EBOOK Sacred History:Uses of the Christian Past in the Renaissance World

This volume provides the first geographically broad, comparative survey of early        modern 'sacred history', or writing on the history of the Christian Church, its        leaders and saints, and its institutional and doctrinal developments, in the two        centuries from c. 1450-1650. With deep medieval roots, ecclesiastical history was        generally a conservative enterprise, often serving to reinforce confessional,        national, regional, dynastic, or local identities. But writers of sacred        historyinnovated in research methods and in techniques of scholarly production,        especially after the advent of print. The demand for sacred history was particularly        acute in the various movements for religious reform, in both Catholic and Protestant        traditions. After the Renaissance, many writers sought toapply humanist critical        principles to writing about the church, but the sceptical thrust of humanist        historiography threatened to undermine many ecclesiastical traditions, and religious        historians often had to wrestle with tensions between criticism and piety.Thirteen        thematic chapters examine the influence of Renaissance humanism, religious reform,        and other political, intellectual, and social developments of these two centuries on        the writing of ecclesiastical history in its various forms. These diverse genres,        inherited from medieval culture, included saints' lives, diocesan histories,        national chronicles, and travel accounts. Early chapters examine Catholic and        Protestant traditions of sacred historiography in western Europe, especially        Italyand Switzerland. Subsequent chapters examine particular instances of sacred        historiography in Germany, central Europe, Spain, England, Ireland, France, and        Portuguese India; and developments in Christian art historiography and Holy Land        antiquarianism.