This rich and thoughtful monograph focuses on several key heroes of early Protestantism, using these heroes’ textual configurings to reveal the Reformation's fundamental transnationalism. Countering the claims that Protestantism tended to generate national and nationalist identities, Chovanec argues that a transnational Christendom was a strong competing Reformed discourse. Studying William and Maurice of Orange in the sixteenth century, and then Frederick of Bohemia, Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, and Oliver Cromwell, Chovanec investigates the complex and contentious textual discourses, cultural tropes, and political debates framing these leaders of the pan-Protestant cause. Clearly written for early modern (English) literary scholars, Chovanec's study broadens our knowledge of the terms, scope, and range of these coreligionist bonds.
Chovanec notes in his introduction some of the key features of early Protestantism enabling this transnationalism: scripturalism and new typologies of godly leaders; the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers; apocalyptism and its metaphors of exile and community; predestination and its implied supernational categories; and, perhaps above all, a drive to counter an imperialist papacy. It would have been helpful if the introduction could also have more explicitly addressed the nationalist xenophobia invoked by Luther with the German princes, by Beza and Calvin in their celebrations of David as a spiritual ruler, and by Henry VIII's Parliament as they label the pope as the bishop of Rome. But Chovanec's introduction certainly acknowledges Reformed nationalism while also usefully expanding the Reformation's political implications.
The first chapter on the Dutch Revolt and the princes of Orange is perhaps the least satisfying of the monograph, mostly because Spenser's Faerie Queene is withheld for so long in the chapter and then given so little space. Chovanec clearly wishes to lay the ground for Spenser through the unfamiliar pamphlet literature, English and Dutch, surrounding the Dutch Revolt. But when both the Sidneian faction and Spenser's magnificent allegory are given short shrift, it is hard not to feel a bit cheated. Chovanec's tendency to structure his discussions in rather broad and loosely defined looping circles around textual evidence perhaps intensifies this readerly frustration. The chapter's textual readings are interrupted with a discussion of the theory of heroism, for instance, material that might more usefully fit in the introduction. Assuming rather than outlining the history of the revolt itself (and English political engagement/disengagement in same) likewise creates a less explicit through line for the argument.
The latter chapters of the book, however, are much more satisfyingly focused: on Prince Henry and his Protestant militarism; on Frederick of Bohemia and Elizabeth Stuart, and the Protestant alliance of their marriage; on Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden as a champion of the Thirty Years’ War; and lastly, in the coda on Oliver Cromwell and international Protestant militarism. Highlighting these fascinating figures creates a tidy scope for the textual ebbs and flows of internationalism throughout the seventeenth century. These Reformation heroes likewise enable Chovanec to collect a wide, eclectic, and sometimes surprisingly obscure set of textual works together; his featuring and analyses of some of the less familiar of these works is one of the monograph's major contributions.
Perhaps the eclectic dabbling of this intertextuality is also the one feature that will sometimes frustrate readers. Foxe is barely mentioned here, though he constructed not just a national but a pan-European anti-papist history alongside a relevant new ideology of the Protestant saint. Spenser gets little space, and Sidney almost no mention. Dutch and German works, perhaps for obvious reasons, rarely get more than a few paragraphs, despite the title's promise. A better balance of the new, the obscure, and the known, with a little more context and engagement with each, would help the whole project. We would also benefit from fuller introductions to Chovanec's central heroes; the book expects us to remember in some detail the stories of these men and these conflicts, which may be assuming too much. Perhaps, above all, I would hope for more trust that textual close readings themselves can most efficiently convince readers of the book's central claims. This extensive research and thoughtful analysis deserves to change our readings and our canons as well as our perspective.
