The Catholic Reformation

From dust jacket notes: "This is a translation of the fifth volume of the author's majestic Histoire de l'Eglise du Christ, and it covers the period 1500-1622....The book begins with an account of the reawakening of the Catholic soul, a phenomenon which was already manifest long before the rebellion of Luther, and which shows that the events flowing from it were in the nature of a true rebirth rather than of a mere 'Counter-Reformation'. This reawakening culminated in the appearance of St Ignatius and his foundation of the Society of Jesus. To the work and achievements of St Ignatius and the Society the author devotes some fifty of the most brilliant pages in the whole of his work. There follows a superb summary of the history of the Council of Trent, with a no less fascinating analysis of its decrees and the methods of their application. Chapter III, on the rending of Christian Europe, deals with such subjects as Spain under Philip II; the Massacre of St Bartholomew; the Holy League in France; the reign of Henri IV; the three Protestant victories in the Netherlands, Scotland and Elizabethan England; the break-up of Protestantism itself into a variety of sects; and the history of Russia at this date....The final chapter gives us an impressive picture of the Catholic Church in all the glory of her resurrection: a detailed account of the new St Peter's; the achievements of the post-Tridentini popes..."