Acknowledgements

I have been fortunate to be supported by many people over the years, so it is with joy that I acknowledge them here. I hope these few lines convey some sense of the immense gratitude I feel.

Maximilian Lanzinner at the University of Bonn first inspired me to convert my passion for early-modern German history into something more. Constantin Fasolt at the University of Chicago took a chance on me and gently guided me through the challenges of research and writing; his philosophical bent and his understanding of European history’s long arcs have been inspirational. At Chicago, Michael Geyer taught me to think less traditionally, while Bill Sewell encouraged me to think more theoretically. In Augsburg, Johannes Burkhardt and Rolf Kießling invited me to present the very earliest findings of my research. In Mainz, Heinz Duchhardt and Irene Dingel provided a quiet place for writing, and a staging ground for additional archival research. David Luebke, with Celia Applegate series editor at Brill, found me at a moment when his enthusiasm for my project was especially valuable. To you all: Danke, tausendmal danke!

At Binghamton University, I have had two homes—the History department and the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies—and two sets of generous colleagues. In particular, Jean Quataert (dearly missed) and Nate Andrade in History have helped me navigate many challenges with boisterous enthusiasm and admirable moral purpose. Marilynn Desmond has been a determined and generous advocate. Kent Schull has provided crucial support and encouragement, especially in the project’s final stages.

This project has been generously supported by various institutions. Archival research was made possible by a fellowship from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst and grants from the University of Chicago. A fellowship at the Institut für Europäische Geschichte in Mainz enabled first drafting and additional archival research. A teaching release made possible by the Institute for the Advanced Studies in the Humanities at Binghamton enabled crucial reframing of the project. A subvention grant for the publication of this book was made possible through the generosity of donors to the Harpur College Advocacy Council Faculty Development Endowment. Without all of these institutions and their support—and the encouragement and assistance of mentors and colleagues who helped secure it—this book would not have been possible.

Abroad and in the US, my research was possible thanks to accommodating archivists and librarians at the municipal archives in Augsburg and in Ulm, the Bavarian State Libraries in Augsburg and Munich, the Anna-Archiv in Augsburg, the archive at the University of Augsburg, the Bavarian State Archive in Augsburg, and the Bavarian Main State Archive in Munich. In the US, librarians at the University of Chicago, Wake Forest University, and Binghamton University have helped locate and access materials closer to home.

This project’s progress from dissertation to book has profited from the input of many friends and colleagues. At annual meetings of the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, Renaissance Society of America, German Studies Association, and at workshops at universities in Augsburg, Binghamton, Chicago, Mainz, Ottawa, Providence, Leiden, and Toronto, and at the Upstate Early Modern Workshop, I have presented drafts and received important feedback. Along the way, I have received support and encouragement from Christine Johnson, Susan Karr, Hans-Jörg Künast, David Luebke, Beth Plummer, Dan Riches, and Jesse Spohnholz. Nate Andrade, Doug Jones, Meg Leja, and Kent Schull heroically read chapter drafts on short notice. The two anonymous readers of the manuscript offered constructive, generous feedback. Wendel Scholma and Gerda Danielsson Coe at Brill coordinated the publication of this book in the Studies in Central European History series. Katharine Bartlett gave the manuscript its final polish. All of these creative and bright folks made this a stronger book. For whatever rough spots remain, I alone am responsible.

Materials from Chapter 4 were first published as “Civic Peace as Spatial Practice. Calming Confessional Tensions in Augsburg, 1547–1600,” in Spatial Practice—Medieval Modern, ed. Markus Stock and Nicola Vöhringer (Göttingen: V&R, 2014), 207–240. Materials from Chapter 5 were first published as “Civic and Confessional Memories in Conflict: A Case from Sixteenth-Century Germany,” in Memory before modernity. Practices of memory in early modern Europe, ed. Erika Kuijpers et al. (Boston: Brill, 2013), 77–92. I am grateful to the publishers for permission to reprint this material.

This book is the culmination of a project which began many years ago and which has managed to make it through many tribulations. Throughout, I have been sustained by communities of fellowship and friendship. In particular, I thank Venus Bivar, Carlos Bravo Regidor, Thomas Dodman, Parker Everett, Barry Haneberg, Miranda Johnson, Elisa Joy Jones, and Alexia Yates, who made Hyde Park fun. Lisa Blee, Kate Callahan, Devon Mackay, John Oksanich, Nate Plageman, Jake Ruddiman, and Amanda Tanner made Winston-Salem feel like a place that I could call home. That I now feel at home in Binghamton is thanks in big part to Elizabeth Casteen, Frank Chang, Alexander Chase-Levenson, Tina Chronopoulos, Paula Grosso, Meg Leja, Amanda Licht, John Kuhn, Julie and Mike Rabideau, Brad Skopyk, and Yi Wang.

Most of all it is my family to whom I give thanks: to my parents, Bill and Mary Dunwoody, for their unwavering love and encouragement; to my family-in-law—Malcolm Welland and Emel Demirci, to Martha Welland and John Steele—for being my wonderful second family; to my siblings—Mary and her husband Andy, Rory and his wife Emiko, and Brendan, and their families—for keeping me grounded. To my children, Miriam and Thomas, I am profoundly grateful; the love that they share with me has kept me motivated. I am so happy that I can now tell them, yes, the book is done. My wife, Heather, for whose part in my life I cannot adequately express gratitude, has more than anyone else made it possible for me to finish this book. To her, most of all, I give thanks. To her, with love, this book is dedicated.