“Invectivity” and Interpretive Authority: Religious Conflict in Kilian Leib’s Annales maiores

Abstract The article analyses forms of invective speech in a historiographical work composed during the first half of the sixteenth century. The Annales maiores of the Augustinian canon Kilian Leib are not only an eminent source for the perception of the Reformation transformations in southern Germany, but also offer exquisite insights into anti-Reformation patterns of thought and writing of an intellectual and pastor. The article argues that by analysing “invectivity,” the character of Leib’s annals can also be understood more precisely: as private chronicle that formed its contribution to the formation of confessional identities.