Church discipline and the Reformed consistory, whether in Hungary, the Swiss world, France, The Netherlands or the British Isles, have become the subject of intense scholarly discussion. The fifteen essays gathered in this volume examine the process of censure and excommunication across Europe from the mid-sixteenth through the late eighteenth centuries. They reevaluate the relationship of women to ecclesiastical authority and explore the complex ways in which exclusion from the Lordâs Supper operated. Several contributors trace the decrease in excommunication over time; others underscore national differences in its nature and the surprising infrequency of application. Together, they offer a fresh, unanticipated and illuminating portrait of the reform of morals associated with John Calvin and his followers.
Philippe Chareyre, Ph.D. (1987) in History, University of Montpellier III, is Professor of History at the University of Pau (France). His research focuses on the Reformation in southern France and Bearn.
Introduction, Raymond A. Mentzer
WOMEN CONFRONT THE CONSISTORY
1. Refractory Women: The Limits of Power in the French Reformed Church, Suzannah Lipscomb
2. Honor, Gender and Discipline in Dutch Reformed Churches, Judith Pollmann
3. Putting Order to Disorder: Illegitimate Children, Their Parents, and the Consistory in Reformation Geneva, Karen E. Spierling
Persons interested in social history, the history of early modern Europe, the Reformation, the history of the Christian church, developments in the Reformed tradition, and the history of France.