Reformations: The Early Modern World, 1450–1650 by Carlos M.N. Eire (review)

Carlos Eire, the T.L. Riggs Professor of History and Religious Studies at Yale University, has provided an in-depth, yet easily readable, survey of the European Reformations from 1450–1650 ce. This period begins with the use of Gutenberg's moveable type printing press and ends with the conclusion to the Thirty Years' War in 1648. While the dates are somewhat arbitrary, they are appropriate markers for the Reformation Era.

There are three main features in the book. First, Eire insists that religion is a real factor in history. Second, he recognizes the Reformations of this era as multiple, rather than one reformation with various geographical sub-sections. Third, what happened in this era has shaped present day Western society. This last point, he notes, is the overarching theme of the book (xvii). One finds these three themes in each of the four main sections of the book. Eire keeps the reader's attention by providing overviews of historical developments, while providing well-chosen personal vignettes of the various characters of this era. This is the real strength of the book, and it makes reading this volume a delight. These stories tell the history of this era in a way that historical facts cannot.

Section one explores many factors happening in the last half of the fifteenth century that led to the Protestant Reformations erupting in the second decade of the sixteenth century. Here, Eire focusses on Humanism, as it developed both south and north of the Alps, allowing him to move the dialogue away from the debates on whether the prevalent scholastic theology was on the wane or at its apex. Instead, he looks at religious practices in the parishes. This starting point allows him to trace the roots of the Reformations in continuity with events and mindsets that were unfolding prior to the challenges thrown down the by Augustinian monk in Germany in 1517.

The second section focusses on the Protestant Reformations, in terms of a process, rather than specific events. Eire covers the major reformers of the sixteenth century, providing helpful recaps of their reforms within specific contexts. He implies that Zwingli was the first—and the most ideal of the reformers—preaching sola scriptura (scripture alone) even before Luther posted the ninety-five theses. He also suggests that the Protestants were the sole source of the violence in the turbulent Reformations, due to their defiant attitudes. One wonders, however, if religion is the actual source of this violence, or merely a pretext for the political opportunism that is also a feature of this era.

Section three looks at the reforms occurring within the Roman Catholic Church. Eire challenges talk about a Catholic counter-reformation by his concise overview of the reforms happening, independent of the Protestant reforms. The most puzzling—and yet thoroughly appreciated—part of this section are the two chapters on Roman Catholic missionary endeavours. While a mission emphasis flows out of the reform impulses in the Catholic Church, and the mission-minded Jesuits, it is difficult to see them as Reformations. Rather, one could more appropriately call them outcomes of the reforming impulse, or even as movements within the Catholic Church that further reveal the need for the reform of certain practices.

The final section focusses on consequences of the Reformations. Here, Eire provides an excellent list of the impact the Reformations have had upon Western society. However, it is here that the all-too common stereotypes of a monolithic Protestantism surfaces, lumping them all together rather than respecting their different Reformations. Thus, he defeats much of the excellent work in the first three sections. Equally troubling is his implication that the Protestants are the ones to blame for the fragmentation of society. Here, he conveniently overlooks the reality, which he described in section one, that considerable fragmentation had already occurred. Thus, the Protestants did not create spaces for the Reformations to erupt; they simply enlarged them. For...