The Ashgate Research Companion to the Counter-Reformation

'This handbook is an excellent survey of current research trends in early modern Catholicism... Recommended. Upper-level undergraduates through researchers/faculty.' Choice 'The Ashgate Research Companion to the Counter-Reformation ... is an extremely useful tool for those in the academy wishing to instruct the next generation of scholars and also a helpful resource for the experienced scholar. It is an outstanding piece of work. ... The editors and contributors associated with this volume deserve considerable praise and commendation.' Sixteenth Century Journal 'This new companion by a formidable array of early modern historians will breathe new and exciting life into the understanding of this crucial era, disrupting the tendency to impose easy uniformity on the massively complex tapestry of the Reformation narrative. No mere compilation of diverse essays, the work constitutes a highly original drama of intellectual ideas. The editors have orchestrated a remarkable unity out of a pluralism of interwoven perspectives, each fascinating in its own right and yet contributing to the integrity of the whole. The story this book tells is of an era rich in local diversity, exceptions, paradoxes, seminal influences and telling narratives. Highly readable, remarkable in its range of scholarship, this study is set to become an essential text for the early modern period.' John Cornwell, Cambridge University, UK 'The Ashgate Research Companion to the Counter-Reformation is a valuable handbook for all scholars and students of early modern Catholicism. Leading scholars take on a wide variety of topics and relate important directions in current research, while the work as a whole expands the concept of Counter-Reformation. Comprehensive in scope, the volume focuses on the varieties of religious experience and highlights the complexities of Catholic identities during a dynamic age. This is a work that makes sense of recent scholarship and sends it in new directions.' Charles