In the late fifteenth century, many of the Jews expelled from Spain made their way to Morocco and established a dynamic community in Fez. A number of Jewish families became prominent in commerce and public life there. Among the Jews of Fez of Hispanic origin was Samuel Pallache (circa 1550-1616), who served the Moroccan sultan as a commercial and diplomatic agent in Holland until Pallache's death in 1616. In Samuel Pallache , his world is viewed as a microcosm of early modern society, one far more interconnected, cosmopolitan, and fluid than is often portrayed. Pallache's missions and misadventures took him from Islamic Fez and Catholic Spain to Protestant England and Holland. Through these travels, the authors explore the workings of the Moroccan sultanate and the Spanish court, the Jewish communities of Fez and Amsterdam, and details of the Atlantic-Mediterranean trade. At once a sweeping view of two continents, three faiths, and five nation-states and an intimate story of one man's remarkable life, Samuel Pallache is history at its most compelling.

Martin Luther, the initiator of the Protestant Reformation, presents the principles of his theological and political theory in the four treatises before us. In the first essay from 1917, also known as Ninety-Five Theses , Luther condemns the Catholic custom of selling plenary indulgences, already expressing insinuated criticism against the Catholic Church and Pope for their pretentions attempts to mediate between the believer and God. In the three essays he wrote in 1520, Luther undermines the foundations of the Catholic Church and its medieval development. This approach had a tremendous influence on all countries that later became Protestant.