Book excerpt: This book demonstrates how Calvin's uncompromising stance on sacred images gained favor throughout Europe and was increasingly seen in the years between 1550 and 1600 as the unavoidable culmination of the Sola Scriptura principle. It also documents in detail how Catholic doctrine evolved to counteract the radical positions of Calvinism and how this doctrine translated through pastoral action into the new artistic trends - in both architecture and painting - which dominated the Seventeenth century.