Astrology and Reformation

409 Pages·2016·9.17 MB·English

by  Barnes

Astrology and Reformation

Astrology
and
Reformation
z
ROBIN B. BARNES
1
1
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Barnes, Robin Bruce, 1951—
Astrology and Reformation / Robin B. Barnes.
pages cm
Includes index.
ISBN 978–0–19–973605–8 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Reformation. 2. Church history—
16th century. 3. Astrology. 4. Evangelicalism. 5. Evangelicalism—Germany.
I. Title.
BR307.B37 2015
261.5ʹ13—dc23
2015009980
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
For ALB, MLB, MBB, and THF

Contents
Acknowledgments  ix
A Note on Sources  xi
Introduction  1
1. From Athens to Augsburg  16
2. Mathematics and the Sacred  48
3. The Flood  82
4. The Campaign Against Superstition  131
5. Confessional Constellations  172
6. Fate and Faith  215
7. Centrifugal Forces  259
Postscript  302
Notes  307
Literature  367
Index  377

Acknowledgments
This book has been a long time in the making. I can never offer thanks
enough to my wife, Ann Lee Bressler, and our now grown children,
Molly Leeanna Barnes and Morgan Bruce Barnes, for their infinite loving
indulgence through many trying phases and interruptions of the work.
To my friend and former doctoral adviser H. C. Erik Midelfort, Professor
Emeritus of History at the University of Virginia, I owe deep gratitude for
countless helpful reactions to drafts of my chapters, and for unflagging
encouragement. Long-time fellow members of both the Sixteenth Century
Society and Conference and the Society for Reformation Research have
aided me with their questions and comments at scholarly meetings as well
as other venues. My colleagues in the Department of History and in the
Humanities Program at Davidson College have graced me with ongoing
scholarly stimulation and collegiality. I am grateful for research support
from the American Philosophical Society and the National Endowment
for the Humanities; at a crucial stage of the work I benefited from an
American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship.
Many family members and other friends have helped me, often
in ways they do not realize. Among them are George Barnes, Kit and
Candace Barnes, Bill and Linda Bressler, William Brown and Mary Jo
Clark, Richard and Jane Gawthrop, John Headley, Charles Hogan and
Juliet Kingsmill, Kevin Moll, Roger Munsick, Gerda Nischan, Anthony
and Françoise Papalas, Joanne and Tom Ratchford, Tom Robisheaux and
Angelique Drossaert, R. Brooks Sherman and Shauna MacLaughlin, and
Price and Margaret Zimmermann. Finally, my editor at Oxford University
Press, Cynthia Read, has been the picture of perfect patience and generos-
ity; she too has my most sincere thanks.
Davidson, NC
March 2015