:Wondrous in His Saints: Counter-Reformation Propaganda in Bavaria

Abstract

At the close of the 16th century, despite Protestant attempts to discourage popular devotion to saints and shrines, the Roman Catholic Church in Bavaria initiated a propagandistic campaign through the publishing of pilgrimage books and pamphlets. Philip Soergel's exploration of this little-known pilgrimage literature yields a vivid portrait of religion before, during and after the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. These advertisements, combining testimonies of miracles with fantastic legends about shrines, fueled the conflict between Catholics and Protestants and helped shape a distinctive Catholic historical consciousness. Soergel stresses the power of the printed word as a defence of traditional authority, testing other historians' assertions about the neglect of printing and literacy in the Counter-Reformation.