The Conquest of the Soul: Confession, Discipline, and Public Order in Counter-Reformation Milan

Erscheinungsjahr 2000
ISBN: 978-90-04-11748-8
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 84, 368 Seiten, Format (B × H): 169 mm x 247 mm, Gewicht: 835 g

Reihe: Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions

Carlo and Federico Borromeo achieved fame by turning Milan into the foremost laboratory of the Italian Counter-Reformation. This monograph, the first on the subject to appear in English, interprets their program of penitential discipline as a quest to reshape Lombard society by reaching into the souls of its inhabitants.

This integration of the public and private spheres had vast implications - the transformation of the clergy into a professional body, a bureaucratic-juridical turn in sacramental practice, interventions in the ritual order (notably the introduction of the confessional), and new models of disciplined and 'civilized' behavior.

Catholic confessionalism thus conceived had decidedly mixed outcomes. While it transformed the religious landscape forever, its deepest ambitions foundered amidst political opposition, popular resistance, and bureaucratic accommodation. Milan was never to be a city on a hill.

2001 Winner of the Howard R. Marraro Prize of the American Catholic Historical Association.

Autoren/Hrsg.

de Boer, W.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Europäische Länder
• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Kirchengeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface
Abbreviations
List of Figures, Table and Illustrations

PART I. STRATEGIES
Introduction to Part One
1. Asserting Hierarchy: The Clergy and the Early Counter-Reformation
2. Discipline of the Soul: Confession, Conversion, Coercion
3. Constraints of the Body: The Confessional and Church Design
4. The Politics of Civility: Federico Borromeo and The Later Counter-Reformation

PART II. ADVANCES AND RETREATS
Introduction to Part Two
5. The Administration of the Sacraments: Piety and Obligation
6. Governing the Soul: The Limits of Discipline
7. Priestly Exercises: Schoolroom and Confessional
8. Defining the Sinful: The Case of Superstition

Conclusion

Select Bibliography
Indices
Index of Personal Names
Index of Place Names
Index of Subjects

Über Autor(innen)

Wietse de Boer, Ph.D. (1995) in History, Erasmus University Rotterdam, is Assistant Professor of History at Indiana University, Indianapolis. His recent publications focus particularly on the cultural aspects of the Italian Counter-Reformation.