1. Lindberg, Carter, The European Reformations (Oxford: Blackwell, 1996), 9.Google ScholarThe following abbreviations are used: CO = Ioannis Calvini opera quae supersunt omnia, 59 vols. (Brunswick: C. A. Schwetschke, 1863–1900);Google ScholarLW = Luther's Works, American Edition, 55 vols. (St. Louis and Philadelphia: Concordia and Fortress, 1955–1986);Google ScholarOS = Calvini Opera Selecta, 5 vols., rev. ed. (Munich: Christian Kaiser, 1952–1962);Google ScholarWA = D. Martin Luthers Werke, Kritische Gesamtausgabe, 60 vols. (Weimar: H. Bohlau, 1883–1980);Google ScholarWABr = D. Martin Luthers Werke, Briefwechsel, 17 vols. (Weimar: H. Bohlau, 1930–1983);Google ScholarZW = Huldreich Zwinglis samtliche Werke (Leipzig: M. Heinsius Nachfolger, 1904–1990).Google Scholar

2. Reformationstheorien: Ein kirchenhistorischer Disput über Einheit und Vielfalt der Reformation (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1995Google Scholar

3. In 1990, Hans-Christoph Rublack reminded Reformation historians that it was quite possible to interpret the course of European history without paying much attention to their favorite topic;Google Scholarsee Rublack, , “Reformation und Moderne: Soziologische, theologische und historische Ansichten,” in The Reformation in Germany and Europe: Interpretation and Issues, Guggisberg, Hans, Krodel, Gottfried, and Fiiglister, Hans, eds. (Gutersloh: Gutersloher Verlagshaus, 1993), 19.Google Scholar

4. Brady, Thomas A Jr, Oberman, Heiko A., Tracy, James D., eds., Handbook of European History, 1400–1600, vol. 2, Visions, Programs, and Outcomes (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), xix.Google Scholar

5. Bossy, John, Christianity in the West, 1400–1700 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985), 91Google Scholar

6. Wenz, Gunther, Theologie der Bekenntnisschriften der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche, 2 vols. (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1996,1998), 1:65–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7. Duffy, Eamon, The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, c. 1400-c. 1580 (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1992), 2–5.Google Scholar

8. Belitto, Christopher, review of Swanson, R. N., Religion and Devotion in Europe, c. 1215–1515 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), inGoogle ScholarSixteenth Century journal 28 (1997): 893.Google Scholar

9. Even Keith Thomas, who depicted the Reformation as the eradication of magical elements in the medieval church, admitted that Protestantism in England did not win an immediate or a complete victory;Google ScholarReligion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century England (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997 [1st ed. 1971]), 70–74.Google Scholar

10. See, for instance, Bob Scribner's conclusion in “A Comparative Overview,” in Scribner, Bob, Porter, Roy, and Teich, Mikulas, eds., The Reformation in National Context (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 225: “If it is possible to summarise a movement as internationally and locally complex as the essays here have shown the Reformation to be, we must concede that diversity is a leitmotif.”CrossRefGoogle Scholar

11. Letter to Wenceslas Link (20 June 1543), in LW 50:242; cf. WABr 10:335.14–17.Google Scholar

12. Luther, , Receiving Both Kinds in the Sacrament (1522), in LW 36:264; cf. WA 10,2:39.6–11. The context of this remark is Luther's criticism of the decree of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), which required confession and reception of the sacrament at least once a year.Google Scholar

13. Later, against the Anabaptists, Luther affirmed that he and the movement that took his name received the true forms of Christian faith through the medieval church: Concerning Rebaptism, in LW 40:231–32; cf. WA 26:147.13–26.Google Scholar

14. Luther, , Receiving Both Kinds, in LW 36:264; cf. WA 10,2:39.15–17.Google Scholar

15. Many such statements by Luther, and Calvin, have been collected and analyzed by Jean Delumeau, “Les Reformateurs et la superstition,” in Un Chemin d'histoire: Chrétienté et christianisation (Paris: Fayard, 1981), 51–79.Google Scholar

16. Hamm, Berndt, Zwinglis Reformation der Freiheit (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1988), 5. Zwingli spoke more frequently of idolatry in connection with the veneration of saints and images.Google ScholarSee, for instance, Commentary on True and False Religion (1525), ed. Jackson, Samuel Macauley (Durham, N.C.: Labyrinth, 1981), 332–33; ZW 3:901.33–36: “Hac enim ratione distinguunrur unius ac veri dei cultores ab idololatris, quod nos deum colimus, qui invisibilis est, quique vetat, ne se ulla visibili figura exprimamus; isti autem deos suos qualibet specie induunt. Cf. Eine Antwort Valentin Compar gegeben (1525), ZW 4:89.12–14: “Daruss yetz volget, dass, welche by einer crearur, wer joch dieselb sye, suchend, das sy by dem einigen gott sol gesucht werden, nit ware gloubigen noch Christen sind.”Google ScholarSee also Potter, G. R., Zwingli (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976), 92–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

17. Eire, Carlos M. N., War against The Idols: The Reformation of Worship from Erasmus to Calvin (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986). For a refined interpretation of this attack as the desire for a truer Christian community which expressed love for the poor,CrossRefGoogle Scholarsee Wandel, Lee Palmer, “The Reform of the Images: New Visualizations of the Christian Community at Zürich,” Archive for Reformation History 80 (1989): 105–24.Google Scholar

18. CO 10.1:49–50 1546). Commenting in 1550 on the community of Christians portrayed in Acts 4:32–37,Google ScholarCalvin, wrote: “If we compare our situation with what has been told by Saint Luke, we will see how far we are from Christianity”; Sermones in Ada Apostolorum, in Supplementa calviniana, vol. 8 (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1994), 116.3–4.Google Scholar

19. Calvin, , letter to Madame de Cany (29 April 1549), in CO 13:246.1 thank Austra Reinis, a doctoral student at Princeton Seminary, for alerting me to this text. Examination of local Calvinist communities in France led Raymond Mentzer to remark that “Calvin and his followers even linked 'papist superstition and idolatry' to paganism, Satanism, and the demonic”;Google ScholarMentzer, , “The Persistence of ‘Superstition and Idolatry’ among Rural French Calvinists,” Church History 65 (1996): 220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

20. See Moeller, Bernd, “Piety in Germany around 1500,” in Ozment, Steven, ed., The Reformation in Medieval Perspective (Chicago: Quadrangle, 1971), 50–75.Google ScholarMoeller's judgement was extended to more of Europe by Monter, William, “Popular Piety in Late Medieval Europe,” in Ritual, Myth and Magic in Early Modern Europe (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1983), 6–22.Google ScholarSee also Ozment, Steven, The Reformation in the Cities (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1975), 15–22.Google Scholar

21. Engen, John Van, “The Christian Middle Ages as an Historiographical Problem,” American Historical Review 91 (1986): 519–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

22. Engen, John Van, “Faith As A Concept of Order in Medieval Christendom,” in Thomas Kselman, Belief in History: Innovative Approaches to European and American Religion (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1991), 19–67.Google Scholar

23. Boockmann, , Einführung in die Geschichte des Mittelalters, 6th ed. (Munich: C. H. Beck, 1996), 118.Google ScholarSwanson, R. N. cautions, however, that the practice and devotion of medieval Christians varied widely across Europe and changed from century to century;Google Scholarsee Swanson, , Religion and Devotion in Europe, 314–18.Google Scholar

24. Monter, , “Popular Piety in Late Medieval Europe,” 20.Google Scholar

25. Letter to Melanchthon (13 July 1521), in LW 48:262; cf. WABr 2:359.112–15.Google Scholar

26. Moeller, Bernd, “Was wurde in der Frühzeit der Reformation in den deutschen Städten gepredigt?” Archive for Reformation History 75 (1984): 176–93, specifically 185.Google ScholarFor a challenge to Moeller's article, see Karant-Nunn, Susan, “What Was Preached in German Cities in the Early Years of the Reformation? Wildwuchs Versus Lutheran Unity,” in The Process of Change in Early Modern Europe: Essays in Honor of Miriam Usher Chrisman, ed. Bebb, Phillip N. and Marshall, Sherrin (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1988), 81–96.Google Scholar

27. Moeller, , “Was wurde … gepredigt?” 184. Luther's observation was made in his 1524 plea for Christian schools addressed to the city councils of Germany, in LW 40:55; cf. WA 15:32.1–14.Google Scholar

28. Commentary on True and False Religion, 119; cf. ZW 3:691.33–35.Google Scholar

29. Institutes of the Christian Religion 3.6.3, ed. cNeill, John T. M and trans. Battles, Ford Lewis, 2 vols., Library of Christian Classics 20–21 (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1977), 20:686; cf. OS 4:148.21–23.Google Scholar

30. Luther expresses this fear in the context of criticizing people who approached Mary for help as if she were divine; The Magnificat, in LW 21:323–24; cf. WA 7:570.5–7.Google Scholar

31. Delumeau, Jean, Le Catholicisme entre Luther et Voltaire (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1971);Google ScholarEng. trans.: Catholicism between Luther and Voltaire (London: Burns and Oates, 1977);Google Scholar6th French ed.: Delumeau, Jean and Cottret, Monique, Le Catholicisme entre Luther et Voltaire (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1996).Google Scholar

32. Delumeau, , Catholicism between Luther and Voltaire, 176.Google Scholar

33. Delumeau, , Catholicism between Luther and Voltaire, 161.Google Scholar

34. See, for example, the critical appraisals by Despland, Michel in Religious Studies Review 9 (1983): 24–33,Google Scholarand by Bossy, John in the introduction to Catholicism between Luther and Voltaire, xiii–xviii.Google Scholar

35. This question is also suggested by Despland, review of Delumeau, 30.Google Scholar

36. Erasmus, , Paraclesis ad lectorem pium, inGoogle ScholarRotterdam, Erasmus von, Ausgewäghlte Schriften, ed. Welzig, Werner, vol. 3 (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1967), 18–36;Google ScholarGrane, Leif, Martinus Noster: Luther in The German Reform Movement, 1518–1521 (Mainz: Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 1994), 35.Google Scholar

37. Even the best recent treatment of Luther's theology argues in the traditional vein that for Luther Christians are citizens of both kingdoms and subjects of two masters;Google Scholarsee Lohse, Bernhard, Luthers Theologie in ihrer historischen Entwicklung und in ihrem systematischen Zusammenhang (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1995), 340–42.Google Scholar

38. Luther, , Temporal Authority (1523), in LW 45:87–93; cf. WA 11:248.32–253.16.Google Scholar

39. LW 31:368; cf. WA 7:66.29–36.Google Scholar

40. Commentary on True and False Religion, 199; cf. ZW 3:774.32–775.1.Google Scholar

41. On the Lord's Supper (1526), in Zwingli and Bullinger, trans, and ed. Bromiley, G. W., Library of Christian Classics 24 (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1953), 234: “ [Christ] himself instituted a remembrance of that deliverance by which he redeemed the whole world, that we might never forget that for our sakes he exposed his body to the ignominy of death, and not merely that we might not forget it in our hearts, but that we might publicly attest it with praise and thanksgiving, joining together for the greater magnifying and proclaiming of the matter in the eating and drinking of the sacrament of his sacred passion, which is a representation of Christ's giving of his body and shedding of his blood for our sakes.” Cf. ZW 4:857.17–858.1.Google Scholar

42. Oberman, , “Europa afflicta: The Reformation of the Refugees,” Archive for Reformation History 83 (1992): 91–111. Calvin's lectures on particular prophetic books between 1557 and 1564, which were heard by a number of future preachers in France, express fully his theology of mission and of the kingdom of Christ.Google ScholarSee Wilcox, Peter, “The Lectures of John Calvin and the Nature of his Audience, 1555–1564,” Archive for Reformation History 87 (1996): 136–48.Google Scholar

43. Bucer, Martin, De Regno Christi (1550), preface to book 1 in Melanchthon and Bucer, ed. Pauck, Wilhelm, Library of Christian Classics 19 (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1969), 175–76;Google Scholarcf. Martini Buceri opera latina, vol. 15.1–2, ed. Wendel, Francois (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1955), 15.1:2–3.Google Scholar

44. Hans-Jürgen Goertz has argued that the number of so-called radical reformers, like the Hutterites, who attempted to implant their movements with the help of civil authorities, belies the meaning of radical as separatist;Google ScholarReligiöse Bewegungen in der frühen Neuzeit (Munich: R. Oldenbourg, 1993), 62–63.Google Scholar

45. “Foundation of Christian Doctrine,” in The Complete Writings of Menno Simons c. 1496–1561, ed. Wenger, J. C. and trans. Verduin, Leonard (Scottdale, Pa.: Herald, 1956), 121. Other reformers would also have agreed with Menno's indictment of medieval piety as “consisting only in an outward appearance and human righteousness, such as hypocritical fastings, pilgrimages, praying and reading lots of Pater Nosters and Ave Marias, hearing frequent masses, going to confessionals and like hypocrisies” (Complete Writings, 111).Google Scholar

46. Hut, Hans, “On the Mystery of Baptism” (1527), in The Radical Reformation, ed. Baylor, Michael G. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 156.Google ScholarSee Seebass, Gottfried, “Das Zeichen der Erwahlten: Zum Verstandnis der Taufe bei Hans Hut,” inGoogle ScholarDingel, Irene, ed., Die Reformation und die Aussenseiter: Gesammelte Aufsatze und Vortrage (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1997), 203–26.Google Scholar

47. O'Malley, John W., “Was Ignatius Loyola A Church Reformer? How To Look at Early Modern Catholicism,” in Religious Culture in the Sixteenth Century: Preaching, Rhetoric, Spirituality, and Reform (Aldershot, U.K.: Ashgate, 1993), 182.Google Scholar

48. O'Malley, , “Was Ignatius Loyola A Church Reformer?” 185–89; cf. O'Malley, The First Jesuits (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1993), 84–90,115–127.Google Scholar

49. Ignatius of Loyola: The Spiritual Exercises and Selected Works, ed. Ganss, George E., , SJ (New York: Paulist, 1991), 211–12;Google ScholarO'Malley, , The First Jesuits, 49–50, 264–72.2Google Scholar

50. Plantings of the cross, which became popular in the seventeenth century, raised Christ to the center of devotion, but they could also become objects of veneration and superstition; Chatellier, Louis, The Religion of the Poor: Rural Missions in Europe and the Formation of Modern Catholicism, C.1500–C.1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 108–30.Google Scholar

51. Session 25, “On the Invocation, Veneration, and Relics of Saints, and on Sacred Images,” in Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, ed. Schroeder, H. J. (St. Louis: Herder, 1955), 215,483.Google Scholar

52. Schilling, Heinz, “Confessional Europe,” in Brady, Handbook, 2:641–681;Google Scholarcf. Schilling, , “Die Konfessionalisierung von Kirche, Staat und Gesellschaft—Profil, Leistung, Defizite und Perspektiven eines geschichtswissenschaftlichen Paradigmas,” in Die katholische Konfessionalisierung, ed. Reinhard, Wolfgang and Schilling, Heinz (Gütersloh: Gutersloher Verlagshaus, 1995), 1–49.Google Scholar

53. The bibliography of confessionalization in Germany now includes separate volumes on each of the major groups: Schilling, Heinz, ed., Die reformierte Konfessionalisierung in Deutschland—Das Problem der “Zweiten Reformation”; Rublack, Hans-Christoph, Die lutherische Konfessionalisierung in Deutschland; Reinhard, Wolfgang and Schilling, Heinz, Die katholische Konfessionalisierung. All three volumes originated in symposia and appeared in the series Schriften des Vereins für Reformationsgeschichte (195, 197–198) published by Gütersloher Verlagshaus in Gütersloh, 1986,1992, and 1995.Google Scholar

54. A mild version of this view was offered by Nichols, James Hastings, History of Christianity, 1650–1950: Secularization of the West (New York: Ronald, 1956), 460: “The modern Christian churches inherited the great new enterprise of medieval and Reformation Christianity, the endeavor to penetrate and ‘Christianize’ civilization. For three hundred years they continued this attempt, yet, on the whole, with ever less success.”Google Scholar

55. Scribner, Robert W., “The Reformation, Popular Magic, and the ‘Disenchantment of the World,’” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 23 (1993): 475–94.CrossRefGoogle ScholarCfWeber, Max, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, trans. Parsons, Talcott (1930; reprint, Los Angeles: Roxbury, 1996), 105.Google Scholar

56. Strauss, Gerald, Luther's House of Learning: Indoctrination of the Young in the German Reformation (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978), 307.Google Scholar

57. According to Collinson, Patrick, one can also imagine the Reformation to be an “episode of re-Christianization or even primary Christianization,” which decelerated or arrested “a process of secularization with much deeper roots”; The Religion of Protestants: The Church in English Society, 1559–1625 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1982), 199.Google Scholar

58. Rublack, , “Reformation und Moderne,” 32–33.Google Scholar

59. Luther, , The Estate of Marriage (1522), in LW 45:25 and 36; cf. WA 10,2:283.8–9; 10,2: 292.22–26.Google Scholar

60. The resistance of many radicals to the re-Christianization of the entire society helps to explain further, as Hans Hillerbrand argues, why mainline theologians were vitally involved in the suppression of Anabaptists. Even though they wanted to deepen Christianity in their own way, Anabaptists refused to endorse the primary religious agenda of the early reformers.Google ScholarSee Hillerbrand, Hans J., “The ‘Other’ in the Age of the Reformation: Reflections on Social Control and Deviance in the Sixteenth Century,” in Infinite Boundaries: Order, Disorder, and Reorder in Early Modern German Culture, ed. Reinhart, Max, Sixteenth Century Essays and Studies 40 (Kirksville, Mo.: SCJ Publishers, 1998), 245–69, here 256–57.Google Scholar