This is the English edition of my Leipzig PhD thesis originally published with Mohr Siebeck in 2008. In a lucky moment, the book came across Andrew Gow in Edmonton, Canada, who suggested an English translation and offered to publish it in his series Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions with Brill. I am very grateful for this chance to contribute to English-speaking research, to which I feel indebted since a term spent at the St Andrews Reformation Studies Institute in 1999 to 2000.
When the study won the award Geisteswissenschaften International in 2012, funds became available for financing a translation. Progress has been slowed down by a change of translator, since Dr. Brian McNeil, who had taken on the project, was unfortunately unable to complete it.
My thanks go to both translators, Brian McNeil and Bill Ray, to Ivo Romein and Arjan van Dijk, editors at Brill, to my Canadian copy-editor Monica Mcfadzean and most especially to Professor Andrew Gow for initiating and supporting the project right from the start. Professor Andrew Pettegree deserves credit for suggesting the English title. The translation funding Geisteswissenschaften International is a joint initiative of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, the German Federal Foreign Office, the Verwertungsgesellschaft Wort and the German Publishers & Booksellers Association. I am very grateful for their support.
As this is an unabridged translation of a book published in 2008, recent literature could not be added but for a few exceptions.
I dedicate the English version to my wonderful sons, Johannes and Martin.
Christoph Volkmar
Magdeburg, on St. John’s Day 2017