Dec 30, 2020
Dr. John Rao argues that a deep study of the late 1400's and early 1500's reveals many vibrant elements in Catholic theological, philosophical, mystical, and broad cultural life. Major reform movements, such as those in Spain, were well underway, and smaller ones were beginning everywhere. But the Church was...
Dec 30, 2020
Dr. John Rao discusses the two first great Protestant reformers. One sees in Luther's activity the way in which Nominalist denigration of man's ability to know objective Truth and Humanist preference for rhetoric come together in a troubled political and social atmosphere to set off a spiritual revolution....
Dec 30, 2020
Dr. John Rao explains that Luther and Zwingli's emphasis upon Faith and Scripture alone immediately gave birth to differences of viewpoint and encouraged the growth of still more radical Protestant sects like the Enthusiasts and the Anabaptists. It also led to the secularization of Church lands, the abandonment...
Dec 30, 2020
Dr. John Rao shows that Catholics, as usual, were slow in awakening to the real significance of the Protestant assault. Eck and Fisher were among the few early thinkers who understood the menace. Many dioceses, principalities, and cities fell to the Protestants without much thought or resistance. Slowly,...
Dec 30, 2020
Dr. John Rao explains that it was the Protestants who first called for a Council. He shows that papal fears of conciliarism and political battles involving Germany, France, and Spain delayed its beginning and the choice of its meeting place. Once Paul III showed some serious desire to open it in Trent, the Protestants...