An Age of Renewal

An Age of Renewal: The Catholic Reformation is the fifth installment in Henri Daniel-Rops' magnificent History of the Church of Christ. This volume surveys the re-awakening of the Catholic soul which began even before the advent of Luther's revolution and which culminated in the tireless devotion of St. Ignatius of Loyola and his founding of the Society of Jesus; provides a superbly detailed summary of the Council of Trent and a fascinating analysis of the decrees and canons and various methods of their applications, the outstanding individuals responsible for the reforms-including Pope St. Pius V, St. Charles Borremeo, and St. Philip Neri-and the diffuse effects of those reforms in art and culture; and, lastly, makes an opening foray into that "age of fanaticism," in which Christian unity was rent apart by wars and persecutions waged by both Protestants and Catholics. A brilliantly adroit account of the years 1500-1602, An Age of Renewal: The Catholic Reformation illuminates that period in which the Church-in the same heroic spirit of the Gregorian, Cluniac, or mendicant reforms-enacted "the rediscovery of living Tradition," an endeavor "undertaken for God, for Jesus Christ, as a protestation of unwavering loyalty."