Hillerbrand Hans J. - Historical Dictionary of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation

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Copyright 2000 by Hans J. Hillerbrand

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ISBN 1-57958-205-2

First published in the USA and UK 2000

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, by Jon Woronoff

No matter how much you may relativize, the Reformation was still one of the most dramatic turning points in world history. It propelled countless millions of people toward other directions than they had been following, and even those who continued along the same path at least knew there were alternatives. Otherwise there would have been little need for a Counter-Reformation. These momentous movements concerned not only the people of that time but successive generations as well, usually with less fervor, but with a growing conviction that the new directions were right and natural. Moreover, while the events occurred in Europe, they had an impact on most other parts of the world to some extent. It is hard to come up with many other turning points that affected as many, as much, for as long.

This explains the abiding interest in the Reformation (and Counter-Reformation) and the usefulness of another reference work on the subject. This historical dictionary, while smaller, has the advantage of covering the ground not once but four times, each from a different perspective. The introduction provides a broad historical overview. The dictionary entries present in some detail the crucial persons, places, events, documents, and concepts. The chronology traces the historical progression. The bibliography provides access to a continually renewed literature, delving into many subjects from many vantage points. Because this book was written by one person, it was easier to achieve a balance in the choice of entries and work the various parts into a cohesive whole.

One could hardly imagine a better author for this Historical Dictionary of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation than Hans J. Hillerbrand. After receiving his doctorate in Germany, where he occasionally returned as visiting professor, Dr. Hillerbrand spent most of his career in the United States, most recently as chairman of the Department of Religion at Duke University. For over four decades, he has studied, lectured and written about the Reformation. His publications include several dozen articles and a dozen books as well as the editorship of The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation, the most substantial work on the subject. During this period, Dr. Hillerbrand has been a member (and president) of the American Society for Reformation Research as well as president of the American Society for Church History and long-standing vice chairman of the Center for Reformation Research. As stated, one could hardly imagine a better author.

Jon Woronoff
Series Editor

The invitation, three years ago, to write a dictionary of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation provided me with the welcome opportunity to do some careful reflection on what was, and what was not, important in the 16th century. Moreover, the invitation challenged me to augment my own competence and conversance in areas in which I felt less at home than in others. The work on the dictionary thus came to be an informative seminar experience and an immense learning process.

I should record my sentiment that the field of Reformation and Counter-Reformation studies (to use these two traditional terms rather than the substitutes, such as Early Modern Europe or Catholic Reform, that have been proposed) certainly is alive and well. Several journals focus, in one way or another, on the period, and the number of articles and monographs published each year staggers the imagination. Of course, not all was worth publishing, at least from my perspective, but a great deal of what is published assuredly is propelling the scholarly discourse forward and providing new insights. I trust that this dictionary reflects the fact that I have learned a great deal from these publications.

As regards the larger picture of Reformation and Counter-Reformation studies I confess to some uncertainty. The field of historical studies is at present undergoing a paradigm shift in which the traditional dominance of European history is challenged in a number of ways. A number of scholars are arguing that to talk about an age or a period of the Reformation distorts the broad and important lines of continuity which connect the entire period from the late 14th to the late 17th century. Accordingly, the Reformation is deprived of its distinctiveness. Other scholars find it appropriate to speak of Reformations of the 16th century. These developmentsby no means convincing to memay well effect the future course of scholarship. Whether the field of Reformation studies will be able to retain the important place it had in the past seems to me an altogether open question. Of course, historians are not prophets. And there is no doubt that the period of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation continues to offer excitement and deep insights to those who study it.

I am pleased to acknowledge the welcome help I received from Dr. Karin Brown, who contributed a number of articles to this dictionary. Dr. Brown received her Ph.D. from the City University of New York and has taught at Hunter College. She is the author of Karl Lueger, the Liberal Years: Democracy, Municipal Reform, and the Struggle for Power in the Vienna City Council, 18751882 (New York, 1987). She also contributed more than a dozen articles to the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation (New York, 1997).

Hans J. Hillerbrand
Duke University

The Reformation of the 16th century used to be seen as one of the pivotal events in European history. Lord Acton, the famous 19th-century British historian, compared the importance of Martin Luther's speech at the diet at Worms in 1521 with Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, surely a rather extravagant claim. But the 19th century also was the time when the ideas and ideals of the Protestant Reformation were seen as harbingers of modernity, and those disposed to a religious perspective saw the Reformation as the most authentic interpretation of Christianity since the days of the apostolic age. This exuberant perspective was discounted, of course, by Catholic historians whose notion was the diametrically reversed insistence that Protestantism had destroyed a flourishing religious culture. Late medieval Christianity was seen as having a splendid vitality and piety, only to be torn apart by the Protestant Reformation.