Schriften zur politischen Kommunikation / Band 018 / Irenik, Gelehrsamkeit und Politik

Religious conflict and civil war plunged Europe into severe crises in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Focussing on the French monarchy,Mona Garloff analyses the wider European struggle in which these conflicts became embroiled. In this way she demonstrates the extent to which the idea of a stable European order was discussed in transnational terms. One tireless exponent of religious and political peace was the French scholar and diplomat, Jean Hotman (1552-1636). During the course of his career, Hotman became acquainted with different models of religious pacification and established contacts with learned scholars all over Europe. He and his contemporaries did not pursue irenic theology in the spirit of utopianism, but understood their writings as practical contributions to religious politics and day-to-day decision-making. Mona Garloff takes a broad look at scholarly practice in the period around 1600 and sheds new light on the intellectual culture of the late-humanist republic of letters. Her study is an important new contribution to the transnational history of religious diversity beyond confessional borders in Early Modern Europe.