Living with Religious Diversity in Early-Modern Europe

Drawing together a number of case studies from diverse parts of Europe, Living with Religious Diversity in Early Modern Europe explores the processes involved with groups of differing religious confessions living together - sometimes grudgingly, but often with a benign pragmatism that stood in opposition to the will of their rulers. By focussing on these themes it bridges the gap between our understanding of the confessional developments as they were conceived, and of religious culture at the level of implementation. In other words, measuring the religious policies articulated by secular and ecclesiastical elites against the 'lived experience' of people going about their daily business. In so doing, the collection shows how people perceived and experienced the religious upheavals of the confessional age and how they were able to assimilate these changes within the framework of their lives.