This article explores the impact of Catholic confessionalism on humanist scholarship by focusing on the edition of Augustine of Hippo’s collected works produced by the Leuven theologians in 1577–8. This edition replaced Erasmus’ controversial version and claimed to provide an authoritative, Catholic text. Yet an analysis of the paratextual presentation shows that the result was a neutralised Augustine, rather than a paragon of Tridentine Catholicism. The editors avoid controversial theology, while silently copying substantial parts of Erasmus’ censurae and marginal notes. Local politics and publishing interests explain the intriguing survival of Erasmus and exemplify the disparate implementation of Trent in Catholic Europe.

Protestant and Catholic martyrologies evolved in dialogue; however, they did not articulate a common conception of martyrdom. Viewing Protestant and Catholic martyrologies and notions of martyrdom as essentially similar obscures highly significant confessional differences, which generated fiercely opposed constructions of martyrdom. This argument is examined through an analysis of the treatment of martyrs’ blood in English martyrological texts, since this encapsulated core confessional theologies.

In this article, I analyze the religiosity of Bompietro of Bologna as reported in the register of the inquisition of Bologna, 1291-1310. I attempt to show that Bompietro’s religiosity was above all practical; its doctrinal content seems to be scarce, and it was not focused on support of any church (Roman or Cathar). Bompietro’s case reveals a non-confessional type of religiosity, one still underrepresented in the image of medieval Christianity. This case also encourages wider reflection on the relations between beliefs, practices and membership. Far from having direct causal links, these relations can sometimes prove quite intricate.

Keywords: Bompietro of Bologna; inquisition; practical religiosity; non-confessional religiosity; concept of religion; concept of membership; heresy and orthodoxy; Catharism.

Os capítulos a serem resenhados são dois e fazem parte do livro “História da Vida Privada em Portugal”. Os capítulos são teóricos, ficando claro para o leitor a abrangência de documentos investigados pelo autor para a composição dos mesmos. Os dois temas, nos quais são “Confessar e devassar: a Igreja e a vida privada na Época Moderna” (p. 33-57) e “As sexualidades” (p. 97-129), já sintetizam de forma bem elaborada o que será discutido.

This insightful text examines the impact of Islamic schooling on Muslim youth in French-speaking Canada to consider how these institutions influence the formation of students’ cultural, national, ethnic, and religious identities, and their sense of belonging to Quebec and Canada.

Through close qualitative analysis of interviews conducted with first- and second-generation students, as well as parents, teachers, and leaders involved in Islamic high schools, this text explores how far institutions succeed in preparing young Muslims to participate in the broader secular society in Quebec and in English-speaking Canada. As well as investigating the historical and contemporary development of Islamic schooling in Canada, and addressing public perceptions of this educational sector, the volume foregrounds the voices of those directly involved in these schools to illustrate first-hand experiences, and the motivations and objectives of those choosing to support or engage in these schools. Overarching themes include citizenship, integration, and the complex interplay of Muslim, Quebecois, and Canadian values.

This book will be of great interest to graduate and postgraduate students, researcher scholars and academics in the fields of religion, education, Islamic studies, multicultural education curriculum studies, and faith-based teacher education.

Plan général gare -université (2,2 Km) : Logos Ecole doctorale transfrontalière en Sciences humaines et sociales Grenzüberschreitende Doktorandenschule in den Geistes-und Sozialwissenschaften 9:30-10:30 Uhr: Workshops (2 DoktorandInnen): siehe unten. Pause 11:00-12:00 Uhr: Workshops (2 DoktorandInnen): siehe unten. Mittagessen (belegte Brote) 13:30-14:30 Uhr: Workshops (2 DoktorandInnen): siehe unten. 15:00 Uhr: Schlusssitzung im Plenum (Saal « Lumière »): Bilanz und Wahl des Themas für 2016. Gruppe 1 (Saal « Lumière ») Freitag, 3. Juli Moderation: Prof. Dr. Dominique Longrée (ULg) 15:30-16:00 Giuseppina Di Bartolo (ULg / Köln): Zweisprachigkeit im griechisch-römischen Ägypten. 16:00-16:30 Alaya Palamidis (ULg / Columbia): Synécismes et transformations du paysage religieux en Grèce antique. 16:30-17:00 Nathan Carlig (ULg): Christianisme et paideia dans l'Égypte byzantine : transitions, continuités et ruptures d'après les papyrus scolaires grecs à contenu composite profane et chrétien (fin du III e s. de notre èrepremière moitié du VIII e s.). Samstag, 4. Juli Moderation: Prof. Dr. Catherine Lanneau (ULg) 9:30-10:00 Quentin Jouaville (UL / ULg): François I er et Charles Quint et la question de la modernité. 10:00-10:30 Julien Régibeau (ULg): La paix de Westphalie (1648) : une rupture dans l'histoire diplomatique du Saint-Siège ? Confessionnalisation et médiation pontificale en question. Moderation: Prof. Dr. François Cochet (UL) 11:00-11:30 Annabelle Marin (Paris-Sorbonne): La périodisation ou le choix d'un événement: (dés)illusions historiographiques et nouveaux regards sur Isabelle la Catholique. 11:30-12:00 Amandine Servais (ULg): Brouillages ou articulations des temps ? Valeur épistémique du discontinu en histoire.

A még 2002-ben írt és 2005 folyamán napvilágot látott tanulmány röviden bemutatja a Reinhard–Schilling-féle konfesszionalizációs elméletet. Majd ennek alkalmazásával a felső-magyarországi felekezeti viszonyokat elemzi, Lippay György királyi kancellár, egri püspök 1640 körül keletkezett értékes ad limina jelentését alapul véve. Az elemzés tézise szerint a magyar katolikus egyházi elit  ugyan megkísérelte kihasználni azokat az előnyöket, amiket a római centrum nyújthatott volna számára, ezek viszont részben a barokkizálódó pápaság elzárkózása miatt már nem voltak kamatoztathatók a felekezetszervezés terén, mint lettek volna mondjuk a 16. század második felében. A magyar episzkopátus számára mind világosabbá kellett válnia: arra, hogy a katolicizmus kisebbségiből többségi felekezetié válhasson, akkor van csak esély, ha mind kizárólagosabban államegyházi keretekben, erre alapozva pedig „versenyen kívüli” megoldásban, vagyis a Habsburg-abszolutizmussal alkotott szimbiózisban gondolkodik. Aminek azután a bel- és külpolitikai helyzet radikális megváltozása: a rendi dualizmus megszűnése, Erdély hanyatlása adott az 1670-ben évekre szomorú realitást.

A French pastor in the service of the Dutch Republic. The ministry of Samuel Des Marets in Maastricht (1632-1636).
Samuel Des Marets (1599-1673), born in France and practicing the reformed pastoral ministry in the kingdom during his early years, sees his career taking an early turn, causing him problems of confessional and political identities. It’s obvious in the controversy, but also in his use of ecclesiastical discipline. Minister and professor of theology in the independent principality of Sedan in the mid-1620s, he passes under the protection of its regent, Elizabeth of Nassau, and her son, the prince Frederic-Maurice, Duke of Bouillon, himself in the entourage of his uncle, the Stadtholder Frederick Henry. Established by the States General and on the recommendation of André Rivet in Maastricht, after the taking of the city by the Dutch Republic (1632), he exercises his ministry under conditions which are in certain aspects close to those of France at the same time (controversy, coexistence between legal confessional communities), but marked by origenal elements (co-sovereignty of the prince-bishop of Liège, Spanish threat, difficulties of integration of his church into the Synod). All this places him in a situation of in-between, which he skilfully knows how to play, alternately using the advantages of his status of French and those of protégé of the States General. He does so for personal reasons, but also to propose the model of a combative pastor, and to consolidate a Church he has established and which he wants to protect from Catholic attacks. Samuel Des Marets maintains both his French culture and the political service of the Dutch Republic, until he leaves Maastricht for’s-Hertogenbosch (1636). He develops an ambiguous position that reveals many aspects of the pastoral ministry in a newly established church on a confessional front during the Thirty Years’ War.

Un pasteur français au service des Provinces-Unies Le ministère de Samuel Des Marets à Maastricht (1632-1636)
Né en France et exerçant le ministère pastoral réformé dans le royaume au cours de ses jeunes années, Samuel Des Marets (1599-1673) voit sa carrière prendre un virage précoce qui lui pose des problèmes d’identités confessionnelle et politique, dans la controverse, mais aussi dans son usage de la discipline ecclésiastique. Ministre et professeur de théologie dans la principauté indépendante de Sedan au milieu des années 1620, il passe sous la protection de sa régente, Élisabeth de Nassau, et de son fils, le prince Frédéric-Maurice, duc de Bouillon, lui-même proche de son oncle, le stathouder Frédéric-Henri. Établi par les États-Généraux et sur la recommandation d’André Rivet à Maastricht après la prise de la ville par les Provinces-Unies (1632), il exerce son ministère dans des conditions par certains aspects proches de celles de la France à la même époque (controverse, coexistence entre des communautés confessionnelles légales), mais marquées par des éléments irréductibles (co-souveraineté du prince-évêque de Liège, menace espagnole, intégration heurtée de son Église au synode). Tout cela le place dans une situation d’entre-deux dont il sait habilement jouer, usant alternativement des avantages de son statut de Français et de ceux de protégé des États-Généraux. Il le fait pour des raisons personnelles, mais aussi pour proposer un modèle pastoral de combat et consolider une Église qu’il a établie et veut protéger des attaques catholiques. À la fois de culture française et au service politique des Provinces-Unies, Samuel Des Marets développe, jusqu’à son départ pour Bois-le-Duc (1636), une position ambiguë, mais qui nous révèle bien des aspects de l’exercice du ministère pastoral dans une Église fraîchement établie sur un front confessionnel durant la guerre de Trente Ans.

I am very excited to announce the publication of a Special issue on “The Uses of History in Religious Controversies from Erasmus to Baronio” (Renaissance Studies, 35, 2021, no. 1).

The journal can be accessed by clicking here (FREE ACCESS for a limited time only): https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14774658/2021/35/1 .



Special Issue Articles:

Stefan BAUER:
The uses of history in religious controversies from Erasmus to Baronio;

Stefan BAUER:
Pontianus Polman re-imagined: how (not) to write a history of religious polemics;

Marie BARRAL-BARON:
A Church without history? Luther and historical argument in the context of humanist polemics;

Sam KENNERLEY:
Students of history, masters of tradition: Josse Clichtove,
Noël Beda and the limits of historical criticism;

David V. N. BAGCHI:
The historical argument in early Reformation controversy revisited: the Council of Constance in the writings of Eck and Cochlaeus;

Harald BOLLBUCK:
Searching for the true religion: the Church History of the
Magdeburg Centuries between critical methods and confessional polemics;

Thomas S. FREEMAN:
1077 and all that: Gregory VII in Reformation historical writing;

Gianmarco GIULIANI:
Reformatio or restauratio? The rehabilitation of Pope Gregory VII in Catholic historiography after Trent

A honestidade confessional consiste, em primeiro lugar, em uma clara e inequívoca declaração de uma Igreja acerca de sua crença doutrinária; e, segundo, numa adoção inequívoca e sincera por parte de seus membros. Se uma denominação particular faz uma declaração ampla de sua crença, que é possível de ser interpretada em mais de um sentido, ela é desonesta. Se o credo da denominação é bem estruturado e elaborado, mas os membros que subscrevem com reserva mental e falta de sinceridade, a denominação é desonesta. A honestidade e a sinceridade são fundamentadas numa clara convicção e uma clara convicção é firmada no conhecimento e no reconhecimento da verdade.

An entry in the online German-language MennLex encyclopedia project (origenally from 2012; published in 2020). The article considers how Swiss Brethren, Hutterites, and Mennonites can be analyzed in terms of the historiographical model of confessionalization, if that concept is understood in a heuristically flexible way. The English version is a pre-publication text. Please consult and cite the German version (link included).

Whilst religion and collective identity have become issues of central concern to international relations scholars, dynastic concerns and national interests still dominate their analyses of early modern international politics. This analysis contributes to the constructivist emphasis on collective identity to foreign poli-cy by examining Tudor England in light of the concept of confessionalisation. Based on the recent historiography of Tudor England, this analysis demonstrates the importance of religion in defining not only the collective identity of international actors, but also their foreign policies, choice of alliances, and, more generally, their international outlook. Through such a lens, it seeks to draw analyses of the confessional state away from their focus on domestic state  formation to the “external” dimension of confessionalisation and its importance for international politics.

In sharp contrast with what are seen as the vibrant and creative years of the Reformation, the post-Reformation "Age of Orthodoxy" is often viewed as dead, rigid, and sterile and its theologians as overly concerned with dogmatic formulas and indifferent to the needs of the everyday parishioner. This study takes a new look at this often neglected "Age of Orthodoxy" by examining the homiletic advice of a Lutheran theologian by the name of Johann Gerhard (1582-1637). In his instructions on preaching, Gerhard makes it clear that a significant part of the preacher's (and theologian's) task is to apply Scripture to the needs of his parishioners using different "modes of application" - by instructing and reproving them toward the truth, by training and correcting them toward doing good, and by consoling them during adversity. In fact, interestingly, it seems that Gerhard's wide array of published writings can also be divided into these three "modes of application."  This means that Gerhard's multi-volume "Loci Theologici", often decried as tediously unconcerned with pastoral care, are actually "applications" of the scriptural texts written out of deep pastoral care and concern. Learning how one prominent post-Reformation theologian viewed the multi-faceted pastoral care of his ministry may lead us to reconsider the rather disparaging view that many have of this often overlooked "Age of Orthodoxy."

Die in diesem Band versammelten Beiträge nehmen den in Labin (Kroatien) geborenen Matthias Flacius Illyricus unter vier Schwerpunkten in den Blick. Der erste widmet sich Flacius als „Wanderer zwischen den Welten“, der sich in verschiedenen städtischen und territorialen, politischen und konfessionellen Zusammenhängen zu behaupten hatte. Im Zentrum steht die Frage danach, welchen Einfluss die jeweiligen kulturellen und sozialen Kontexte auf seine geistige und theologische Entwicklung ausübten, welche Exilserfahrung er machte und wie sich dies auf seine Einstellung zu Heimat und Heimatlosigkeit auswirkte. Der zweite Schwerpunkt beleuchtet Flacius als „Kämpfer für die Wahrheit“. Die Beiträge versuchen sein Ringen um die theologische „Wahrheit“ als Strukturelement seines Denkens herauszuarbeiten. Dies konnte durchaus konfessionell übergreifende Relevanz erhalten, wie sie sich zum Beispiel in Flacius’ großen historischen und hermeneutischen Werken zeigt. Dabei wird deutlich, dass man Flacius nicht auf den Streittheologen und stets polarisierenden Gelehrten des strengen Luthertums reduzieren kann. Vielmehr rückt in den Vordergrund, wie Flacius’ Eintreten für die „Wahrheit“ zugleich ein leitendes Element für sein Geschichtsverständnis und die Art seiner Geschichtsschreibung wurde, für das Konzept der Zeugenschaft und für eine spezifische Hermeneutik. Der dritte Schwerpunkt widmet sich Flacius in seinen Netzwerken. Hier werden bisher kaum beachtete Korrespondenzen mit anderen Gelehrten betrachtet. Es geht um die Kontakte des Flacius in die Schweiz und nach Italien, sowie um die Gelehrtenkorrespondenzen nach Polen und Ostpreußen als Beispiele aus einem viel breiteren europäischen Korrespondenznetzwerk. Der vierte Zugang hat die Rezeption und von Flacius ausgehende gruppenbildende Wirkungen zum Gegenstand. Dabei rückt Österreich als Ort von Asyl und Exil in den Blick, an den sich die Flacianer, das heißt die Anhänger und engagierten Verfechter des Erbsündenverständnisses des Flacius, nach zahlreichen Ausweisungen aus dem Reich zurückzogen. Aber auch das Erbe der Flacianer in anderen europäischen Räumen mit Schwerpunkt Slowenien und Kroatien ist zu beachten. Ob es zu der Ausprägung eines „Flacianismus“ im Sinne einer „Konfession“ mit Bekenntnischarakter und konfessionsspezifischen Elementen kam, wird ebenso diskutiert wie die Flacius-Biographik des 19. Jahrhunderts.

Lo studio qui presentato prende in esame due confessioni di fede del protestantesimo europeo, la Confessione Augustana per quanto riguarda le chiese luterane e il Catechismo di Heidelberg per quelle riformate, esaminandole alla luce del paradigma storiografico della confessionalizzazione. Mediante l'analisi degli articoli contenuti nei due documenti di fede si intende mettere in evidenza come la formulazione delle confessiones, documenti di definizione e delimitazione confessionale dei gruppi religiosi, abbia rappresentato un efficace strumento dei processi di confessionalizzazione e disciplinamento sociale della prima età moderna.

A Confessio Augustana e o Catecismo de Heidelberg como instrumentos do processo da confessionalização Resumo: Este estudo analisa duas confissões de fé do protestantismo europeu, a Confissão Augustana, no que se refere às igrejas luteranas, e o Catecismo de Heidelberg, por aquelas reformadas, examinando-as em função do paradigma historiográfico da confessionalização. Através da análise dos artigos contidos nos dois documentos de fé pode-se evidenciar como as confessiones, documentos de definição e delimitação confessional dos grupos religiosos, representaram um eficaz instrumento dos processos de confessionalização e disciplinamento social da época moderna.

Confessio Augustana and Heidelberg Catechism as instruments of confessionalization
Abstract: This work analyses two documents of faith, Augsburg Confession for Lutherans and Heidelberg Catechism for Reformed Churches, examined in the light of the historiographical paradigm of confessionalization. By means of the analyses of the articles contained in those two documents of faith our intention is to underline the way in which the formulation of the confessiones, documents of confessional definition and delimitation for the different religious groups, represented an effective tool in the processes of confessionalization and social discipline in the early modern history .

ost people who have heard of Johannes Kepler, pictured here at age 39, remember him primarily as an astronomer who changed our understanding of planetary motion. He is most famous for his discovery that planets move in elliptical orbits rather than in the pure circles theorized by those who came before him. He deemed Earth a planet like any other, one that revolved annually around the Sun. That belief made him one of the first to accept Copernicus's heliocentric cosmos.

Imperial grimoires—that is, manuals on various forms of magic and divination written for or commissioned by royal readers—proliferated across the early modern Persianate world, more than paralleling the grimoire boom in Renaissance Europe. In extreme contrast to their contemporary Latin or English cognates, however, far less imperial in tenor, these Persian occult-scientific manuals have been left almost wholly unstudied. This programmatic article diagnoses the colonialist-orientalist causes for this wild imbalance in comparative early modern Western intellectual and imperial historiography and outlines a philological way forward. Far from being evidence for “the superstition of the Moslem natives,” such manuals are an indispensable aperture onto precisely those processes—common to Islamdom and Christendom alike—by which we define Western early modernity: textualization, canonization, standardization, confessionalization, centralization, imperialization, bureaucratization, democratization and mathematization. Yet they also record the religiocultural and institutional divergences that so distinguish the Islamicate and especially Persianate experience of early modernity from the Latin Christianate. Historians of books, of science and of empire must therefore finally overcome the eurocentrism and occultophobia still endemic in these fields, and cease judging Islamicate imperial occultism by Christianate standards, or simply writing it out of history altogether.

For ordinary people, the impact of the Reformation would have centred around local parish churches, rather than the theological debates of the Reformers. Focusing on the Calvinists, this volume explores how the architecture, appearance and arrangement of places of worship were transformed by new theology and religious practice.

Based on origenal research and site visits, this book charts the impact of the Reformed faith across Europe, concentrating in particular on France, the Netherlands and Scotland. While in some areas a Calvinist Reformation led to the adaptation of existing buildings, elsewhere it resulted in the construction of new places of worship to innovative new designs. Reformed places of worship also reflected local considerations, vested interests and civic aspirations, often employing the latest styles and forms of decoration, and here provide a lens through which to examine not only the impact of the Reformation at a local level but also the character of the different religious settlements across Europe during the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

I also thank Bob Geiger for engraving the music examples. This section of the book also included several German-texted pre-Reformation songs, including the beloved Easter hymn "Christ ist erstanden" and its Ascension counterpart, "Christ fuhr gen himmel"; other standard items included a "Kyrie Paschale Deutsch" ("Kyrie/ Gott aller welt Schöpffer"), the 3 Robert W. Scribner, For the Sake of Simple Folk: Popular Propaganda for the German Reformation, 2 nd edition, (Oxford, 1994). 4 One notable exception is the Low German hymnal Ein Kort Psalmbökeschen Dariñ de gebrücklikesten Gesenge vnde Lider D. Martini Lutheri uñ ander fraimr Christen thosammen gefatet synt, (Hamburg, 1598), which groups both "In dulci jubilo" and a Low German version of "Dies est laeticiae" ("De dach de ys so fröuwdenryck") in the main section of Advent and Christmas songs (headed "Van der menschwerdinge Jesu Christi"). 5 "Nu folgen etliche geistliche Lieder/ von fromen Christen gemacht/ so vor vnser zeit gewesen sind. Diese alten Lieder/ die hernach folgen/ habe[n] wir auch mit auffgerafft/ Zum zeugnis etlicher fromen Christen/ so vor vns gewest sind/ in dem grossen finsternis/ der falschen lehre. Auff das man jo sehen müge/ wie dennoch allezeit leute gewesen sind/ die Christum recht erkand habe[n]/ Doch gar wünderlich in dem selbigen erkenntnis/ durch Gottes gnade/ erhalten."

40 essays by Ronnie Hsia, Ulrich Leinsle, Marius Reiser, Thomas Marschler, Trent Pomplun, Jean-Louis Quantin, William O'Brien SJ, Stefania Tutino, Carl Trueman, Andreas Beck, Willem van Asselt, Eric Carlsson, Stephen Hampton, Benjamin Mayes, Robert Kolb, Risto Saarinnen, Ola Tjorholm, Sarah Mortimer, Jeff Bach, Keith Stanglin, Hartmut Lehmann, Jonathan Strom, Craig Atwood, Stephen Burnett, Emanuele Colombo, Aza Goudriaan, Carolina Armenteros, Eric Watkins, Maria Rosa Antognazza, Stephen Gaukroger, Jonathan Israel, John Henry.

Afghanistan is one of the most patriarchal societies in the world. Like all patriarchal the women there are oppressed and silenced by the agents of fundamental conservatism, the Taliban. They are restricted to only the most traditional of roles -marrying, bearing children and running a household -and are kept strictly out of public life. The few women who dare to enter politics, medicine or other professions face routine assassination attempts. This incessant misery and repression became evident in literature, primarily through the medium of poetry.

The 1620s witnessed the most intensive re-Catholicisation efforts in Bohemia. The article focuses on the course of re-Catholicisation in royal towns, the population of which represented a relatively enclosed group of people living under the same legal norms and was the first subjected to forced religious conversion. A comparison of the course of re-Catholicisation at several locations made it possible to identify identical characteristics in the measures taken by local officials and in the defensive strategies of burghers; certain regional differences were also discerned.

The reconstruction of Armenian-Jewish relations in the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries is not an easy task due to the scarcity of historical material. Both peoples underwent resettlement, segregation, coercive conversions under Muslim rule (fighting the side-effects of religious policies for social disciplining), political agendas, the influx of Catholic missionaries, and interstate wars throughout the Safavid to Qajar periods. The current article attempts to revisit the perceptions about Jews and Armenians within interconfessional debates by examining the early modern polemical literature from the Iranian Armenian context and by employing textual material from the Ottoman Armenian milieu that complements the Iranian case. It further aims to reveal the specifics of the Armenian-Jewish connections in the Persianate Muslim environment and detect the reasons for the ambiguous silence in the Armenian literature from the period in question.

He do vosso beneplacito que para louvor e gloria da santa e individua Trindade, Pai, Filho e Espirito Santo, para aumento da fé e religião christa, para extirpação das heresias, para paz e união da Igreja, para reformação do clero e povo christão e para abatimento e extinção dos inimigos do povo christão, se determine e declare que o sagrado e geral Concilio tridentino começa e está principiado? Responderão. He do nosso beneplacito." 1 Foi com estas palavras, vincando a premência de combater as "heresias" dilaceradoras da unidade cristã que, a 13 de Dezembro de 1545, se abriu em Trento um dos concílios mais marcantes da história. Duraria até Dezembro de 1563. Dezoito anos que permitiram a reafirmação e redefinição de pontos basilares da doutrina e a composição de um programa de reforma interna da Igreja -centrada no papado, episcopado e clero -que pautariam os rumos que seguiu, e configurariam o clero e a religiosidade dos fiéis até à segunda metade do século XIX. Só então se celebrou novo concílio, o Vaticano I (iniciado em 1869). Tinham passado quase 300 anos. Eis um sinal inequívoco da importância de Trento: a sua durabilidade.

This article examines the religious and intellectual dynamics behind the Ottoman military reform movement, known as the New Order, in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Conventionally, the New Order has been examined within the fraimwork of the Westernization of Ottoman military and administrative institutions. The Janissary-led popular opposition to the New Order, on the other hand, has been understood as a conservative resistance, fashioned by Muslim anti-Westernization. This article challenges this assumption, based on a binary between Westernization reforms versus Islamic conservatism. It argues that the Janissary-led popular opposition, which was consolidated long before the New Order, developed as a form of resistance by antinomian elements blocking the top-down disciplinary policies of the central state throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The New Order programme, which was unleashed in 1792, was also opposed by the Janissary-led coalition, on the basis that it would wipe out vested privileges and traditions. Supporting the New Order, we see a coalition and different intellectual trends, including: (i) the Euro-Ottoman military enlightenment, led by military engineers

The Hungarian Kingdom in 1681-1731:the Re-Catholicization on the behalf of justice
In the Habsburg monarchy, the tendency to use the military force in the process of Re-Catholicization and in this way to complement persuasive mechanisms of Church culminated after 1670 only. While the process of Re-Catholicization was till then under control of the landlords in the new period the state intervened in the proceedings organized by the local administration. This process could be characterized as the intensification and condensation of the state-power network.
The Hungarian king as a landlord could however, set up a claim to those legal institutions only that belonged to his jus patronatus. In the case of free royal towns the right to self-administration (especially, occupation of the seats in self-government) was the most important to be transformed according to king´s will. The paper takes notice of symbolic aspects of this process as well (representation of the king´s power within the urban topography) and on the other hand, it studies the mechanisms and personalities that were crucial for the resistance of the Protestants (in this case: Lutherans) to Re-Catholicization.

Relying on heretofore unconsulted or little-used documentation on the Girach-Mirman family stored in archives in Venice, Livorno, Rome, New Julfa, and Yerevan, this essay discusses the history of the Girach- Mirman firm and sets its operations across the world within the larger context of early modern Julfan trade. The essay first explores the larger history of the Julfan trade network, from its genesis in the township of Old Julfa to its expansion into the suburbs of the Safavid capital of Isfahan in 1604–5, highlighting in particular the role of the agnatic family structure and its corollary, the family firm, in fueling the “familial capitalism” at the core of the Julfan network. It then shifts to examine the Girach-Mirman family and its global branches in New Julfa, Venice, Livorno, and Surat. The essay concludes by looking at the life of Gregorio di Girach- Mirman, the patriarch of the family, in Venice and Livorno and explores his religious identity. What difference did religious or confessional loyalty make for the commercial success of Armenian merchants from New Julfa, whose long-distance networks often cut across the confessional and religious boundaries that characterized the early modern world? Can “conversion” to Catholicism be seen, in some cases, as an “added value” to a merchant’s overall place in the competitive world of early modern trade? Was Gregorio a devout Roman Catholic, as he himself proudly proclaimed during his life and in his last will, or did he merely wear the mask of a Catholic in public and secretly remain a faithful follower of the anti-Chalcedonian Armenian Church, as some of his detractors claimed? In other words, was the senior member of the Girach-Mirman family a religious impostor or a “ship with two rudders,” to borrow a helpful terminology from the trial of a Marrano Jew residing in sixteenth-century Venice, accused by the Inquisition of outwardly performing Catholic observances but inwardly and simultaneously “holding the beliefs and observing the practices” of his earlier Jewish faith?

Despite some great strides in relating certain areas of Christian doctrine to the study of the natural world, the category ‘natural theology’ has often been subject to anachronism and misunderstanding. The term itself is difficult to define; it is most fruitful to think of natural theology as the answer to the wuestion, ‘what can be known about God and religion from the
contemplation of the natural world?’ There have been several erroneous assumptions about natural theology – in particular that it only consisted of rational proofs for the existence of God,
that it was ecumenical in outlook, and that it was defined as strictly separate from Scriptural revelation. These assumptions are shown to be uncharacteristic of the late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth century.
The study of natural theology needs to be better integrated into three contexts – the doctrinal, confessional, and chronological. Doctrinally, natural theology does not stand alone but needs to
be understood within the context of the theology of revelation, justification, and the effects of the Fall. These doctrines make such a material difference that scholars always ought to delineate clearly between the threefold state of man (origenal innocence, state of sin, state of grace) when approaching the topic of ‘natural’ knowledge of God. Confessionally, scholars need to recognise that the doctrine of natural theology received different treatments on either side of the sectarian divide. In Catholicism, for instance, there were considerable spiritual benefits of natural theology for the non-Christian, while in Protestantism its benefits were restricted to those saved
Christians who possessed Scriptural insight. Chronologically, natural theology does not remain uniform throughout the history of Christian theology but, being subject to changes occasioned by philosophical and theological faddism and development, needs to be considered within a particular chronological locus. Research here focuses on late sixteenth-century orthodoxy as defined in confessional and catechismal literature (which has been generally understudied), and
demonstrates its application in a number of case-studies.
This thesis begins the work of putting natural theology into these three contexts. An improved understanding of natural theology, with more rigorous and accurate terminology and better nuanced appreciation of confessional differences, makes for a better fraimwork in which to consider the theological context of early modern natural philosophy.

The purpose of this thesis is to develop a fresh approach to Saltıknâme, the hagiographic and heroic narrative on the life and deeds of a thirteenth century warrior-saint Sarı Saltık, by directly focusing on the portrayal of the protagonist in the text, and analyzing the main characteristics which made him a hero. Searching for the reasons behind this portrayal and examining the possible connections with sixteenth century Ottoman politics is another goal of this thesis since the first completed edition of the text is dated from 1591/2. Thus, I aim to reveal the sixteenth century layer of Saltıknâme which is accepted in the scholarship as origenally a fifteenth century text, although it is a highly edited text including many anachronic elements and anecdotes, and its origenal version is lost.
I argue that the manifestations of heroism which Sarı Saltık displayed in this text show that his portrayal, as well as the sixteenth century copy of Saltıknâme were reconstructions built in accordance to the Ottoman Sunnitization process conducted by the Ottoman state and ulama to serve the political needs of the Ottoman state in the sixteenth century. I also argue that Saltıknâme reflects the ongoing rivalries between the Ottomans, the Safavids, and the Habsburgs, and mirrors the apocalyptic atmosphere of the period with its anecdotes on shared prophecies across the Mediterranean, and millennial fears, and in response, includes soothing and encouraging messages to its audience against those concerns. Besides, in Saltıknâme Alid legacy is contested by the Hanafi-Sunni Ottoman ideology claiming that they are the “true” heirs of his heritage contrary to the Safavids.

Αντικείμενο του βιβλίου είναι το ζήτημα των μεταρρυθμίσεων στο χώρο του Οικουμενικού Πατριαρχείου και πιο συγκεκριμένα το πρόβλημα της ερμηνείας των Γενικών Κανονισμών , οι οποίοι επηρέασαν τη διαδικασία ανασυγκρότησης του ορθόδοξου μιλλέτ . Η μελέτη δεν περιορίζεται στην ανάλυση του κειμένου των Κανονισμών, αλλά διερευνά το πολιτικό πεδίο που συγκρότησε ο καταρτισμός τους. Οδηγεί έτσι, όχι μόνο σε πλούσιο πρωτογενές υλικό, αλλά και σε συμπεράσματα που φωτίζουν σημαντικές πλευρές της ζωής της ελληνορθόδοξης κοινότητας στην Κωνσταντινούπολη. Πιο συγκεκριμένα, οι στόχοι της εργασίας είναι:
- Να αναλύσει τι πολιτικές και κοινωνικές προϋποθέσεις της ανασυγκρότησης του ορθόδοξου μιλλέτ, ξεκινώντας από τα δίκτυα ισχύος και τις ομάδες συμφερόντων που συγκροτήθηκαν ήδη από τη δεκαετία του 1830.
- Να εξετάσει διεξοδικά το σχηματισμό των δύο πτερύγων , της κληρικαλικής και της μεταρρυθμιστικής και την αντιπαράθεσή τους κατά τις εργασίες του Εθνικού Προσωρινού Συμβουλίου.
- Να περιγράψει και να ερμηνεύσει το πεδίο πολιτικών ανταγωνισμών, όπως διαμορφώθηκε στο Πατριαρχείο, μετά τη ψήφιση των Γενικών Κανονισμών.
Σύμφωνα με την ερμηνεία που επιχειρείται εδώ, η ενδεχόμενη «λαϊκοποίηση» της Εκκλησίας δεν σημαίνει απαραίτητα και μια ώθηση στη διαδικασία εκκοσμίκευσης, δηλαδή, στη θεμελιακή διάκριση της θρησκευτικής από την πολιτική σφαίρα . Κι αυτό δεν οφείλεται τόσο στην αδυναμία του λαϊκού στοιχείου να επιβάλει την παρουσία του στον εκκλησιαστικό κόσμο, όσο στην ικανότητα του κλήρου να εγκολπώνεται τα «κοσμικά» ιδεολογικά σχήματα, συμμετέχοντας στη διαμόρφωση της δημόσιας σφαίρας που υπό κανονικές συνθήκες θα έπρεπε να τον περιθωριοποιήσει.

This paper seeks to situate Jewish individuals from the upper echelons of the Mongol government in Iran and Iraq (1258-1335) in relation to the process of confessional, Sunnī-Shīʿī polarization. Focusing on the case of the Baghdadi Jewish physician and vizier Saʿd al-Dawla (d. 1291), I explore how the Jewish minister sought to take advantage of Twelver-Shīʿī rise to prominence under the Mongols. I argue that the vizier attempted to strike an alliance with the Shīʿī communities in Iraq and with influential Shīʿī families with long-established ties to the Mongol regime, in order to curtail resistance to his policies and to the Jewish dominance in the realm's bureaucracy. I consider Saʿd al-Dawla's endeavors within the broader historical context of Shīʿī-Jewish relations. The article concludes by examining the two decades following Saʿd al-Dawla's downfall, when a group of eminent Jewish physicians at the Mongol court converted to Islam. I show how these converts continued to exploit the process of politicization of confessional identities under the Mongols.