Reforming Church History. The Impact of the Reformation on Early Modern European Historiography ed. by Daniel Gehrt, Markus Matthias, and Sascha Salatowsky (review)

Reviewed by: Reforming Church History. The Impact of the Reformation on Early Modern European Historiography ed. by Daniel Gehrt, Markus Matthias, and Sascha Salatowsky Robert Kolb Reforming Church History. The Impact of the Reformation on Early Modern European Historiography. Edited by Daniel Gehrt, Markus Matthias, and Sascha Salatowsky. Gothaer Forschungen zur Frühen Neuzeit 22. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2023. 217 pp. The writing of history forms an important part of the memorial culture of a society; the broader study of memoria and the specific study of historiography have grown rapidly in recent years. This volume's thirteen essays make valuable contributions to this discussion. These essays demonstrate a variety of approaches to interpretating methods used in shaping the stories being told. The editors observe that "modern historiography, both idealistic and post-idealistic, is characterized by the awareness that 'explored' events or occurrences of human action in their uniqueness and multiplicity only acquire meaning through philosophical consideration" (9). Archivists collect historical records; historians use them to teach. While striving for "objectivity" is an important discipline, no one can lay aside presuppositions and goals in searching the past. Illustrative is Sascha Salatowsky's examination of representative Roman Catholic, Lutheran, and Reformed authors. He concludes that Catholics defended the unity of scripture and tradition, while Protestants presented the church's history as a continuing struggle between truth and errors of human invention, in which the necessity of restoring the gospel in the sixteenth century becomes clear. Perspectives shape the telling of the story. Johannes Cochlaeus's pioneering work in polemical biography, his account of Luther's life, as assessed by Kenneth Appold, demonstrates this principle well. Martin Rothkegel evaluates "history written by the victims" on the basis of sixteenth-century Hutterite chronicles. According to Pablo Toribio, Transylvanian Anti-Trinitarians used historical interpretations to relativize the Reformation as a stage toward the full blossoming of truth. Early seventeenth-century writing at the University of Wittenberg on the unfolding of the Reformation begun there reflected the dogmatic concerns of the University faculty in their own time, as Daniel Bohnert shows. The changing contexts of the Swiss Reformed churches determined—and are End Page 93 reflected in—the appraisal and alteration of the Zurich Bible along with the development of substitutes for it, according to Bruce Gordon's detailed investigation. Through examining the origins of "historical theology," Aza Goudriaan finds that Heinrich Alting's writing sought to demonstrate the continuity of biblical truth through the ages and John Forbes wished to affirm the catholicity of Reformed theology. Monumental figures in early modern historiography illustrate how differing perspectives provoked and molded historical writing. The Swedish historiography of Luther's Reformation reflected national as well as ecclesiastical concerns and goals, as Steffie Schmidt portrays in reviewing the use of the Gothic tradition set down in Johannes Magnus's Historia by seventeenth-century theologians Laurentius Paulinus Gothus, Johannes Baazius, Jordanus Edenius, and Erik Benzelius. Markus Matthias assessesVeit Ludwig von Seckendorf's response to Louis Maimbourg's portrayal of the Reformation, revealing Seckendorf's influence on the rise of a new concept of history and historical writing that gives his work significance far beyond the polemical context in which it was embedded. Andreea Badea focuses on the coincidence of Maimbourg's ecclesiastical commitment, seen also in his anti-Jansenist history of that movement, with his service to Louis XIV in supporting cleansing France of the Huguenot sect. Methodological change marks the advance of historical writing in the early modern period, as Daniel Gehrt illustrates with his insightful evaluation of Ernst Salomon Cyprian's several historical projects. Cyprian's work uses Hugo Grotius's treatment of natural law to argue for the moral necessity of Luther's Reformation for establishing freedom of conscience and ending papal dominance. Markus Friedrich's meticulous examination of the notes of the "working papers" on "the church historian's desk," that of Barthold Nicolaus Krohn, reveals how this Hamburg historian researched and then constructed his account of Melchior Hofmann and his followers. Yet some well-established methods remained, as Wolf-Friedrich Schäufele shows in the use of the pre-reformational testes veritatis by End Page 94 the early eighteenth-century Reformed French theologian Jacques...