The Quest for Compromise
Peacemakers in Counter-Reformation Vienna

An account of religious moderation at the Habsburg court in late sixteenth-century Vienna.

Howard Louthan (Author)

9780521580823, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 2 October 1997

208 pages, 14 b/w illus.
23.5 x 16.1 x 2 cm, 0.497 kg

"Louthan's work on this project is impressive indeed. This book is definitely a major contribution to our understanding of the brief reign of Maximilian II and to the international scene within which confessional conflicts and attempts at their reconiciliation played out." John P. Spielman, American Historical Review

The Quest for Compromise is an interdisciplinary study of the imperial court in late sixteenth-century Vienna, and a detailed examination of a fascinating moment of religious moderation. Against a backdrop of rising religious and confessional dogmatism, the Emperor Maximilian II (1564–1576) assembled a remarkable cast of courtiers who resisted extremes of both Reformation and Counter-Reformation. This book investigates the rise and fall of an irenic movement through four individuals whose work at the imperial court reflected the ideals of religious compromise and moderation. An Italian artist (Jacopo Strada), a Silesian physician (Johannes Crato), a Dutch librarian (Hugo Blotius) and a German soldier (Lazarus von Schwendi) sought peace and accommodation through a wide range of cultural, intellectual and political activity.

List of illustrations
Acknowledgements
A political and cultural chronology
List of abbreviations
Introduction
Part I. The Emergence of an Irenic Court: 1. From confrontation to conciliation: the conversion of Lazarus von Schwendi
2. Jacopo Strada and the transformation of the imperial court
Part II. Maximilian II and the High Point of Irenicism: Introduction
3. Hugo Blotius and the intellectual foundation of Austrian irenicism
4. Ordering a chaotic world: the reformation of the imperial library
5. Protestant ecumenism and Catholic reform: the case of Johannes Crato
6. Finding a via media: Lazarus von Schwendi and the climax of Austrian irenicism
Part III. The Failure of Irenicism: Introduction
7. Confessional ambiguity and unambiguous critics: religion and the Austrian middle way
8. The funeral of Maximilian II: struggling for the soul of central Europe
9. Matthias in the Netherlands: the political failure of irenicism
Conclusion: storm clouds on the horizon: from the great milk war to the Thirty Years War
Epilogue: the wider circle of irenicism
Select bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], European history [HBJD]