[The Historie of the Council of Trent]

1620

Shoults Ec 1620 S

London: Robert Baker and John Bill

Paolo Sarpi (1552–1623) was an Italian historian and prelate whose writings were highly critical of the Catholic Church. Indeed, the ‘great unmasker’, as John Milton called Sarpi, was such a threat to Papal authorities that he survived two assassination attempts: in one instance surviving 15 stiletto (dagger) thrusts. Sarpi’s most famous work was The History of the Council of Trent, of which this is the first English edition. On the subject of his books being condemned, Sarpi captures the doggedness and determination of Luther well: ‘Neither did this trouble Martin one iote, but rather caused him to goe on, and to declare and fortifie his doctrine the more it was opposed.’ (p.9)