Awards

• Winner of Special Commendation Prize from the National University of Ireland.

Overview

Catholic Europe, 1592-1648 examines the processes of Catholic renewal from a unique perspective; rather than concentrating on the much studied heartlands of Catholic Europe, it focuses primarily on a series of societies on the European periphery and examines how Catholicism adapted to very different conditions in areas such as Ireland, Britain, the Netherlands, East-Central Europe, and the Balkans. In certain of these societies, such as Austria and Bohemia, the Catholic Reformation advanced alongside very rigorous processes of state coercion. In other Habsburg territories, most notably Royal Hungary, and in Poland, Catholic monarchs were forced to deploy less confrontational methods, which nevertheless enjoyed significant measures of success. On the Western fringe of the continent, Catholic renewal recorded its greatest advances in Ireland but even in the Netherlands it maintained a significant body of adherents, despite considerable state hostility. In the Balkans, Ó hAnnracháin examines the manner in which the papacy invested substantially more resources and diplomatic efforts in pursuing military strategies against the Ottoman Empire than in supporting missionary and educational activity.The chronological focus of the book is also unusual because on the peripheries of Europe the timing of Catholic reform occurred differently. Catholic Europe, 1592-1648 begins with the pontificate of Clement VIII and, rather than treating religious renewal in the later sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as essentially a continuation of established patterns of reform, it argues for the need to understand the contingency of this process and its constant adaptation to contemporary events and preoccupations.

Full Product Details

9780199272723

Table of Contents

Reviews

The book's central aim is the analysis and comparison of the dynamics between the Roman centre and the diverse Catholic communities on its peripheries. It succeeds spectacularly not only in showing the discrepancies between the Tridentine ideal and the situation in these localities but also how contingent on local circumstances the success of the reforming programme was ... provides a meticulous exposition of the extremely variegated dynamics * Nikolas Funke, British Catholic History * displays an enviable command of multiple languages and archives, and mastery of an impressive array of specialist literatures ... The story of how the peripheries of sixteenth-century Catholicism - Ireland, Austria, Poland - became its nineteenth and twentieth-century heartlands is necessarily a complex one, and this book is an invaluable map to the first stages of that journey. * Peter Marshall, Times Literary Supplement *

O hAnnrachain's study is innovative in directly illuminating the disparity between plural Catholicism across Europe and an orthodox form of religion that emanated from the center in this period...One of O hAnnrachain's most valuable contributions. --Journal of Jesuit Studies

the book represents a pioneering study in comparative earlymodern European Catholicism. It contributes to the understanding of the role of religion and the Catholic elites in earlymodern European kingdoms, and to the importance played by seminary colleges in the education of the Catholic elites. * Ciaran O'Scea, Irish Historical Studies * displays an enviable command of multiple languages and archives, and mastery of an impressive array of specialist literatures ... The story of how the peripheries of sixteenth-century Catholicism - Ireland, Austria, Poland - became its nineteenth and twentieth-century heartlands is necessarily a complex one, and this book is an invaluable map to the first stages of that journey. * Peter Marshall, Times Literary Supplement * O hAnnrachain's study is innovative in directly illuminating the disparity between plural Catholicism across Europe and an orthodox form of religion that emanated from the center in this period ... O hAnnrachain's work reveals not only the need to resituate local studies and use comparative methodology, but also to understand the negotiation and encounter between central and peripheral forms of Catholicism ... One of O hAnnrachain's most valuable contributions, however, is to show that the peripheries are of critical importance for advancing our understanding of early modern Catholic Europe. * Suzanna Ivanic, Journal of Jesuit Studies * The strength of O hAnnrachain's work lies in the breadth of his comparisons between territories on the margins, and he makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the peripheral communities of early modern Catholic Europe, as well as their diverse relationships with the centre. * Emilie K.M. Murphy, University of York, Journal of Ecclesiastical History * The book's central aim is the analysis and comparison of the dynamics between the Roman centre and the diverse Catholic communities on its peripheries. It succeeds spectacularly not only in showing the discrepancies between the Tridentine ideal and the situation in these localities but also how contingent on local circumstances the success of the reforming programme was ... provides a meticulous exposition of the extremely variegated dynamics * Nikolas Funke, British Catholic History *

The book's central aim is the analysis and comparison of the dynamics between the Roman centre and the diverse Catholic communities on its peripheries. It succeeds spectacularly not only in showing the discrepancies between the Tridentine ideal and the situation in these localities but also how contingent on local circumstances the success of the reforming programme was ... provides a meticulous exposition of the extremely variegated dynamics * Nikolas Funke, British Catholic History * displays an enviable command of multiple languages and archives, and mastery of an impressive array of specialist literatures ... The story of how the peripheries of sixteenth-century Catholicism - Ireland, Austria, Poland - became its nineteenth and twentieth-century heartlands is necessarily a complex one, and this book is an invaluable map to the first stages of that journey. * Peter Marshall, Times Literary Supplement * The strength of O hAnnrachain's work lies in the breadth of his comparisons between territories on the margins, and he makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the peripheral communities of early modern Catholic Europe, as well as their diverse relationships with the centre. * Emilie K.M. Murphy, University of York, Journal of Ecclesiastical History *

Author Information

Tadhg Ó hAnnracháin is currently Head of School of History at University College Dublin. He completed his PhD at the European University Institute at Florence in 1995. He has published widely in journals such as English Historical Review, History Compass, Shiso, Revue Historique, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy and in numerous edited collections. He was the joint Principal Investigator on the Irish Research Council Thematic Grants projectInsular Christianity. His research interests are primarily in the field of Early Modern religious history. Catholic Europe, 1592-1648: Centre and Peripheries is his second monograph with Oxford University Press.

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