The Church of the Classical Age: The Great Century of Souls
is the seventh installment in Henri Daniel-Rops' grand
History of the Church of Christ
. This volume includes the last three chapters of that work, studying the reign of King Louis XIV as illustrative of the age's contradictions and the spiritual genius that triumphed over turmoil by its foundations in the Cross; the reality of
Christian Classicism
, which sustained both order and ardor, witnessed the rise of geniuses like St. Louis de Montfort, St. Jean-Baptiste de La Salle, and J.-B. Bossuet, and secured a rich yield of sacred art; and the rise of Jansenism, Quietism, and their cast of audacious characters, including the Abbot of Saint-Cyran and the Abbess of Port-Royal, Madame Guyon and François Fénelon, and others. Yet even these crises "of sanctifying grace and pure love," signaled the endurance of spiritual liberty-and thus do they serve as signs of the Church's survival.
The strange phrase, "Great Century of Souls," captures perfectly the spirit of that epoch of saints and sinners. Vividly detailed and unfailingly interesting,
is the account
par excellence
of an age in which the Faith was the celebrated norm and the human soul the universally accepted seat of all ambition, passion, and achievement.