Religious Refugees in the Early Modern World An Alternative History of the Reformation

'This enormously rich, thoughtful, and penetrating book offers a strikingly new perspective on the Reformation by probing its abiding obsession with purity, contagion, and purgation. These instincts, common to many faiths, were the stimulus to massive movements of populations, and in the process helped reshape both contemporary society and the European mind. If we want to know how massive human suffering can emerge from the best of intentions, we could do no better than start with this book.' Andrew Pettegree, University of St Andrews