This is a great buy. This travel guide is complete, well illustrated with color photos and maps, an okay index, and it comes with a separate Rome and the Vatican travel map. About every two pages there is a small color map of the area relevant to those pages. Map and travel guide are compact and in a clever transparent jacket.

The hefty price tag of this history may keep it from all but the most specialized Catholic library collections, but it continues the coverage of Vatican II begun in previous volumes, with this covering the mature council, second period and intersession from September 1963-1964 - a period in which the Vatican II began to assume its character. From the debate of collegiality to the Council's completion of the first two documents, chapters cover its revision of major texts and its political involvements. Recommended for college-level students of Catholic history.

Aidan Nichols presents an outstanding work on the historical development and theology of the sacrament of Holy Orders. His work is very comprehensive, yet readable and enjoyable. His background on the topic seems to be extensive and there is a brief commentary at the end on women's ordination and another on celibacy. Nichols is a scholar and any priest or seminarian would be impressed with this work. I would say that this book should be used in any course dealing with ministry and/or the sacrament of Holy Orders in the Church.

A Host of Angels is a small gift volume in the Treasures of the Vatican LIbrary Series. It consists of illuminations and illustrations related to the cross from books in the Vatican library. There is no explanatory or identifying text; the art is often accompanied by a short scriptural passage related to the art. The art is well chosen and reproduced. For those who are primarily visual, this is an excellent meditative book.

This book (one of a series by the author on Vatican II) focuses on the AMBIGUITY that permeates the Council documents and explains how that ambiguity has opened the door to interpretations radically opposed to the perennial teachings of the Catholic Church.

The author explains how a group of "new theologians" orchestrated an amazing take-over of the Council, completely discarding all the preparatory work and establishing their own radical ideas as the foundation for the final documents. The traditional Council members were caught off guard, and while they strongly opposed the radicals, they were not organized or prepared to fight effectively.

This is an ice-cold presentation of all the facts, meticulously documented with abundant quotations and references. Shocking and disturbing, but a must-read for anyone wanting to know the true story behind Vatican Council II and its aftermath.

I just loved this book...you really can't put it down. Lots of action and thrills, with a great story line. The author's choice of having a woman heroine just adds more spice to it, especially when it deals with capiturig an international villan and it's secrets behind the aids epidemic who and why??. I couldn't read it fast enough...can't wait for another one of his books. Hollywood should turn this one into a movie!!

One of the few books going to the crypt w/me. A classic. Buy it in hardback to pass it on. Nuff said.

This book is an enjoyable, and intresting book to read. If you are as intrested and/or curious about the Vatican as I am you will love this book! I am a Catholic and that is probably 1 reason why I love this book but if you forget about religion I would find this book great for Non-Catholics also. The book takes you from the necropolis under the Vatican to the Pope's own library. As well as great stories about the Vatican this book also has great photos within the Vatican's walls. Great book for all people, and every age of people!

I bought this book while at the Vatican so I could understand all the paintings I was about to see. It was an outstanding help and I have since shown it to numerous people who have fallen in love with all the pictures and explanations. In fact, I am ordering a copy for my mother-in-law for fear that she will not be able to relinquish my copy! One of the best parts of the book is that it shows you fold outs of the entire fresco and then spends many pages with close up pictures describing in detail what is included in the large frescos.

Frank Cass among other things publishes several scholarly journals including Intelligence and National Security, one of the bulwarks of the historical genre. Ocasionally one of the issues is repackaged and presented as a standalone volume. They consist of many short articles.
Others in this series are complete studies prepared by one or more authors. The present volume is one of the latter.
Quite interesting but exceedingly narrow in scope. Little would be gained by a detailed analysis. The title says it all.
This is of interest only to the specialist. We must be thankful that Cass finds it practical to publish for us.