George Herbert (1593-1633), the celebrated devotional poet, and his brother Lord Herbert of Cherbury (1583-1648), often described as the father of English deism, are rarely considered together. This collection explores connections between the full range of the brothers writings and activities, despite the apparent differences both in what they wrote and in how they lived their lives. More specifically, the volume demonstrates that despite these differences, each conceived of their extended republic of letters as militating against a violent and exclusive catholicity; theirs was a communion in which contention (or disputation) served to develop more dynamic forms of comprehensiveness. The literary, philosophical and musical production of the Herbert brothers appears here in its full European context, connected as they were with the Sidney clan and its investment in international Protestantism.The disciplinary boundaries between poetry, philosophy, politics and theology in modern universities are a stark contrast to the deep interconnectedness of these pursuits in the seventeenth century. Crossing disciplinary and territorial borders, contributors discuss a variety of texts and media, including poetry, musical practices, autobiography, letters, council literature, orations, philosophy, history and nascent religious anthropology, all serving as agents of the circulation and construction of transregionally inspired and collective responses to human conflict and violence. We see as never before the profound connections, face-to-face as well as textual, linking early modern British literary culture with the continent.

Greg Miller is Professor Emeritus of English at Millsaps College in Jackson, MississippiAnne-Marie Miller-Blaise is Professor of English Literature and Cultural Studies at Université Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris and a member of the Institut Universitaire de France

Introduction: contentious communionGreg Miller andAnne-Marie Miller-BlaisePart IThinking beyond borders: War and peace1 The Saint Bartholomews Day Massacre: Experiences of the tragic and historiographic genres in Edward Herbert and George HerbertAnne-Marie Miller-Blaise2 The Thirty Years War and George Herberts communion, an answer to violenceGreg Miller3 Being James I: Herbert of Cherburys vexed diplomacyNancy Zaice4 Ceremony and self: Belligerent civility in Edward HerbertsAutobiographyMichael SchoenfeldtPart IIReconsidering conformity, community and universality5 Gerson, a Spirituall Man: Herbert and the University of Pariss reformist chancellorChristopher Hodgkins6 Conformity and consent in Herbert of CherburyAnita Sherman7 Devout Humanism and its problems: George Herbert and François de SalesRichard Strier8 George HerbertsThe Country Parson and John Calvins pastoral adviceKristine A. Wolberg and Lynnette St. George9 Edward HerbertsThe Amazon andDe VeritateCristina MalcolmsonPart IIIVoices of transnational communities: From conversation to song10 Edward Herbert within the fellowship of gentlemen plain speakersSean H. McDowell11 The little World the Great shall blaze: Edward Herbert, Thomas Carew, Giambattista Marino, and the poetics of embassyEleanor Hardy12 George Herbert and three French Protestant poets (Chandieu, Grévin, Sponde)Guillaume Coatalen13 Becoming a Citizen of the world: Edward Herbert and continental music-makingSimonJackson14 Sweet Singers of our Israel: French psalmody, the Sidneys and George HerbertHelen WilcoxBibliographyIndex