Low Countries in the Sixteenth Century

James D. Tracy is Professor in the Department of History, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, USA.

• Contents: Introduction; Part I Erasmus: Erasmus becomes a German; Against the barbarians: the young Erasmus and his humanist contemporaries; Erasmus and the Arians: remarks on the Consensus Ecclesiae; Two Erasmuses, two Luthers: Erasmus' strategy in defense of De libero arbitrio; Erasmus among the post-modernists: Dissimulatio, bonae litterae, and docta pietas revisited. Part II Religion and Politics in the Low Countries: Heresy law and centralization under Mary of Hungary: conflict between the Council of Holland and the central government of the enforcement of Charles V's placards; A premature counter-reformation: the Dirkist government of Amsterdam, 1538-78; With and without the counter-reformation: the Catholic Church in the Spanish Netherlands and the Dutch Republic, 1580-1650; Lords, peasants, and the introduction of Calvinist preaching in Holland's Noorder-Kwartier. Part III Finance And Trade: Netherlands Perspectives: Habsburg grain policy and Amsterdam politics: the career of sheriff Willem Dirkszoon Baerdes, 1542-66; The taxation system of the County of Holland during the reigns of Charles V and Philip II, 1519-66; Herring wars: The Habsburg Netherlands and the struggle for the control of the North Sea, ca. 1520-60; Asian despotism? Mughal government as seen from the Dutch East India Company factory in Surat; Charles V, his bankers, and their demands. Index.

'Erasmus remains one of the great voices for the ideals of humanism in sixteenth century Europe, and James Tracy represents one of our best contemporary scholars on the subject.' History