German Histories in the Age of Reformations, 1400-1650

By Thomas A. Brady Jr.

Book Overview

This book studies the connections between the political reform of the Holy Roman Empire and the German lands around 1500 and the sixteenth-century religious reformations, both Protestant and Catholic. It argues that the character of the political changes (dispersed sovereignty, local autonomy) prevented both a general reformation of the Church before 1520 and a national reformation thereafter. The resulting settlement maintained the public peace through politically structured religious communities (confessions), thereby avoiding further religious strife and fixing the confessions into the Empire's constitution. The Germans' emergence into the modern era as a people having two national religions was the reformation's principal legacy to modern Germany.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521717787
• ISBN13: 9780521717786
• Release Date: July 2009
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 496 Pages
• Weight: 1.78 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

The world needs more books like this.

Brady's book is the single most coherent account of a period of history that defies easy comprehension. If you have any interest in German history, the history of the Reformation(s), the transition from Medieval to Modern, or European history in general: buy this book. This book will be especially useful for students of Medieval and Early Modern history who have a limited grasp of the German lands. This is not to say that experts will not find fresh interpretations and the distillation of a large body of early and recent historiography.