This volume focuses on Vencenzo Querini (1478-1514) who gave up successful diplomatic career in Venice to explore scriptural, humanist, conciliar, monastic and mystical paths of church reform at a critical point in the religious history of the sixteenth century.

An unabridged, unaltered edition of the Disputation on the Power & Efficacy of Indulgences Commonly Known as The 95 Theses

An important aspect of the Italian Renaissance was church reform. This book examines the nature of that reform - especially in Venice, Florence and Rome - as viewed through the unpublished manuscripts of a Venetian nobleman who became a Camaldolese hermit: Vincenzo Querini (1478-1514). This book sets Querini's personal journey to reform in the context of Venetian society, as well as against the backdrop of political crisis, cultural revival, and monastic renaissance in Italy generally. Querini's attempt to reform himself, the Roman Catholic Church, and the whole of Christendom are of interest to historians seeking to revise the chronology of early modern church reform since he employed a range of scriptural, humanist, conciliar, monastic, and mystical methods that had medieval antecedents but were also imitated by reformers after the Reformation.

This book comprises nine key articles on the Counter-Reformation, introduced and contextualized for the student reader. They show that these reforms were more than a mere reaction against the Protestant challenge to Catholic doctrine and institutions, rather, they also constituted an internal renewal that transformed sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Catholic religious life in many complex ways. The collection surveys the conceptual and geographical range of work on the subject since 1945, and includes innovative articles on spirituality, the religious life of ordinary Catholics, the work of missionaries in the New World, and the changing role of women in Catholic culture. The essays are divided into two groups - "Definitions" and "Outcomes" - to illustrate the distinction between reform as a historical idea and as set of processes. The book provides an ideal starting point for an exploration into key topics of debate surrounding this central event of European history.

Richard Muller, a world-class scholar of the Reformation era, examines the relationship of Calvin's theology to the Reformed tradition, indicating Calvin's place in the tradition as one of several significant second-generation formulators. Muller argues that the Reformed tradition is a diverse and variegated movement not suitably described either as founded solely on the thought of John Calvin or as a reaction to or deviation from Calvin, thereby setting aside the old "Calvin and the Calvinists" approach in favor of a more integral and representative perspective. Muller offers historical corrective and nuance on topics of current interest in Reformed theology, such as limited atonement/universalism, union with Christ, and the order of salvation.