Excerpt from The Age of the Renascence: An Outline Sketch of the History of the Papacy From the Return From Avignon to the Sack of Rome (1377-1527)The answer to these questions was not a matter of theory, but of fact.We felt sure that it was not to be found in the books of dogmatic theology or ecclesiastical history, nor ih' the decrees of councils, nor in the bulls of Popes, nor in the theses of reformers - except in so far as all of these were veritable details in the great panorama of life. Their value lay, not in what they professed or claimed, but in what they actually rep resented. They were worth precisely what they expressed, reduced to the terms of reality.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.