A Religious Revolution: The Protestant Reformation, Volume 2 (Daniel-Rops)
By Henri Daniel-Rops
A Religious Revolution: The Protestant Reformation is the fourth installment in Henri Daniel-Rops’ magnificent History of the Church of Christ. This volume, which includes the last three chapters of that work, examines in detail the Protestant phenomenon: first, a careful study of the tragedy of Martin Luther and the eventful early days of “Lutheranism” on the theological, social, and political planes; second, a vivid account of John Calvin and his horrifying success in organizing the threads of Lutheranism into a force capable of rending the garments of Christianity; and third, a meticulous synopsis of Protestantism’s development from a religious revolt, concerned with theological and doctrinal distinctions, to a fully established political institution with influence across Europe. Alongside Luther and Calvin stand Popes Clement VII and Paul III; Erasmus and King Henry VIII; and Sts. Thomas More and John Fisher.
Henri Daniel-Rops (1901–1965), the nom de plume of Henri Petiot, was a French Catholic historian. His bibliography comprises seventy books—written over a span of just thirty years—and includes Sacred History, Jesus and His Times, and the monumental, ten-volume History of the Church of Christ. He also served as editor for the Twentieth Century Encyclopedia of Catholicism, which consisted of one hundred and fifty volumes.
Phenomenally successful in his own time, Daniel-Rops made religious history accessible and popular; in 1955, he was elected to the Académie française and in 1956 he received the Order of St. Gregory from Pope Pius XII.
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Paperback: 334pp.
