In recent decades scholars have shown considerable and steadily increasing interest in medieval discussions of rights. This book aims to make a significant contribution to scholarship by providing a detailed and systematic account of Conrad Summenhart's (c.1458-1502) language of individual rights. Starting from the view that Summenhart's Opus septipartitum contains a carefully constructed and comprehensive theory of individual rights, this study analyses Summenhart's theory in its historical context, treating it as a culmination of late medieval discourse on individual rights. This...

This project examines the important implications of printed vernacular appeals to a nascent public by the reformer William Tyndale, by religious conservatives such as Thomas More, and by Henry VIII's regime in the volatile early years of the English Reformation. The book explores the nature of this public (materially and as a discursive concept) and the various ways in which Tyndale provoked and justified public discussion of the central religious issues of his day. Tyndale's writings raised important issues of authority and legitimacy and challenged many of the traditional notions of...

Scotland, the Netherlands, migration, universities, book trade, Republic of Letters, Enlightenment

The time of the transition from the Middle Ages to the onset of early modernity (c. 1400-1550) is a very complex one. It brought what on first sight appear to be contradictory developments. Human creativity and freedom became much more important; yet, at the same time, the foundations were laid for systems that allowed control to be exercised over virtually every aspect of human social life. How can we put these two phenomena together? Which tendency is the stronger one? The contributions in this volume focus on the tension between creativity and norm-making from the perspective of different...

William of Ockham's (ca. 1288-1347) Opus nonaginta dierum has long been of interest to historians for his theory of rights. Yet the results of this interest has been uneven because most studies do not take sufficient account of the defences of Franciscan poverty already articulated by his fellow Franciscans, Bonagratia of Bergamo, Michael of Cesena, and Francis of Marchia. This book therefore presents and analyzes Ockham's account of property rights alongside those of his confreres. This contextualization of Ockham's theory corrects many misconceptions about his theory of property, natural...

"And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light." (2 Corinthians 11:14) Paul's warning of false apostles and false righteousness struck a special chord in the period of the European Reformations. At no other time was the need for the discernment of spirits felt as strongly as in this newly confessional age. More than ever, the ability to discern was a mark of holiness and failure the product of demonic temptation. The contributions to this volume chart individual responses to a problem at the heart of religious identity. They show that the problem of discernment was...

Die Studie Johannes XXII., Avignon und Europa widmet sich mit einem innovativen Ansatz einem kontrovers diskutierten Pontifikat und ordnet hierbei anhand der in den papstlichen Registerserien uberlieferten kurialen Korrespondenz klassische Themen, wie die Auseinandersetzung zwischen Kaisertum und Papsttum, in einen europaischen Vergleichshorizont ein. Fallstudien, die von den Britischen Inseln bis zum Mittelmeer reichen, geben daneben den Mechanismen, Strukturen und Akteuren der papstlichen Politik eine deutliche Kontur, wobei auch die grundsatzliche Rolle des Papsttums im...

Witches of the North. Scotland and Finnmark is a comparative study of witchcraft persecution in Scotland and Finnmark, Norway. A wide range of quantitative and qualitative analyses based mainly on legal documents shed light on the witch-hunts in the two regions during the seventeenth century. Statistical analyses give information about tendencies in the source material in total. The qualitative chapters contain close-readings of trial documents, wherein the various voices heard during a trial are analysed: the voice of the scribe, the voice of the law, the voice of the accused person...

This study reconstructs for the first time Marguerite of Navarre's leadership of a broad circle of nobles, prelates, humanist authors, and commoners, who sought to advance the reform of the French church along evangelical (Protestant) lines. Hitherto misunderstood in scholarship, they are revealed to have pursued, despite persecution, a consistent reform program from the Meaux experiment to the end of Francis I's reign through a variety of means: fostering local church reform, publishing a large corpus of religious literature, high-profile public preaching, and attempting to shape the...

This book reveals the fundamental role rape played in promoting Dutch solidarity from 1609-1725. Through the identification of particular enemies, it directed attention away from competing regional, religious, and political loyalties. Patriotic Protestant authors highlighted atrocities committed by the Spanish and lower-class criminals. They conversely cast Dutch men as protectors of their wives and daughters - an appealing characterization that allowed the Dutch to take pride in a sense of moral superiority and justify the Dutch Revolt. After the conclusion of peace with Spain in 1648,...