Protestant majorities and minorities in early modern Europe : confessional boundaries and contested identities

## Contents drew extensively on as ermon by Heinrich Bullinger, the influentialS wiss Reformed theologian. As Ittzéss uggests,a tatime when Lutheran and Reformed theologianswere increasingly at odds confessionally, theircommon stance with respect to the immortality of the soul showst he ongoing potential for philosophical and theological cross-fertilisation between rival communities. Questionss urrounding the soul are also at the heart of Alessandra Celati's chapter "AP eculiar Reformed Minority: Italian Protestant Physicians between Religious Propaganda, Inquisitorial Repression and Freedom of Thought".This focusses on the reception of the Reformation in the sixteenth-centuryI talian medical community and its impactonthe wider horizon of the European Reformation,especially in its radical streams. Celati shows that the physician'soffice as doctors of body and soul, gavet hem an important spiritual role in their communities, frequently causing them to come into conflict with the Inquisition. The records of the Inquisition show that many Italian doctors were attracted to Reformed doctrine. However, their own education and especially its radical Aristotelian(Averroistic) tenor, often led these same doctors to unconventional views of the soul and its relation to God. In advocating an unprecedented freedom of thought, Celati shows how they sought to overcome religious boundaries at the very moment when the different confessions were entrenching themselves, ever moredeeply, in positions of doctrinal rigidity. Asimilar desire to break down traditional boundaries, albeit towards av ery different end, wasinevidence in early modern Ramism,which is the subject of Simon Burton'schapter "From Minority Discourse to Universal Method: Polish Chaptersinthe Evolution of Ramism".Burton examinesaspects of the complex evolution of Ramism in the seventeenthcentury, examining especially the tension between its increasing marginalisation and its universalist aspirations. In particular, he considers the wayi nw hich both pragmatic and theological considerations motivated the adoption of Ramism in minority contexts and fuelled its ongoing transformation. The first case-study focusseso nB artholomäus Keckermann,o ne of the leading intellectuals of the early seventeenth century. Keckermann'sown desire to relievethe embattled Reformedcommunityofh is nativeDanzig, under siege from ahostile Lutheran majority, led him from being a critic of Ramist educational methods to becoming apioneer in theiradaptation. This leads into discussion of Jan Amos Comenius, the visionary Czech philosopher and theologian. Even more than Keckermann, Comenius saw the potential of Ramism to contributet ot he reform and reunification of divided Christendom. From Keckermann to Comenius (via Johann Heinrich Alsted) we can therefore chart the wayi nw hich different minority experiences, withint he broader Reformed community, shapedthe evolution of Ramism and prepared the wayfor universal reformation. Magdalena Luszczynska'schapter "Inter-Faith Disputation,Christian-Hebraism or aL eadership Campaign?: The Multi-Dimensional Character of Marcin Czechowic'sAnti-Jewish Polemics" presents an account of the wayinwhich Marcin Czechowic, atheologian of the Polish Brethren,exploited the "otherness" of the Jewish faith in order both to distance himself and his Anti-Trinitarianviews from accusations of "Judaising" and to position himself as the natural leader of the Anti-Trinitarians. Examining in detail Czechowic'sAnti-Jewish polemics, which were written in the form of dialogue with aJewish Rabbi, Luszczynskashows how Czechowic'sinter-faithdiscussion with aJew becamethe implicit framework for intra-faith discussion with his Anti-Trinitarian rivals. In particular, by presenting himself as ad eeply-learned Christian Hebraist -av eneer, as Luszczynska demonstrates -he wasa ble to cleverly address the issues of pre-existence and ## Gábor Ittzés From Bullinger to Speckerand Garcaeus The Reformed Origins of the Lutheran Doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul in the Sixteenth Century ## 1. 5B asic information has long been readily available on him in standardhandbooks, cf.,e.g.,ADB 3:513-514, NDB 3:12, BBKL 1:809-811. See also Gordon: 2002, with ahelpful short bibliography of majorcontributions from the second half of the twentieth century. Of recent book-length reevaluations, see especially Campi/Opitz:2007. 6C f. the project website on the homepage of the Institute of Swiss Reformation Studies at http:// www.irg.uzh.ch/hbbw.html. From Bullinger to Specker and Garcaeus ## 23 exceptional publication success 7 but has remained in printe vers ince. 8 It is a bulky work of some 1,800 pages in which Bullinger treats fundamental loci of Christian theologys uch as the Wo rd of God, faith, justification, the TenC ommandments, the Apostles' Creed, the Trinity, offices, prayer, the Church, sacraments and many more. 9 My mainconcern will be with Sermon 40 (the tenth and last sermon in the fourthdecade) on the rational soul and its immortality (salvation), but Iw ill also reference another influential sermon cycle by Bullinger, his homiletic commentary on Revelation (VD16: B9635). 10 Melchior Specker (?-1569) wasapastor and professor in Strasbourg. Only the basic outlinesofhis life are known, and even those only fragmentarily. Anativeof Isny im Allgäu, he wasastudent of the great Hebraist Paul Fagius (1504-1549) and ended up teaching, first, logic and metaphysics, and later, theology at the Strasbourg Academy. 11 Half adozen of his works are still extant, 12 and onlyone of them wasreprinted (shortly) after his death.This piece wasfirst published under the title Vo mLeiblichen To dt in 1560, issued again the next year and finally for a third time, posthumously, in 1571. Consisting of over six hundred pages, it is a bulky book divided into three parts. 13 It is essentially acollection of thematically arranged quotations taken from the Bible and 1500 years of theological reflection, including the ChurchF athers, medieval theologians and Reformation divines, whose names Specker carefully lists at theend ofthe volume (1560,GG3 r/v ). 7Aquick bibliographic search in VD16 and major library databases shows that by 1600 there existed, in addition to six Latin printings of the complete series (1552 The contributors to this volume examine the complex and dynamic role that Protestant majorities and minorities played in shaping the Reformations of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In doing so, it offers an important perspective on the range of intellectual, social, economic, political, theological and ecclesiological factors that governed intra- and inter-confessional encounter in the early modern period. While the principal focus is on the situation of different Protestant majority and minority groups, many of the contributions also engage the relation of Protestants and Catholics, with a number also considering early modern Christian dialogue with Muslims and Jews. The volume is organised into five sections, which together provide a comprehensive picture of Protestant majorities and minorities. The first section explores intellectual trajectories, especially those which promoted confessional unity or sought to break down confessional boundaries. The second section, taking the neglected Spanish Reformation as an important case-study, examines the clandestine aspect of minority activities and the efforts of majorities to control and suppress them. The third section pursues a similar theme but examines it through the lens of Flemish and Walloon Reformed refugee communities in Germany and the Netherlands, demonstrating the way in which confessional factors could lead to the integration or exclusion of minorities. The fourth section examines marginal or peripheral Reformations, whether geographically or doctrinally understood, focussing on attempts to implement reform in the shadow of the Ottoman Empire. Finally, the fifth section looks at confessional identity and otherness as a principal theme of majority and minority relations, providing both theoretical and practical frameworks for its evaluation. ..