Brown offers a new appraisal of the Reformation and its popular appeal, based on the place of German hymns in the 16th-century press and in the lives of early Lutherans. The Bohemian mining town of Joachimsthal-where pastors, musicians, and laity forged an enduring, influential union of Lutheranism, music, and culture-is at the center of the story.

This book offers a new appraisal of the Reformation and its popular appeal, based on the place of German hymns in the sixteenth-century press and in the lives of early Lutherans. The Bohemian mining town of Joachimsthal--where pastors, musicians, and laity forged an enduring and influential union of Lutheranism, music, and culture--is at the center of the story.