The Cleaving of Christendom: 1517-1661: A History of Christendom (Vol. 4)

Walsh's "Philip II" is one of the finest of pro-catholic histories, and actually perhaps the best researched book in history, I mean in comparing it to the other stuff out there on the subject. The man was clearly led by Heaven on a mission to Set the Record Straight. It has to be read to be believed, what a collosaul [?] fraud has been perpetrated in history. More interesting and with more complex plot lines than most novels, it digs deep to penetrate what actually went on. It actually can hardly be recommended enough. Although my review here is probably a bit over the top, that is how I feel.

In reviewing this, the fourth volume of Dr. Carroll's monumental history of Christendom, we feel compelled to invoke Belloc's apt description of the Reformation epic, as the "shipwreck of civilization". For indeed, that is what it was. Sadly, we see emerging in Dr. Carroll's meticulously documented account yet more evidence of his desire to shield the reader from a bit of the truth of the matter. While there is a great deal of wonderful revelation contained herein, that which is excluded is even more dispositive of the shipwreck. We wonder even more than in previous volumes why Dr. Carroll is so selective in his presentation. To be specific, Dr. Carroll leaves out of his account any mention of the judeo-masonic intrigue that was so central to the Reformation movement. This empasizes a trend we detected in earlier volumes and makes us wonder what we will see when his fifth volume is finally released. (It is, at the time of this writing, nearly two months behind schedule.) This next volume must deal with the bloody French Revolution. If Dr. Carroll manages to describe this epic without mentioning freemasonry, the cat, so to speak, will be out of the bag. We shall see. In any event, Dr. Carroll's work, selective though it may, is readable, enjoyable, and important. This volume, in particular, ends with some fascinating material on Christian evangelisation of the Far East. We recommend Dr. Carroll's work, but suggest that the serious student will want to supplement his volumes with close attention paid to the works of William Thomas Walsh and Hilaire Belloc. Addendum: 15-Apr-06 Of late, we have become aware of a bit more of the mystery surrounding Dr. Carroll's rather strange selectivity of presentation. On this volume and, in fact, on each volume of his history, Carroll sports the sigil of the Knights Templar, the legendary precursors of modern freemasonry. From this, we deduce that Carroll is at least in sympathy with, if not an active member of, such masonic societies. This explains his rather unique approach and also makes sense of the oddity that he remained a pagan until the betrayal of Vatican II.

Once you start reading this history you won't be able to put it down. Finally, a scholarly work on the 1500's and 1600's from a Catholic perspective that is readable, understandable and informative. I can't wait to read the rest of Carroll's books!

As a student of history, and particularly of the Reformation, I always had a nagging feeling that I was only getting one side of the story. For the Catholic Church to retain so many of the faithful and also to recover millions who had already committed to Reformation theology, there must have been some good, some defense which was not being presented in the history books.Dr. Carroll fills in a lot of those gaps. The persons I thought were protestant heroes weren't so heroic after all. I was introduced to some Catholics who were heroic. Although Dr. Carroll is much too bright to fall victim to a position where all protestants are painted black and Catholic white, his history is not balanced in its presentation.However, Carroll is very up front that his history is not intended to be balanced (i.e., written from a neutral perspective). Carroll does not fabricate his data. This book is very accurate. However, what data Carroll chooses to present is heavily weighted towards the Catholic. This is not dishonest or hidden. Carroll states this in the forward.As for Carroll's book, I think his treatment of the Council of Trent was excellent as well as his treatment of Reformation England. If you don't like reading detail or don't like reading the same book for more than 10 days, this book will slow down for you during Carroll's presentation of the Thirty Years War. The cleaving of christianity was ultimately accomplished by the sword. This means that some portion of this book is a history of battles.I believe that no student of history should be without this book because it is a well presented assessment of the Reformation from the Catholic perspective. You may not agree with the Catholic perspective but to ignore it is to miss half the history of the period.If there is one fault I have with this book is that it recycles some of Warren's book "Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Conquest of Darkness" almost to the point to where I feel that the text might have been the same for a couple of paragraphs. This is why the book gets a four.This fault is brief and fleeting and does not detract from the overally presentation in the book. It is worth the money you will spend to buy it. It is worth the historical perspective you will get from it. Buy this book without delay.

Warren Carroll presents the "Cleaving of Christendom" in the 16th and 17th centuries from an ardently Catholic position. He makes this quite clear in the introduction and in his style of writing. It is refreshing because, even with ten years of Catholic schooling, I suspect that over the years I have absorbed a highly Protestant view of this period. Now I am reading both Protestant and Catholic histories to help get some balance. For those who want a smaller dose of a Catholic history of the period, Hilaire Belloc's "How the Reformation Happened" or his "The Great Heresies" are excellent. On the Protestant side, I am starting with Alistar McGrath's "Reformation Thought." ---- With sadness, I had to downsize Dr. Carroll's book to four stars because of the poor proofreading. Maybe I shouldn't because he became seriously ill just as he finished this volume and we are blessed to have the volume at all! (PS-- as this is written, he is healing well and is back to teaching and writing.)