The Catholic Reformation

Savonarola to St. Ignatius Loyola.

John C. Olin

• Publisher: Fordham University Press
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN:
  9780823214785
• eBook ISBN:
  9781531510961
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: History of Christianity

Available in a new digital edition with reflowable text suitable for e-readers

This work contains fifteen key documents illustrative of reform in the Church in the period from 1495 to 1540, an age of great religious ferment and upheaval, which is marked historically by the crisis known as the Protestant Reformation. The documents collected in this work focus on the simultaneous struggle for renewal and reform within the Catholic Church. There was much amiss within the Church at the close of the Middle Ages. The Protestant Reformation threw into high relief the urgent need for religious reform. Involving basic questions of doctrine, practice, and authority, this severe trial put in jeopardy the very life of the existing Catholic Church.

The balanced selection of notable and representative source materials tells their story in a lively and dramatic way. This important work on a little-known aspect of a turbulent era is a valuable contribution to Reformation studies.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Preface to the Fordham Edition
• Preface
• Introduction: The Background of Catholic Reform
• Half Title
• I. Savonarola on the Renovation of the Church, 1495
• II. The Oratory of Divine Love, 1497
• III. Colet’s Convocation Sermon, 1512
• IV. Egidio da Viterbo’s Address to the Fifth Lateran Council, 1512
• V. The Reform Bull Supernae dispositionis arbitrio, 1514
• VI. Erasmus’ Sileni Alcibiadis, 1515
• VII. Contarini’s De officio episcopi, 1516
• VIII. Lefèvre’s Preface to His Commentaries on the Four Gospels, 1521
• IX. Adrian VI’s Instruction to Chieregati, 1522
• X. The Theatine Rule of 1526
• XI. Giberti’s Constitutions, after 1527
• XII. The Capuchin Constitutions of 1536
• XIII. The Consilium de emendanda ecclesia, 1537
• XIV. St. Ignatius Loyola and the Founding of the Jesuits
• Bibliographical Postscript
• Index of Names