A 16th century Italian Jesuit, Matteo Ricci was the founder of the Catholic Mission in China and one of the most famous missionaries of all time. A pioneer in bringing Christianity to China, Ricci spent twenty eight years in the country, in which time he crossed the cultural divides between China and the West by immersing himself in the language and culture of his hosts. Even 400 years later, he is still one of the best known westerners in China, celebrated for introducing western scientific and religious ideas to China and for explaining Chinese culture to Europe.

The first critical...

This second edition features an updated synthesis of the vast scholarship on the history 0f Catholicism from the Council of Trent in the middle of the sixteenth century to the suppression of the Society of Jesus in the eighteenth century. The book covers the doctrinal and ecclesiastical renewal after Trent and the progress of Catholic reconquest in various lands. It also analyses the social composition of the Tridentine clergy and the papal curia and studies the making of early modern sainthood and the enclosure of religious women. An additional chapter on The Catholic Book as well as an...