The history of liturgical celebration seen through the annual change of seasons and the Church's liturgical calendar.

This book examines the struggle for Protestant consensus through the work of John a Lasco (1499-1560), particularly his book Forma ac ratio. Published in 1555, it records the rites and practices of the London Strangers' Church and was intended to provide a model for uniting the disparate Protestant communities on the continent. By putting Lasco's unique model for Protestant churches into the wider European context and assessing his impact on the struggle for unity, this book helps to re-establish Lasco as a pivotal figure of the reformation.

This book examines Martin Bucer's attempts to circumvent the Reformation impasse on the Mass by seeking common ground with Catholic moderates in the Eucharistic theology of the church fathers and early scholastic theologians.

This book offers the first comprehensive overview of the Catholic Enlightenment in Europe. It surveys the diversity of views about the structure and nature of the movement, pointing toward the possibilities for further research. The volume presents a series of comprehensive treatments on the process and interpretation of Catholic Enlightenment in France, Spain, Portugal, Poland, the Holy Roman Empire, Malta, Italy and the Habsburg territories. An introductory overview explores the varied meanings of Catholic Enlightenment and situates them in a series of intellectual and social contexts. The topics covered in this book are crucial for a proper understanding of the role and place not only of Catholicism in the eighteenth century, but also for the social and religious history of Modern Europe.

Focusing on the Colloquy of Montbéliard, a theological debate in 1586 between Lutherans and Calvinists, Raitt explores the complex array of shifting political alliances and religious tensions which characterized the Holy Roman Empire after the Peace of Augsburg. When the Wars of Religion broke out in France, both sides courted allies. Often these alliances involved confessional tests--most often concerning the Eucharist. Modern readers might expect that such complex theological questions belong in seminaries, but in many cases, they took place at the request of people and princes. On the outcome of these debates depended the well-being of towns and villages as well as the disposition of troops and the conduct of wars. Raitt's study of the "age of confessionalism" uncovers the background and details of the Colloquy of Monteb((e'))liard and analyzes the nature and implications of the underlying theological conflict.

A historical investigation into one of the unsolved mysteries of Christian liturgy.