The Carlyle Lectures 2027 | The Art of Governing in Post-Reformation Catholicism: Governing the Past

Professor Stefania Tutino (UCLA)

After the Reformation, history became a confessional weapon. But Catholic historians could not simply make the past say what theology required. This lecture examines the relationship between documentary evidence, theological truth, and political pressure in post-Reformation Catholic historiography, and what happened when the past refused to cooperate with the needs of the present. 

Location: South School, Examination Schools

Date and Time: Tuesday, 2 February 2027, from 5–6pm

About the series 

The Art of Governing in Post-Reformation Catholicism: Rethinking Questions of Authority, Conscience, and Knowledge in Early Modern Europe

How did the Catholic Church govern after the Reformation? This lecture series examines that question through a series of studies on authority, conscience, memory, and truth in early modern Europe. Moving between theology and administration, political theory and archival sources, Rome and the localities, it traces the institutions and practices through which the Church sought to guide conduct and regulate its flock. What emerges is a world of overlapping jurisdictions and competing authorities, where governing depended as much on negotiation and adaptation as on command.