Sinners on Trial: Jews and Sacrilege After the Reformation

by Magda Teter

Book Overview

In post-Reformation Poland--the largest state in Europe and home to the largest Jewish population in the world--the Catholic Church suffered profound anxiety about its power after the Protestant threat. Magda Teter reveals how criminal law became a key tool in the manipulation of the meaning of the sacred and in the effort to legitimize Church authority. The mishandling of sacred symbols was transformed from a sin that could be absolved into a...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674052978
• ISBN13: 9780674052970
• Release Date: May 2011
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 358 Pages
• Weight: 1.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.5" x 9.5"