Wondrous in His Saints: Counter-Reformation Propaganda in Bavaria by Philip M. Soergel (review)

BOOK REVIEWS103 Wondrous in His Saints: Counter-Reformation Propaganda in Bavaria. By PhUip M. Soergel. [Studies on the History of Society and Culture, 17.] (Berkeley: University of California Press. 1993. Pp. xv, 239. »38.00.) This book makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the origins and success ofthe Counter-Reformation in sixteenth-century Germany. Using printed pUgrimage books, PhUip Soergel shows how the deeply ingrained habit ofperegrination characteristic oflate medieval Bavaria was revived after 1 560 and transformed into the cornerstone of renewed CathoUc piety. Key to this transformation was the rehabUitation of miracles and exorcisms as proof of the on-going validity of CathoUc tradition. Playing on Protestant anxiety over the lack of "stunning miracles of confirmation" and a widespread fear of the devil, Bavarian propagandists promoted traditional pUgrimage practices as "spiritual medicine for heretical poison" and an antidote against diabolical attack. Buoyed by the support ofthe Bavarian dukes, especiaUy Albrecht V (1550— 1579), these writers fused the political and religious interests of the duchy into a potent source of Counter-Reformation ideology. At the core of the book and of Soergel's argument is an analysis of Martin Eisengrein's influential pilgrimage book, OurLady atAltötting, first published in 1571 and reprinted at least ten times before 1625. Eisengrein (1538—1578), a Lutheran convert, was a vigorous defender of Catholic orthodoxy. CaUed by Albrecht V from Vienna to Bavaria, he became a member of the theological faculty at the University of Ingolstadt, provost of Altötting, and ultimately superintendent ofthe University. His pUgrimage book, Soergel argues, signaled the emergence of a new genre of popular CathoUc apologetics which has retained its vitality in Bavaria to the present day. To revive the pUgrimage to Altötting and establish a new identity for the shrine, Eisengrein created a new, mythic history that tied the cult to the earliest days of Bavarian history. Drawing on the work of Aventinus, he represented the chapel as the central locus of Marian patronage and divine protection for the duchy for over a millennium. Faithful to orthodox Christianity in the face of constant challenges and trials, its survival over a thousand years is the best testimony to Catholic truth. To support this historical claim, Eisengrein concluded the work with a coUection of recent wonders, including Peter Canisius' famous exorcism of Anna von Bernhausen in 1559. A noble lady in a household of Johann Fugger of Augsburg, Anna was exorcised of seven demons in Altötting's chapel in a dramatic ritual lasting two days. Such achievements, Eisengrein argues, prove the continued veracity of Catholic tradition and offer a means ofdefense against the devU unavailable to Protestant heretics. In the book's concluding chapters Soergel examines the pamphlet war set off by the publication of Eisengrein's book and the arguments used by Protestants to counter this new Catholic offensive. He then shows how numerous other Bavarian shrines, following Altötting's example, created new mythic 104BOOK REVIEWS histories to justify their existence and efficacy as centers of orthodox spirituality . He concludes by suggesting that "The pUgrimage book thus reinforced the notion of geography as a 'sacred landscape' divided into places of 'hot' and 'cold' spiritual power," and that to this day "these perceptions survive . . . not as some kind of residual carryover, but as a dynamic part of Bavarians' daUy religion." In other words, Bavarian CathoUcs stiU inhabit a sacral landscape defined by pUgrimage shrines, and their religious history is not dead, but part of a living past. Steven D. Sargent Union College Schenectady, New York La vie religieuse dans la France méridionale à l'époque moderne. Actes du coUoque organisé par le Centre d'Histoire Moderne en 1990. Edited by Anne Blanchard, Henri Michel, and Elie Pélaquier. (MontpeUier: Universit é Paul Valéry. 1992. Pp. 266. Paperback.) These fourteen essays, although weighted heavily in favor of exploring the southern French Catholic Counter-Reformation rather than the Protestant experience (twelve out of the total), focus on very specific questions. So, representing the smaU Protestant selection, Michel Peronnet questions the validity of the phrase "Provinces-Unies du midi" not as it was first coined by Jean Delumeau, but as it was expanded by Janine Garrisson...