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BOOK REVIEWS549 Prierias was completely forthright in setting out the criteria he applied to Luther's theses, in the well-known fourfundamenta, placed at the head of the book in the Dialogus, on the universal normativity of papal teaching and Roman church order. We note in passing that the backnote reference to Tavuzzi's translation of the fundamenta is confused, and does not lead the reader to the well-annotated Latin original in Fabish-Iserloh, Corpus Catholicorum , vol. 41 , pp. 53-56. Also, one may question his translation oĆ­fides et mores as "faith and ethics," since in the context mores refers as well to church discipline and practice, including matters such as indulgences. On the substantive question of the competence evinced in Prierias's assessment of the Ninety-Five Theses, this work becomes very thoughtful, even intriguing . The author admits to difficulty in justifying the Dialogus when it takes Luther's theses as doctrinal conclusions or determinations, instead of initial propositions for disputation. When this leads to repeated judgments of error and heresy, Tavuzzi joins Erasmus in admitting that there was "serious mishandling " of the case at its beginning (p. 112). But why would an accomplished Dominican thinker take such an approach in 1 518? In response, the author recalls that severe discipline was characteristic of the observant Lombard Congregation to which Prierias belonged. Moreover, Luther's Roman critic of 1518 knew how, twenty years before, Fra Girolamo Savonarola had passed from reforming fervor to contestation and disobedience. Thus, the Dialogus betrays the outlook of one who had applied his order's norms with no little stringency as prior of communities, vicar or superior ofhis Congregation of over forty houses and a thousand members, and member of a Dominican reform task-force in Naples. Tavuzzi also tells the tale of inquisitorial witchcraft prosecution in midRenaissance Italy, reports on the Roman phase of the Reuchlin affair, and relates the swirl ofphilosophical argument on the soul's immortality set offby the Aristotle interpretation of Cardinal Cajetan and Pietro Pomponazzi. Clearly this work will be of interest to early-modern historians across a wide span of ecclesiastical and cultural topics. Jared Wicks, SJ. Pontifical Gregorian University The Politics of the Reformation in Germany:Jacob Sturm (1489-1553) of Strasbourg. By Thomas A. Brady, Jr. (Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey: Humanities Press. 1997. Pp. xiii, 280; 4 maps. $19.95 paperback.) Based on thirty years of archival research,Thomas Brady's book is a masterful study of the impact of the Reformation on the German Empire and the role of the Empire in shaping that reform. Breaking with the Rankean tradition of the 550BOOK REVIEWS Reformation as the foundation of German national unity, Brady emphasizes the movement's broad appeal to all ranks of German society, each interpreting the message in its own way. He rejects the view of the Empire as an archaic aggregation of states incapacitated by decentralization. Brady emphasizes that the Empire protected a form of political life with multiple layers of power and authority . It was a "dispersed governance" which preserved local autonomy. The book follows the simultaneous development of the Reformation at imperial, territorial, and local levels through the eyes of one man,Jacob Sturm, Strasbourg magistrate and diplomat. The first two chapters on the Empire and on Strasbourg provide the setting. Each element of the imperial structure is described with its ambitions and weaknesses: the Emperor; the territorial states;the cities; the towns and villages. The city of Strasbourg c. 1500 is similarly described: the city's constitution and magistrates; the rituals of civic order; the influence of the Hapsburgs under the Emperor Maximilian. The solemn entry of the bishop-elect in 1507 for his enthronement dramatized the tension between church and city. Met at the city gate by sixty mounted, armored urban nobles and guildsmen, the noble bishopelect with 600 officials and 1000 horses, was denied permission to enter the city until he had sworn to uphold its traditional liberties. Armed guildsmen and villagers formed a barricade along the streets. The demonstration reflected the collapse of trust between the city and the Church. Geiler von Kaysersberg had tried for years to close the gap, but his appeal...

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