The Catholic Reformation - John C. Olin

This work contains fifteen key documents illustrative of reform in the Church in the period from 1495 to 1540, an age of great religious ferment and upheaval, which is marked historically by the crisis known as the Protestant Reformation. The documents collected in this work focus on the simultaneous struggle for renewal and reform within the Catholic Church. There was much amiss within the Church at the close of the Middle Ages. The Protestant Reformation threw into high relief the urgent need for religious reform. Involving basic questions of doctrine, practice, and authority, this severe trial put in jeopardy the very life of the existing Catholic Church.
The balanced selection of notable and representative source materials tells their story in a lively and dramatic way. This important work on a little-known aspect of a turbulent era is a valuable contribution to Reformation studies.

John C. Olin was Professor Emeritus of History at Fordham University.

"Olin sustains his point that there is a distinction to be made between the spontaneous currents of reform within the Church and the reaction to the Protestant Reformation. The selections are brilliantly chosen and ably translated."----Joseph N. Moody, The Catholic University of America