Translated from the Spanish.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Preliminary Material / Spencer J. Weinreich -- Introduction / Spencer J. Weinreich -- To Our Lord Prince Don Philip / Spencer J. Weinreich -- The Author, to the Pious Christian Reader / Spencer J. Weinreich -- The Argument of the Present History, and the Origins of the Lamentable Schism in England / Spencer J. Weinreich -- Of the Marriage of the Princess Doña Catherine to Arthur, Prince of England, and of the Marriage She Contracted after His Death with His Brother, Henry / Spencer J. Weinreich -- How King Henry VIII Married the Princess Doña Catherine, and of the Children Born to Them / Spencer J. Weinreich -- The Title of Defender of the Faith given King Henry by the Apostolic See, and the Reason for This / Spencer J. Weinreich -- Of the Dissimilar Habits of the Queen and the King / Spencer J. Weinreich -- Of the Cardinal of York’s Ambition, and of the Advice He Gave the King Concerning His Marriage / Spencer J. Weinreich -- Of the King’s Actions Concerning His Marriage to the Queen, and What the French Ambassador Proposed to Dissolve It / Spencer J. Weinreich -- Of the Other Means Wolsey Used to Achieve His End, and of His Journey to France / Spencer J. Weinreich -- Of Anne Boleyn, Her Disposition and Abilities / Spencer J. Weinreich -- What Thomas Boleyn and the Councilors Said to the King Concerning Anne Boleyn, and How He Responded / Spencer J. Weinreich -- What Wolsey Negotiated in France, and His Return to England / Spencer J. Weinreich -- Of the Other Actions the King Took, the Troubles of His Heart, and Those of Wolsey’s / Spencer J. Weinreich -- Of the Ambassadors the King Sent to the Pope, and of His Holiness’s Decision in the Matter of the Divorce / Spencer J. Weinreich -- What the Queen Wrote to the Pope, What His Holiness Decreed, and Certain Private Matters That Came to Pass in This Affair / Spencer J. Weinreich -- How the Matter of the Divorce Began to Be Legally Considered, and of the Appeal Lodged by the Queen / Spencer J. Weinreich -- What Rochester and Other Worthy Persons Said in the Queen’s Favor, and What Campeggio Answered Concerning the Sentence / Spencer J. Weinreich -- The King Pressures the Legate, the Pope Remands the Case to Himself, and Wolsey is Arrested / Spencer J. Weinreich -- Of the Other Methods the King Used to Give Color to His Wickedness, and of the Results / Spencer J. Weinreich -- Of the Threats the King Made against the Pope, and of the Death of Wolsey / Spencer J. Weinreich -- How the King Named Cranmer as Archbishop of Canterbury, of His Sinful Life, and of How He Deceived the Pope / Spencer J. Weinreich -- The Conference between the Kings of England and France, and What They Discussed / Spencer J. Weinreich -- The King’s First Attack on the Clergy of England / Spencer J. Weinreich -- How the King, against the Pope’s Mandate, Secretly Married Anne Boleyn / Spencer J. Weinreich -- Of Thomas Cromwell, and of the Heretics Who Flooded the King’s Court, and What They Proposed against the Churchmen / Spencer J. Weinreich -- What Parliament Decreed Concerning the Clergy, and the Judgment Cranmer Gave in the King’s Favor / Spencer J. Weinreich -- What Christendom Thought of the King’s Marriage, and Pope Clement’s Sentence against Him / Spencer J. Weinreich.

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In 1588, the Spanish Jesuit Pedro de Ribadeneyra published a history of the English Reformation, which he continued to revise until his death in 1611. Spencer J. Weinreich’s translation is the first English edition of the History , one fully alive to its metamorphoses over two decades. Weinreich’s introduction explores the text’s many dimensions—propaganda for the Spanish Armada, anti-Protestant polemic, Jesuit hagiography, consolation amid tribulation—and assesses Ribadeneyra as a historian. The extensive annotations anchor Ribadeneyra’s narrative in the historical record and reconstruct his sources, methods, and revisions. The History , long derided as mere propaganda, emerges as remarkable evidence of the centrality of historiography to the intellectual, theological, and political battles of early modern Europe.