This volume springs from a conference held at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge in September 1994 which was organised under the auspices of the William and Mary History of Toleration Committee. As such it forms a companion volume to O. P. Grell, J. I. Israel and N. Tyacke (eds.), From Persecution to Toleration. The Glorious Revolution and Religion in England, published in 1991, which originated from a conference held in London in 1988 in connection with the William and Mary Tercentenary.

It explores the role and significance of tolerance and intolerance in Reformation Europe. Geographically, as wide a coverage as possible has been sought by the editors, including all the northern and central European countries which were directly affected by the Reformation.

Similarly, it has been considered imperative to emphasise the role of specific areas and cities such as Basle and Strassburg which provide particularly interesting examples of religious toleration. Chronologically this volume focuses on the period from the start of the sixteenth century, when northern humanism had begun to make an impact until the middle of the seventeenth century when the Thirty Years War had come to an end and the long term effects of the Reformation were drawing to a close. In three cases these chronological parameters have been extended in order to provide a fuller and more satisfying interpretation.