Confessionalisation

An entry in the online German-language MennLex encyclopedia project (originally 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 policy 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.

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 original 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.

The article is dedicated to the inner problems and
processes in Orthodox Church of Kiev Metropolitanate at the end of
the XVIth century at Reczpospolita. The author overviews the processes
of conciliar stagnation and renovation of the Kiev Metropolitanate of
this period, the Orthodox lay associations movement development and
their activity, the outside inductions and influences on the Orthodoxy
as a result of Western European Reformation and Counterreformation
processes (confessionalisation). The main conclusions are the following:
the inner forces of the Orthodox Church were mobilized and it succeeded
in renewing the church life in Reczpospolita during the described
period. These processes doesn’t fit into the frames of the West-European
confessionalisation theory, although some signs of it in the Eastern
Christianity at Reczpospolita can be observed. On the one hand, similarity
in the processes and events doesn’t automatically uphold an adoption of
the confessionalisation concept for the Ukrainian and Belarusian lands.
On the other hand, all the processes described above could be named as
“the inner confessionalisation”
Артыкул прысвечаны аналізу ўнутраных працэсаў і
праблем праваслаўнай царквы Кіеўскай мітраполіі ў Рэчы Паспалітай
у канцы XVI  стагоддзя. Аўтар паказвае стагнацыю і аднаўленне
1 «Вымушаная» Рэфармацыя: унутраныя працэсы ў праваслаўнай царкве ў Рэчы
Паспалітай (канец XVI – пач. XVII ст.)
132
саборнага жыцця ў Кіеўскай мітраполіі азначанага перыяду,
дзейнасць праваслаўнага брацкага руху, знешнія і ўнутраныя ўплывы
на праваслаўе ў выніку развіцця Рэфармацыі і Контррэфармацыі, а
таксама працэсаў канфесіяналізацыі ў Заходняй Еўропе. Асноўныя
высновы: унутраныя рэсурсы праваслаўнай царквы былі мабілізаваны
і адбылося аднаўленне яе ўнутранага жыцця на розных узроўнях.
Немагчыма гэтыя працэсы змясціць у «заходнееўрапейскія» рамкі
тэорыі канфесіяналізацыі, можна толькі вылучыць яе прыметы ва
ўсходнім хрысціянстве Рэчы Паспалітай. З аднаго боку, падобныя
знешне працэсы і факты немагчыма аўтаматычна дастасаваць да тэорыі
канфесіяналізму адносна тэрыторый сучасных Украіны і Беларусі,
з іншага боку вышэй апісаныя працэсы могуць быць названымі
«унутранай канфесіяналізацыяй».

Download full text at: https://doi.org/10.17613/7mzv-zy28
The article examines regulations for »order« at the princely courts in the Holy Roman Empire in the 16th century and asks how these prescriptive documents sought to establish "good order" at court. Special attention is paid to the theological justifications of order as well as the confessionality and the confessional character of court orders. To this end, ten arguments are put forward for discussion, offering intentional and functional explanations, i.e. a) explicit justifications for the creation of a good order, b) implicit justifications in court orders and other sources on princely self-perception, and finally c) functional interpretations that also seek to explain non-intentional mechanisms of action: 1. Functioning—2. cost-cutting—3. tradition and reform—4. good order as a princely duty and as an intrinsic value—5. affirmation of the social system—6. the princely court as an example and as a pars pro toto—7. decorum and representation—8. regulation and deregulation—9. legal reliability and dignity—10. the reverence of God.
Der Aufsatz untersucht Hofordnungen fürstlicher Höfe im Alten Reich des 16. Jahrhunderts und fragt nach den Begründungen für die »Gute Ordnung bei Hofe«. Besonderes Augenmerk liegt auf der theologischen Begründung von Ordnung und der Konfessionalität bzw. dem konfessionelle Charakter von Hofordnungen. Dafür werden zehn Thesen zur Diskussion gestellt, die intentionale und funktionale Erklärungen aufführen, also a) explizite Begründungen für die Schaffung Guter Ordnung, b) implizite Begründungen in Hofordnungen und anderen Quellen zum fürstlichen Selbstverständnis und schließlich c) funktionale Deutungen, die auch nicht intendierte Handlungslogiken und Wirkmechanismen erklären wollen: 1. Funktionieren – 2. Sparen – 3. Herkommen und Reformation – 4. Gute Ordnung als Fürstenpflicht und als Wert an sich – 5. Bekräftigung der ständischen Ordnung – 6. Der Fürstenhof als exemplum und als pars pro toto – 7. Decorum und Repräsentation – 8. Regulierung und Deregulierung – 9. Rechtssicherheit und Würde – 10. Die Ehrfurcht Gottes.

In the last 500 years our modern world oscillated between the belief in 'disenchanted' strategies of bureaucratic control and surveillance, and the celebration of iconoclastic ruptures that are supposed to preserve our sense of freedom and dignity. Yet, the equilibrium between these poles has fallen out of balance after the turn of the millennium. While the obsession with control has released concerted efforts to replace our supposedly irrational intelligence by the 'artificial intelligence' of digital technologies, the implementation of ICT technologies in our everyday life has undermined the iconoclastic conviction that artefacts are merely tools. Our smartphones have a 'magic life' on their own – be it that they afford a life that we appreciate, or that they nudge us into a life that we abhor. This challenge requires us to recover our ability to distinguish between idolatrous attachments, and the prudent use of 'magic objects' that is consistent with our natural desire to transform our life for the better. The following essay will discuss the question to what extent the basic assumptions of the confessionalized religions of the post-Reformation era distract us from the task to engage with this challenge. Moreover it will question the modern inclination to replace the engagement with sacramental objects by the engagement with pious 'master signifiers': authoritative substitutes of the 'body of Christ', like the Eucharistic host, the Bible or secular party books, that reduce the attachment to religious traditions to a matter of formal belief and the submission to an authoritative system of clerical, bureaucratic, or (today) robotic surveillance.

The Reformed Church historian and orientalist Johann Heinrich Hottinger (1620-1667) is a key figure in the history of Arabic and Islamic studies in early modern Europe. His life and his work have been almost completely neglected and there has never been a full-length study on Hottinger. This book presents a thorough documentation of Hottinger's Arabic and Islamic studies. Based on printed books and a great number of unpublished and hitherto unknown manuscripts, the book assesses his scholarship in the context of seventeenth-century oriental studies and confessional rivalries. The book contains a biographical account of Hottinger and inserts him into the Zurich tradition of oriental studies, which can be traced back to Theodor Bibliander and Konrad Pellikan in the sixteenth century. It gives an account of his years as a student of Jacobus Golius in Leiden, where Hottinger copied and collected an impressive number of Arabic manuscripts on which he later based his teaching and his publications. The book explores Hottinger's network in the Protestant Republic of Letters and it contains studies of his activities as a bibliographer of Arabic texts, as a teacher of the Arabic language, as a linguist who promoted a comparative approach to oriental languages, as a student of the history of Islam and as a Protestant who used his knowledge of Arabic and of Islam in the theological debates of the time.

The Huguenots were a religious minority in France who fought during the second half of the sixteenth century for their Protestant (Calvinist) beliefs, and to whom concessions were granted by the crown with the Edict of Nantes in 1598. The Huguenots continued to enjoy their privileged status until the Edict was revoked in 1685. This collection of essays explores the character and identity of the Huguenot movement by examining their institutions, patterns of belief and worship, and interaction with French state and society.

"Reformation and confessionalization in Bártfa

The first part of this paper outlines the forming of the confessionalization theory, originating from Germany, and its main points. After that religious phenomena of towns at the beginning of the 16th century and events preceding the reformation in Bártfa (Bardejov) are discussed. The main part of the paper deals with the presentation of reformation in Bártfa according to Wolfgang Reinhard’s seven points (the establishment of dogmatic principles (confessions), the implementation of these principles by enforcers, the use of propaganda and censorship, the rise of an educated clergy leading to the professionalization of the ministry, the intensification of disciplinig the community of believers, the use of special rites, the importance of language usage). The author thinks he managed to prove that the confessionalization theory can be applied for examining towns in Upper Hungary."

My paper focuses on a crucial moment in the history of the Holy Roman Empire, and in particular of the Austrian territories, namely the years after the death of the Emperor Maximilian II (1576). According to the voices of the time, the death of the “tolerant Emperor” marked the end of a period of transfer of knowledge, objects, and ideas from Europe and outside Europe to Vienna, and the beginning of confessional demarcation. In my paper, I will look at the tension between transfer and demarcation from the biography of the Imperial librarian Hugo Blotius and his project of reform of the library. I will try to let the sources of the time “dialogue” with the historiography for understanding this moment of demarcation as an analytical opportunity for historians rather then as a case in the long-run process of confessionalisation.

Esta é a 2a. Palestra entregue no Simpósio Os Puritanos de 2018 em Maragogi - PE. Um estudo histórico de como a Assembleia de Westminster definiu o modelo de pregadores, realizado ad fontes: The Papers and Minutes, diários dos membros, registros das atas dos Comuns e dos Lordes e outros documentos.

April 2015, University of Nottingham
‘Mapping the post-Tridentine motet (c.1560-c.1610): Text, style and performance'

Abstract:
Inspired by the seminal work of historians Ernst Walter Zeeden, Wolfgang Reinhard and Heinz Schilling in the second half of the 20th century, the early modern period is often seen as the ‘Age of Confessionalisation’. Without doubt the fragmentation of Western Christendom into different and competing churches was of such momentous import that it left no aspect of people’s lives untouched. As historians of all disciplines set out to diagnose the workings and effects of confessionalisation, this paradigm had a particularly strong hold on musicology, where Catholic and Protestant church music had traditionally been treated as totally independent territories.
This keynote address intends to revisit the compartmentalisation that has come to shape our approach to sacred music of the 16th century. With regard to musical repertoire denominational barriers were in fact fairly. With few exceptions, musicians regarded themselves as heirs to the same musical legacy and tended to appreciate the same works by the same composers. Central in the cross-confessional exchange of polyphonic compositions was the motet, a genre not tied to any particular liturgy. The keynote address will seek to establish to what extent the reception and performance of motets was a denominational practice. Case studies will explore the extent of sharing and trading of repertoire between Catholics and Lutherans in particular. On the basis of this survey, a preliminary picture emerges as to what types of motets could be enjoyed on either side of the religious divide, and what strategies were taken to ‘appropriate’ works with an unmistakeable identity from the ‘enemy’ camp.

This study introduces the concept of vernacularization in the context of the literary history of Bohemia around 1800. National philologists, to some extent until today, examine this literature
based on 19th-century national and aesthetic criteria (i.e. the notion of „genius“, originality etc.) which, as the author argues, do not suit an analysis of multi-lingual pre-Romantic culture. Without intending to replace the popular and politically relevant narrative of the National Revival, the concept of vernacularization attempts to generate a comparatively oriented discussion regarding the transition (beginning around 1760) from the multi-lingual cultures of a stratified society (the nobility, the clergy, the common people etc.) into separate, linguistically defined regional and subsequently national cultures and especially national literatures in the first half of the 19th century.
Vernacularization is defined as a form of knowledge transfer between cultures considered to have different places in a European cultural hierarchy. The „higher“ or „classical“ cultures serve as the vehicles for the transfer of culture; they are supposed to be quite independent of regional contexts and thus can be interregionally recognized as exemplary; in a stratified society they are accessible mainly to the elites. That redestines them to serve as a means of representation.
„Vernacularization“ indicates the efforts by a region’s intellectual elites to make this arcane knowledge (or at least its „useful“ arts) accessible to their uneducated compatriots (in the Middle Ages mainly to the secular elite, in the 18th and 19th centuries above all to the „folk“). This dissemination of useful knowledge in support of the general good is described aptly by Joseph Anton Riegger as the obligation of the ideal „enlightened patriot.“
Therefore, the „logic“ of vernacularization should not be limited to one country or one era; on the contrary, the concept should ncourage comparison and simultaneously provide insight into the inner hierarchy of European cultures into which regional culture would be integrated.
In this context, all „mature“ cultures (not only those of antiquity) can be considered exemplary or model cultures. The theme of knowledge transfer as a service to the homeland, in spite of significant differences determined by time and place, can be traced through various examples: from Cicero (Greece-Rome) to Dante Alighieri (Roman and Provençal culture to Italy), Du Bellay
(Roman and Italian culture to France) and finally to Frederick II (Italian, English and French culture to protestant Germany), through the inaugural lecture (1765) of the Freiburg (and later
Prague) professor of law Joseph Anton Riegger, whose detailed defense of his decision to lecture in German rather than in Latin is a central text in this study. Vernacularization is motivated not only by a enlightened utilitarian knowledge transfer to serve the own land, but also by the desire to see one’s own land included in the the hierarchy of „enlightened“ nations.
The author also suggests that vernacularization, in the sense of adapting an already established high culture to a regional level, should not be limited to the medium of language. The role of language is admittedly as important as it is problematic; for example, in the case of the multi-ethnic Bohemian lands, a linguistic doubling took place. This problem is illustrated by the not uncontested introduction of German-language lectures at the university in Prague, „identity politics“-motivated attempts to establish the equivalence of local languages (F. J. von Kinský’s
1773 call, written in German, to regard Czech as the language of the „Czech lands“) or other – Czech and German – defenses of vernacular language(s), literature(s) and culture(s) versus
the established elite cultures such as Latin, French or (north) German. Especially significant are institutions that are either vernacularized by the „enlightened“ higher classes for utilitarian
reasons (e.g. originally Latin-based educational institutions, as well as their libraries, which are opened to the public) or institutions that were created for the transfer of knowledge and, usually (co-) established by the secular elite, combine both patriotic motives: compulsory education in the vernacular language, semi-public associations and institutions such as the Freemasons,
reading and lending libraries, newspaper associations, museums (e.g. the „patriotic“ museum
of the Prague typographer J. F. Schönfeld) etc.

This introduction puts an emphasis on the importance of (monastic) florilegia and on the subtle difference between the monastic ideal envisioned by Donatus and those expressed in the rules of Benedict and Caesarius of Arles, especially with regard to the power of the abbess, the role of discipline, control and surveillance, the imperative of confession and its effect on salvation.

Abstract:

»The Present as ‘Impending End’ -- Apocalyptic Thinking in the Early Modern Era. The Concept of an Apocalyptic Chronotope according to Bakhtin«. The following article explores new territory insofar as it attempts to render the literary concept of Mikhail M. Bakhtin's chronotope applicable for an historical interpretation of spatio-temporal practices while at the same time developing elements of the model, thus making it possible to characterize the ‘‘apocalyptic chronotope’’ in the early modern era. Only with the modification of the components, or rather the model, of the ‘‘apocalyptic chronotope’’ over the course of time does an analysis of an apocalyptic notion through the use of chronotopoi become possible and fruitful. For this purpose it is undoubtedly necessary to know the individual elements of the ‘‘apocalyptic chronotope.’’ This is attempted by using the example of a genre which acts as a medium for early modern communication and which literally combines paradigmatic imagery and scripturality -- the illustrated pamphlet. Finally, the function of apocalyptics and thus the function of the ‘‘apocalyptic chronotope’’ in the early modern era are further explored.

German version:
Der nachfolgende Artikel betritt insofern wissenschaftliches Neuland, als er zum einen den Versuch wagt, ein literaturwissenschaftliches Konzept - das des Chronotopos von Michail M. Bachtin - für die geschichtswissenschaftliche Interpretation raumzeitlicher Praktiken nutzbar zu machen. Zum anderen soll er diejenigen Elemente eines Modells herausarbeiten, die einen möglichen „apokalyptischen Chronotopos“ in der Frühen Neuzeit überhaupt erst kennzeichnen. Denn nur in der Veränderung dieser einzelnen Bestandteile bzw. des Modells „Apokalyptischer Chronotopos“ über die Zeitläufe hin, scheint eine Analyse apokalyptischer Vorstellungen im Allgemeinen mittels Chronotopoi möglich und fruchtbar zu sein. Hierfür ist unzweifelhaft die Kenntnis der einzelnen Elemente eines „apokalyptischen Chronotopos“ notwendig.
Durchgeführt wird dieser Versuch am Beispiel einer Quellengattung, die als ein Medium der frühneuzeitlichen Kommunikation geradezu paradigmatisch Bildlichkeit und Schriftlichkeit miteinander verknüpfte – dem illustrierten Flugblatt. Abschließend wird auf die Funktionen der Apokalyptik und damit die Funktionen des apokalyptischen Chronotopos in der Frühen Neuzeit eingegangen.

The thesis deals with the first organisation and uses of the Imperial library in Vienna between 1575 and 1604. At the core of this work there is the cultural and political experience of the first librarian, the Dutch scholar Hugo Blotius (1534-1608), attracted to Vienna during the “tolerant” age of Maximilian II, but in charge until the end of the reign of his successor, Rudolf II. From 1583 the Imperial court was no longer in Vienna but in Prague, so that the study of the library involves discussions about the moving centres and peripheries in early modern central Europe. The thesis is divided into four parts that correspond to larger analytical issues. In the first part, the problem of the relationship between early modern “intellectuals” and the production and construction of their legacy is tackled through the experience of Hugo Blotius before settling in Vienna (1570-1574). The problem is crucial since it is mainly through the sources produced by Blotius or connected to him that we are able to reconstruct the history of the imperial library. The second part deals with the urban and courtly dimensions of Vienna and here some specificities of its cultural institutions and the dynamics of patronage are singled out, with particular attention to the complicated transition between the reign of Maximilian II and that of Rudolf II. The third part of this work focuses on the micro-spatial dimension of the library (the Minorite cloister where this was placed) and tries to reconstruct how this space might have influenced the main activity that Blotius carried out while in Vienna, namely the drawing up of library catalogues. Finally I sketch some uses of the library, and some types of users, basing on lists of loans and scholarly correspondence, that is a way to reflect upon the rise of “publics” of late Sixteenth-century cultural institutions. In the second volume of the thesis the “materials” used for the text are collected, such as a selection of Hugo Blotius private correspondence, his Consilia, the documents from the archives, and his notes on the organisation of the library.

Zusammenfassung
Der Aufsatz behandelt die Frage der Ausbildung der lutherischen Geistlichen in den Herzogtümern Pommern zur Zeit der Konfessionsbilung und Konfessionalisierung. Anhand zahlreicher Quellen aus den Archiven und Bibliotheken zu Stettin, Greifswald und Stralsund - u. a. Leichenpredigten, Konsistorialakten, Korrespondenz etc - beschreibt der Autor den Bildungsweg der Pastoren: beginnend bei den Unterrichtungen zu Hause, über den Besuch der deutschen und lateinischen Schulen und Gymnasien bis hin zur Universität. Die zentralen Fragen sind dabei: die Intensität der Ausbildung und die reale Bedeutung für die zukünftige Berufsausübung; die Durchlässigkeit des Kirchenapparats für Aufsteiger und die Ausschließungsmechanismen, die zur Endogamie der Gruppe der Pfarrer und zur Entstehung von Pfarrdynastien führten.
Angesichts des relativ schwach mit Quellen belegten Zustands der voruniversitären Ausbildung stehen die Universitätsbesuche der pommerschen Pastoren im Mittelpunkt der Untersuchung. Die Immatrikulationslisten weisen auf eine relativ schwache Mobilität der Pastoren und eine leicht sinkende Popularität der Universität zu Greifswald, deren Besuch erst in der Mitte des 17. Jahrhunderts für die pommerschen Geistlichen zur Pflicht wurde, hin. Dies widerspricht der älteren Forschung (H. Heyden), die unkritisch den narrativen Quellen folgte. Neben der pommerschen alma mater spielten die Universitäten in Wittenberg, Frankfurt/O. und Rostock eine bedeutende Rolle. Die Differenzierung zwischen Hinter- und Vorpommern beweist, dass es in den Herzogtümern keine allgemeingültigen Karriere- und Ausbildungsmuster für die Pastoren gab, und dass jeder Teil seine eigenen Rekrutierungsstrategien hatte. Der Stettiner Teil war enger mit Frankfurt/O. und Wittenberg als mit Greifswald verbunden und der „kryptocalvinistische Streit“ beeinflusste den Bildungsstand der Geistlichen aus diesem Herzogtum viel stärker negativ als im Fall Wolgasts.
Trotz der Unregelmäßigkeit des Ausbildungsverlaufs sind gewisse Tendenzen festzustellen: 74% der Geistlichen immatrikulierte sich zum ersten Mal zwischen dem 16. und 21. Lebensjahr; Magistertitel wurden in 70% der Fälle zwischen dem 21. und 28. Lebensjahr erworben; 50% der Pastoren traten ihren ersten Posten im Alter von 26-33 Jahre an. Als Folgen der universitären Ausbildung nennt der Autor u. a. das Erweben von Sozial- und Bildungskapital, das eine wichtige Rolle bei der späteren Stellensuche spielte.
Der Universitätsabschluss bedeutete auf keinen Fall das Ende der Ausbildung. Die Pastoren waren durch ständige Kontrolle der kirchlichen und weltlichen Obrigkeit, sowie durch die Erwartungen der Gemeinde, zur Weiterbildung verpflichtet. Deren Folge war allerdings auch eine wachsende Distanz zu den Gläubigen.

"Contributions to Valentine Eck's life

A lot of studies have been published by different authors about the erudite humanist from Bavaria, Valentine Eck (Ecchius), his philosophical and poetical works as well as his text editions. Nevertheless, many questions concerning his life still need clearing. This short paper contains the first results of a fuller biography in preparation. The events of Eck's life are mostly displayed in his political writings and in his letters and other documents preserved in the Bardejov City Archives. Beyond the known facts, this paper brings new data concerning the last period of Eck's life. Possibly the most important of these is the exact day of his death, which could be fixed on the basis of a note in a Calendarium Historicum held in the Central Archives of the Lutheran Church in Hungary. According to this, he quietly fell asleep on 5th September 1556. The Latin text of the source is published at the end of the article.
"

The reorganization of the poor relief system in Dutch cities in the second half of the 17th century marked a new manner of confessional coexistence in which dissenting communities were entrusted to care for their own poor co-religionists. In the negotiations to solve the financial problems of Utrecht from the 1620s to the 1670s, which led to the separation of charity along confessional lines in 1674, Catholics did not remain passive. They were one of the actors, along with the Dutch Reformed Church and the political authorities. All the actors attempted to defend their own interests by referring to the term ‘public’ based on their own definition. Catholics actively created room for survival by participating in the delimitation of the ‘public’. The public sphere was a much more dynamic space and Catholics had much more active agency in the delimitation of the ‘public’ than previous studies have assumed.

"Klang & Glaube. Johann Walter und Georg Spalatin", Neue ständige Ausstellung im Priesterhaus Torgau , since May 21, 2017.

Im Torgau des 16. Jahrhunderts wirkten zwei Persönlichkeiten, deren Namen eng mit der Entwicklung und dem Gelingen der Reformation in Sachsen verknüpft sind. Beide waren Wegbegleiter Martin Luthers.

Johann Walter half Luther bei der liturgischen Neugestaltung des Gottesdienstes und gründete kurz darauf die erste evangelische Stadtkantorei in Torgau. Georg Spalatin war einer der wichtigsten Weichensteller der deutschen Reformation und einer von Luthers engsten Freunden. Beide Männer hielten sich in Torgau auf: Walter lebte beinahe 45 Jahre in der Stadt, Spalatin nur vorübergehend. Acht Jahre lang war er Eigentümer dieses Hauses, dessen Geschichte die Ausstellung beleuchtet. Zeitweise wohnte er auch hier.

Die Ausstellung führt in das Leben und Werk der beiden Persönlichkeiten ein und vermittelt die Bedeutung der Residenzstadt Torgau als eines der Zentren der Reformation.

The Church repeats the call for conversion that Jesus made at the beginning of His mission. Christian exclusivists also appeal to this call when they try to justify the need for conversion.
Is exclusivism the right path for today’s Christians? The article does not give a comprehensive or definitive answer to this question, but it tries to outline the problem of an exclusivist approach to religious conversion. It also shows that Christian exclusivism is no longer a credible way of proclaiming the faith.

Based on the records of Vatican archives — the Roman Inquisition, the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith and the Congregation of the Council, this article analyzes the policy of the Roman Catholic Church towards mixed marriages in multi-confessional European regions with special attention to Germany. Taking as an example the marriage alliance of Wolfgang Wilhelm of Neuburg and Katherina Charlotte of Zweibrücken I show how interweaving politics and religion influenced the dynamics of constructing and negotiating confessional boundaries as well as the actors’ strategies for shifting and overcoming these boundaries.  Extending my analysis to the broader German context, I show how mixed marriages suffered from an underlying tension and created some significant problems because they contradicted customary law and did not obey the rule of patriarchy. Because the search for solutions allowed — and sometimes required — the involvement of the secular authorities to control and reduce the potential for conflict, mixed marriages played a crucial role in enforcing secularization.