Jared Wicks makes available for the first time in English eleven controversial works of the Dominican theologian, Cardinal Cajetan. This collection gives, in full translation or synopsis, Cajetan's arguments against the claims and teachings of the early Reformation. It begins with his painstaking analyses of Luther's published views on purgatory, penance, and indulgences in preparation for the Augsburg meeting of 1518, and follows his work up to a belated appeal in 1534 begging King Henry VIII to correct the scandalous error of his divorce and remarriage. The genre is controversial theology, where the author analyzes the position of a doctrinal adversary and marshalls arguments in refutation. Where many early Catholic defenders attempted line-by-line rebuttals of Luther's tracts, Cajetan isolated major dogmatic issues and clustered his theological arguments around a few central convictions. He placed a high premium on clarity of conception and avoided all semblance of polemic against personalities. Cajetan was no ordinary Reformation controversialist, and his works deserve the attention of anyone seeking a clear grasp of the issues argued as the great confessional divide opened between Catholics and Protestants in the early sixteenth century.

Places Martin Luther in his proper late-medieval theological context and describes his contributions to understanding the church and justification, also known as conversion.

Remembered as the official who failed to keep Luther in the Catholic fold, Tommaso de Vio, Cardinal Cajetan (1469-1534) was a multi-faceted figure whose significance extends beyond those days in Augsburg. In the 1520s, he embarked on a labour of biblical commentary that occupied the final decade of his life, producing over a million words of translation and commentary. Offering an overview of this remarkable body of work, Michael O’Connor argues that Cajetan’s motive was the renewal of Christian living (more ‘Catholic Reform’ than ‘Counter-Reformation’), and that his method was a bold and fresh hybrid of scholasticism and Renaissance humanism, correcting the Vulgate’s errors and expounding the text almost exclusively according to the literal sense.

This book is focused on the reception history of Thomas Aquinas' account of Eucharistic sacrifice during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Although the sacrificial character of the Eucharist has been of interest to theologians throughout the Church's history, during the early sixteenth century renewed attention was given to this subject, in part because of disputes that arose between Reformed and Catholic theologians about the relationship between the Eucharistic liturgy and Christ's sacrifice on the cross. Does the Eucharistic presence itself have a sacrificial quality? Can aspects of the liturgy or dimensions of the moral life be considered a sacrifice, and if so in what way? The emergence of these and other new questions in Eucharistic theology at the beginning of the sixteenth century coincided with a shift within the practice of theology in universities that began to emphasize Aquinas' Summa theologiae as the standard text of theological instruction, in place of Peter Lombard's Sentences. Because of the Summa's relatively late ascendency as a text of commentary and instruction, studying the Summa's reception history involves the interpreter in a complex textuality. Although itself a product of the middle ages, as a received text the Summa is in many ways a creature of the early modern period. Interpreting the reception of this text therefore requires one to consider not only the Summa in its original environment, but the life of this same text as it was received in new interpretive contexts.

A study of the reception history of Thomas Aquinas's account of eucharistic sacrifice during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.

The Reformation Theologians is the ideal introduction to the study of the sixteenth-century Reformations. It introduces the theological context, though, and contributions of theologians from this period, offering students and scholars an essential resource and insight. This comprehensive and lively book discusses all the major strands of Reformation thought and explores the work of a range of influential figures, including theologians and non-theologians, humanists, clergy and laity, men and women. The contributors to this volume are leading scholars in the field of historical and systematic theology. Accessibly structured, it covers the Humanist, Lutheran, Reformed, Roman Catholic, and "Radical" Theologians. An introductory chapter explores the interpretations of the Reformation and a concluding chapter explains the influence of Reformation theologies on the modern period. The text also includes useful bibliographies and a glossary of theological terms.

This handbook offers a new reading of the humanist-scholastic debate over biblical humanism, lending a voice to scholastic critics who have been unfairly neglected in the historical narrative. The investigations cover controversies beginning in quattrocento Italy and spreading north of the Alps in the 16th century.