Between the fifteenth and the seventeenth centuries Europe experienced religious upheaval on an unprecedented scale, in the form of what historians have termed the Reformation. This was a complex series of movements, ideas and initiatives, which recalibrated intellectual life, both energized and fragmented the practice of religion, shaped the exercise of political authority, and refashioned popular culture.
This course will examine six major themes in the history of the European Reformation in the context of different regional experiences and through the lens of different historical approaches. It breaks away from the polarised study of Reformation as a conflict between Protestant and Catholic faiths, to explore the impact of religious change on a variety of levels from high politics to parish practice. It examines the origins of religious reform and its manifestations in the form of popular protest, state formation, the construction and dissemination of new ideologies, the reconfiguration of popular culture, and the reshaping of art, architecture and music. These themes are set against the many continuities in religious identity which endured despite the upheaval.
The course provides a multi-faceted approach to one of the most important and contentious developments of the early modern period.
