Over the past thirty to forty years, Reformation studies have changed almost beyond all recognition. In Britain, for example, there has been a significant movement of revisionism, especially with regard to the late medieval Catholic Church and resistance to Protestantism. Political and cultural historians and commentators are exploring the multi-faceted religious and social changes of the period, analysing how the religious movements of the 16th century interact with changes in the state, economics, manners and mores.
One of the significant areas where this has been happening is in the role of women in the late medieval/early modern period. As long ago as 1986, Jean Bethke Elshtain in a thought -provoking essay on the changing status of women brought about by the views of Luther and the Reformation trauma, wrote that: ‘The masculinization of theology in Protestantism, with veneration of Mary condemned as ignorant idolatry, did not usher in some glorious new day for women. Instead, it invited the loss of a female linked transcendent moment, a historic rupture we have still to explore fully’ (Meditations on Modern Political Thought [Penn State Press 1986, p. 18]). This is relevant to this review because one of the most interesting essays in this excellent book is precisely on the changes the Reformation brought about to the role of women in Christian society. Karen E. Spierling's essay, ‘Women, Marriage, and Family’, is an elegant and well balanced consideration of the recent scholarship in this area, taking as her starting point the letter of Marie Dentière to Queen Marguerite of Navarre. (The full title of the letter in English is, ‘A very useful epistle, made and composed by a Christian woman of Tournai, sent to the Queen of Navarre, sister of the King of France, against the Turks, Jews, Infidels, False Christians, Anabaptists and Lutherans’.). Dentière was the wife of a Reformed pastor in Geneva. Spierling makes the point that while Dentière was primarily defending Reformed theological positions, she first had to have a brief section on the ‘Defence of Women’. The defence was primarily a reaction to, not of Catholic attitudes, but of the Reformed position that women had absolutely zero role in public teaching, scripture commentary or any sort of religious leadership; ‘any obligations that women had to teach about faith were limited to the education of their children in the privacy of their homes’ (p. 179). Spierling balances the essay perfectly by introducing another woman towards the end, Jeanne de Jussie, who in her Short Chronicle of 1535, tells how she and her fellow Poor Clares of Geneva, were forced to abandon their convent and flee to France, entirely against their will as women, as they refused to give up their monastic profession. Spierling makes the point well that in Counter-Reformation Catholicism there was increased supervision of women religious by men, so the ‘masculinization’ of religion was not an exclusively Protestant phenomenon. However, on this point, it is worth remembering that the work of Francis de Sales and Jeanne de Chantal, as one of the great and early fruits of the Catholic Reformation, puts this general judgment under need of some nuancing.
Spierling's essay is worth emphasizing as it shares its excellent characteristics with the other essays in the Companion. The collection is edited by David M. Whitford of Baylor University and editor of The Sixteenth Century Journal. The contributors come largely from, or work in, the Reformed tradition, and the basic tone of the book is broadly sympathetic to the Reformation project. However, in a work of this high standard, the contributors obviously write as professional historians and theologians. The other eighteen essays cover all the main topoi of Reformation theology, such as ‘Election’, ‘Revelation and Scripture’, ‘Justification’ and ‘The Church and Ministry’. Importantly, subjects such as liturgy and preaching are not forgotten, and there is a particularly useful essay on ‘Catechisms and Confessions of Faith’, by Karin Maag. Given that in the white heat of technological advance, these were the major media for both Catholic and Protestant protagonists, this is an especially important area. Concentrating solely on the Lutheran, Reformed and Anabaptist attempts to formulate and pass on their doctrines, the multiplication of catechisms and articles and confessions, graphically illustrates the doctrinal free-for-all which was ushered in by the Reformation. This went way beyond the range of allowable opinion available in the various schools of Catholic theology. Importantly, Maag also highlights resistance, if not directly to the new doctrines, then certainly to the way in which they were being enforced. ‘Very quickly, Calvin and his fellow Reformers ran into obstructions, as the inhabitants of whole streets point-blank refused to come to Saint Pierre, the Genevese cathedral, and swear their allegiance to the new confession after hearing it read aloud by the dizenier or overseer of their district…This refusal among some Genevese inhabitants to accept the [Genevese] Confession highlighted the divide between Reformation leaders…and ordinary people, who often did not see the need to swear their formal agreement or did not have a firm grasp on the doctrines or objected to being compelled to testify in public about their doctrinal views’ (p. 201). The essay, ‘Superstition, Magic, and Witchcraft during and after the Reformation’, by Peter Maxwell-Stuart, is also a vital contribution, as this subject loomed so large at the time, and is the focus of a great deal of interest now. It may surprise many that, ‘Indeed, the Papacy often did its best to calm down over excitement against witches, and the Inquisitions tended to be a good deal more skeptical of accusations of practising magic than many other sources of authority’(p. 285).
Another excellent feature of the book comes in Part II: ‘A Reformation ABC’, which is series of short definitions of people and subjects. Again, this covers many of the Reformation common places as well as many ecclesiastical terms and concepts that, say, a student from a secular background would find enormously helpful. The definition of ‘Transubstantiation’, for example, by Lolly Dominski, of the Garret-Evangelical Theological Seminary, is a model of concision and balance.
This an excellent volume for teachers and for students who are beginning Reformation studies. The very full bibliographies and suggestions for further reading are a valuable resource in themselves. Some of the typesetting shows signs of haste, as in the entry for Peter Maxwell-Stuart (p. 470), but this is no more than a minor cosmetic flaw. Obviously, no companion-style volume can be exhaustive, and every reader may regret the absence of some topic or person close to their heart, but as an introductory guide to what is a vast and bewildering subject, this is an excellent place to get one's bearings.
