ABSTRACT
In recent years early-modern historians have become more adept at detecting a phenomenon that by its very nature leaves little palpable mark on the historical record: religious tolerance. Two enduring historiographical paradigms have conspired to eclipse the existence and significance of this diffident but adaptable creature: triumphalist narratives that trace the rise of 'enlightened' ideas and pioneering theories of toleration on the one hand, and on the other the thesis that post-Reformation Europe was a persecuting society scarred by spasms of vicious prejudice and sectarian violence.
