Heal, Bridget. The Cult of the Virgin Mary in Early Modern Germany: Protestant and Catholic Piety, 1500-1648

German Quarterly, The, Wntr, 2009 by Laura M. Grimes

Heal, Bridget. The Cult of the Virgin Mary in Early Modern Germany: Protestant and Catholic Piety, 1500-1648. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. 338 pp. $99.00 hardcover.

Bridget Heal's work is a thorough case study of Reformation and Counter Reformation Marian piety in three representative cities: Nuremberg, Augsburg, and Cologne. Its origin as a dissertation is evident in the detailed enumeration of artistic and textual sources for each German city. This thorough examination of evidence allows Heal to make a solid contribution by calling into question overstated and simplistic contentions about the role of Mary in the Reformation and demonstrating the multivalent factors affecting Marian devotion and Protestant-Catholic debates. Local history and political exigencies, she argues, were as important as theological partisanship in forming attitudes and behavior surrounding the Virgin. Furthermore, there were wide variations in Marian theology and devotion within, not just between, Protestants and Catholics--authorities and believers alike. A particular strength of the book is the inclusion of many artistic reproductions, strengthening and enriching Heal's analyses of shifts and characteristics in Marian devotion in each locality and confessional context.

Heal sets her stage by reviewing devotion to Mary in late medieval Germany, including some disturbing manifestations of its connection to anti-Semitism. She then examines early Catholic criticism of excesses, for instance by Erasmus, and discussions of Mary by major Reformation thinkers. While Reformers harshly criticized idolatrous Marian devotions, and those that overstated her role to the detraction of Christ's, they often maintained a high Mariology in many respects. Surprisingly, both Luther and Zwingli defended not just her virginal conception of Christ but her perpetual virginity and title of Theotokos; Luther even articulated a theory of her own immaculate conception and cited biblical precedents for the possibility of her assumption. Later reformers were more critical, but continued to discuss and reinterpret scriptural texts that featured Mary, emphasizing her as a model of faith, humility, obedience, and above all as a recipient of unmerited divine grace. These theological foundations made possible the transformation, rather than eradication, of the widespread popular devotion to Christ's mother in many areas of Germany.

Heal's first case study is the thoroughly Protestant city of Nuremberg, the earliest imperial free city to adopt the Lutheran faith. Many depictions of Mary and related ritual articles survived here, due in part to their desire to assure the emperor of their moderation as well as maintain Catholic trade relations. Theological justification was provided by Luther's insistence that images in themselves were not idolatrous and that proper preaching could transform people's attitude toward them. Tender images of Mary with the Christ child were particularly apt for emphasizing her as a humble Hausmutter rather than a powerful intercessor. Some scripturally based Marian feast-days continued to be observed, with liturgical changes which abolished problematic Catholic customs like the adornment of statues. Patrician families were also invested in keeping their private art collections as well as the public statues accruing to them in return for those donated to the city's churches.

Next, Heal discusses the biconfessional and highly polemicized city of Augsburg, where Protestants were influenced by the more radical Swiss reformers and thoroughly cleansed many churches of Marian images. In turn, Mary became both a comfort to Catholic believers and a weapon in the hands of the Jesuits, who created numerous rosary brotherhoods and stressed triumphalistic aspects of her cult like the Immaculate Conception and Assumption. Solidly Catholic Cologne, in contrast, maintained a more medieval and idiosyncratic attitude toward Mary, with local devotions that defied Tridentine reforming prescriptions continuing for many years.

Finally, Heal examines the role of gender in Reformation and Counter-Reformation Marian practices. Again, she critiques simplistic assessments which either overstate Mary's appeal to women or see her as an unreal and oppressive role model imposed upon them. "Mary was the ultimate example of what the anthropologist Victor Turner described as a 'polyvalent or polysemic' symbol. She may have been a representation of unattainable purity and virtue, but she was also a humble human mother, an intercessor and a powerful helper and protector. Her multiplicity of meanings ensured that her appeal transcended all gender as well as all social boundaries" (302). Heal's work will be a valuable resource for scholars in art history, gender studies, the history and theology of the Reformation, and the intersection of politics and religion in Renaissance and Early Modern Europe.

LAURA M. GRIMES

Huntington Beach, CA