John Fisher, 1469-1535 was a figure of European stature during the Tudor age. His many roles included those of bishop, humanist, theologian, cardinal, and ultimately martyr. This study places him in the context of sixteenth-century Christendom, focusing not just on his resistance to Henry VIII, but also on his active engagement with the renaissance and reformation.

This book examines the intellectual career of Bishop John Fisher (1468-1535), the early sixteenth-century bishop of Rochester and victim of Henry VIII's Reformation, whose numerous writings included one of the most influential refutations of Martin Luther of the century. It places Fisher's writings in the context of contemporary movements of Renaissance and Reformation.

This book assembles ten special studies, each devoted to an aspect of Fisher's multifaceted career or to exploring the intellectual and religious outlook of someone who was at the same time a moderniser, a reformer and an opponent of the Reformation. John Fisher's career provides an illuminating perspective on English religious and intellectual history in a crucial phase of development. As a churchman he became the foremost preacher in England, issuing a call to ecclesiastical reform and personal repentance that echoed the call of Savonarola at Florence. At the same time he provides an early example of the pastoral bishop that was to become the ideal of both the Reformation and the Counter Reformation. Finally in the crisis that paved the way for the English Reformation, he became the leading defender of Queen Catherine against the divorce suit of Henry VIII. He was among the small band who were executed in 1535 as conscientious objectors to the oaths of Succession and Royal Ecclesiastical Supremacy. He has been venerated as a Catholic martyr ever since.

The Oxford Handbook of the Early Modern Sermon is the first book to survey this rich new field for both students and specialists. It is divided into sections devoted to sermon composition, delivery, and reception; sermons in Scotland, Ireland, and Wales; English Sermons, 1500-1660; and English Sermons, 1660-1720.

This book presents a revisionist examination of the development of European intellectual culture between the high middle ages and 1550. It draws particular attention to the roles of Marsilio Ficino and Erasmus and analyzes major aspects of the work of Aquinas, Soctus, and Ockham, before moving on to Petrarch, Valla, Pico della Mirandola, the devotio moderna, More, Luther, Calvin, and their contemporaries. It establishes radically new perspectives on the Renaissance and the Reformation and on the continuity between them. "It is an important work and sets forth new constructs about Renaissance and Reformation that must be considered."--Marion Leathers Kuntz, American Historical Review "[Levi's] skillfully navigated intellectual journey is a tour de force."--Choice "A refreshingly broad vision of the period."--Times Literary Supplement "A massive and learned work. . . . [A] great wealth of learning."--History: Reviews of New Books