Author Description

The history of the Reformation in the city of Bremen differs from many other Reformation processes in the Old Empire. Yet it has hardly been addressed, not even in the decade of lively commemoration of the Reformation. Bremen's was a <i>different</i> Reformation in comparison with similar developments in the <i>core territories</i> of the Reformation, as well as in the cities. In the first, Lutheran, phase of Bremen's Reformation, many aspects were similar to those elsewhere: the groundbreaking ideas, which were legitimated by reference to the Word of God, as codified in Holy Scripture; anticlericalism; provocative stances; violence and appeasement. From about 1550 onwards, however, Bremen's Reformation proceeded towards a more uncompromising second phase. The aim of this volume is to give Bremen its due within the field of Reformation research.