This volume investigates the methods of political theory in the later Middle Ages. It presents both, case studies of prominent authors like Marsilius of Padua, William of Ockham or Baldus de Ubaldis, and the attempt to outline the phenomenon of political consultation and its conditions from late antiquity to the Reformation. Questions of specific textual traditions in political commentaries are treated as well as the particular environment in which the authors struggled for influence. The authors of this volume, international specialists in their field and younger historians, came together in...

This volume is the first attempt to bring together in a comparative study all the evidence concerning the development of the ideas of Luther and Melanchthon on the cura religionis of secular magistrates. Besides yielding a more complete historical narrative than has hitherto been available, this approach has made it possible to show (among other things) that Luther's ideas on the subject developed and changed over time in tandem with developments and changes in Melanchthon's ideas and in response to the same historical pressures. Where past studies have tended to emphasize the...

This book offers an overview of bourgeois culture and aspects of everyday life in the German cultural area from the Renaissance to the end of the 18th century. At the same time the reader is introduced to fundamental research problems. The spectrum of topics ranges from life styles to clothing and eating habits, from consciousness of time to rites de passage, birth, marriage and death. Special attention is paid to the role of female and male citizens in music, literature and fine arts. This is a concise introduction for history and art history students, scholars and everyone interested...

This volume presents a selection of essays undertaken by participants in an NEH Summer Seminar in 2004 on the topic of the seven deadly sins, viewed individually and as a whole, as part of the Begriffsgeschichte of the Middle Ages and beyond in which concepts are constructed within the cultural milieus in which they function. The essays in the first part study the political and social ethics of medieval communities. In the second part, the institutional imperatives within the Church of formulating and teaching about the capital vices are the focus of research. In the final section, the...