Konfession und internationales System. Die Außenpolitik Hessen-Kassels im konfessionellen Zeitalter by Holger Thomas Gräf (review)

BOOK REVIEWS715 of". . . the one, cathoUc, apostolic, and above aU, holy center of the Church and the world" (p. 167). Right Thinking is a major contribution to our understanding of reUgious history in the post-Reformation period; precisely because of the manner in which preaching about the Church, papacy, and city was done, the words and deeds at the court of Peter resounded throughout the Christian world and changed the way CathoUcs beUeved and practiced. Larissa Taylor Colby College Konfession und internationales System. Die Außenpolitik Hessen-Kassels im konfessionellen Zeitalter. By Holger Thomas Graf. [QueUen und Forschungen zur hessischen Geschichte, 94.] (Darmstadt and Marburg: Selbstverlag der Hessischen Historischen Kommission Darmstadt und der Historischen Kommission für Hessen. 1993. Pp. xii, 422.) Hessen-Kassel c. 1555-c. 1648, in particular under landgraves William iy Maurice , and WUUamV, serves as a case study of territorial foreign poUcy under confessional conditions. The author of this Ph.D. thesis combines E. O. Czempiel's and S. C. Flanagan's theories of poUtical systems with the concept of confessionaUzation as developed by Heinz Schilling, the dUector of his thesis, and by this reviewer quite successfully into a new set of analytical tools. Dynastic policy and traditional regional options compete with confessional affUiation and the interest of the developing territorial state, which not quite unexpectedly turns out to be the winner Ui the end. The landgraves started from a mediating position Ui the Protestant camp, a poUcy to be continued after the partition of the country by WUUam IV of Hessen-Kassel, whereas first Hessen-Marburg and then Hessen-Darmstadt under the influence ofWuerttemberg joined the ranks of Lutheran orthodoxy. The consequences were first the breakdown of the common Protestant church of aU Hessian territories, next the conversion of Maurice of Kassel to Calvinism in 1605. This led to a severe conflict between the branches of the dynasty. Therefore, Darmstadt remained loyal to the emperor , whereas Kassel Ui contrast became involved with the aggressive poUcy of the Palatinate and so-caUed international Calvinism. Maurice's academy at Kassel and his court became a true center of migrating inteUectuals and professional poUticians of the reformed confession, as is demonstrated by a prosopographical appendix. The former ??f?ß Christianum of Europe became regrouped as a system of confessional alliances inside and outside the Emptfe. But confessional aUiances proved unstable and transitory; especially Ui the case of France very early on was the preponderance of reason of state evident. Because of Maurice's confessional poUcy reformed Hessen-Kassel had no choice but to enter into aUiances with Lutheran Sweden and Catholic France. But this proved the way of success. In the end Hessen-Kassel was on the side of the win- 716book reviews ners of the ThirtyYears'War. Graf's learned study explores aU this Ui detaU from archival sources, but his book is nevertheless weU organized and his arguments are convincing. Systems tiieories, however, Ui contrast to the rather useful confessionaUzation paradigm provide Uttle more than labels and categories for chapter headlines. Wolfgang Reinhard Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg im Breisgau Adultery and Divorce in Calvin's Geneva. By Robert Kingdon. [Harvard Historical Studies, 1 18.] (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. 1995. Pp. x, 214. $29.95 hardback; $14.95 paperback.) This volume presents a fascinating series of case studies on Calvinistic Geneva's attitudes toward marital disorder drawn from one of the most important and (hitherto) neglected sources on Early Modern social control— Geneva's Consistorial minutes. The book is an indispensable entry into these records. However, as Kingdon admits, he has "not reaUy attempt[ed] to offer any extended or sophisticated analysis" of the Consistory's work. The first case (Ameaux v. Jacon) presents both a marriage's coUapse and the possibUity of a wife's emotional and mental breakdown after repeated psychological and feG?^?ß) physical abuse. The next case pits Calvin's brother, Antoine , against his wife,Anne Le Fert. Here, Kingdon teases out the compUcated entangling of Genevan politics and Calvin's (vindictive?) determination to rid his household of his sister-in-law. The final case, unlike the others, resulted in the state-enforced reconcUiation of the couple (Bietrix-Maisonneuve). These cases present many...