This collection of eleven essays furthers the dialogue between early modern history and the social sciences through an analysis of Fernand Braudel's "The Mediterranean" and "The Mediterranean World of Philip II."

Bringing together scholars from Europe, America, and Australia, this volume explores the more fantastic elements of popular religious belief: ghosts, werewolves, spiritualism, animism, and of course, witchcraft. These traditional religious belief and practices are frequently treated as marginal in more synthetic studies of witchcraft and popular religion, yet Protestants and Catholics alike saw ghosts, imps, werewolves, and other supernatural entities as populating their world. Embedded within notarial and trial records are accounts that reveal the integration of folkloric and theological...

A dozen selected history-of-science papers from the October 1999 incarnation of the annual 16th-Century Studies Conference, held in St. Louis, explore the work and legacy of Paracelsus (1493-1541), seen today as a bridge between old and new ways of thinking about medicine; and opinions about astrology during the period.

Scientific ideas inspired by religious, magical, and alchemical themes competed alongside traditional Aristotelian science and the emerging mechanical philosophy in the early modern era. At the center of this ferment was a quirky and creative German physician, Paracelsus, whose religious-alchemical worldview served as an inspiration for countless scientific innovators. This collection is about Paracelsus and the wide range of issues he explored, and ones taken up by many who were directly or indirectly affected by the same mental universe that sustained his thought and writings. This volume...

This volume presents essays from eight scholars who trained with Robert Kingdon, a vanguard of early modern studies. He required students to go to primary sources, yet they were free to pursue their own curiosity. No matter what their approach to the sources, students were held to a high standard of thoroughness, precision, and attention to detail. This festschrift displays something of the diversity of language, source materials, methods, and visions that Kingdon encouraged in his students during his forty-year career in graduate education.

The role of the saints became a theological dilemma for scholars and laity alike throughout the Reformation era. As Protestants tried to remove themselves from the hold of the Catholic Church, the cult of the saints remained a formidable presence. Through the analysis of 180 pamphlets published by reformers in German-speaking Europe, Carol Heming shows the struggle Protestants faced in purging the cult of the saints from their culture and religion. Heming examines why Reformation leaders so strongly and universally denounced the cult of the saints and whether the holy patrons disappeared from...

The role of the saints became a theological dilemma for scholars and laity alike throughout the Reformation era. Through the analysis of 180 pamphlets published by reformers in German-speaking Europe, Heming shows the struggle Protestants faced in purging the cult of the saints from their culture and religion.

Diane looks at the Paris Chambre de l'Edit in this well-researched study about the special royal law court that adjudicated disputes between French Huguenots and the Catholics. Using archival records of the court's criminal cases, Margolf analyses the connections to three major issues in early modern French and European history: religious conflict and coexistence, the growing claims of the French crown to define and maintain order, and competing concepts of community and identity in the French state and society. Based on previously unexplored archival materials, Margolf examines the court...

Diane Margolf looks at the Paris Chambre de l'Edit in this well-researched study about the special royal law court that adjudicated disputes between French Huguenots and the Catholics. Using archival records of the court's criminal cases, Margolf analyses the connections to three major issues in early modern French and European history: religious conflict and coexistence, the growing claims of the French crown to define and maintain order, and competing concepts of community and identity in the French state and society. Based on previously unexplored archival materials, Margolf examines the...

This careful study explores puritan attitudes through the life and works of Elizabethan minister George Gifford. He was on the frontlines of religious controversies in a time when the English church was being shaped by Protestant evangelicals who felt compelled to carry their understanding of 'true religion' to all corners of England. Known among themselves as 'the godly' or 'gospellers' and to their enemies as 'puritans' or 'precisionists', these ministers believed the Church of England was only partially reformed. Gifford tried to convert the many parishioners who he believed to be...