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David Mayes proposes a new religious paradigm in early modern rural Germany. “Communal Christianity,” the religious practice prevalent among peasants in mid-sixteenth-century rural Upper Hesse is juxtaposed with the more formally organized “Confessional” sects (e.g. Lutheran, Calvinist). The author describes Communal Christianity’s characteristics and persistence in the face of attempts at confessionalization during the period of 1576-1648 and links its success in part to the decree of the 1555 Religious Peace of Augsburg that only one confessionalized Christian sect be officially recognized in a territory. Confessional sects became marginalized, and more locally well-established peasant communes retained power. The 1648 Peace of Westphalia encouraged reconciliation of confessionalized Christian sects, paradoxically spurring the decline of Communal Christianity in certain locales.
Price: $174.00
Pages: 374
Publisher: Brill
Imprint: Brill
Series: Studies in Central European Histories
Publication Date:
15 August 2004
ISBN: 9780391042254
Format: Other
'...Mayes work illuminates the considerable capability and versatility of early modern German rural communities in navigating their way amid larger political and religious forces, and it contributes to a growing literature that attempts to take adequate account of rural as well as urban communities in describing early modern religion.'
Christopher Boyd Brown, American Historical Review, 2005.
‘Mayes has put together an interesting, if not compelling thesis, one which poses a substantial challenge to the standard version of confessionalization. The most valuable aspect, to my mind, lies in the approach to post-Westphalian Germany. It is here, more than anywhere else, where the author succeeds in his goal of finding a way out of a "now-petrified narrative" of confessional history. For this, despite its weaknesses, the book merits serious consideration.’
William Bradford Smith, Oglethorp University, Sixteenth Century Journal
Christopher Boyd Brown, American Historical Review, 2005.
‘Mayes has put together an interesting, if not compelling thesis, one which poses a substantial challenge to the standard version of confessionalization. The most valuable aspect, to my mind, lies in the approach to post-Westphalian Germany. It is here, more than anywhere else, where the author succeeds in his goal of finding a way out of a "now-petrified narrative" of confessional history. For this, despite its weaknesses, the book merits serious consideration.’
William Bradford Smith, Oglethorp University, Sixteenth Century Journal
David Mayes, Ph.D. (2002), Early Modern European History, University of Wisconsin-Madison, is Assistant Professor of History at Sam Houston State University. He has published articles in The Sixteenth Century Journal and Zeitschrift des Vereins für Hessische Geschichte und Landeskunde.