Western Europe on the Eve of Reformation
Readings:
Carlos Eire, Reformations: The Early Modern World, 1450-1650 (Yale, 2016).
• Prelude, pp. 1-2.
• Chapter 1, “An Age of Breakthroughs,” pp. 3-18.
• Chapter 2, “Religion in Late Medieval Christendom,” pp. 19-42.
C. Scott Dixon, The Church in the Early Modern Age (I.B. Tauris, 2016).
• Chapter 1 (pp. 1-32).
James L. Halverson, ed., Contesting Christendom: Readings in Medieval Religion and Culture (Brill, 2007).
• Ch. 18: Bernd Moeller, “Religious Life in Germany on the Eve of the
Reformation,” pp. 189-198.
• Ch. 19: Eamon Duffy, “The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion
in England, ca. 1400-1580,” pp. 199-205.
Peter Blickle, “Communal Reformation and Peasant Piety: The Peasant Reformation and Its Late Medieval Origins,” Central European History vol. 20 no. 3/4 (1987): 216-228.
Question for Writing Assignment – Write a 500+ WORD response to the following question: (Utilize only the sources above and specific chapters/pages)
In light of the readings, how were conditions in Western Europe on the eve of the Reformation meeting people’s religious needs such that one living in the mid-1510s would not have suspected that a rupture in Christendom was about to occur? In your response be sure to cite and analyze specifics from all of the readings.
Format of responses must be double spaced, Times New Roman, 12pt.
Please cite responses and must include page numbers where cited.
