An exceptionally early 1577 edition of the Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, one of the defining documents of the Catholic Counter-Reformation. The Council of Trent, held between 1545 and 1563, answered the challenges of the Protestant Reformation and formally clarified Catholic doctrine on Scripture, tradition, justification, the sacraments, the Mass, clerical discipline, and Church reform. This edition was printed in Liège by Henricus Hovius and contains the decrees issued under Popes Paul III, Julius III, and Pius IV, together with extensive scholarly marginal annotations and papal bulls. Bibliographic records confirm the 1577 Liège edition, making it a particularly desirable sixteenth-century witness to one of the most important turning points in European religious history. A powerful collectible for anyone interested in the Reformation, Counter-Reformation, Catholic history, theology, church councils, and rare Renaissance-era books.