Nicodemism and Deconfessionalisation in early modern Europe

Abstract

Definitions It is important at the outset to dwell upon the terms used in the title. In this article, the word deconfessionalisation is employed in a sense which is not the most commonly accepted. Deconfessionalisation, as used here, will not designate the process by which the State, the institutions and the public sphere in general freed themselves from the confessional power, but rather the process of disengagement of individuals from their confessional affiliations. The latter is clearly o...