MacCulloch’s book a definite improvement

What a great book! There are so many people, places, events, and ideas here. It just made me more aware of so many stories; I just want to follow up on all of them.

Here are a few of the subjects I’d like to take further, gleaned from the index in the back of the book. Others will surely discover other topics. There are hundreds to choose from:

Anabaptists
anti-trinitarians
Augsburg Confession (1530)
Peace of Augsburg (1555)
Peace of Westphalia (1648)
Theodore Beza
Martin Bucer
Heinrich Bullinger
Giovanni Pietro Carafa, Pope Paul IV
Charles V of Spain
conciliarism
Council of Trent
Emden (& the Reformation)
John Foxe
John Knox
Heidelberg Catechism (1563), and University
Henri II, III, IV kings of France
French Huguenots
Jansenism
William Laud
Magdeburg (& the Reformation)
Munster (& the Reformation)
Philip II of Spain
Reginald Pole
Schmalkaldic League and War
Michael Servetus (Miguel Serveto)
Sigismond I, II, & III kings of Poland
Socinians
Spirituali (of Italy)
Stranger Church
Thirty Years War
Transylvania (& the Reformation)
Tridentine Catholicism
Juan de Valdes
Westminster Confession
Hermann von Wied
Francisco Ximenes de Cisneros, Cardinal

What a great book to rob you so gently of your ignorance! I probably was exposed to very little of this in school. On top of this, I now know more than ever how much I need to read a history of the Habsburgs!

For me, as well, it’s good to know the origins of so many of the denominations we have here in the U.S. To have that history filled in a little is a definite advantage. Just knowing such things, without even engaging with anyone in dialogue yet, seems like a spiritual improvement.

>1 geoffreymeadows: I also love to check out the indexes for further subject areas! Have you read Marshall's Heretics and Believers? My own area of study is the Reformations in England so this one was my favorite. I also just really enjoy Marshall's work in general. Your excitement about so many new areas to follow made me think of my experience reading him.

>2 ahythloday:
I’m sorry for my late response to your post. I haven’t been checking the discussion here as regularly as I should.

Sounds like we have both liked expansive histories of the Reformation Era, for you Marshall, Heretics and Believers, and for me MacCulloch, The Reformation: A History. I’m a retired librarian and a firm believer in following the bibliographies of writers I enjoy. Browsing is not necessarily a bad thing, if you want to find informative books, and if you actually follow up on some of the books you find.

Absolutely, I’d like to read Marshall, Heretics and Believers, soon. I’ve been led into new areas of interest because of MacCulloch’s book, though. It made me want to know more about the Habsburgs, so I read The Habsburgs: To Rule the World, Rady. This covered the whole history of the Habsburgs, and had content on the Reformation Era, but I thought the author wasn’t critical enough of the Habsburgs. MacCulloch also made me more interested in the Counter-Reformation Era, so I’m reading another “backgrounder” - a book about the Jesuits that was recently released, called The Jesuits: A History, Markus Friedrich. This is a good and very insightful and even orderly book, but he calls Juan de Valdes a “highly controversial mystic” which I don’t think is entirely accurate. MacCulloch seemed to think of Valdes as a Catholic “evangelical”.

Once I’m done with The Jesuits, I’ll be coming back to the early Reformation. I don’t know where I’m going to start, but I’m looking at reading Luther’s early writings, the famous ones; as well as about William Tyndale - William Tyndale: A Biography, Daniell, and Tyndale’s The Obedience of a Christian Man. I wonder if Tyndale is of interest to you?

Let me know what English Reformation books you’ve been reading, or, if you wish, any profitable detours you’ve taken along the way.