Numerous historical studies use the term "community'" to express or comment on social relationships within geographic, religious, political, social, or literary settings, yet this volume is the first systematic attempt to collect together important examples of this varied work in order to draw comparisons and conclusions about the definition of community across early modern Europe. The chapters demonstrate the complex and changeable nature of community in an era more often characterized as a time of stark certainties and inflexibility. As a result, the volume contributes a vital resource to the ongoing efforts of scholars to understand the creation and perpetuation of communities and the significance of community definition for early modern Europeans.

Michael J. Halvorson is Assistant Professor of History at Pacific Lutheran University, USA and Karen E. Spierling is Visiting Associate Professor of History at Ohio State University, USA.

Contents: Introduction: definitions of community in early modern Europe, Karen E. Spierling and Michael J. Halvorson. The French-Speaking Lands: Communities of worship and the reformed churches of France, Raymond A. Mentzer; Between the living and the dead: preserving confessional identity and community in early modern France, S. Amanda Eurich; A community of active religious women, Susan E. Dinan; The complexity of community in Reformation Geneva: the case of the Lullin family, Karen E. Spierling. The German-Speaking Lands: Child circulation within the early modern urban community: rejection and support of unwanted children in Nuremberg, Joel F. Harrington; Late 16th-century Lutherans: a community of memory?, Susan R. Boettcher; Jewish communities in Central Europe in the 16th century, Dean Phillip Bell; Demonstrationes catholicae: defining communities through Counter-Reformation rituals, John M. Frymire; Lutherans baptizing Jews: examination reports and confessional polemics from Reformation Germany, Michael J. Halvorson. Northern Europe: England, Scotland, and The Netherlands: Beating the bounds of the parish: order, memory and identity in the English local community, c1500-1700, Steve Hindle; Breaching 'community' in Britain: captives, renegades, and the redeemed, Claire S. Schen; Scotland's 'city on a hill': the godly and the political community in early Reformation Scotland, Kristen Post Walton; Competing visions of the Mennonite gemeinde: examples from early modern Krefeld in their Dutch context, Michael Driedger. Italy: 'I can't imagine it won't bear fruit': Jesuits, politics, and heretics in Siena, Montepulciano and Lucca, Kathleen M. Comerford; Contesting Vesuvius and claiming Naples: disaster in print and pen, 1631-1649, Sean Cocco; Select bibliography; Index.