1525, Zwingli founded the “Hohe Schule” in Zurich with the aim of training theologians for the new Reformed Church. Over the course of the 16th century, the school became an important training center for Reformed pastors beyond the borders of the Swiss Confederation. Directly next to the lecture hall was the collegiate library at the Grossmünster, which was nearly completely renewed during the so-called book storm. The librarians after the Reformation not only introduced new elements in the field of library science, but also redesigned the composition of the library. In doing so, they went far beyond the interests of the professors and the subject area of “theology”. In addition, the professors and the lectures held at the “Hohe Schule” provided important impulses for the Zurich printers, so that one eighth of all books produced in Zurich were text books. The “Disputationes” respectively “Dissertationes” introduced at the end of the 16th century, many of which appeared in print, were also of interest for the Zurich printers, so that one third of the book production of the 17th century were so called “Dissertationes”.
Przemyslaw A. Lewicki (Makowski Academy of Reformed Theology): Polish Reformed Confession at Colloquium Charitativum 1645: Exploring Polish Reformed Theology in Search of Harmony
In 1645, in the city of Toruń in the Royal Prussia province of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Polish King Władysław IV called for an inter-denominational gathering aimed at uniting the Christian Churches within the religiously tolerant but confessionally divided Commonwealth. This local council, known as the ‘Colloquium Charitativum’ (The Colloquy of Charity) or ‘das Thorner Religionsgespräch,’ ultimately failed to unite the Roman Catholics, Lutherans, and Reformed participants. However, it had a significant lasting effect: the Reformed delegates produced a confession of faith, the Declaration of Thorn, which was the first written Polish-Lithuanian Reformed confession by the newly unified Reformed Church. This unification was solidified only a few years before the Colloquy, during the General Convocation in Włodawa in 1634, where three previously independent provinces of the Polish-Lithuanian Reformed community formed a united ‘Ecclesia Reformata.’ The Declaration of Thorn presented by this Reformed Church in 1645 aimed to address both Roman Catholic errors and Lutheran misunderstandings of the Evangelical faith. The Declaration is a fascinating document that reflects a distinct Polish-Lithuanian interpretation within the broader Reformed current of Continental Protestant theology. This presentation will explore these local theological distinctives, including high sacramentology, focus on Church discipline and unity, and the peculiar ambiguity regarding predestinarian debates that had previously divided Reformed communities in Western Europe. These features highlight the unique aspects of the Reformed creed presented in Toruń, distinguishing the Polish-Lithuanian Reformed tradition from other Reformed traditions of Early Modern Europe. The confessional effort by the Polish-Lithuanian ‘Ecclesia Reformata’ represents a significant theological success that was not to be replicated by the rapidly dwindling Reformed Christian community of the Commonwealth.
Diego Lucci (American University in Bulgaria): The Law of Nature, God’s Law, and the Right to Resist and Revolt in Hobbes and Locke
This paper argues that the differences between Thomas Hobbes’s and John Locke’s views on resistance and revolution resulted from their different notions of natural law and its relationship with God. Far from regarding the laws of nature as binding commands from God, Hobbes described them as mere theorems of reason, stemming from the influence of passions that incline human beings to peace as the best means for self-preservation. According to Hobbes, binding laws derive from the will, judgment, and command of a sovereign power, to which the subjects have submitted their wills and judgments, and which they have consented to obey absolutely in return of protection. Accordingly, Hobbes denied the possibility to judge the sovereign’s decisions and actions on the grounds of a private understanding of the laws of nature, and he thus rejected the legitimacy of any opposition to the public authority. Conversely, Locke viewed the law of nature as God-given, rational, eternally valid, universally binding, and affirming the natural rights to life, property, and freedom and their corresponding duties. He maintained that the civil magistrates ought to make and enforce laws consistent with the law of nature, and he described the defense of the self’s and others’ God-granted natural rights from abuses on the part of the political authorities as not only a right, but also a duty towards the Divine Creator and Legislator. Therefore, according to Locke, those who see their or others’ inalienable rights violated by the political authorities may rightfully judge based on “a Law antecedent and paramount to all positive laws of men”, and may consequently resist and revolt to such oppressive powers.
Arturo Massa (University of Bari “Aldo Moro”): Hagiography of Rebellion. The New Martyrs of the Reformation against Catholic Idolatry in the Sixteenth Century
The question of saints in early Protestantism is not simply reduced to a struggle against the immoral cult of the Church of Rome for icons or to a significant reduction of the sanctoral in the liturgical calendar. The experience of the first lutheran martyrs and the need to celebrate their testimony of faith through stories pushed the Protestant churches to a concrete operation of hagiographic writing. The new narratives are dedicated to characters who, in order not to deny the new faith, preferred to suffer tortures and capital punishment. Vos and van Esschen, Zütphen, Kaiser, Winkler and Barnes, just to name a few, represent the ranks of the new Protestant martyrs whose stories were handed down through peculiar narrative forms. The edifying historie (Märtyrerflugschriften) are, in fact, texts written specifically to exalt the heroic sacrifice of Lutheran followers. The narratives, synthetic and occasional, have in common the objective of inciting evangelical communities to resistance in tribulation and, at the same time, that of countering the immense hagiographic mass produced over the centuries by Catholicism, judged as one of the contributing causes of the corruption of the faithful. This paper aims to analyze an unprecedented type of martyrdom literature limited to the first decades of the Reformation. The aim is to outline some characteristics in order to clarify the use and places of dissemination of the new texts, identified as real weapons of destruction of the centuries-old cultic tradition linked to the veneration of saints.
Andreas Mazetti (The Newman Institute, Uppsala): Tracing the Roots of Tyranny: Explanations in the Annales Ecclesiastici for the deposition of Christian II of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden
Christian II, king of Danmark, Norway, and Sweden, has gone down in history as the tyrant who was responsible for the massacre of both clerics and lay people during Stockholm’s Bloodbath in 1520. Earning himself the title “Christian the Tyrant”. In contemporary Swedish historiography, about the deposition of Christian, this epithet would serve as a justification for the rebellion that overthrew him, led by the future king of Sweden – Gustavus Vasa. The epithet was also used in Gustavus Vasa’s propaganda creating a damnatio memoriae of Christian. Although little has been written that confutes tyranny in Christian’s actions, the explanations for his succumbing to oppression are nearly as rare in early modern historiography. This makes Odorico Rinaldi’s notes, in the Annales Ecclesiastici, a fascinating exception where such explanations are provided for. This paper offers a discussion on how Rinaldi, in his seventeenth-century continuation of Cesare Baronio’s ecclesiastical history, traces the roots of Christian’s actions which brought about the nullification of his monarchical status.
Tomasz Karol Mantyk (UMK Toruń (Poland) | KU Leuven): Virginity, Marriage and Divorce in Erasmus’ and Titelmans’ Paraphrases of the New Testament
After publishing his new translation and annotations on the New Testament in 1516, Erasmus turned his pen to paraphrasing biblical books. He asserted that it was a new kind of a commentary, which however consisted of nothing else than a clear rephrasing of the Biblical message. I was not so. Inevitably, despite all pretences of objectivity his paraphrases were an interpretation and carried his own, idiosyncratic theological thought. This was pointed out by Erasmus’ formidable critic, Noel Beda of the Parisian Theological Faculty, who in 1526 censored Erasmian paraphrases alongside Lefevre’s commentaries on Saint Paul. Among numerous issues that he found heterodox were Erasmus’ views on marriage, divorce and virginity. The Humanist seemed to denigrate chastity and open a gate for divorce. This paper explores how these issues were treated in paraphrases published by Beda’s protegee, Francis Titelmans. It will concentrate on passages from the Gospel of Matthew and from Saint Paul’s epistles to the Corinthians and Ephesians that dealt with those matters. The paper will explore differences in Titelmans’ and Erasmus’ approaches to paraphrasing the Bible and to the Church’s teaching. It will also try to establish the degree of Titelmans’ dependence on his mentor, Beda.
Yang Meng (University of Münster): “Faith in Liang-Zhi” and “Faith in Christ” — A Comparison of Wang Yangming’s and Martin Luther’s Thoughts on “Faith”
I compared the thoughts of Wang Yangming and Martin Luther on “faith in Liang-zhi” and “faith in Christ” from the perspective of “faith.” For Wang, “faith in Liang-zhi” is inherently included in the meaning of “Zhi Liang-zhi”. Anyone who wishes to extend Liang-zhi must first have faith in it, that is, believe in the ability of Liang-zhi to distinguish right from wrong, thus affirming what is right and rejecting what is wrong. From the view of religious belief, there is indeed a certain religious color in Wang’s explanation of faith in “Liang-zhi.” Iso Kern, from a comparative religious perspective, more definitively pointed out that Wang harbors a spirit of religious faith towards “Liang-zhi.” However, I do not advocate for a complete discussion and understanding of Wang’s “faith” from the perspective of religious belief. This is because, overall, the concept of “faith” under the religious perspective does not adequately encompass all aspects of Wang’s thought regarding “faith in Liang-zhi.” In Wang’s interpretation of the necessity of “faith in Liang-zhi,” there is also a kind of self-confidence in the “substance of Liang-zhi,” which is clearly different from the general religious belief that relies on external salvation. Luther believes that faith is the “bond” that connects human to God. In his view, whether it is God’s revelation, sacraments, magic, or human good deeds, they must all operate through human “faith.” In other words, the transformation of human life relies on belief in the Absolute. For Confucian scholars, the difficult aspect of Luther’s theology lies in the fact that this “faith” is granted by God’s grace, rather than stemming from human actions. Thus, Luther’s concept of “faith” is clearly different from Wang’s “self-confidence” in the substance of “Liang-zhi.” However, we should not ignore that there is a clear similarity between Wang’s and Luther’s notions of “faith.”
Laura-Marie Mork (Universität Osnabrück): Good Authority, Bad Authority – Discourse on Authority in the First Half of Gustav Vasas Reign
In the early 1520s, the Reformation and the resulting debates over claims to power and the relationship between spiritual and secular authority led to profound upheavals in Central Europe. At the same time, the northern parts of Europe experienced significant changes due to the dissolution of the Kalmar Union. Following a Swedish uprising against Danish dominance, Gustav Vasa was elected King of Sweden on June 6, 1523, leading to the formation of an independent Swedish realm. Although his election initially confirmed and legitimized his claim to power within Sweden, the uprising he led and Sweden’s secession from the Kalmar Union could also be seen as an act of usurpation. Both domestically and internationally, his newly established rule and the newly formed Swedish realm were by no means universally accepted or secure long-term. This situation particularly at the beginning of Gustav Vasa’s reign highlighted the need and desire for legitimization and recognition of the new rule. These significant changes and upheavals led to intensive and comprehensive communication about authority (Herrschaft) and the conditions of its legitimacy in the Swedish realm. My paper addresses precisely these negotiation processes in the first half of Gustav Vasa’s reign (1520-1540) and shows the variety of ways in which religious and political languages were combined and utilised. My contribution thus focuses on political communication in the Swedish realm and at the same time takes a look at its integration into the European network.
Barbara Müller (Universität Hamburg): Perseverance as Rebellion. Johannes Bugenhagen’s Defeat over the Hamburg (Beguine-) Convent opposite St Jacob’s Church
One of the aims of the Reformation introduced by Johannes Bugenhagen in Hamburg in 1529 was the closure of the Convent opposite St Jacob’s: “… Bagynen schal me nicht mehr maken”. It is understandable that the Convent, which was a religious institution at this time, was a thorn in his side: The so-called “Blue Sisters” led a quasi-monastic life, but above all the Convent was a central factor when it came to indulgences. In 1516, the papal commissioner for indulgences in northern Europe, Johannes Angelus Arcimboldus, even issued the sisters with an indulgence privilege – in retaliation for their extensive donations for the new St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Other hitherto little-known or even unknown sources confirm the convent’s active involvement in caring for the afterlife. The planned gradual closure of the Convent failed. Although it was a citadel of the Old Believers, it was not possible to close it down. Even after 1529, there was a large influx of members. The reasons for the attractiveness of the Convent are unclear. They could have been of a financial nature in particular. The sisters of the late medieval Convent were rich and a key player on the Hamburg financial market. However, 1537 the convent was converted into a Protestant community and survived until the middle of the 20th century. The Convent did not actively rebel against the Reformation. Nevertheless, the sheer survival of this religious institution, which was in itself out of place, could be seen as a rebellion. The paper traces the indulgence policy of the Convent on the basis of hitherto unpublished material, contrasts it with Bugenhagen’s reformatory programme and, in particular, examines the possibilities of rebellion by those with economic power.
Bonnie Noble (University of North Carolina at Charlotte): Intellectual Rebellion in Hans Holbein’s Ambassadors
Hans Holbein’s 1533 painting of Georges de Selve and Jean de Dintville, conventionally known as The Ambassadors, fuses the genres of still life and portraiture with its almost photographic likenesses of the two figures and the granular detail of the objects on the shelves between them. The painting foments intellectual rebellion in ways scholars have seldom recognized. It questions the value of the accomplishments of the two distinguished men in the picture; and even more fundamentally, it challenges the power of the achievements to which the still-life objects refer. The Ambassadors thematizes laments the human condition rather than celebrating it, as is often argued. Like the winged figure in Albrecht Dürer’s Melencolia I of 1514, Holbein’s painting represents limitations as much as possibilities. On the middle shelf, Magellan’s 1519 voyage is demarcated on a terrestrial globe. Together with the globe of the heavens just above it, we see the fruits human investigation. Meanwhile, a mostly hidden Crucifix in the upper left obliquely connects the sitters to God, while an anamorphic skull at the bottom is a memento mori. Despite the accomplishments objects such as a polyhedral sundial and a book of arithmetic symbolize, and the stature of the two accomplished figures, God is occluded and death is omnipresent. The iconography of the argues for a controversial irreconcilability of science and religion. If further stresses the limits of human accomplishment and potential. Tools of interesting but fruitless learning alienate the figures from one another, pushing them to the periphery. Like paintings ripped from their functional context and collected in a Kunstkammer, the objects in the Ambassadors are clever yet useless.
Christian Neddens (Europäische Melanchthon-Akademie, Bretten): Rebels – or Not? Cranach’s ‘Judith’ and Melanchthon’s ‘Confessio Augustana’ and the Role of ‘fiducia’ in Religion and Politics
1530, at the same time as the Confessio Augustana was being written, Lukas Cranach developed the motif of Judith rebelling against the power of Holofernes. While his ‘Judith’ seems to propagate rebellion in the name of God, Melanchthon’s concept of ‘fiducia’ emphasises the stability of faithful relationships both religiously and politically. How did the Wittenbergers see themselves in 1530? As rebels or loyal servants of their secular masters? For Melanchthon, the solution lay in a new model of religious and political imperial unity – as a community in difference, at least for a time.
Seraphine Nzue-Agbadou (Charleston Southern University): The Choice between Reconversion-Death-or Exile: How Religious Violence Disrupted the Lives of French Huguenots in Some Southern Regions of France (1500-1600)
The Protestant uprisings in France, particularly during the 16th century, were marked by significant regional variations and intense violence. The southern regions of France were particularly resistant to Catholicism for several reasons, such as historical, socio-economical, geographic location and the influence of key figures. Studies have shown that these regions have maintained their Protestant identity through centuries, often preserving traditions and cultural practices unique to their communities. However, there has not been an in-depth analysis of the factors that contributed to this protestant resistance. This study aims to explore the dynamics of these conflicts in these southern regions of France, focusing on the causes, key events, and the socio-political impact of the Protestant uprisings. By analyzing the historical context that led to the Protestant uprisings, comparing the nature and extent of the violence in regions such as Langedoc, Guyenne and Provence, examining key figures and local leaders in the resistance movements, this study will assess the socio-political consequences of these conflicts on the local populations and broader French society. This study will contribute to the historiography of the French Wars of Religion by providing a focused analysis of the Protestant uprisings in southern France. It will highlight the complex interplay of religion, politics, and violence during this tumultuous period.
Luke O’Connell (Georgetown University): Just Rebels: An Analysis of Just War Theory in the Context of Religious Conflict in 17th Century Ireland
The concept of what makes conflict just or unjust is particularly noteworthy in rebellion tied to a religious identity. This paper will explore the disaffection of Irish Catholics in Ireland following the Tudor conquest of Ireland, largely completed by 1607. Through a specific focus on the Proclamation of Dungannon, the paper will explore how rebels characterize enemies hostile to the cause of rebellion and situate themselves as righteous according to just war theory. Specific analysis of the rationale of the Irish Bishops at Kilkenny to declare the rebellion a “Just War,” atrocities committed by Christian factions within the conflict, and the political identity established in the Confederation of Kilkenny will lay the groundwork for conclusions surrounding the aspiration of the rebels to found a unique Irish-Catholic confederacy bound by secular allegiance to the Protestant monarch Charles I.
Katharina Opalka (Faculty of Protestant Theology | Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn): Power in the Protestant Church in light of the ForuM-Study
Talking about resistance always requires thinking about the structures of power that make resistance possible – and impossible. In Protestantism, we often do not find hierarchical power structures – against which one could rebel as they are visible and therefore enable resistance. Rather, we are confronted with implicit forms of power. Reflecting on these implicit power structures is all the more necessary because such power structures can enable abuse and aggression, as the recent ForuM study (2024) on sexual aggression and abuses of power in the Protestant Church in Germany has shown. In particular, forms of power that remain implicit and disguise themselves as egalitarian systems are susceptible to abusive structures, precisely because it is much more difficult to resist and distance oneself from such implicit structures that are obscured by narratives of (supposed) powerlessness. These narrativizations of institutionalised power structures as powerless can be located in the fundamental Protestant narratives, in particular, as has been pointed out, in CA 28 as sine vi humana, sed verbo. CA 28 thus remains ambivalent: the narrative of the rejection of power and (papal) authority is intended precisely to prevent the abuse of power – yet, such narratives can conceal real power imbalances and hierarchies, which can thus be subtly exploited. The paper will also consider how such narrativizations of power, as found in CA 28, are susceptible to destructive effects in the complex ways in which power is dealt with in practice, especially in liturgical practice. As will be shown, this is not only a practical-theological, institutional problem, but requires transformations in ecclesiology from a systematic-theological perspective. As will be shown in the conclusion of the paper, this can also mean, in the context of a new Protestant sensibility for power structures to be gained after the ForuM study, integrating resistance-provoking and resistant dogmatic figures.
Lorenzo Paoli (Institut d’histoire de la Réformation, Université de Genève): Sources and Degrees of Resistance in Huguenot Monarchomach Treatises (1574–1579)
The Huguenot Monarchomach treatises articulate well-known theological-political theories regarding the relationship among the people, the sovereign, and God, arguing that the people and lower magistrates may resort to armed resistance if the supreme magistrate breaks the founding covenant and becomes a tyrant. However, such uprisings proceed through distinct phases: from passive resistance to defensive action, full-scale rebellion, and even appeals to foreign princes. The role of lower magistrates proves pivotal in distinguishing a legitimate revolt of the theologico-political body from a mere insurrection. But which references — classical, biblical, Roman law, or other legal sources — underpin this structured approach to revolt? What body of precedents provided these texts with a coherent right to a step-by-step armed resistance? Drawing on research from the ARCHEO-POL project of the Institut d’histoire de la Réformation of Geneva, this presentation aims to examine the various degrees of armed resistance against tyranny as set out in Du droit des magistrats (1574) and Vindiciae contra tyrannos (1579), along with other, less well-known treatises. It will do so by investigating the historical, biblical, and legal sources upon which these graduated levels of resistance rest.
Willem Peek (The Warburg Institute): The ‘Laienkelch’ in Hans Mielich’s Codex with 26 Motets by Cipriano de Rore: (Counter-)Reformation and Artistic Rebellion at the Court of Albrecht V of Bavaria
In the illuminations of a lament of Dido, composed by Cipriano de Rore at the request of Duke Albrecht V of Bavaria, included in his Codex with 26 Motets (1558-1559), Hans Mielich portrayed a peculiar ensemble of musicians, playing strange instruments such as a nose trumpet and a neck flute, representing diverse social classes, including monastic orders. An oversized Laienkilch is carried toward a monk eagerly extending his arms. Another motet, Ad te, Domine, faciem meam converto, features a satyr drinking from the lay chalice. Interestingly, the blood and body of Christ, depicted as the Eucharist or in other ways, appear frequently in more solemn contexts as well – in scenes where God seems to sanction it. The juxtaposition of a ‘sacred’ and a ‘satirical’ Eucharist questions Martin Luther’s argument for the lay chalice of his 1519 “Sermon von dem hochwürdigen Sakrament.” He argued that while the chalice is not fundamental – since no transubstantiation occurs – it is desirable for the completeness of the ‘sign’. After decades of heated debates, Duke Albrecht allowed the use of the chalice in 1556. However, by 1571, he withdrew this dispensation, aligning himself with confessionalism and Tridentine Decrees. Mielich’s illuminations raise intriguing questions: Are they a subtle rebellion against Albrecht, or just against the reformers? What is the relationship between the music, and the depictions of the (un)holy Eucharists? What does this reveal of how Mielich negotiated artistic choices and religious positions under ducal patronage? This paper argues that Mielich dared to challenge the duke with humor, deliberately showcasing confessional ideas and artistic independence. His work strikes a delicate balance between the idea that all individuals – whether clergy or layperson – are equally judged by God, without requiring universal access to the lay chalice, and the notion that while Albrecht’s reign is considered divinely sanctioned, it remains open to critique.
Gábor Petneházi (University of Innsbruck): Ethnicism and Rebellion. „Great Replacement” in Protestant Propaganda in 17th Century Hungary from Bocskai to Bethlen
In Hungarian political literature, the previously more or less separated religious and secular discourses finally and inextricably converged during the Bocskai-rebellion (1604-1606) producing a political propaganda, which was consisted of a mixture of theological, natural law and national-constitutional arguments in varying proportions, depending on the target audience. This is the moment, however, when purely ethnic nationalism also appeared for the first time in Hungarian political literature, seeking to unite the politico-religious community with the threat of total annihilation and assuming that the Habsburg court was secretly aiming to exterminate Hungarian nobility and colonise the country by foreigners. Recently discovered sources show a further strengthening of the topic during the Thirty Years War, in Gabriel Bethlen’s political propaganda. The main motif of the Protestant preacher Máté Laczkó Szepsi’s (1576-1633) pamphlets and historical notes is the ethnic hostility and the same threat of extermination of the now purely ethnically defined Protestant Hungarians. Later, the ethnic issue was one of the main components of the ideology of subsequent anti-Habsburg movements as well, but during the 18th and 19th centuries it could only survive as clandestine literature because of the continuous censorship, while it’s authenticity was also questioned.
Carlos Piccone-Camere (Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú): The Capuchin Rebellion: Challenges of Living the Franciscan Rule in South American Missions
This paper examines the “rebellion” of the Capuchin Order of Friars Minor with their initial proposal to live the Franciscan Rule sine glosa and ad litteram, and the enormous logistical challenges of implementing this project in a context vastly different from their European origins. Focusing on the Capuchin missions in Trinidad and Guiana, the study highlights how the friars’ commitment to living the Gospel according to the Franciscan Rule had to be reinterpreted and adapted to the realities of South American missionary life. The Capuchins, who aimed to be the poorest and most austere, found themselves relatively wealthy and powerful compared to the indigenous populations. This stark contrast led to a transformation in their roles, from living in poverty and simplicity to becoming commercial managers and figures of authority. This paper explores the dichotomy between their original ascetic ideals and the practical exigencies of missionary life, shedding light on how the Capuchins navigated these challenges and the implications for their mission and identity. By presenting a detailed case study of the Capuchin missions in Trinidad and Guiana, this paper contributes to a broader understanding of religious rebellion and adaptation, providing a comparative perspective on the intersections of European Christianity and colonial contexts in the early modern period.
Philipp Pilhofer (Universität Wien): Protestantism in Austria in the (Long) 16th Century
This paper serves as an introduction to the panel on the Peasants’ Wars in Austria. In the last decades, the causes of the uprisings of 1525 have predominantly been attributed to social and economic factors, with less emphasis placed on their connection to the Reformation. However, this perspective has recently shifted, as three comprehensive studies (Kaufmann, Roper, Schwerhoff) now highlight, from various angles, the Reformation as a central precondition for the Peasants’ War of 1525/26. Since only one of these studies addresses the Austrian context, this paper examines the specific circumstances surrounding various uprisings in Austria and provides a broader framework for more detailed research. Beginning with the earliest preachers influenced by the Reformation, the paper spans approximately one hundred years of Austrian (Counter-)Reformation history to contextualise the subsequent papers. It notes various smaller and larger uprisings within these decades, with a particular focus on the dynamics of conflict related to the Reformation and Counter-Reformation.
Martin Pjecha (Central European University): Politics in Jan Comenius’s Holistic Vision of Coexistence
The bloody religious conflicts of the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) forced many European intellectuals to take seriously new programs of inter-confessional coexistence which could succeed the decades of violence. One popular solution suggested the privatization of religion in favour of a supra-confessional civic or national identity. Yet this path was not universally appealing, especially not for stateless refugees or sectarian believers. My paper will introduce a new research project, examining an alternative peace program in the so-called “utopian” tradition. This was proposed by the exiled dissident and heterodox bishop, Jan Comenius (d. 1670). Here, I will emphasize an appreciation of Comenius not only as an itinerant pedagogue or theologian, but foremost as a political thinker who incorporated natural philosophy and religion into his global peace project. By drawing on discourses like Christian Platonism and science, Comenius and his circle suggested a supra-confessional “scientific” religion based on universal knowledge (pansophism), which all Christian creeds (and even Jews and Muslims) could agree upon in harmonious coexistence. Yet his scripturalist normativity and personal experience of prolonged displacement also suggested limits to such pluralism, as seen in his more prophetic writings promising vindication against the Habsburg superpower. Taken together, these will present my first steps to complicate the broader history of early-modern political thought in geographic and methodological terms.
Svitlana Potapenko (Goethe University Frankfurt | National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine): The ‘Revolution’ of 1762, Kyrylo Rozumovsky, and the Fate of the Hetmanate
The idea of my paper is to delve into the historical circumstances which the last hetman of Cossack Ukraine, Kyrylo Rozumovsky (1728−1803), later referred to as a “revolution”. In particular, what did he mean when in the 1790s, in intimate correspondence with his son, the Russian ambassador to the Habsburg court, Andrii Rozumovsky (1752−1836), he labelled the chain of events which took place in Saint Petersburg at the end of June 1762 and ultimately led to Catherine Alekseevna becoming the new (and illegitimate) Russian sovereign a “revolution”? What was Kyrylo Rozumovsky’s personal role in the whole coup d’état and how did this affect the fate of the Hetmanate which he ruled in anticipation of Andrii’s hereditary succession to his hetman’s post? I do not intend to limit myself to simply recounting and explaining the facts of the case, but aim to speculate on the intellectual preconditions which might have impelled Hetman to follow certain behavioural patterns and make certain decisions in that critical situation.
Noel Putnik (Institute of Ethnography, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts): Homo Integer in a World of Lies: Cornelius Agrippa on Corporeality and Knowledge. Panel: Rebels or Innovators? Thinkers in Early Modern Christianity
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim (1486–1535) was one of the most important representatives of the so-called Renaissance Neoplatonism. In this paper I scrutinize Agrippa’s main anthropological and theological tenets in order to elucidate various historical and spiritual layers of influence informing his writings. Aligning himself with Marsilio Ficino, Pico della Mirandola, and Lodovico Lazzarelli as some of his immediate forerunners, Agrippa attempted to build a grand synthesis of various spiritual traditions with the aim of reforming the crisis-stricken Roman Church of his time. This synthesis is usually characterized as Neoplatonic and Hermetic, but I suggest that it also contains discernable elements of late antique gnostic teachings and medieval dualistic heresies. Thus I examine Agrippa’s notions of man, informed by a radical anthropological dualism, his views on the causes of man’s fall into the created world, as well as his antagonistic and anti-corporeal understanding of carnality, sensuality, and sex, as evinced in some of Agrippa’s published works. The focus of my analysis is the instable and fluctuating relationship between the notions of orthodoxy and heterodoxy in Agrippa, while my main thesis is that Agrippa’s potential for spiritual rebellion carried far-reaching theological ramifications that went beyond the social, institutional, and ecclesiastical considerations of his time.
Marta Quatrale (Freie Universität Berlin): Clashing Anthropologies and Intellectual Exchange: Humanism and Reformation in Tension
The concept of “Reformation,” when understood as a groundbreaking movement rather than approached from a strictly dogmatic perspective, should be examined not only in relation to the Roman Church but also in connection with Humanism—a complex and often ambiguous category. While the influence of Humanism on the Reformation is widely acknowledged, the nature of this relationship remains open to interpretation: was it one of dependence, opposition, or a combination of both? Or does it reflect an entirely different dynamic? This paper seeks to provide a precise definition of “Humanism” by anchoring it to the specific historical and cultural phenomena underlying this multifaceted concept. It will then explore its relationship with the Reformation, focusing on the anthropological models that underpin both movements. The analysis will highlight how these frameworks, while concurrent, are fundamentally incompatible. At the same time, it will reconsider the distinction between Italian Humanism, Northern European Humanism, and Biblical Humanism — traditionally understood within the framework of intellectual history — by examining them as products of concrete exchanges among erudites and theologians within an interconnected scholarly network.
Stanisław Rabiej (University of Warsaw): The Long-lasting Socio-religious Effects of the Battle of the “White Mountain” (1620) in Bohemia
On November 8, 1620, the army of the Bohemian possessions clashed on the White Mountain near Prague with the combined armies of the Catholic League and Emperor Ferdinand II. The half-hour battle sealed the fate of the anti-Habsburg uprising and ended the first phase of the Thirty Years’ War. “White Mountain” marked the political defeat of the Bohemian uprising, although isolated outbreaks of military resistance continued to appear for a long time. But to understand the path that led to it, it is good to recall the circumstances of the election of Ferdinand of Styria in 1617. After all, it was the army of this Habsburg, with the support of the army of the Catholic League, that defeated the Bohemian rebels at the White Mountain estate. The author wishes to verify the thesis of many historians who see in the election of Ferdinand, the beginning of “the general and fatal misfortune of the entire nation and kingdom of Bohemia.” According to these opinions, it was the election of Emperor Ferdinand – an uncompromising Catholic – in June 1617 that became a milestone for the process of the unnatural Catholicization of Bohemia, the subsequent secularization and the lack of reconciliation gestures addressed to followers of Hussitism and Lutheranism.
Deirdre Raftery and Ruth Ferris (University College Dublin): Soldiers of Christ and ‘Galloping Girls’: Rebellion, Conformity and Early Modern Influences on Institutes of Women Religious (Nuns) in the 18th and Early 19th Centuries
This paper aims to explore how some early modern influences were threaded through the daily lives of women religious (nuns) in late eighteenth and early the nineteenth century. On the one hand, training in the convent novitiate prepared women religious to take a vow of obedience; on the other hand, their daily readings – including the lives of the saints – encouraged them to display courage, and to take up the ‘blade for the splendid cause’: the salvation of souls. Nuns were given the name of a saint when they were professed, linking them symbolically and spiritually with the virtues of that saint. The ideals of soldierly action of St Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556) for example, was to be internalised by novices and nuns. Eventually, as teaching sisters or nurses, these women would enter the ‘battlefield’ on which they would fight to save souls. The paper focuses specifically on the significance, for novices and nuns, of studying their religious Rule and Constitutions. The Rule of St Ignatius, as adapted for two institutes of women religious (the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the Religious Sisters of Charity), is discussed in this paper, to consider how it was interpreted by nuns who were viewed, variously, as either ‘soldiers of Christ’ or rebels (‘galloping girls’ / ‘walking nuns’). The adoption of the Ignatian model by Mary Ward (1585–1645) when she founded the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1609, would continue to influence the ministry and lives of other congregations for women, including those founded in the early nineteenth century (eg. Loreto Sisters and the Irish Sisters of Charity). Though Ward was, at one point, condemned by Rome as a rebel and heretic, her model of religious life would attract other institutes and congregations, members of which had to learn to walk a fine line between rebellion and conformity, within the institutional Catholic Church.
Jeb Ralston (University of Geneva; Trinity International University): Original Sin and the Catholic Reformation Renouncing and Reclaiming Erasmus’s Reading of Romans 5:12
In this paper I will give an overview summary of one of the main controversies pertaining to the doctrine of original sin leading up to the Council of Trent. Erasmus in the developing editions of his Annotationes (1516, 1519,1522, 1527, and 1535) presented a radical re-reading of Romans 5:12, the locus classicus for the doctrinal of original sin in the Western tradition. Erasmus found himself frequently labeled a “Pelagian” for suggesting that original sin could not be located in Romans 5:12. This was propounded by the fact that Erasmus inadvertently made use of Pelagius’s own commentary for justification of his reading. His biblical scholarship on this verse prompted a range of reactions from Pre-Tridentine Catholics, many of which were retaliatory and defensive and sometimes at odds with one another, but some others were sympathetic to the erudition of Erasmus’s translation. Erasmus’s challenge to the Vulgate translation and conventional Augustinian interpretation was for some a direct threat to the doctrine of original sin prompting a range of counterattacks, and yet some others found ways of creatively adopting Erasmus’s philological approach to buttress their traditional accounts of the doctrine of original sin.
Robert Rebitsch (University Innsbruck): The Influence of Protestantism on the Peasants’ Uprisings of 1525/26 and 1626 in Austria
Luther’s teachings played a significant role in both the peasant uprising in the County of Tyrol in 1525 and the Peasants’ War in the “Land ob der Enns” (today’s province of Upper Austria). The doctrine from Wittenberg found their way into Tyrol through pamphlets distributed by traders at the county’s major markets, but also through Protestant preachers in the towns at the beginning of the 1520s. The state of the clergy at that time was disastrous, to say the least, and the population was dissatisfied with pastoral care. The “Gospel” and Protestant preachers were the subject of complaints from peasants in some of the Tyrolean courts. The Reformation, especially the demands of Ulrich Zwingli, also played an important role in the “Tiroler Landesordnung” of Michael Gaismair, the well-known leader of the peasants of Brixen. One hundred years later, a peasant war broke out in the “Land ob der Enns”, what is today the province of Upper Austria. From the middle of the 16th century, the Reformation had prevailed both in the towns and in the countryside. With the religious concession in 1568, the decades-long struggle over faith seemed to have been settled: Upper Austria was 80 to 90 % Protestant. Nevertheless, the Habsburg ruler, including Maximilian II, always kept the goal of re-Catholicizing Upper Austria in mind. In 1620, the Habsburgs handed over the land as a pledge to Maximilian I of Bavaria, who was strongly influenced by the ideas of the Counter-Reformation. A few years after the Bavarian takeover, subjects rebelled against the counter-reformation measures of the occupying power. This lecture presents the significance of Protestantism for the peasant uprisings in Tyrol in 1525 and in Upper Austria in 1626: How did the ideas of the Reformation influence these uprisings? What were the reformist demands and motives of the subjects in these uprisings?
Clarisse Roche (United Arab Emirates University): Rebelling against Religious Moderation: Georg Eder’s Confessional Challenge to the Habsburg Middle way in Sixteenth-century Vienna
This paper aims to shed light on the significance of Georg Eder’s Evangelische Inquisition, published in 1573 as a multifaceted act of confessional rebellion against the religious moderation fostered by the Habsburg in sixteenth-century Vienna. Although Howard Louthan (1997) and Elaine Fulton (2007) have highlighted Eder’s harsh criticism of religious moderates, the full extent of his opposition to the Erasmian middle way has not yet been analyzed in depth. Fully aware of the doctrine and stakes of the Christian middle way which tended to characterize religious life at the Habsburg court, the Reichshofrat Eder chose to aggressively champion Tridentine Catholicism by underlining confessional differences, rather than ignoring them. Challenging both the religious compromise and confessional neutrality promoted by Maximilian II in Vienna, his book understandably aroused the emperor’s anger as soon as it appeared. Indeed, it arguably went against the emperor’s religious policy by breaking at least two major, although unwritten rules: respecting religious peace and fostering Christian harmony. Far from being restricted to the court, these intertwined principles resounded largely throughout Vienna and impacted the religious life in the city. Eder’s refutation of the doctrines that he considered “heretical” and his harsh criticism of the middle way between the confessions aimed to propose another perspective on what it means to be a Christian. His approach fundamentally contradicted the ideas of religious moderation. It offered a confessional alternative to transconfessional Christianity by notably opposing Catholic purity to Christian unity; Tridentine orthodoxy to Christian orthopraxy; original disunity to original unity. In so doing, he deconstructed the Christian compromise inspired by Erasmus’ thinking and defended by Georg Cassander. Thus, Eder tried to pave the way for a strictly confessional path that even the Jesuits were following rather prudently in the city.
Gideon Rossouw (Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary): The Concept of Consolatio in Antiquity and Early Modern Reformed Theology: a Case Study of the Heidelberg Catechism (1563)
This paper forms part of my broader PhD research, which seeks to uncover the Heidelberg Catechism’s (HC) profound role as a source of Reformed Consolatio. The fundamental inquiry at the heart of this study is whether the HC transcends mere theological instruction to embody a deeper essence of faith, piety, and comfort. By tracing the evolution of Consolatio from antiquity to the early modern period, this paper seeks to highlight how the authors of the Heidelberg Catechism appropriated and transformed classical conceptions of Consolatio in light of Reformed theology. The classical Consolatio tradition, as developed by Cicero and Seneca, largely relied on Stoic principles, emphasizing rational detachment, the endurance of suffering, and the acceptance of fate. Boethius and Augustine, while maintaining much of the classical framework, introduced a Christian perspective, arguing that divine providence governs human affairs, an idea deeply rooted in late antique Christian thought. The Heidelberg Catechism appropriates these classical and Christian Consolatio motifs. However, rather than merely assimilating them, the HC reconfigures Consolatio through the lens of Protestant theology, centering it on the believer’s union with Christ, the assurance of justification by faith, and the sovereignty of divine providence. The opening question of the HC— “What is your only comfort in life and in death?”—establishes comfort as a theological and pastoral priority, in contrast to classical models that emphasize intellectual or emotional fortitude. This paper, therefore, contributes to a broader understanding of the HC’s theological and pastoral dimensions and its place within the intellectual history of Consolatio.
Pieter Rouwendal (Theological University Apeldoorn): Calvin’s ‘conversio’ and Calvin’s ‘conversion’.
Much has been written on what Calvin called his ‘subita conversio ad docilitatem’. But did Calvin use the expression to denote what would later come to be called, especially in pietistic circles, ‘conversion’? I argue that Calvin used ‘conversio’ to denote a change that was not the same as such a ‘conversion’. Yet this ‘conversio’ was inseparable from a ‘conversion’, the nature of which, although Calvin does not write explicitly, is implied in passages in his writings that must be also about Calvin himself.
Bernward Schmidt (Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt): “Late Medieval” or “Catholic” Reform? Johannes Eck and Church Reform in Bavaria
When Luther published his Address to the Christian Nobility in 1520, he not only expressed some of the most annoying reform issues of his time, but also established – more or less willingly – a continuity to late medieval church reform decrees by the councils of Constance and Basle. Yet, it is obvious that the subject of reform was a commonplace topic during this period, particularly in Bavaria where plans for church reform were discussed with great intensity during the 1520s. The objective of the present paper is to analyse Johannes Eck’s reform proposals for Pope Hadrian VI and the reform decrees of Mühldorf 1522 and Regensburg 1524. In order to achieve this, both the reform decrees of the councils of the 15th century and Luther’s Adelsschrift will be used as reference points. The central question guiding this study is whether the late medieval reform was perpetuated in Bavaria or whether the reform measures were anti-reformatory in character.
Noemi Schürmann (University of Zurich): Saved by Marriage? Katharina Schütz Zell and Female Marital Agency in the Early Reformation
Katharina Schütz Zell (1497–1562) was a “remarkable lay theologian” who played a significant role in the early Reformation in Strasbourg. She engaged in pastoral care and theological writing, visited the sick and imprisoned, maintaining extensive correspondence. Like her male Reformation allies, she also produced theological writings and remained deeply engaged with the Bible and its interpretation throughout her life. She justified her right to speak with biblical references, calling herself an “Apostolin” (female apostle) or “Balaam’s Eselin”, addressing a distinctly female audience. On December 3, 1523, she married Strasbourg reformer Matthäus Zell, with Martin Bucer officiating. Marriage was considered a manifestation of Protestant belief, making it an important arena for public engagement, particularly for those who actively embodied these convictions, both from the outset and even more so after entering into marriage themselves. Within this context, Schütz Zell published the “Entschuldigung Katharina Schützinn für M. Matthes Zellen”, defending marriage as a step of faith, despite her earlier intent to remain unmarried. Historiography has long portrayed the Reformation as broadly beneficial to women, particularly regarding marriage and the priesthood of all believers, suggesting an overall improvement in their status. This paper challenges that assumption through the case of Schütz Zell, questioning whether marriage should be seen as “women’s salvation” or rather as an “act of rebellion”. Noemi Schürmann studied History and Religious Studies at the University of Basel, focusing on the Early Modern period. Since 2022, she has worked in an SNSF-funded project on 16th-century Pauline exegesis at the University of Zurich, examining Reformation concepts of the Church in Latin Ephesians commentaries. In 2024, she conducted research at the Institut d’Histoire de la Réformation at the University of Geneva as part of this project.
Brigitta Schvéd (Ludovika University of Public Service, Research Institute for Politics and Government): Hungary as the Bilanx of Europe? Discourse on the European Balance of Power and the Role of Hungary in Early Eighteenth-century English Political Press
The Habsburg Monarchy, and even more so the Kingdom of Hungary, which formed an integral part of it at the time, appeared with particular weight in connection with two major political events in the English political press of the early eighteenth-century: the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714) and the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748). Throughout the former, almost in parallel with Prince Francis II Rákóczi’s War of Independence in Hungary (1703–1711), the idea of the interest of a universal Europe was in many respects identical with the theory of establishing, securing and maintaining a European balance of power – a political concept that was already well-known in English political thought at the time. Both the Hungarian prince as well as his diplomats and politicians explicitly applied the principle in several cases during the years of the War of Independence (cf. “Europae aequilibrii”, or the idea of Hungary as “Europe’s bilanx”). A comparison of the terminology used in Hungarian diplomatic correspondence with that used in English political works published at the same time, which has not yet been done, may reveal particularly interesting conceptual correlations and even connections. In my presentation, I intend to address these conceptual relations; focusing on the analysis of London newspaper articles, I seek to point out how the perception of the role of the Habsburg Monarchy, and especially the development of the Hungarian cause preceding the Treaty of Szatmár (1711), were linked to the idea of the European balance of power in the English political press during the years of the Hungarian War of Independence. I also intend to show how the Protestant embeddedness of the Hungarian war was perceived, while also touching on the question of how the perception of the Hungarian case in relation to the political concept of the balance of power has changed over time in the English public opinion.
Avner Shamir (University of Copenhagen): Faith or Law: Sixteenth-century Christian, Jewish, and Christian-Jewish Disputations
This paper takes a critical look at the broad topic of religious disputations from the narrow perspective of one somewhat elusive yet emblematic historical source. In 1530, Antonius Margaritha, a convert (previously Jew, now Christian), issued the first comprehensive semi-ethnographic description of (Ashkenazi) Jewish religious life. In the book, Margaritha described the Jewish pilpul, a kind of disputation (Disputatz) practiced at the Jewish yeshiva. Margaritha claimed, not without justification, that in their disputations, the Jews did not debate questions concerning faith (Glaube) but only the text of the Talmud. Margaritha seems to suggest a contrast between what regards the Law (biblical, but more concretely, Talmudic) and what regards the Faith (whatever that may be). But why did Margaritha feel the need to inform the readers about what the Jews did not debate in their disputations? The dichotomy implied by Margaritha – not necessarily a conceptual distinction that either Jews or Christians would apply in the circumstances – as well as other aspects of his description of the phenomenon of pilpul, forces the modern reader to contemplate what was the nature of scholarly and religious disputation in the early sixteenth-century, a time of scholarly as well as religious upheaval and renewal. What was Margaritha’s model for conceiving the Jewish pilpul? Was it the scholarly disputation (disputatio) practiced in the European academies from the High Middle Ages onwards, the religious disputation (Religionsgespräch), common in the age of Reformation, or the polemical Christian-Jewish disputation (Vikuaẖ, וויכוח), known to and feared by European Jews for centuries?Historians usually treat each of the above-mentioned types separately. In my paper, I use Margaritha’s perception of the topic and his unique position (former Jew, now Christian, former student, now propagandist) to rethink the nature of the early modern culture of disputation.
Fabian Sieber (Theologische Fakultät Fulda): A Revolution through Faith – Thomas Müntzer, Theology and the Peaceful Revolution of 1989
By the Wittenberg reformation the relationship between church and state was redifined. This was a revolution, for it led to the integration of the church into the state order and to the developement of a state-church system. The sovereign church regime established in this way is always in crisis when the authorities pursue a policy which, from the perspective of a larger group of Christians, contradicts the principles of the Gospel. Influenced by his experience of National Socialism and his life in the Protestant Church of the GDR, church historian Wolfgang Ullmann (1929 – 2004) developed his own perspective on the question of how Christians can live under the conditions of totalitarian systems. He did this by drawing on and analysing the theology of Thomas Müntzer. Wolfgang Ullmann began to analyse Müntzer’s theology in the context of the Müntzer anniversary in 1975. The starting point for his reflections was Müntzer’s insight that every person belongs to two systems of order: as a human being he is part of an earthly reality, but as a baptised Christian he is already part of a heavenly order. Under these conditions, totalitarian systems cannot rule over Christians, as they always belong to two orders at the same time. Referring back to a discussion between Thomas Müntzer and Georg Spalatin on the question of what constitutes the content of faith, Ullmann develops the sola fide into a mediating authority between the two ordines to which Christians belong. Influenced by his reception of Müntzer, Wolfgang Ullmann began to become involved in the GDR civil rights movement in the 1980s and to shape it. The lecture traces this development, reconstructs Ullmann’s interpretation of Müntzer and relates it to his positions within the framework of the civil rights movement in the GDR. This makes it possible to show that the peaceful revolution of 1989 was at least partly based on a reception Müntzer’s thoughts and ideas and was characterised by his revolution of faith.
József Simon (University of Szeged, Hungary): From Natural Obligation to Resistance in Miklós Bethlen’s (1642-1714) Political Philosophy
Miklós Bethlen’s ‘Preface’ (1708) to his extended Autobiography is one of the first philosophical essays in Hungarian language. With the composition of the Preface, Bethlen intended to provide his readers with the coordinates of society within the framework of which the events of his life could be narrated and were to be evaluated. Bethlen develops his interpretation of the social nature of humans against the double background of Cartesianism and 17th century Natural Law tradition, imposing serious criticism on both of these decisive trends in the history of ideas in Early Modern Europe. While denying the Cartesian concept of mental transparency of human use of language and abandoning any rational basis of sociability in human nature, Bethlen regards body politics as the outcome of interrelated phenomena of political psychology. The raw vision of psychologically motivated pursuit of self-interest as the ultimate theory of social life entails the idea of the resistance of political subjects. The paper investigates Bethlen’s way to the idea of people’s sovereignty and reconstructs his previous position that had based political authority on the idea of obligation according to 17th century natural law theory. The paper cautiously formulates the hypothesis of Samuel Pufendorf’s influence on Bethlen’s political publications in the 1690s.
Marie Škarpová (Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague): Rebellion by the Word of God: Jan Hus’s Discrediting of the Authority of the Council in His Letters
As is known, the conflict between the late medieval Czech priest, master of the Prague University and an ardent supporter of the reform of the Church, Jan Hus (1371–1415), and the Archbishop of Prague eventually reached the Council of Constance, where Hus’s case ended with his death by burning. However, although the supreme authority of the Church publicly declared Hus a heretic, a significant part of the then and later inhabitants of the Kingdom of Bohemia did not identify with this interpretation. On the contrary, they began to consider Hus a saint and his death a martyrdom. Nevertheless, it was Hus himself who first offered the martyrological interpretation of the very end of his life. He did so in the letters he wrote during his imprisonment in Constance. In his letters, Hus not only offered a radically opposite interpretation of his case than the one presented by the Council Fathers, but at the same time, he directly attempted to question the very authority of the Council. As the evidence of the contemporary and later reception of his letters from Constance shows, this attempt was an obvious success in the Kingdom of Bohemia. The paper will focus on an analysis of the rhetorical, genre, intertextual, and argumentation strategies employed in letters of Jan Hus, by which Hus suceeded in interpreting himself as a faithful servant of God and preacher of the Gospel, and his appearance at the Council as a constancy in the truth leading to his martyrdom, while subversively discrediting the credibility of the Church’s supreme authorities. The primary focus of the analysis will be the question of to what extent and in what ways Hus achieved this using the text of the Bible and biblical discourse.
Volodymyr Sklokin (Ukrainian Catholic University | IAS CEU): The Late 18th-Century Justifications of the Revolt Against Tyranny: The Case of Roman Tsebrykov
My paper explores the emergence of theoretical reflection on the revolt against tyranny in the late 18th-century Russian Empire. It takes the case of a philosopher and translator Roman Tsebrikov (1763-1817) and focuses on the Ukrainian dimension of this story. The Ukrainian Cossacks revolted against Russian rule several times from the mid-17th through the early 18th centuries. They always came up with some justifications that referred to the breach of contractual relationship and the need to protect the fatherland against foreign encroachment. However, these justifications were always practical and relied upon rhetoric and practices borrowed from the political culture of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Theoretical reflection on the legitimacy of the revolt against tyranny began in the second half of the 18th century, based on the reception of West European (primarily French and German) Enlightenment and Republican ideas. Roman Tsebrykov’s unpublished philosophical works and diary exemplify the first systematic reflection on this issue in Ukrainian intellectual tradition. Focusing on Tsebrykov’s oeuvre allows us to examine the specificity of the transfer and adaptation of natural law, Republican, and pacifist ideas in the late 18th-century Russian Empire.
Maria Kazimiera Staniszewska (independent scholar (Kraków, Poland): „Occultatae per Lutheranos et Hussitas”. The Image of Protestant Presence in the Canonical Visitations from Spiš Region (1655–1712). Between Propaganda and (Possible) Realities
The paper deals with the selected issues of Early Modern religious conditions and their artistic expression in Spiš (Scepusium), part of the present day Polish-Slovak borderland. From 1412 to 1772 administration of this region was divided between Polish and Hungarian officials. Since 1520s the multiethnic Scepusian population was even more diversified thanks to the popularity of new confessions. It must be noted that in the Kingdom of Hungary (in personal union with Holy Roman Empire) the issue of religious freedom was inherently combined with political struggle as could be seen in numerous uprisings against Habsburg rule. Those rebellions found their repercussions in Spiš region, e.g. in the possession over local parish churches interchanging between Catholics and Protestants (mostly Lutherans). Such dynamics ceased ca. 1670 when strict laws were introduced, forcing Lutherans to abandon churches and limit their freedom of worship to ‘articular’ churches and simple oratories. The paper examines the ways in which Catholic visitors (Scepusian provosts) described Lutheran impact on local churches, with special attention paid to the church decoration. The protocols of visitations from 1655–1712 create the vision of desolate buildings desecrated by ‘heretics’ or ‘rebels’, frequently equated with ‘hussites’. The existing artworks and records show that although such destructive impact of Protestants was in few cases not exaggerated, their presence was in fact often beneficial for local temples, as it left many of them with new elements of furnishing, often re-used by Catholic communities. The main issues of the presentation will be as followed: what elements of church furnishing Early Modern provosts perceived as ‘heretic’? How important for them were various artistic traces of pre-Reformation past? To what extent the harsh rhetoric of their texts was linked to the continuing popularity of Lutheranism among local society, even during the period of repression?
Georg Stenborg (Stockholm University): Johannes Messenius and the Dacke Uprising in 16th-century Sweden
Johannnes Messenius (1579-1636) was a very productive writer on historical and moral subjects, most well known for his extensive work on Swedish and Scandinavian history (and its mythological past, as later generations have regarded it) called “Scondia illustrata”, where he, apart from conducting thorough research in archives and old documents, also propagated his personal views. There are several interesting histories in the Scondia of persons rebelling or being opposed not only out of a common struggle for power but connected with ideological motives. One particularly interesting historical period is the rebellion of Nils Dacke against king Gustavus Vasa, the frontrunner of the reformation in Sweden. His presentation of the deeds and motivations of Dacke and of the king cast light on Messenius’ own views on the tensions during the reformation period. Messenius was himself a highly controversial figure in early 17th century Sweden. He voiced his sharply pointed opinions on mostly every matter, regardless of whether they were popular with the current political trends or not. He was educated in Catholic circles, in itself a very controversial thing under the rule of the Protestant kings Charles IX and Gustavus Adolphus II. He also assembled a big circle of students around him, causing much tension at Uppsala University with the followers of Johannes Rudbeckius, a Lutheran scholastic who became bishop of Västerås. From his long series of controversies and conflicts during his career, he ended up in prison in Kajana in the north-eastern part of Finland in the very outskirts of the Swedish realm, condemned for high treason. During his 20 years there, he carried out through most of his prolific historical and political writing, most of which was not published during his lifetime.
Edit Szegedi (Universitatea Babes-Bolyai): The Forgotten Century and its Many cCnflicts: Lutheranism in 17th Century Transylvania
From all confessions which existed during the Principality of Transylvania orthodox Lutheranism is the least known. Contrary to the (mostly debunked) clichee Lutheranism was not a confession of unquestioned submission to political power and its representatives. The protocols of the synods of the long 17th century (1601-1752) as well as other sources show rather a church and a society full of conflicts and even open rebellion against those who hold power. The answers of the synod, individual ministers and lay members to the challenges of the crisis will be analysed in the paper.
Anna Szyrwińska-Hörig (Universität Vechta): Philipp Jakob Spener‘s Struggle Against Thomas Hobbes‘ Absolutism, or What Do We Know About the Philosophical Origins of Pietist Individualism
Philip Jakob Spener is often called the “father of Pietism” and his text “Pia Desideria” is widely regarded as a Pietist manifesto. Yet the dominant narrative identifies Spener’s thought with Pietism to such an extent that the distinctive features of his theology are often overlooked. For example, Spener’s strong emphasis on the individualism of faith, which was a hallmark of his theology, is now often interpreted as a general Pietist concept. This paper proposes that Spener‘s emphasis on the individual dimension of faith emerged much earlier than is commonly believed, namely at the beginning of his academic career, when Spener opposed the absolutist approach to religiosity as evidenced by his critique of the thought of Thomas Hobbes. The purpose of this paper is to analyse Spener’s attack on Hobbes’ ideas presented in his early work entitled “Dissertatio de Conformatione creaturae rationalis ad Creatorem” (1653) and to show that the theories presented at such an early stage of Spener‘s academic activity can be treated as a philosophical source from which the characteristic Pietist idea of the individualism of faith emerged. By examining Spener’s theology through the lens of his critique of Hobbesian absolutism it becomes clear that the foundations of the Pietist movement were not laid solely by a yearning for reform, but primarily by the rejection of philosophical absolutism that characterised Spener’s theological framework.
Neil Tarrant (UCL): The Italian Reformation in Exile? Francesco Pucci’s Early Theological Thought
Since Delio Cantimori first wrote about him in his Eretici italiani del Cinquecento, the Italian exile religionis causa Francesco Pucci has been understood as an exponent of Italian evangelism, or a product of the Italian Reformation. Historians have further maintained that during his peregrinations through Northern Europe, these ideas informed his reactions to Protestantism and ultimately shaped his idiosyncratic theology. In this paper, I consider how these reformist currents informed Pucci’s early theological ideas, taking into account both the specific ideas formulated by reformers active in Italy in the years prior to and during the Reformation, and the extent to which he was influenced by the textual approaches of Renaissance humanism. I will therefore consider not only what Pucci argued during his dispute with Fausto Sozzini (Socinus) regarding the mortality of Adam, but also the means he employed to justify, and the authorities he invoked, to bolster his arguments.
Özge Terzi Yazıcı (Marmara University): Girolamo Savonarola: A Contrarian Voice in the Early Modern Period and a Pioneer of Reform
Girolamo Savonarola was a Dominican preacher and reformer who was influential in Florence in the 15th century. Savonarola harshly criticised the institutional structure and practices of the Catholic Church. In his sermons, he conveyed his interpretation of ‘true’ Christianity to the people and influenced a broad audience. The Italian preacher argued that Christianity should return to its fundamental principles and thus required renewal. Over time, his reform ideas and criticisms attracted the attention of Catholic authorities, leading to various sanctions. Following a prolonged period of resistance, he was arrested by papal order in 1498 and executed in public. Savonarola’s death did not eliminate the influence of the ideas he defended and could not prevent their spread. His sermons were transcribed and were read by reform-minded individuals throughout Europe. In this context, it is thought that his ideas were also influential on Martin Luther. Historians who lived in the same period as Savonarola, when they became aware of Luther’s discourses, established a connection between the two figures. Later academic studies confirmed this connection, highlighting a unity of discourse between Savonarola and Luther. This emphasised the influence of the Italian preacher’s ideas on Protestantism and contributed to his recognition as a forerunner of the movement. This study primarily aims to analyze Savonarola’s criticisms of the Christian understanding of his time and the reformist ideas, while also highlighting his leadership, which contributed to the emergence of the Protestant movement. To achieve this, the study will first provide an overview of Savonarola’s life, with a particular focus on his resistance to the Catholic Church. Subsequently, examine the reformist ideals he proposed for spiritual salvation. Following the discussion of Savonarola’s critiques and reformist ideas, the study will explore his potential influence on Luther and the Protestant movement.
Dominik Tóth (Military History Institute and Museum): Hussites, Partisans, Guerillas – Analysis of Carl Schmitt’s Theory of the Partisan in the Context of Hussite Wars
In previous papers examining the Hussite wars such terms as ‚Hussite uprising‘ (husitské povstání), – ’Hussite revolution‘ (husitská revoluce) or ‚revolutionary movement‘ (revoluční hnutí) were frequently in use. Warfare based on quick campaigns and a strategy resting on fast change from defence to attack was considered ’Hussite warfare’ (husitské vojenství). In previous works, this phrase was not connected with words such as ‚irregular’ or ‚asymmetric‘, more recently though those are others in use, like ‚partisan‘ and ‚guerilla‘. In the connection of hussite rebels and their warfare, the aforementioned expressions were not examined yet, though the criteria of the partisan were described by the jurist and political theorist Carl Schmitt, in his monography called The Concept of the Political. The main goal of the paper is to examine whether expressions like ’partisan’ or ’guerilla’ are translatable in the context of the operations and structure of Hussite armies between 1420 and 1434.
Linde Van den Eede (KU Leuven): Preaching after the Fall: Jacobus Janssonius (1547-1625) and the Possibility of Knowledge in Seventeenth Century Women’s Convents
The soteriological controversies of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries cannot be confined to the realm of the university alone. The theologians of Leuven combined their scholarly activities with pastoral care, tending to the faithful of early modern Leuven. While Jacobus Janssonius (1547-1625) is primarily known as Regius Professor of Sacred Scripture and as a staunch opponent of the Jesuits’ theological positions, he was also an active preacher in female religious communities. Many of these communities, including convents such as the Urbanist Clares and Annunciates, had longstanding sermon writing traditions, preserving the preaching activity of their confessors and other priests in their manuscripts. Four such manuscripts, written by women, and containing sermons attributed to Janssonius have been preserved. Instead of utilizing academic treatises produced in an university context, this paper will rely on women’s sermon notes, offering a new perspective on the theological debates in early modern Catholicism. After all, the sermons do not shy away from thorny issues such as the Fall and its damaging impact on humanity’s cognitive capacities. In fact, Janssonius appears to have engaged with the topic at length on various occasions. By focusing on original sin and its epistemic consequences, this presentation hopes to shed light on both Janssonius’ understanding of the topic and the implications for the intellectual and religious formation of women religious in the convent.
Jarrik Van Der Biest (KU Leuven): The Theologian behind the Philosopher: Libertus Fromondus (1587-1653) on the Cognitive Effects of Original Sin
The importance of the Leuven professor Libertus Fromondus (1587-1653) for the intellectual transformations of the seventeenth century cannot be overstated. The natural philosopher and theologian played a key role in the reception of and controversies around Copernicanism, Cartesianism and Jansenism within the Catholic world. Recent scholars have moved away from the idea that Fromondus was a “conservative” defender of Aristotelian scholasticism against the new science, not in the least because his opponents’ ideas were not considered “new” or “original” but rather revivals of ancient philosophical schools. Studies, however, have almost exclusively focused on the professor’s legacy as a (natural) philosopher, disregarding Fromondus as a theologian.To better understand his intellectual position vis-à-vis the drastic changes within the intellectual fabric of the seventeenth century, this paper focuses on Fromondus’ theological work as publisher and first apologist of Cornelius Jansenius’ infamous Augustinus (1640). In his Brevis anatomia humanis (1641), Fromondus defended the thought of his friend and mentor against attacks by the Jesuits, through an original synthesis of Jansenius’ Augustinianism and Thomist elements. Central to this presentation is the question on the cognitive effects of original sin, and whether Fromondus leaned more towards a pessimist Augustinian conception or a more positive Thomist assessment of postlapsarian human capacities. This will shed light on his conception of the epistemological status of (ancient) philosophy within theology. As such, this presentation takes a first step towards unraveling Fromondus’ understanding of the relationship between philosophy and theology at the threshold of modernity.
Anat Vaturi (University of Haifa): To Rebel or not to Rebel? Protestant Responses to Catholic Violence in Reformation Cracow
The proposed lecture examines how the Protestant community in Cracow responded to anti-Protestant violence in the late 16th century, particularly following the 1574 destruction of the Brog church. While some community members initially called for violent revenge, including proposed attacks on Catholic institutions, the Protestant leadership ultimately chose a measured response that prioritized legal and political channels over armed rebellion. This decision reflected both pragmatic considerations and the community’s self-conception as part of the noble political class. Rather than framing the attacks as religious persecution, Protestant leaders deliberately characterized them as violations of noble rights and public peace, thereby transforming a potential religious conflict into a socio-political issue. They pursued justice through existing legal mechanisms and sought political solutions through provincial assemblies and appeals to royal authority. While not always successful in preventing future violence, their approach helped maintain the framework of Polish religious tolerance by working within established institutions rather than resorting to rebellion. While analyzing Protestants’ dilemmas and responses, the proposed lecture will claim that on one hand, their measured response allowed reconciliation arrangements. Still, on the other hand, it facilitated the shift in Protestants’ status from equal participants to a tolerated minority.
Yasmin Vetter: The Marian Exile: A Peaceful Resistance?
After the early death of Edward VI in 1553 his Catholic sister Mary I ascended the English throne. With Mary, Catholicism made its return to the English realm. While at first glance her accession seemed to be peaceful, already her first proclamations, the imprisonments of leading English Protestants and martyrs such as John Hooper or John Ponet and the leaving of the stranger churches left no doubts that the English Protestants were soon facing religious persecution if they refused to conform to her (religious) politics. Therefore the English Protestants had to decide whether they would choose martyrdom, convert and conform or leave their native land for exile. This paper will follow those English Protestants who choose exile over conforming or martyrdom. Rebellion and Resistance can have many faces. However, this paper will argue that for the Marian exiles, exile itself was a way of showing a peaceful resistance to their Catholic ruler and to prepare for their battle against Catholicism. In choosing exile, the Marian exiles were still obeying Romans 13, were accepting the worldly consequences of not converting and confirming and therefore were avoiding further sin and divine punishment. This decision was further supported by the exiles belief that their Catholic persecution was a divine punishment for not previously reforming the church enough. Furthermore, this paper will demonstrate that in choosing exile, the Marian exiles were fighting for a better tomorrow. Exile allowed them to further educate their next generation of leading Protestant theologians and clergymen and hence to reform their future Protestant church and therefore prepare for their fight against Catholicism and sin.
Christian Westerink (ETF Leuven | Protestante Theologische Universiteit, Utrecht): “What, Then, Should Be Stated About the Ideas?” The Theory of Divine Ideas in the Loci Theologici of Johann Gerhard (1582-1637)
The theory of Divine ideas played an important role in medieval theology. Especially in relation to God’s creation and His knowledge of creation. The locus classicus on this subject is Augustine’s 46th question in his De Diversis Quaestionibus Octoginta Tribus (388-390). After him, most notably Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (5th/6th century) and Anselm of Canterbury (1033/4-1109) wrote on the ideas. From the thirteenth century the ideas became more important and many medieval theologians discussed them. The theory of Divine ideas appears not only in the writings of medieval theologians, but also in the writings of early modern Roman Catholic and Protestant theologians, both Lutheran and Reformed. In this paper I discuss the passage on the Divine ideas in the famous work Loci Theologici by the important Lutheran theologian Johann Gerhard (1582-1637). He seems to have been the first Lutheran theologian to write about Divine ideas in a dogmatic work. Before him, only a few Lutheran theologians and philosophers wrote about the ideas in their philosophical writings. This, together with Gerhard’s importance in the development of the Lutheran theological tradition, makes him an interesting figure for understanding the development of the theory of the Divine ideas in early modern Protestantism. This paper will consider the content of Gerhard’s discussion of the ideas and how his view relates to other Lutheran and medieval predecessors.
Roger Whittall, (Australian Lutheran College, Adelaide): Yves Congar on “True and False Reform”
In the early 1950s, the French ecclesiologist Yves Congar produced his study on “True and False Reform in the Church”. He evaluated a range of historic reform movements including those of Luther, Calvin and Zwingli, and elucidated four principles for genuine reform. While initially regarded with deep suspicion by the Vatican authorities, this book became hugely influential in the Roman Catholic Church and is credited as providing one of the key impulses for Pope John XXIII calling the Second Vatican Council for the reform of modern Catholicism. Congar himself provided substantial input into the major council documents, and then continued to be heavily involved in the ecumenical dialogue that flowed from its renewed commitment to the search for church unity. My proposed paper will present a summary of Congar’s writing and personal involvement in the work of reform, and seek to apply his findings and experience to an exploration of some of the questions underlying the theme of this conference. Is church reform possible without “rebellion”, or are the two aspects inextricably – and even necessarily – bound up together? Alternatively, does the linking of reform and rebellion inevitably compromise the nature of the church as “communion”, and threaten its very existence?
Peter Wijnberger (PThU, Utrecht & ETF Leuven): Conflict or Agreement? Lutheran and Reformed Ideas on Christ ’s Omniscience
In his work Theologia vera (1594), Franciscus Junius (1591–1677) explains different forms of theology, most notably by making a distinction between archetypal and ectypal theology. In this context, Junius also speaks about the theology of Christ, that is to say: how Christ has knowledge of God. He posits that Christ has the most perfect knowledge through His union with God; however, due to His human nature, this knowledge remains finite. Junius’s notion of the ‘theology of union’ significantly influenced Reformed theology, with Johann Heinrich Alsted (1588-1638) among its prominent proponents. Additionally, Theologia vera impacted Lutheran theology, though Junius’s concept of the theology of union became controversial. In particular, Abraham Calov (1612-1686) and Johannes Andreas Quenstedt (1617-1688) critiqued this concept in their main works published in the latter half of the 17th century, citing Junius and Alsted as representatives of the Reformed perspective. This paper will engage in a dialogue with these four theologians, presenting their views and examining their arguments. The paper will conclude with an analysis of the debate on the concept of the ‘theology of union’.
Marcin Wisłocki (University of Wrocław): Echoes of Caspar Schwenckfeld’s Theological Views in Early Modern Art
There is no doubt that Caspar Schwenckfeld (1489-1561), who had to leave his native Silesia and lead the life of an itinerant theologian, was one of the most original thinkers in European Protestantism. While the place and role of Schwenckfeld’s theological work in the universe of Protestant thought has been the subject of scholarly work for decades, the problem of the impact of his views on ecclesiastical architecture and the visual arts has not yet been the subject of a systematic and comprehensive monograph. Previous research has focused on Schwenckfeld’s attitude to the question of images, usually discussed as an exemplum in the broader context of his epoch. Attention has also been paid to individual examples of works in which echoes of Schwenckfeld’s writings can be discerned – importantly, these include exceptionally early testimonies to the influence of Reformation views in European ecclesiastical art. A good example of this is the Assumption altarpiece from the parish church in Lubin/Lüben (1522) as an unprecedented example of the visualisation of the need for a Christian’s moral transformation, formulated with a critical assessment of the attitudes of the clergy of the time. However, in view of the theologian’s strong emphasis on spiritualism and freedom from external and visible forms, or, finally, in view of the postulated concept of the invisible Church, the current state of research cannot cause any astonishment. This planned paper is an attempt at a preliminary characterisation of the possible influences that can be seen in the art of Silesia and other territories of the former German Reich.
Jakub Wolak (Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences): Between Contract and Covenant, or a Theologico-Political Solution to the Riddle of the Lubomirski Rebellion (1665–66)
The 1665–66 rebellion of Jerzy Lubomirski against John Casimir Vasa, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, resulted from the distrust of the noble estate towards the attempts at strenghtening the dynastical power at the expense of the democratic form of royal election established in 1573. Lubomirski, convicted of treason by the Royal Court, achieved military victory which led to an agreement: the revocation of judgement and status quo ante in electoral matters. Both actors stepped off the stage: Lubomirski went on exile, while the King resigned in 1668. Such riddling finale resulted from mutual loss of authority, and marked a rupture within the symbolic order.The rebellion, or rokosz, was one of the fundamental political institutions of the noble estate. Ius resistandi was legally defined in the 1573 Henrician Articles, a contract signed by each elected King and applauded by i.a. Vindiciae contra tyrannos. Rokosz, seen as a guarantee of the noble freedom, resulted in a temporary state of exception. One could present it as an instance of popular, anti-absolutist, estate-based sovereignty – putting Carl Schmitt’s famous Ausnahmezustand thesis on its head. The contract binding the King did not fit into schemes of mutual obligation, for there was no contract binding the noble subjects. It is not the case that the nobles were not bound by any obligation – they swore allegiance and deeply respected the King’s sacred authority. The symbolical assymetry did not pertain to the (non)-existence of obligations, but to their different characters. Whereas King’s obligation to his subjects was contractual, the nobles’ obligation remained in the form of a covenant, originating from medieval political theology, expressed in Poland by Stanisław Orzechowski in Quincunx (1564). Comparative analysis of this text, the Henrician articles, and chosen theories of mutual obligation (Buchanan, Althusius and others) shall allow me to depict this symbolical assymetry in more detail.
Takayuki Yagi (Aoyama Gakuin University): Diego Álvarez and Synchronic Contingency: Advancing the Dominican Defense Against Molinism
Diego Álvarez played a pivotal role in defending the Dominican position against Molinism during the early 17th century. Despite his significant contributions, he is often overshadowed by ‘Bañezianism,’ linking him closely to Domingo Báñez. This paper explores his unique contributions by focusing on the idea of synchronic contingency, which he used to harmonize divine sovereignty and human freedom. His arguments in his major work, ‘De auxiliis divinæ gratiæ et humani arbitrii viribus et libertate’ will be provided. Compared with Báñez’s articulation of the contingency, Álvarez might have advanced the Dominican argument significantly against Molinist critique. In utilizing key scholastic tools, Álvarez’s concept might have been informed by the work of 14th-century English theologian Thomas Bradwardine, particularly his treatise “De causa Dei.” This further explains why Reformed Protestant theologians relied on him in debates with Arminians, a similar controversy that occurred around the same time as the Controversy de Auxiliis.
Ueli Zahnd (Institut d’histoire de la Réformation, University of Geneva): Huldrych Zwingli’s Doctrine of Predestination
When one thinks of the doctrine of predestination during the Reformation, Huldrych Zwingli is certainly not the first person who comes to mind. However, it was Zwingli whom Melanchthon explicitly named as an opponent when he revised the doctrine of predestination in a lecture on his Loci communes in 1533, and Zwingli actually expressed himself very emphatically on the subject in several places in his work, and especially in his commentaries on Paul. This is all the more interesting as the Zurich library also has a copy of John Eck’s Chrysopassus praedestinationis, a detailed survey of the early church and medieval doctrines of predestination published in 1514, which Zwingli owned and obviously studied in detail, for it is full of annotations by his own hand. But how does Zwingli’s doctrine of predestination fit in between the traditional approaches of the medieval church and Wittenberg criticism? This is the question I want to explore in this paper.
Márton Zászkaliczky (University of Szeged): Obedience and Disobedience, Self-defence and Rebellion in 16th Century Protestant Political Theology in Hungary
Following in Luther’s and Melanchthon’s footsteps, Protestant theology in Hungary also reflected on the nature of social relations and political power while conceptualising the position of the Christian church living in contemporary society. When the relation of the Christian community and its environment was described the issues of obedience and disobedience were discussed together with the questions of self-defence and rebellion. These were interpreted in a rather conservative way adopting Luther’s teachings on the social order, but actualized in the social, political and ecclesiastical context in which certain Protestant communities emerged and existed. Accordingly, in my paper I chart how various Protestant theologians (Mátyás Dévai, Johannes Honterus, Péter Melius Juhász, Péter Bornemisza, György Enyedi) discussed such issues in diverse social situations of different parts of the tripartite Hungary, representing the Hungarian Lutherans under the Ottoman occupation, the Saxon Lutherans in Transylvania, the Hungarian Reformed in Debrecen, the Hungarian Lutherans in the Western part of the Hungarian Kingdom, and the Hungarian Antitrinitarians in Transylvania. Their teachings on social relations could be interpreted as part of their theology of the Christian community they were building, therefore, to be viewed as the theological foundation of the creation of alternative communities in opposition to the prevailing power structures. The paper will conclude by referring to the political ideas of the Bocskai rebellion (1604-1606) in which the social teachings of 16th century Protestant Reformation including the vision of the elect nationhood of Hungarian Protestants were fused with the ideology and concepts of the ancient constitutionalism of the Hungarian nobility inherited from Medieval times.
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