As explorations into women's history morphed into gender studies, it was only natural that study of masculinity would soon follow. From the bibliographies provided in this volume, it appears that this latter is barely twenty years old. The nine papers included here, most of which were presented at meetings of the Sixteenth Century Society and Conference, contribute to scholarship on the topic by taking up very specific cases, whether focusing on an individual or on a location, effectively making more complex the broader category itself. Recognizing early on that any such definitions are very much affected by class, age, marital status, and situation, the authors give to their readers even more plurals in the course of their investigations.

The essays are grouped into three sections: “Deviating from the Norms,” “Civic and Religious Duties,” and “The Man Martin Luther.” Two essays in part 1 advance clear deviations from the norm. Allyson M. Poska's study of Galicia in northwest Spain offers numerous examples to show that peasant men lacked educational opportunities, frequently engaged in nonmarital sexuality, tended to resist military service but engaged in violence over more trivial issues, and had difficulty providing for their families (because of the system of inheritance)—all contrary to the masculine expectations of the day. The result was that thousands of Galician peasant men left the region and “demonstrated their masculinity by migrating” (16). Helmut Puff explores the case of an individual in Reformation Zurich who managed to negotiate multiple masculinities and challenge both cultural and Protestant norms. In 1541 Werner Steiner admitted to multiple instances of sexual activities with other men over the course of the previous two decades. Because of his elite position, his status as a former priest who had married and embraced the reform movement, and the council's concern to preserve its own reputation against possible Catholic attack, he was given the rather light sentence of house arrest, which was itself soon mitigated. He died the following year.

To this reader, the most interesting essays are those that complete the first section by Ulrike Strasser and Scott H. Hendrix, chiefly because they are not so much deviations as reconstructions of masculinities in this century that saw a crisis of gender norms. Strasser shows how Ignatius of Loyola's “crisis in his soldierly and chivalric masculinity” (52) led to a new model of clerical manhood: an uncompromising emphasis on purity, a form of spiritual cooperation among men, an integration of masculine and feminine elements into an action-oriented mysticism, the exchange of the dagger for the pilgrim's staff to become a soldier of Christ, and the formal exclusion of women from the order (which, she argues, actually enabled greater ministry to women). Hendrix's study of pamphlets on marriage by ten German Lutheran preachers was originally published in the Journal of the History of Ideas 56, no. 2 (April 1995): 177–93) and could have been missed by persons who do not focus their work on the sixteenth century. Happily reprinted here, it offers significant insights into the construction of a Protestant masculinity: the importance of marriage, sexuality as an essential component, the divisions of labor (public and domestic) between men and women, and the special accountabilities of men in the marriage relationship. A much more nuanced patriarchal image emerges here, Hendrix contends, than might routinely be suspected.

The intersection of the civil and religious provides the framework for part 2, with essays by Karen E. Spierling on Geneva, Raymond A. Mentzer on Huguenot France, and B. Ann Tlusty on imperial Augsburg. Spierling focuses on the implicit and occasionally explicit conflicts between the expectations of men to be responsible family heads and fathers and the claim that they should be obedient to church and city authorities in matters of piety and social discipline. On the other hand, Mentzer finds that the Reformed tradition in France exalted the role of the father as spiritual and ethical guide, enlarged the male role in the celebration and reception of the Eucharist, asserted patriarchal control over marriage, and in general intensified male dominance. A civic uprising by Protestant men of Augsburg in 1584 over fears concerning what would happen with the imposition of the new Gregorian calendar (for example, foreign massacres, threats to Protestant religious holidays) had at its root, according to Tlusty, in the tradition of the rights of men to collective self-defense. Conflict arose when the council attempted to remove an incendiary preacher from the city. Although confessional divisions hardened, negotiations that ended the immediate dispute actually resulted in the general disarmament of the civilian population and the loss of a longstanding characteristic of masculinity.

The fruit of many years of study on Luther and women by Susan C. Karant-Nunn and Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks is exhibited in the essays of part 3 on Luther's masculinity. Karant-Nunn reinforces in this particular case the points made by Hendrix in his broader essay and goes further to address Luther's frequent expressions of slander against women. She offers two angles that suggest more subtle judgment: Luther's acknowledgment that Katharina “wielded the household scepter” (176) and his use of humor in interacting with his wife. Wiesner-Hanks uses the lectures on Genesis to refocus the understanding of lust in Luther's thought, first, away from women and toward men, but more importantly, as part of his theology of sin and grace.

Such diverse investigations preclude comprehensive conclusions beyond acknowledging that masculinity in historical context is much more than patriarchy and power, a complex topic with multiple angles. One hopes that these researches will encourage others to pursue the topic in other contexts with similarly rich results.