Nicholas of Cusa (1401–1464), widely considered the most important original philosopher of the Renaissance, was born in Kues on the Moselle River. A polymath who studied canon law and became a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, he wrote principally on speculative theology, philosophy, and church politics. As a political thinker he is best known for De concordantia catholica, which presented a blueprint for peace in an age of ecclesiastical discord.

This volume makes most of Nicholas’s other writings on Church and reform available in English for the first time, including legal tracts arguing the case of Pope Eugenius IV against the conciliarists, theological examinations of the nature of the Church, and writings on reform of the papacy and curia. Among the works translated are an early draft of De concordantia catholica and the Letter to Rodrigo Sanchez de Arevalo, which discusses the Church in light of the Cusan idea of “learned ignorance.”

Contents
Introduction
COUNCIL AND CONCORD
1. To the Bohemians: On the Use of Communion
2. Is the Authority of the Holy Councils Greater Than That of the 
Pope?
3. On Presidential Authority in a General Council
THE HERCULES OF THE EUGENIANS
4. Oration at the Diet of Frankfurt
5. That It Is Necessary to Withdraw from Neutrality or Indecision
6. Against Suspension of Allegiance
7. A Dialogue against the Amedeists
8. Sermon 21: "Entering into the house"
9. Letter to the Bohemians on Church Unity
EXPLICATIO PETRI
10. Letter to Rodrigo Sanchez de Arevalo
11. Sermon 126: "Thou art Peter"
12. Sermon 144: "I shall give thee the keys to the Kingdom of 
Heaven"
13. Sermon 160: "Thou art Peter"
14. Sermon 287: "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona"
REFORM AND CHRISTIFORMITAS
15. Sermon 280: "I am the Good Shepherd"
16. Sermon 290: "When I shall be sanctified"
17. A General Reform of the Church
Note on the Texts and Translations
Notes to the Text
Notes to the Translation
Bibliography
Index