IMEMS Seminar Series: Easter Term 2023

Events in this series are listed in full below.

Unless otherwise stated, all events will take place on Wednesdays, 5.30pm (UK time) at 7 Owengate, DH1 3HB.

We encourage in-person attendance where possible (no need to book, unless otherwise stated). The option of online attendance is there for greater accessibility (please register using the link under the relevant seminar(s)).

10 May:

Ireland and the European Wars of Religion

Dr Joan Redmond (King's College London).

This paper will consider Ireland’s part in the so-called European wars of religion, arguing that Ireland did experience religious war in the early modern period, rather than simply a colonial conquest. Even as scholars have recognised Ireland’s importance in an emerging Atlantic world, Irish relationships with Europe continued to be crucial and transformative. There is much to be gained in our understanding of early modern Ireland through situating it in broader European debates and chronologies. Insights from scholarship on European religious conflicts, including France, the Netherlands and beyond, especially concerning chronologies, legitimisation of violence, and the memory of conflict, can all inform our analysis not only of the mass Irish rebellions and wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but also of more everyday dynamics of religious tension and toleration.

In person (no registration required) or click here to register for the webinar version.

17 May:

James Pilkington and Heinrich Bullinger: The Northeastern Part of the Zurich Connection

Dr Tobias Jammerthal (Augustana-Hochschule Neuendettelsau).

Durham’s first protestant bishop James Pilkington (bp. 1561–1576) is a good example of what reformation scholars have termed “the Zurich Connection”: Decidedly protestant, the Cambridge don fled to the Continent after Roman Catholic Mary Tudor acceded to the throne in 1553. Amongst other places, he spent his exile in Zurich. After Mary’s death, he returned to England, and became an leading figure in the Elizabethan Settlement whilst maintaining his ties to Zurich’s leading churchman Heinrich Bullinger. Tobias Jammerthal will look at surviving parts of their correspondence and ask what they tell us about the relationship between these two theologians who both played important roles in their respective churches.

In person (no registration required) or click here to register for the webinar version.