Kommentar

The second chapter of the textbook is the first milestone of the official curricula. It deals with western and central Europe, followed by France and the House of Habsburg. The authors adhere to these three sections and therefore begin with an overview of Europe in 1600, whose political and religious landscape is summed up with the famous phrase ‘cuius regio, eius religio’ in conjunction with the map at the beginning of the chapter.

Since captions are deliberately formulated in the most simple terms (for example, ‘a country with a Protestant majority’ and ‘limit of the Empire’), the map places initial emphasis on the names of states. Out of loyalty to God and his representative on earth – the king – religion became established ‘in national contexts’ and contributed ‘towards the glorification of national feelings’. The previous chapter defines the reasons why this came about: since the thirteenth century, Christendom, understood to consist of all Christian countries lumped together as ‘one large single entity’ (p. 2), witnessed the gradual formation of ‘European nations’. The gradual emergence of languages, their literary then administrative application, the progress of overseas trade and the resulting increase in contacts, the Crusades and European wars, and finally the efforts of monarchs to unite their kingdoms are all factors which contributed towards the emergence of rudimentary ‘patriotisms’ (p. 5). The same development occurred with respect to religion. The reformers favoured having sacred texts translated and holding religious services in national languages, and thereby call into question the Latin language as well as the universal character of the Church. The desire to return to a pure form of Christianity, the emergence of religious individualism, and the battle against ‘the demise of morality and ongoing abuse within Christendom’ led ‘the major reformers’ to challenge Catholic institutions in the early sixteenth century.

The combination of these two phenomena explains why the ‘separate churches’ swiftly acquired ‘a national character’. Hence the ‘seamless dress’ of Christendom became torn (p. 6). As shown on the map on page four, the Protestant Reformation developed from the major centres (Wittenberg, Geneva, London) and thanks to the activities of the major reformers (Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Henry VIII, John Knox), by spreading in concentric circles throughout the European continent, from France and northern Italy as far as Scotland, Finland and Hungary; the only countries which remained outside its sphere of influence were Ireland, and in particular countries in the south, including Spain, southern Italy and the Ottoman Empire.

The map at the beginning of chapter II thus offers insight into the geographical, political and religious status of the Protestant and Catholic reformations in the early seventeenth century. Protestant states are situated in the north of Europe. England, ‘after several centuries of particularly close relations with Rome’, made a clean break with Catholicism in favour of Anglicanism. This religious peculiarity brings with it a new politics of rivalry with Catholic powers, in particular a ‘fight to the death with Spain’, in which the sharing of the wealth of the New World is at stake. Its increasing power and its leaders’ commitment to the Reformation mean that England is a ‘leading and protecting state in the Protestant camp’ (p. 15) and that it is beginning to acquire its status with a ‘special path in Europe’. During the course of the Reformation, the Protestant provinces of the northern Netherlands created a military alliance, became organised politically, and acquired wealth in social terms and in trade, such that the United Provinces ‘became a major power’. Denmark rules over Holstein, Norway and southern Sweden. The Kingdom of Sweden, which annexed Finland, is in a state of rapid expansion at this time. Catholic states are situated in the south and east of Europe. They are connected to the House of Habsburg, which presents itself as the patron of the Pope and the defender of Catholicism. Philip III, the heir to the Spanish line of the Habsburgs, is Europe’s first monarch and the ruler of a world empire. As the ruler of the united kingdoms of Spain and Portugal, Philip III rules over the Netherlands, Burgundy, the Province of Milan, and southern Italy. In the north eastern part of Europe, in Poland, ‘Roman Catholicism acts as a bulwark against its Protestant and Orthodox neighbours’.

In addition to these two camps, these clearly defined ‘two halves of Christendom’, a third category emerges in the centre of Europe which the authors define as ‘the other European states’. The countries divided between Protestantism and Catholicism may be described as follows. Germany, fragmented into innumerable principalities with Protestants in the north and Catholics in the south, is under the somewhat vaguely defined authority of the Catholic emperor, who has also been a member of the House of Habsburg for several decades. Switzerland is divided, though the division came about peacefully, for this country ‘is the first example of a country which has put national patriotism above religious conflicts’ (p. 17). France may be added to the list, which is dealt with separately after the end of the chapter; after having been torn apart by the wars of religion from 1560, France under Henry IV managed to find a solution in the form of peaceful coexistence between Catholics and Protestants.

The map, which presents a simpler image of the situation than its accompanying text, omits two European states which belong to neither of the previous two categories: Orthodox Russia, whose emperor, Ivan the Terrible, sees himself as the ‘heir to the Roman and Byzantine emperors’ (p. 17); and Moslem Turkey, whose power has been in decline since the end of the sixteenth century and which is exposed to attack from the Catholic countries Austria, Poland and Spain. The map makes a significant exception here by employing not the name of the country but the name of the people, the ‘Turks’, who rule over Hungary and south eastern Europe, and who are implicitly represented as invaders. Over and above political and religious splits, the authors ultimately represent Europe as a united space marked by multiple interactions; stretching from the Atlantic to Siberia, from the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean, Europe forms a unity.

Pierre-Yves Kirschleger

Bibliography:

Christin, Olivier, La paix de religion : l’autonomisation de la raison politique au XVIe siècle, Paris, Seuil, 1997.
Chaline, Olivier, La reconquête catholique de l’Europe centrale : XVIe – XVIIIe siècle, Paris, Cerf, 1998.
Cottret, Bernard, Histoire de la Réforme protestante, Paris, Perrin, 2000.