At time when men and women were prepared to kill and be killed for their faith, the Reformation tore the western world apart. Acclaimed as the definitive account of these epochal events. Diarmaid MacCulloch's award winning new history brilliantly re-creates the religious battles of priests monarchs, scholars and politicians from the zealous Martin Luther to the radical Loyola, from the tortured Cranmer to the ambitions Philip II. Drawing together the many strands of Reformation and Counter Reformation, ranging widely across Europe and the New World, MacCulloch reveals as never before how these dramatic upheavals affected everyday lives overturning ideas of love, sex, death and the supernatural, and shaping the modern age.