This collection of the essays of Thomas Izbicki is divided into 3 sections by broad topic: Reform, Ecclesiology and the Christian Life. The selection has a narrow chronological focus, which helps to lend it a real sense of unity: essays are virtually all on the pontificate of Pius II (1458-1464) and the theologians and canon lawyers which surrounded him, particularly Nicholas of Cusa and Juan de Torquemada.
Contents: Foreword; Part 1 Reform: Reform and obedience in 4 conciliar sermons by Leonardo Dati, OP; The sins of the clergy in Juan de Torquemada's Defense of the Revelations of Saint Birgitta; Forbidden colors in the regulation of clerical dress from the 4th Lateran Council (1215) to the time of Nicolas of Cusa (d.1464). Part 2 Ecclesiology: The Immaculate Conception and ecclesiastical politics from the Council of Basel to the Council of Trent: the Dominicans and their foes; A papalist reading of Gratian: Juan de Torquemada on c. Quodcunque [C. 24 q. 1 c. 6]; Cajetan's attack on parallels between church and state; Representation in Nicholas of Cusa; An ambivalent papalism: Peter in the sermons of Nicholas of Cusa; 'Their Cardinal Cusanus': Nicholas of Cusa in Tudor and Stuart polemics; Reject Aneas!: Pius II on the errors of his youth. Part 3 The Christian Life: Leonardo Dati's sermon on the Circumcision of Jesus (1417); Juan de Torquemada's defense of the conversos; Nicholas of Cusa and the Jews; The origins of the De ornato mulierum of Antonius of Florence; Salamancan relectiones in the Fernán Núñez collection; Addenda et corrigenda; Index.