Books in the Rsart: Renaissance Society of America Reprint Text Series series

Sixteenth-century humanist Juan Luis Vives sought to find ways to alleviate the sufferings of the poor of Bruges, dealing with problems and presenting solutions that sound remarkably familiar to twentieth-century urban ears.

Four short Latin treatises published between 1400 and 1460 define the humanist idea of education and form the heart of a book that has remained for almost seventy years the fundamental study of early Renaissance educational theory and practice.

Offers a broad sampling of humanist work by educators, statesmen, philosophers, churchmen and courtiers translated into English.

Larissa Taylor has examined over 1600 sermons given by the leading lay preachers in France between 1460 and 1560, and examines the social context of preaching and the sermon while reconstructing popular attitudes towards original sin, free will, purgatory, the Devil, the sacraments, and the magical arts.

In this bold and hard-hitting essay, Samuelsson cuts through the controversy and convincingly challenges Weber's hypothesis and many of Tawney's theories.