Ways of Lying: Dissimulation, Persecution and Conformity in Early Modern Europe

Perez Zagorin

Published by Harvard University Press 1990

Ways of Lying

Dissimulation, Persecution and Conformity in Early Modern Europe

Perez Zagorin

https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674866379

Overview
Contents

About this book

The religious persecution and intellectual intolerance of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries compelled many heterodox groups and thinkers to resort to misdirection, hidden meaning, secrecy, and deceit. In this highly unusual interpretation, Perez Zagorin traces the theory and practice of religious leaders, philosophers, intellectuals, and men of letters who used deception to cloak dissident beliefs.

Zagorin surveys some of the chief sources of early modern doctrines of dissimulation in the Bible and the works of theologians from Jerome and Augustine to Erasmus, Luther, and Calvin. Subjects covered include Nicodemism, the name given by Calvin to secret Protestants who concealed their faith behind a facade of conformity to Catholic worship; crypto-Judaism in Spain; and the hidden beliefs of English Catholics. Other topics include the Catholic doctrine of mental reservation; the place of dissimulation in English Protestant casuistry; occultism; and dissimulation of religious unbelief among philosophers and men of letters. In charting the widespread phenomenon of lying and deceit and by exploring its evolutions, Perez Zagorin has made an important contribution to the historiography of an intellectually roiling and perilous time. He adds a vital dimension to our understanding of the religious, intellectual, and cultural history of the epoch before the modern. Lacey Baldwin Smith finds this hook “an impressive and scholarly work of cultural synthesis that coins a fresh label for the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries: the age of dissimulation. Zagorin’s efforts to compare and contrast Catholic and Protestant styles of dissimulation and Nicodemism are important, casting a new perspective and focus on the religious and intellectual dissent of the era.”

Reviews

My strongest single impression is one of striking originality.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	v
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
CHAPTER 1. Dissimulation in Historical Context Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
CHAPTER 2. Sources Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	15
CHAPTER 3. The Marranos and Crypto-Judaism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	38
CHAPTER 4. Calvin and Nicodemism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	63
CHAPTER 5. Nicodemism in Italy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	83
CHAPTER 6. Nicodemism: Controversialists, Sectarians, Familists Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	100
CHAPTER 7. Nicodemism and Catholic Recusancy in England Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	131
CHAPTER 8. Casuistry, Mental Reservation, and Dr. Navarrus Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	153
CHAPTER 9. England and the Controversy over Mental Reservation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	186
CHAPTER 10. Casuistry and Dissimulation in English Protestantism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	221
CHAPTER 11. Occultism and Dissimulation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	255
CHAPTER 12. Libertinism, Unbelief, and the Dissimulation of Philosophers Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	289
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	331

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Edition: Reprint 2014
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Front matter: 8
- Main content: 337
Keywords: Truthfulness and falsehood -- History -- 16th century.; Persecution -- Europe -- History -- 16th century.; Christians -- Persecution -- History; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology of Religion; HISTORY / Social History

eBook

Published: October 1, 2013
ISBN: 9780674866379

Hardcover

Published: February 5, 1990
ISBN: 9780674866362