Early Modern Catholicism: Essays in Honour of John W. O'Malley, S.J. (review)

Abstract

Modern European Modern Catholicism: Essays in Honour of John W.O'Malley, S.J. Edited by Kathleen M. Comerford and Hilmar M. Pabel. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 2001. Pp. xxxvi, 324. $70.00 cloth, $27.50 paperback.) As editors rightly assert in their preface, this is not any ordinary Festschrift, nor does it honor any ordinary scholar (p. ix). It honors fittingly scholarship, humanity, and generosity of John W. O'Malley, who has had a major impact on our understanding of Early Modern Indeed, he first effectively championed this term as a more inclusive alternative to Counter-Reformation, Catholic Reform (or Reformation), or Tridentine Catholicism. In spirit of O'Malley, fifteen articles assembled here illustrate the dynamic diversity (p. ix) as well as creativity of period's Catholicism. A number of articles succinctly assess state of question in a particular area and others suggest new lines of research. On other hand, contributions do not attempt to give a complete picture of Modern Catholicism; they avoid, for example, darker aspects of Counter-Reformation such as Inquisitions, witchcraft trials, and religious wars. In Last Two Councils of Catholic Reformation: The Influence of Lateran V on Trent, Nelson Minnich argues persuasively that Lateran V was but one of many influences that shaped Tridentine legislation, it may have made a much greater contribution to fashioning polity and mentality that have come to be known as Tridentinism, that is, to elaborating institutional structures and procedures as well as promoting an intellectual and spiritual climate that together emphasized defining role of papacy within Modern (p. 15). Hilmar M. Pabel in Humanism and Modern Catholicism: Erasmus of Rotterdam's Ars Moriendi summons scholars to further research into impact of humanism and rhetorical tradition on Catholicism of period. 'Popular Catholicism' and Catholic Reformation is title of Keith Luria's contribution; he reminds us of impossibility of distinguishing clearly between popular and elite religion and advocates further research into gender relations and social consequences of Modern Catholicism. Religion, he notes, divided as well as united people. Christine Kooi in Subjugo Haereticorum'. Minority Catholicism in Modern Europe shows us importance of looking at Modern Catholicism from perspective of Catholic minorities, in Netherlands and England, Germany and Scandinavia. She distinguishes two phases in their development, one of disestablishment and persecution until roughly 1620 followed by second of mission and rejuvenation that by century's end resulted in, if not toleration, then at least in a kind of confessional accommodation (p. …