The Long European Reformation: Religion, Political Conflict and the Search for Confirmity, 1350-1750 (European History in Perspective)

Peter G. Wallace interweaves the Reformation into the transformations of political institutions, socioeconomic structures, gender relations, and cultural values in early modern Europe. In approaching the European Reformation as a long-term process, Wallace argues that the classic sixteenth-century religious struggles with the resolutions proposed by reformers such as Luther, were not fully realized for most Christians until the early eighteenth century. The image of Martin Luther nailing his ninety-five theses to a church door has long epitomised the dramatic turning-point from religious dissent to religious reformation. Luther's act, however, was only one of dozens of critical moments in the struggle for religious reform in Europe and the quest among Christians for a purer faith between the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries. In this detailed yet accessible study, Peter G. Wallace adeptly interweaves the influential events of the early modern religious reformation with the transformations of political institutions, socioeconomic structures, gender relations, and cultural values throughout Europe. In his examination of the European Reformation as a longterm process, Wallace reconnects the classic sixteenth-century religious struggles with the political and religious pressures confronting late medieval Christianity, and argues that the resolutions proposed by reformers such as Luther were not fully realised for most Christians until the early eighteenth century. In this [volume, the author] interweaves the influential events of the early modern religious reformation with the transformations of political institutions, socioeconomic structures, gender relations, and cultural values throughout Europe. In his examination of the European Reformation as a longterm process. [He] reconnects the classic sixteenth-centuries confronting late medieval Christianity, and argues that the resolutions proposed by reformers such as Luther were not fully realized for most Christians until the early eighteenth century.-Back cover Peter G. Wallace interweaves the Reformation into the transformations of political institutions, socio-economic structures, gender relations and cultural values in early modern Europe. In approaching the European Reformation as a long-term process, Wallace argues that the classic 16th-century religious struggles with the resolutions proposed by reformers such as Luther were not fully realized for most Christians until the early 18th century Peter G. Wallace. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 235-345) And Index.