Reforming church history : the impact of the Reformation on early modern European historiography

The reformation of the Western Church was a series of momentous events that uprooted many things previously taken for granted. In the wake of these dramatic changes, adherents to the various emerging confessional cultures in the sixteenth century sought assurance with the help of historiography. They created specific narratives of the events surrounding the Reformation and a historical continuity from early Christianity to legitimize their own religious teaching and practice. Subsequently, the Reformation, as a process of reform, renewal, or upheaval of church and society, shaped the way contemporary actors and the following generations dealt with history in the pre-modern era. The authors of the present volume pursue inquiries into these and other related developments, taking a wide range of denominational perspectives in various European contexts into account, until well into the eighteenth century. PREFACE TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION (Daniel Gehrt, Markus Matthias and Sascha Salatowsky) 1. EMERGING NARRATIVES REFORMATION HISTORY IN THE EYES OF EARLY MODERN CATHOLICS (Kenneth G. Appold) HISTORY WRITTEN BY THE VICTIMS. Reformation as Reflected in Sixteenth-Century Hutterite Chronicles (Martin Rothkegel) 2. CULTIVATING PROTESTANT PERSPECTIVES REFORMATIONSGESCHICHTSSCHREIBUNG IM UMFELD DER WITTENBERGER UNIVERSITÄTSTHEOLOGIE DES FRÜHEN 17. JAHRHUNDERTS (Daniel Bohnert) HISTORY AND REFORMATION IN SWISS REFORMED BIBLES (Bruce Gordon) THE REFORMATION AND EARLY “HISTORICAL THEOLOGY”. Heinrich Alting and John Forbes of Corse (Aza Goudriaan) AGITUR DE ANIMAE SALUTE. Geschichtliches Denken in Veit Ludwig von Seckendorffs Historia Lutheranismi (Markus Matthias) LUTHER AND THE GOTHS. Reformation in the Swedish Historiography of the Seventeenth Century (Steffie Schmidt) 3. HISTORIOGRAPHIC CONTENTIONS LUTHERANISM AS HERESEY. Louis Maimbourg’s Gallican View of Church History (Andreea Badea) LOOKING BACK INTO THE PAST. New Understanding of Church History in the Early Modern Period (Sascha Salatowsky) THE REFORMATION IN ANTITRINITARIAN ACCOUNTS OF CHURCH HISTORY (Pablo Toribio) 4. CHANGING APPROACHES ARGUING FOR THE MORAL NECESSITY OF REFORMATION HISTORY. Ernst Salomon Cyprian’s Historiographic Use of Natural Law in Defense of the Lutheran Church (Daniel Gehrt) BETWEEN CONTINUITY AND DISCONTINUITY. The Narrative of Witnesses of the Evangelical Truth and the Reformation as an Era in Writings by Jacques Basnage and Christoph Matthäus Pfaff (Wolf-Friedrich Schäufele) THE CHURCH HISTORIAN’S DESK. Barthold Nicolaus Krohn and His Working Papers (Markus Friedrich) INDEX OF AUTHORS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS INDEX OF PERSONS