L'Islam et La Réforme. Etude sur l'Attitude des Réformateurs Zurichois envers l'Islam, 1510-1550 by Victor SegesvaryReview by: Gary W. JenkinsThe Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 35, No. 2 (Summer, 2004), pp. 632-633Published by: The Sixteenth Century JournalStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20477031 .

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632 Sixteenth Century Journal XXXV/2 (2004)

and nun.Vicente's play debuted in front of a woman widowed at thirty-three who did not

remarry and remained active in the court and church until her death thirty-four-years later.

While connected to the religious life, she was free to lead the type of independent life as a

widow simply not available to unmarried maidens, making Cassandra's desire so strange.

Oddly enough, the Virgin Mary was the quintessential independent woman, one who was

seen, especially in the early church, as she whose renown was drawn not from the strength

of a marriage or cloistered contemplation, but from her active and public ministry at the side

of her vagabond son. With Mary as a stellar example, one wonders at the process that radi

calized the concept of independent virginhood byVicente's time. Left alone in her goal-less

destiny, the last words of Cassandra repeat her confusion: "God, I am now lost in this life. I

ask you for nothing, because the past can never be resolved. I never should have been born.

Virgin, mother of God, to you-to you-crown of women and through your seven joyous

mysteries, I ask that you pray for us" (17).

L'Islam et La Reforme. Etude sur l'Attitude des Reformateurs Zurichois envers

l'Islam, 1510-1550. Victor Segesvary. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1998. 326 pp. $39.00. ISBN 0-7616-2339-5.

REVIEWED BY: Gary W Jenkins, Eastern University

Though primarily focused on the events and debate that surrounded Theodore Bibli

ander's 1542-43 publication of the Koran,Victor Segesvary divides his work into three sec

tions, unequal in length, and unequal as well in significance for Reformation history and

early modern studies. By far, the middle section is the most important part of the book, as it treats in some detail (containing 112 of the main text's 253 pages) this relatively neglected

publishing incident, the focus of the title. The first part gives a general account of early modern Christian Europe's interactions

with Islam.While treating little more than what may be gained from general histories of the

period, and while many of its secondary sources are dated, it nonetheless has an interesting

chapter on medieval and Renaissance views of Islam.Yet aside from that chapter, the section

seems detached from the main thrust of the book. Segesvary makes statements that would

seem important for his larger argument, but which are without application when he gives

reasons for the publication of the Koran. Though knowledge of the Turks as Christendom's

enemy was a factor, this belligerency was applied to their capacity as a religious adversary, not

as a martial one. Segesvary cites, in the second part, Luther's seeming indifference to war with

the Turk and emphasizes the Reformer's interest in disseminating knowledge of Islam in

order to defend the Gospel from error, not from the sword.

The third section, though containing a chapter on the question of double predestina

tion and universal grace as it related to the Reformers and their views on Islam, is largely the

author's own reflections and conclusions drawn from this incident as it relates to ecumenism

broadly considered. This section has interest for those who seek the author's insights into

matters broadly ecumenical, but it takes little account of the current fractured state of Islam

as opposed to the relative unity obtained under the Ottomans. To be just, Segesvary is

addressing how Christians should think about Islam, and not how Islam should tend its own

house. It does, however, contain a chapter on "La grace universelle et l'election," which

reviews commonplace knowledge about the various reformers' views on predestination and

the precise sphere of grace as being that of God's elect. This serves as a background for Bib

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Book Reviews 633

liander's religious interest in his enterprise, an interest amplified in the chapter "Nouvelles perspectives: harmonia mundi," as Bibliander's views on grace differed from most of his Prot

estant contemporaries. The middle section, however, makes up for any seeming lack in the other two. Focused

on the Reformers-especially those of Zurich-and the events immediately encompassing the publication of the Koran, Segesvary reviews the various Reformers' thoughts on Islam, both as regards their own tepid support for Charles V's struggles with Suleiman, and also as they relate to the question of Islam's eschatological importance (i.e., Antichrist). He notes that so

much of the Reformers' opinions of Islam were shaped by medieval and Renaissance authors who stated that Islamic doctrine was heretical both with respect to the person of Christ, being influenced by both Nestorianism and Arianism, and thus implicitly Christian in origin, and

with respect to the work of Christ, as it was Pelagian.At the same time the Reformers differed from past judgments on Islam in regard to their respective take on the bishop of Rome; none

of the Reformers denied Islam's essentially anti-Christian character, yet opinion differed on

the relative merits of ascribing the epithet "Antichrist" to it, when this title was so evidently to be applied to Rome. Applying Christ's words about the ability of Antichrist to deceive if possible even the elect, Islam was too patently opposed to Christianity, and indeed too absurd, to seduce Christians. This was not necessarily the case with Rome.Yet the comparison with

Rome proved beneficial for Bibliander's project, as many, including the town council of Basle,

opposed such an enterprise. Why should Christians, some asked, wish to place such material in the hands of the faithful? The Reformers replied that if Protestants were willing to publish

Catholic works in order to refute them, then why not do the same with Islamic writings.While Bibliander was the editorial force behind the venture, it nonetheless enjoyed the support of Luther, Melanchthon, and Bullinger. For Segesvary, the willingness of the Reformers to defend this venture demonstrated, if not an enlightened mentality, then certainly a tolerant one.This toleration stood in contrast not only to Rome, but even to many Protestants. Indeed, so opposed had the city council of Basle been-the pastors of the city themselves were divided on the issue-that they confiscated the manuscript and threw the printer, Oporin, into prison. It was only upon the receipt of an imperial privilege from the Kammergericht in Frankfurt in 1543 that Oporin was released and the work able to proceed. As Segesvary emphasizes in the third section, toleration is a chief lesson to be drawn from the affair.

Letters. Rodolphus Agricola. Ed. and trans. Adrie van der Laan and Fokke Akkerman. Assen:Van Gorcum;Tempe,AZ:Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2002.435 pp. E64.50. ISBN 90-232-3808-7 (Van Gorcum); 0-866982-58-2 (MRTS).

REVIEWED BY: Laurel Carrington, St. Olaf College

In this volume readers will find the fifty-one extant letters of Rudolph Agricola in addi tion to four letters written to Agricola, all edited with an English translation and an extensive scholarly apparatus. Both letters and scholarship are indeed a treasure, as they reflect a signif icant moment in the history of humanist Latinity. The purpose of the translation as the authors describe it is not to replace the Latin with an English version, but simply to add the English as an aid for those working with the Latin. Latin and English appear side by side, and the annotations emphasize literary and philological analysis. Since Agricola's Latinity is of such vital importance to his identity as a scholar, the editors' approach strikes an excellent balance between accessibility and respect for the original source.

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