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This chapter explores the discrepancy between sound eucharistic theology and the eucharistic theology of several official documents of the Roman Catholic magisterium. Historical research suggests that Robert Bellarmine is one of the “messengers”, if indeed not one of the “villains”, of this story. It is argued that the embarrassing dichotomy between the teaching of the contemporary official Roman magisterium and that of most contemporary liturgical theologians is due to the magisterium's continued acceptance of some of the shortcomings of post-Tridentine Catholic eucharistic theology. If there is to be progress towards a more broadly shared Catholic understanding of the Eucharist, the Roman magisterium must become less attached to explanations of the Mystery of Faith that are less than satisfactory.

The theology of the passion in the Catholic Counter‐Reformation is examined in the decress of the Council of Trent and in the Catechism written by Robert Bellarmine. The art of the early Counter‐Reformation is dominated by the figure of Michelangelo. His portrayals of the passion and crucifixion are studied in relation to the humanistic and theoretical emphases of the reform era. Michelangelo's “Mannerist” followers exemplify the new triumphal and affective emphases in Catholic theology in response to the Protestant Reformation.

During the James' reign, Ussher and his fellow Irish protestants set out to domesticate European Calvinism and, in particular, Calvinist anti-Catholicism. The latter formed the main, almost the sole focus of research in the new university. Whole sets of lectures were devoted to refuting the chief enemy, Bellarmine. The errors of the Rhemist translation of the bible were demonstrated. The consonance between protestant beliefs and those of the early church was exhaustively and exhaustingly ‘proved’ through extensive patristic research, culminating in Ussher's first publication: Gravissimae quaestionis, de Christianarum ecclesiarum... continua successione & statu, historica explicatio (1613). The legitimacy of the protestant line of descent was traced through the mediaeval heretics, the pope's real antichristian identity was exposed, and the whole historical and theological edifice was underpinned and explained by God operating in history in a pattern which was foretold in the apocalyptic books of the bible. The Irish protestant theologians promulgated and popularized this fiercely anti-Catholic religious polemic through print, manuscript, and teaching.

This chapter examines the enduring influence of post‐Tridentine thought in Catholicism, particularly in light of its severe evaluation by prominent ressourcement theologians. It argues that a proper understanding of both ressourcement and Vatican II must take account of the enduring relevance of post‐Tridentine theology, both to post‐Vatican II Catholicism and to Vatican II itself. This chapter first surveys various historical and theological efforts to name the centuries after the Council of Trent, culminating in a definition of ‘post‐Tridentine theology.’ It then looks at Robert Bellarmine and the Roman School as ecclesiological exemplars of post‐Tridentine theology's strengths and weaknesses. Finally, while acknowledging the significant limits of that theology, this chapter concludes by proposing several of its enduring positive traits: Christocentrism, pastoral concern, and reasoned engagement with divergent views. The excesses and defects of post‐Tridentine thought were rightly criticized by ressourcement theologians, but Vatican II sought where possible to integrate its enduring insights.

At the end of the sixteenth century parallel debates arose in both Catholic and Reformed areas of Europe on the role of divine grace and human free will. Augustine's works against the Pelagians played a prominent part in this discussion. The debates shaped the development of orthodox thought in each of the confessional settings. This chapter focuses on two of the key places for these debates, Catholic Leuven (the Baianist controversy) and Protestant Leiden (the Arminian controversy), to compare and assess the dynamics between public opinion, expressed in different media of communication (such as sermons, songs, pamphlets and plays) and academic scholarship (esp. the contributions by Michel Baius, Robert Bellarmine and Gerardus Joannes Vossius on heresiology and the history of the early Church).

The chapter discusses the handling of these questions by Roman Catholic theologians of the Counter-Reformation. In general, their position is shown to be broadly equivalent to that of Aquinas: they allow that the human rationality that remains after the Fall enables unbelievers, not to achieve perfect virtue, but to perform some good deeds, which cannot, however, contribute to their salvation, since they lack a basis in faith and grace. These authors dissent from the reading of Augustine that sees him as wholeheartedly condemning pagan virtue, arguing that when he calls unbelievers’ actions sins, he means faulty or imperfect rather than wrongful deeds. The spiritual writer François de Sales, a key figure in the French Counter-Reformation, is often regarded as holding an optimistic view of human nature, antithetical to the later views of the Jansenists; but in fact he holds a low estimate of pagan virtue, deprived as it is of charity.

Nancy Winstel's women's basketball team remade itself during the 2005–6 season. It did indeed pass the solstice that “maketh all things new.” Their defining day was March 5, 2006, in the thirtieth game of a 32-game season. For assistant coach Matt Schmidt, preparation for this moment had begun one year earlier, when Bellarmine University eliminated Northern Kentucky University in the first round of the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament, ending any hope of making the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Tournament. In addition to the conditioning and the individual workouts, each returning player had a one-on-one meeting with Coach Winstel in her office. In this “exit” exam from the recent season, Winstel asks each player to evaluate her performance, with an emphasis on areas for further improvement. These can be make-or-break sessions, with all the cards on the table.

Newman was repeatedly asked without success to attend Vatican I as a theological adviser. His absence was felt then as much as his presence was felt at Vatican II, where he would have undoubtedly aligned himself with the moderate reformers, those who believed in ‘the hermeneutic of reform in continuity’. Newman’s writings offer a balanced and corrective commentary on most of the key documents of Vatican II, particularly the most controversial and the most important documents. The scriptural and patristic theology that he had championed at great personal cost triumphed at Vatican II over neo-scholasticism. When he is canonized he will surely be declared a ‘Doctor of the Church’, and as Bellarmine was for the Tridentine Church, so Newman will be the Doctor par excellence for the Vatican II Church.

Besides patriots, Filmer targeted the theories of papal temporal power advanced by the Jesuits Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621) and Francisco Suarez (1548-1617). Thus, chapter 3 unravels Filmer's principles as part of a wider European framework of political theories. This had to do with monarchist (both Catholic and Protestant) rejections of the Jesuits’ tenet of papal deposing power and opposition to their justification of tyrannicide. In writing Patriarcha Filmer did not miss the chance to have his say in this important debate.

This chapter explores the manner in which European Catholicism evolved in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. It examines how the confessional geography of the continent was affected by events such as the reconciliation of Henri IV, the consolidation of the state church in England, the great rebellion in Ireland, the Styrian Counter-Reformation, the accession of Sigismund Vasa as King of Poland and Sweden, and the failure of the Habsburg war against the Ottomans in Hungary. The chapter argues that Catholic renewal during this period represented far more than the mere implementation of a programme agreed at Trent. Rather, change within the Roman church was contingent on events, possibilities, and personalities which operated to mutate and alter the Tridentine legacy as well as to fulfil it.

In Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan, as in other early modern treatises, a philosophical defense of the secular is coupled with a theological defense. In the case of Hobbes, his philosophical argument is made in parts I and II of Leviathan, and his theological argument is made in parts III and IV. The latter parts of Leviathan are of no interest to most late modern readers, but to early modern readers the opposite was the case. Many iconic texts in European history may owe most of their influence to forms of reasoning, and to blocs of text, that interest late modern readers the least. This chapter offers a reading of the Leviathan which centers upon Jesus’ words to Pilate: “My Kingdom is not of this world.” It is demonstrated here, for the first time, that there is more in Leviathan about the kingdom of Christ being “not of this world” than there is about Hobbes’s notorious “war of every one against every one”.

The Epilogue provides thoughts on the development of ecclesiastical historiography after c.1580. Catholics published relatively few works on church history during this period; this was largely because Catholic universities neglected the teaching of church history. After the Magdeburg Centuriators had created a new Protestant church history, historical criticism in the Lutheran camp remained subdued in the shadow of their great achievement. In the Catholic Church, the censorship of historical authors remained a widespread practice. Also, papal biographies were rarely printed as individual publications directly after a pope’s death. The official Catholic answers to the Magdeburg Centuries are well known. In the field of doctrine, these were provided by Robert Bellarmine, while Cesare Baronio provided the Catholic answer on the historical side. To sum up, both Catholics and Protestants had many reasons to appeal to and invoke history. Polemicists naturally preferred the solutions which were closest to their own interests; and, depending on these interests, they accepted or rejected the results of humanist scholarship. Panvinio trod a fine line, exploring the limits of what could be said and written—but at times overstepping this line grossly.

This chapter argues that the emergence of royal confessors as political counsellors was supported by Botero’s understanding of reason of state. It examines the role model Cardinal Bellarmine sketched out for royal confessors which insisted that confessors had to address the sins of the monarch’s public persona in the first place and pitched them as ideal counsellors against the inadequate counsel provided by flatterers and courtiers. In a second step it analyses how Counter-Reformation moral theology, developed to increase and improve the standards of pastoral care through confession, also provided sophisticated expertise for counselling more widely. The development of the new method of ‘probabilism’ from the late sixteenth century onwards is understood to have been as a particularly qualifying tool that distinguished trained moral theologians in the business of evaluating opinions, which helped to dispel doubt and uncertainty in the process of counselling.