The Revolt that ripped apart the sixteenth-century Netherlands began as a rebellion against Habsburg authority but it eventually became a war of religion that resulted in the formation of two new states. Although the Southern Netherlands ultimately witnessed the triumph of the militant Catholicism of the Baroque, Catholics throughout the Low Countries found that the Revolt had changed their lives forever. Mining the unusually rich diaries, memoirs, and poems written by Netherlandish Catholics, Judith Pollmann explores how Catholic believers experienced religious and political turmoil in the generations between Erasmus and Rubens. She investigates the initial passivity of Catholics in the face of Calvinist aggression, and asks why they actively supported a Catholic revival after 1585. By listening to the voices of individual Catholics, lay and clerical, Judith Pollmann offers a new perspective both on the Revolt of the Netherlands and on the formation of early modern Catholic identity. Exploring what it took to turn traditional Christians into the agents of their own Counter-Reformation, she sees the dynamic relationship between priests and people as a catalyst for religious change in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

About the Author
Judith Pollmann is Professor of Early Modern Dutch History at Leiden University

Reviews
a fascinating amount of detail * Times Literary Supplement *
Professor Pollman's book redefines our understanding both of Catholic Reform and the Dutch Revolt. The work, implicitly and explicitly, maps out a research agenda that will engage historians for a long time to come. * Jan Machielsen, English Historical Review *
a powerful contribution to the historiography of Catholicism. * Marc R. Forster, Low Countries Historical Review *
This is an excellent study of the impact of the Revolt on Catholic laypeople living in the Habsburg Netherlands from the beginning of the Reformation until 1635. This book's unique contribution to the historiography is its illumination of lay Catholic activism and the collaboration of laity and clergy specifically in the Spanish Netherlands. ... one of the clearest and most readable narratives of the complex series of events referred to as the "Revolt". * Amanda Pipkin, The Sixteenth Century Journal *



Book Information
ISBN 9780198867357
Author Judith Pollmann
Format Paperback
Page Count 272
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 406g
Dimensions(mm) 235mm * 156mm * 14mm