Overview
This absorbing book takes us back to the busy, colorful world of a Netherlandish Catholic bishop and his flock during the age of Reformation. It is drawn from a rare journal, one of many kept by Mathias Hovius from 1596 to 1620 while he was Archbishop of Mechelen (part of modern Belgium). Elegantly written, the book focuses not only on the life of Mathias Hovius but also on key events and characters of his time; it portrays ""lived religion,"" so that we see people from all sides getting involved in the constant negotiation of what it meant to be a good Catholic. Craig Harline and Eddy Put recreate the eventful life and times of Mathias Hovius-a world in which other-believers were outright heretics, the nagging fevers of old age were the result of unbalanced bodily humors, and a corruptible earth rested motionless at the center of the universe while God sat exalted on a throne just beyond the fixed stars. The authors also tell the stories of monks, nuns, priests, millers, pilgrims, peasant women, saints, town and village councils, and ordinary parishioners; each story, fascinating in its own right, illustrates a major theme in the history of the Catholic Reformation. In the end Harline and Put have painted a picture teeming with life and energy.
Full Product Details
Author: Craig Harline, PhD ,
Eddy Put
Publisher: Yale University Press
Imprint: Yale University Press
Edition: New edition
Dimensions:
Width: 14.00cm
, Height: 0.30cm
, Length: 21.00cm
Weight: 0.454kg
ISBN: 9780300094053
ISBN 10: 0300094051
Pages: 384
Publication Date: 08 February 2002
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
,
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Out of Print
Availability: In Print
Limited stock is available. It will be ordered for you and shipped pending supplier's limited stock.
Reviews
An elegantly written and absorbing microhistory... It brings to mind The Return of Martin Guerre and The Cheese and the Worms. Carlos M. N. Eire The most amazing book since Johan Huizinga's Waning of the Middle Ages. Heiko Oberman The history book of the year - and perhaps simply the book of the year. Russell Hittinger, Weekly Standard The stories entertain as they educate, offering a close-up of day-to-day Catholicism, village life, and the bawdy humour generated by human frailty and feistiness. A Bishop's Tale is an historical feast. Debra Bendis, Christian Century Practically every page is as encrusted with detail as a jewelled medieval reliquary. Michael Joseph Gross, Boston Globe An extraordinary work of historical biography. Amazon.com (2000 Editor's Choice)
Author Information
Craig Harline is professor of history at Brigham Young University. Eddy Put is senior assistant at the Belgian National Archives and lecturer at the Catholic University of Louvain.
