Written by one of the foremost historians of American Catholicism, this book presents a comprehensive history of the Roman Catholic Church in America from colonial times to the present. Hennesey examines, in particular, minority Catholics and developments in the western part of the United States, a region often overlooked in religious histories.

It is the dawning of the Renaissance, and the Moors have ruled Granada of Spain for eight hundred years, while in Italy the Kingdom of Naples is attacked by France, threatening the stability of Europe. From this political maelstrom an unlikely hero emerges, El Gran Capitán, favorite knight of popular young Queen Isabel of Spain and her consort King Fernando.Splendid, handsome, and generous, El Gran Capitán moves with ease between common folk and royalty, Sultans and Popes, the Medici and the Turks. He befriends his enemy, Sultan Boabdil of Granada, before negotiating with him the honorable surrender of the Moorish dynasty in Spain. He defeats the French in Italy time and again before offering them a dignified and noble retreat, paving the way for marriage between the royal houses of France and Spain. He is both a fearless leader and the soul of integrity, victor of every conflict and consummate diplomat, eventually recognized as the Greatest Soldier of the Renaissance. However, after Queen Isabel's untimely death, King Fernando succumbs to jealousy over her admiration for El Gran Capitán, and a royal court seething with envy feeds his paranoia. The King turns on El Gran Capitán in first betrayal and then punishment, until only the imminent death of old age stands between them."I don't care what will be written by those who write about the events we are living. Historians will come behind us. You said that men and kings are measured in defeat. Now I say to you, they are also measured by how they behave in triumph."Love, intrigue, and treason. Chivalry, friendship, and enmity. The struggle for control of Mediterranean Europe of the Renaissance rages across battlefields, royal courts, and human hearts, to end in the tragedy of a despotic king's moral disintegration.