Volume 5, Issue 1 -

This essay examines the central role of consolation in early modern Protestant culture. It first maps a number of the important tropes in early modern Protestant consolation literature, focusing on England. It then analyses the language of consolation in early modern printed and manuscript sources on the legal proceedings against the Puritan pamphleteers Bastwick, Burton and Prynne, showing how consolation was both widely shared and politically contentious, undermining the very idea of a unified Protestant cause which it served to foster. Finally, I examine the notebooks of the London wood-turner Nehemiah Wallington as a case study of the ways in which self-writers, in recording and reflecting on affliction, drew on consolation discourses. While consolation is a central strand in Wallington’s reflections on affliction, it is also elusive and provisional, especially where everyday, personal suffering is concerned. In Wallington, consolation seems available especially if the religious suffering it alleviates has a political dimension, and can be construed as a way of suffering for the true faith.

Following its publication in March 1516, Erasmus’s Novum Instrumentum became one of the most significant texts for the Reformation. A less explored element of the development of this first published Greek New Testament is the role of the Old Testament editor, Johannes Oecolampadius (1482–1531). This study focuses on the contributions of Oecolampadius with particular attention given to the Annotations on Romans. By looking through the lens of the remarks in the Novum Instrumentum regarding the Hebrew language and the Old Testament, and comparing them with the lectures by Martin Luther on Romans that he finished with the use of this newly available resource, the influence Oecolampadius had on Luther before his famous action in October 1517 becomes more apparent. Notably, then we can see the resulting influence of Luther on Oecolampadius to embrace the newly forming evangelical teaching and eventually become the leading reformer in Basel.

This paper presents a mainly theological analysis of the Formula Pii Consensus of 1572 (furthermore FPC) and – in the light of its historical context – aims to investigate the way in which Wittenberg theology was modified in Transylvania. The reception of the Confessio Augustana (CA) was imposed by Prince István Báthory. In regard to the larger historical context in Transylvania and the development of the Holy Roman Empire, a reconsideration of the FPC arises. Despite largely accepting the contents of the CA 1530 ( invariata ), superintendent Lukas Unglerus (1526–1600) left the door open for all options of contemporary protestant Eucharistic theology. Because of the Melanchthonian background of his ministers the superintendent chose a wording to allow for tendencies orientated towards Calvinism and for keeping the yet prevalent confessional indetermination. Thus, he covered up what – according to contemporary standards in the Holy Roman Empire – would have been called heterodox.

Existing histories of the brief Franciscan Recollect mission to New France (1615–1629) tend either to overstate the assimilatory character of the Recollect missionary vision or to overlook their comprehensively political vision. Through a close re-reading of early Recollect sources, I excavate a missionary vision for cohabitation between indigenous people and French settlers that, while assimilationist in some ways, also reflected deeply a conviction of human equality, a nascent understanding of the church as a political alternative to empire, and a willingness to learn from and adapt to indigenous cultures. The Recollects’ vision was shaped at every stage by their specifically Franciscan practice of poverty. This poverty predisposed them to critique mercantile interests in the colony, shaped their appreciation of indigenous traveling companions, and made them more prone to recognize Christian equality across cultures.