Religious Identity in an Early Reformation Community: Augsburg, 1517 to 1555 (Studies in Central European Histories, 45)

Debate over the usefulness of the confessionalization paradigm for understanding how Europeans responded to religious differences resulting from the Reformation has obscured people's experiences during the early years of reform. Based on interrogations recorded in Augsburg, Germany, in the first half of the sixteenth century, the compelling portraits of individual believers presented in this book provide a rare insight into the lives of ordinary people during one of the most controversial periods in religious history. Speaking about their faith and encounters with others in their own words, they rephrase the debate in terms of contemporary experiences. The resulting study challenges previous assumptions about the importance of belief in constructing religious identities and reveals the potential for accommodation amidst conflict. Based on sixteenth-century interrogation records, this book provides a rare insight into the religious lives of ordinary people, challenging the importance of belief in constructing religious identities and revealing the potential for accommodation during the controversies of the early Reformation.