The making of transregional Catholicism: the ecclesiastical province of Cambrai (1559-1659)

Promotor: V. Soen
Co-Promotor: J. Verberckmoes

Researcher: Alexander Soetaert

In the late sixteenth and the early seventeenth century Catholic refugees from the British Isles, Ireland, France and the Dutch Republic found refuge in de archdiocese of Cambrai, on the southern border of the Habsburg Low Countries. This created a remarkable climate in which refugees along with locals battled for the Catholic religion. It is widely acknowledged that under similar conditions of exile, protestant refugees swiftly used the printing press in order to spur a transregional identity among coreligionists. This PhD-project, within a wider project funded by the Research Council KU Leuven, contends that printing was vital to any early modern confession and, therefore, will analyse how in Cambrai print culture functioned as a crucial variable in ‘the making of’ a transregional religion.