Between Norm and Practice: the European Strategies of the Church of Rome

Confronted, in the aftermath of the Protestant Reformation, with a European space shaped by the coexistence of multiple confessions, what policies and strategies did the Roman Church develop in order to secure the survival of Catholicism and to safeguard papal authority? Which bodies of knowledge, values, and interests informed these choices? And which – often conflicting and contradictory – dynamics unfolded at the highest levels of the institution? Drawing on research grounded in primary sources, the chapter brings into dialogue the two terms of a comparison – the Roman Church and the multiconfessional Europe of the early modern period – which has, until recently, remained largely neglected in historiographical scholarship.