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“Conscience” was a main issue in the Catholic theology of the XVI century and it played an important part in the speculative theology of the great commentaries on the Summa theologiae , where it was treated as the epistemological problem of the synderesis . But it also dominated the literature of the Summulae confessorum , which was intended to solve problems of practical life. These writings could rely on a quite long and very rich tradition, which had given in the XV century a systematic shape to all questions pertaining to the different fora competent for the sins of the Christian. The main feature of this doctrine was that the church had to administrate both the forum internum and the forum externum , which was intended as a part of the ecclesiastic jurisdiction. The same pattern was adopted since the late XVI century by both Lutheran and Calvinistic or Puritan theology, of course with an important difference, because the sacramental mediation of the church in the process of the confession was progressively dismissed completely. In this way, the difference between the forum internum and the forum externum was developed to such a point that the former corresponded only with the singular conscience and the latter coincided only with the law of a sovereign power.

Clerical attitudes toward reading and the book can help explain the spread of literacy as well as the marked popular interest in devotional literature in sixteenth-century Spain. The author argues that the Spanish clergy played an important, although underestimated, role in the dissemination of literality (i.e. knowledge of letters) in the early part of the sixteenth century. The article demonstrates how the catechetical efforts of Catholic clergy contributed to the long term forging of a confessional literary culture, a literary culture informed by Catholic religious ideas. The author moves away from customary scholarly focus on the coercive role of the clergy, examining instead how members of the clergy crafted a spirituality of reading. The article thus explores how the Spanish clergy elaborated a constructive understanding of reading that fused together the practice of reading, understood as spiritual/devotional practice, with the contents of the faith. Synodal constitutions as well as diverse genres of devotional literature are brought to bear as the author explains how the Spanish clergy endeavored to make a lay Catholic reader.

This article will explore what might be called the transregional scope and outreach of early modern Reformed synods in a theological as well as ecclesial sense, examining some very few but important moments between the sixteenth and seventeenth century that marked a turning point in the history of the European Reformed Churches and show some particular aspects of the constitutive link between synods and consensus. A transregional level implies a methodological shift towards a more complex and many-sided view of synods, according to which a supposedly unyielding and confessionally adamant institution was affected by the social, geographical, cultural, theological and political stratifications within a wide range of mediating factors and conditions: different local Churches were linked together and crossed the political and ecclesiastical borders through the channels along which persons and ideas passed from region to region, thus creating a mutual exchange through which political, institutional and theological communication took place.

When a person in the parish was in bed seriously ill or was hovering between life and death, the priest would be called to him or her and it was part of the priest’s duty in the medieval and Reformation traditions to make his way to the sick or the dying whatever the weather or the state of the roads, a journey that could be both long and arduous. When the priest arrived at the sickbed, he could listen to confession and give communion and extreme unction. This article gives an overview over the ways in which the pastoral visits to the sick and the preparation for death should or could be carried out liturgically according to Swedish medieval and Reformation sources. Some central conceptions of dying are pointed out in the relevant liturgical parts, as well as their theological and pious explanations.

This paper examines the career and homiletics of Huguenot pastor Jean Daillé (1594–1670) and what his example reveals about how Huguenots understood their place in France under the Edict of Nantes. Daillé’s career began at Saumur, but he soon became one of the pastors at Charenton, ministering to Paris’ Reformed population. Over the course of a career that lasted for more than four decades, Daillé became a leading figure among his co-religionists, and left behind a sizable list of published works, including sermons. Based primarily on a reading of those printed sermons, this paper highlights the important role that preached and printed sermons played in negotiating the religious particularism and political loyalty to the crown that, together, informed Huguenot confessional identity during Daillé’s lifetime. Sermons were integral to this process by offering a vocabulary of images and arguments in support of the Huguenot position, especially since their message was directed both to the Huguenot faithful and to the crown.

The greatest propagator of the reformation among the Romanians was István Geleji Katona (1589–1649). He had a good relationship with the teachers from Herborn (Philipp Ludwig Piscator, 1575–1629, Johann Heinrich Alsted, 1588–1638, and Johann Heinrich Bisterfeld 1605–1655) invited to the Academicum Collegium seu Gymnazium Illustre in Gyulafehérvár by Transylvanian princes Gábor Bethlen (1580–1629) and György Rákóczi I (1593–1648). All of them represented an irenic attitude and they wanted to convert to the Reformation not only the Greek Orthodox Romanians but the Islamic Turkish people as well. The study shows the activity of this intellectual circle in Gyulafehérvár – as a result of this activity The New Testament was published in Romanian language in 1648, and the Book of Psalms in 1651.

The Jesuit order was vehemently spreading the gospel since it was founded, and China was a major target. After 1601, many Jesuits had arrived in China and their learned reports to their headquarters accumulated rapidly. The Jesuits adapted to the Chinese scholar-officials called Mandarins and their Confucian theories, leading to a conflict with the French church, the Pope, and the Chinese Emperor. Throughout Europe, the Jesuits further played a prominent role in society: as educators, teachers, and advisors of royalty. Seventeenth-century France, troubled by a fundamental socio-cultural reorientation, class struggles and wars, blamed them for holding such esteemed positions and this resentment grew shortly before the French Revolution. The writer Simon-Nicolas-Henri Linguet takes an apologetic position in their lawsuit for the Parlement de Paris of 1762 in the Lettre du Mandarin . Bibliographic and biographic details are provided. The “opening part” shows the morally high position of Mandarins such as Wei Zheng, an image produced on the basis of Jesuit correspondence, and it denotes the European trend of “ Chinoiserie .” This part is here presented in an English translation and richly commented on. The ideas of “Chinoiserie” are here illustrated with works from the literature. The Jesuits and their humane advocate Linguet lost the unique case, but it is concluded that the image of the Mandarin as a rational and moral man is portrayed as a model for a new French society.