The second Vatican Council was convened by Pope John XXIII between 1962 and 1965. It marked a fundamental shift toward the modern Church and its far-reaching innovations replaced or radically changed many of the practices, rules, and attitudes that had dominated Catholic life and culture since the Council of Trent in the sixteenth century. In this book a distinguished team of historians and theologians offers an impartial investigation of the relationship between Vatican II and Trent by examining such issues as Eucharistic theology, liturgical change, clerical reform, the laity, the role of women, marriage, confession, devotion to Mary, and interfaith understanding. As the first book to present such a comprehensive study of the connection between the two great Councils, this is an invaluable resource for students, theologians, and church historians, as well as for bishops, clergy, and religious educators.

This study focuses on the Colloquy of Montbeliard, a theological debate in 1586 between the Lutheran Jacob Andreae and the Calvinist Thoeodore Beza. Montbeliard, the site of the Colloquy, epitomized the complex array of shifting political alliances and religious tensions which characterized the Holy Roman Empire after the Peace of Augsburg. A French speaking Reformed county, Montbeliard found itself under the jurisdiction of the lutheran Duke of Wurttemberg, who sought to impose his religion on the region. The people and clergy of Montbeliard resisted strenuously, and this tense situation was exacerbated by a continuing influx of Reformed Huguenot refugees from France. The ostensible purpose of the Colloquy was to determine if the Lutherans and Reformed were in sufficient agreement on the docturine of the Eucharist to permit intercommunion. Raitt's research of the documents surrounding the Colloguy, however, has revealed that the calling of the Colloquy, was the result of high level political intrigue. In fact, the Colloquy represented a last-ditch effort on the part of Henry of Navarre, with the Palatine Elector John Casimir and Queen Elizabeth of England, to unite the Protestant forces of Europe against Rome and the papal Allies. Raitt uncovers the background and details of this incident and analyses the nature and implications of the underlying theological conflict.

A multivolume series with more than 500 contributing scholars worldwide, presenting the spiritual wisdom of the human race in its historical unfolding, from prehistoric times through the great religions to the meeting of traditions at the present.