The Quest for Compromise is an interdisciplinary study of an imperial court in late-sixteenth-century Vienna, and a detailed examination of a fascinating moment of religious moderation. It investigates the rise and fall of an irenic movement through four individuals: an Italian artist (Jacopo Strada), a Silesian physician (Johannis Crato), a Dutch librarian (Hugo Blotius) and a German soldier (Lazarus von Schwendi), who sought peace and accommodation through a wide range of cultural, intellectual and political activity.

List of illustrations; Acknowledgements; A political and cultural chronology; List of abbreviations; Introduction; Part I. The Emergence of an Irenic Court: 1. From confrontation to conciliation: the conversion of Lazarus von Schwendi; 2. Jacopo Strada and the transformation of the imperial court; Part II. Maximilian II and the High Point of Irenicism: Introduction; 3. Hugo Blotius and the intellectual foundation of Austrian irenicism; 4. Ordering a chaotic world: the reformation of the imperial library; 5. Protestant ecumenism and Catholic reform: the case of Johannes Crato; 6. Finding a via media: Lazarus von Schwendi and the climax of Austrian irenicism; Part III. The Failure of Irenicism: Introduction; 7. Confessional ambiguity and unambiguous critics: religion and the Austrian middle way; 8. The funeral of Maximilian II: struggling for the soul of central Europe; 9. Matthias in the Netherlands: the political failure of irenicism; Conclusion: storm clouds on the horizon: from the great milk war to the Thirty Years War; Epilogue: the wider circle of irenicism; Select bibliography; Index.