The Counter-Renaissance

This stimulating reassessment of Renaissance thought produces evidence of an intellectual revolt in the sixteenth century, led by such men as Calvin, Luther, Montaigne, and Machiavelli, that ran counter to the prevailing concepts of Christian humanism and the sovereignty of reason. The author explores the influence of this challenging movement on contemporaries and on their successors, "those enigmatic and volatile individuals whom we term the Elizabethans." Writing with impeccable scholarship, leavened by a delightful literary style, Mr. Haydn has achieved a masterpiece of intellectual history. -4e de couv.