Description: European history from 1480 to 1570 was a period of turbulent change, political upheaval, profound moral questioning, and urgent philosophical speculation. This book explores the intriguing role of the almost-forgotten Congregation of Benedictine monks of Italy and southern France in the events of these tumultuous years. From archival and published records, the picture emerges of a closely-knit order of humanist scholars whose religious and philosophical studies later put them in a unique position to understand the Reformers. The book also casts light on the monks' fascinating reaction to the Reformation, as they poured out a stream of academic books, tracts, sermons, and poems in their attempt to heal the deepening rift between Rome and the Reformers. Critized and misunderstood by all sides, the Congregation gradually fell into decline until it was finally suppressed under the Napoleanic invasions.
Review Quotes: "A major work...He is able to bring heat and light to a number of major controversies in sixteenth-century Italian religious history....Essential reading."--History: Reviews of New Books
"This splendid study...is an important contribution; skillfully organized and written, it rests on wide and acute reading in manuscript and printed sources and recent scholarship."--The Sixteenth Century Journal"This is an original and welcome study."--American Historical Review"An important original work that brings to light an aspect of 16th-century Italian theology previously very little known."--Theological Studies"It is a real pleasure to come across a book which opens new ways of seeing old questions, as this does....With remarkable learning, clearity, economy of words, and integrity in dealing with the sources, the author has invited others to look again at the extent of the influence of Protestantism on Italian thought....A major contribution to Italian religious and intellectual history."--atholic Historical Review