Calvinism's First Battleground: Conflict and Reform in the Pays de Vaud, 1528-1559.Michael W. Bruening. Calvinism's First Battleground: Conflict and Reform in the Pays de Vaud, 1528-1559. Studies in Early Modern Religious Reforms 4. Dordrecht: Springer, 2005. xvi + 286 pp. index. append To add to the end of an existing structure. . illus. map. chron. bibl. [euro]117. ISBN ISBN abbr. International Standard Book Number ISBN International Standard Book Number ISBN n abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m : 1-4020-4193-4. Most scholarly work on the early Reformation in French-speaking areas has focused on Calvin and Geneva Geneva, canton and city, Switzerland Geneva (jənē`və), Fr. Genève, canton (1990 pop. 373,019), 109 sq mi (282 sq km), SW Switzerland, surrounding the southwest tip of the Lake of Geneva. . Michael Bruening has had the genial idea of placing his focus instead on the Pays de Vaud, the largest single political entity in French Switzerland. He proposes to provide a "social history of ideas The history of ideas is a field of research in history that deals with the expression, preservation, and change of human ideas over time. The history of ideas is a sister-discipline to, or a particular approach within, intellectual history. " (xi). What he really supplies is a set of elaborate narratives of developments in politics and theology in this time and place. After a general introduction, he offers a narrative of politics and diplomacy between 1450 and 1564, when the area was wrenched away from the control of the Duchy of Savoy
v. e·van·gel·ized, e·van·gel·iz·ing, e·van·gel·iz·es v.tr. 1. To preach the gospel to. 2. To convert to Christianity. v.intr. To preach the gospel. in French Switzerland began with a slashing attack on the Catholic Mass, led by Guillaume Farel with substantial support from Bern between 1528 and 1536. The resulting Protestant conquest, however, proved to be relatively superficial. Preachers led by Calvin in Geneva and Viret in Lausanne, the largest city in the Vaud, attempted to deepen the grip of Protestantism by introducing discipline, backed by the power of excommunication excommunication, formal expulsion from a religious body, the most grave of all ecclesiastical censures. Where religious and social communities are nearly identical it is attended by social ostracism, as in the case of Baruch Spinoza, excommunicated by the Jews. administered by semi-ecclesiastical bodies. Their attempt succeeded in Geneva but failed in the Pays de Vaud, in good part because of Bernese opposition. The Calvinist movement then changed from an effort to create a single type of Reformed Christianity for all of Switzerland to a "Reformation of the refugees." This effort was directed in Geneva by French refugees who launched a mission to France in the hope of making their homeland a country dominated by the same sort of Protestantism. Bruening's analysis is backed throughout by archival research in several parts of Switzerland. It is sprinkled with fresh and salutary emphases, for example, on the power of Bern throughout the area, and on Calvin's unsuccessful attempts to negotiate alliances between the French Crown and the Swiss cantons. It makes a significant contribution to our knowledge of the history of the early Reformation in French-speaking parts of Europe. ROBERT M. KINGDON University of Wisconsin-Madison “University of Wisconsin” redirects here. For other uses, see University of Wisconsin (disambiguation). A public, land-grant institution, UW-Madison offers a wide spectrum of liberal arts studies, professional programs, and student activities. |
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