Aspects to consider include:
 

• Was the Church in a healthy state?
• Did late medieval people understand and engage with official guidelines; were they 'Christians'?
• How should historians interpret movements like the Hussites, Humanism and the devotio moderna?
• Was the Reformation 'inevitable'?

 

Format

• In preparation, go over the sources and scholarship covered so far in the module
• On the day, engage in a debate between two groups advancing arguments for / against one of the alternatives (as assigned last week; you will have some time to organize this in the seminar).
• Try to substantiate your points with reference to primary and secondary sources
• Evaluating scholarly opinions will also help you with the first module assignment of a book review

 

Resources

 

• All materials considered in seminars 1-4 so far; do go beyond the 'essential' pieces of reading and explore further items / links on the respective weekly webpages as well as our general printed / digital resources

Johan Huizinga, author of the critical work The Waning of the Middle Ages (1919)
 

Bernd Moeller observed unprecedented levels of pious activity in Imperial Free Cities on the eve of the Reformation.