Theater, Culture and Community in Reformation Bern, 1523-1555. By Glenn Ehrstine. Studies in Medieval and Reformation Thought, 85. Leiden, Boston, and Kšln: Brill, 2002. Pp. xviii + 346; 42 illustrations. $116.

In no way did the larger communities of Switzerland stand apart from the tumultuous changes working through the rest of northern Europe in the sixteenth century. Zurich and Bern especially were full participants in the convulsions of religious change which touched all citizens and virtually all institutions, and even led these two cities and their territories, close neighbors that they were, into war with each other. The ferment of ideas was one cause, the intricacies of political connections and calculations the other-situated between the Empire to the north and east, the great power France to the west, and Italy with the force of the pope to the south, Bern, Zurich and the other Swiss lands had to measure their policies and public stances against the possibility that offense given to adjoining states would bring dangerous reprisals.

Stephen L. Wailes
Indiana University, Bloomington