Bainton presents the many strands that made up the Reformation in a single, brilliantly coherent account. He discusses the background for Luther's irreparable breach with the Church and its ramifications for 16th Century Europe, giving thorough accounts of the Diet of Worms, the institution of the Holy Commonwealth of Geneva, Henry VIII's break with Rome, and William the Silent's struggle for Dutch independence.
Would that we had more history like this, so well-proportioned in its emphasis, and so pertinent to the understanding of history now in the making. --The Annals of the American Academy
The Reformation of the Sixteenth Century by Roland H. Bainton