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 Joachimsthalâ€"where pastors, musicians, and laity forged an enduring, influential union of Lutheranism, music, and cultureâ€"is at the center of the story.