German Histories In The Age Of Reformations, 1400-1650

This page intentionally left blank German Histories in the Age of Reformations, 1400–1650 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. Thomas A. Brady Jr. studied at the universities of Notre Dame and Chicago and Columbia University. He taught for twenty-three years at the University of Oregon and eighteen years at the University of California, Berkeley, where he held the Peder Sather Chair of History, and as a guest at the University of Arizona and the National University of Ireland at Galway. A specialist in central European history from 1400 to 1800, his principal writings include Ruling Class, Regime, and Reformation at Strasbourg 1520–1555; Turning Swiss: Cities and Empire 1450–1550; Protestant Politics: Jacob Sturm (1489–1553) and the German Reformation; The Politics of the German Reformation; and Communities, Politics, and Reformations in Early Modern Europe. In addition to his PhD from the University of Chicago, Professor Brady holds the PhD honoris causa from the University of Bern, Switzerland. He has held Guggenheim, Fulbright, and Humboldt fellowships and appointments in the Historisches Kolleg at Munich and in the National Humanities Center, North Carolina. German Histories in the Age of Reformations, 1400–1650 Thomas A. Brady Jr. University of California, Berkeley CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Dubai, Tokyo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521889094 © Thomas A. Brady Jr. 2009 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published in print format 2009 ISBN-13 978-0-511-65112-0 eBook (NetLibrary) ISBN-13 978-0-521-88909-4 Hardback ISBN-13 978-0-521-71778-6 Paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of urls for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Information regarding prices, travel timetables, and other factual information given in this work are correct at the time of first printing, but Cambridge University Press does not guarantee the accuracy of such information thereafter. To Kathy Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear And the rocks melt wi’ the sun; I will luve thee still, my dear, While the sands o’ life shall run. Contents Figures, Maps, and Tables Acknowledgments A Note on Usages page xi xiii xv Part I. The Empire, the German Lands, and Their Peoples 1. Reformations in German Histories 3 1. Approaching the Subject 2. Peculiarities of German Histories 3. Listening and Telling 4 6 9 2. S