A History of the Papacy during the Period of the Reformation

Mandell Creighton's five-volume study of the papacy during the Reformation was first published between 1882 and 1894. Lytton Strachey paid an indirect compliment to Creighton's work by remarking that 'the biscuit is certainly dry; but at any rate there are no weevils'. Creighton (1843–1901) was an academic and an ordained Anglican. Having studied at Oxford and spent time in the parish of Embleton in Northumberland, he was appointed the first Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Cambridge, became Bishop of Peterborough and ended his career as Bishop of London. Volume 2 (1882) focuses on the controversial Council of Basel (1431–49) and its struggle with Eugenius IV over the crucial issue of papal authority as against both conciliar rule and the secular powers of Europe. The volume ends with the death in 1464 of Pius II.