Nelson H. Minnich Headshot

Department

  • History

    • School

  • School of Arts and Sciences

    • Expertise

  • Renaissance
  • Reformation
  • Catholic Reformation

    • A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Nelson Hubert Minnich has taught Renaissance, Reformation, and Counter-Reformation history at the Catholic University of America since 1977, holding a joint appointment as Ordinary Professor in the Church History program of the School of Theology and Religious Studies and in the History Department.  Since 2005 he has been editor of the Catholic Historical Review, having served for over a quarter-century as advisory and associate editor. He holds degrees in philosophy (BA 1965 Boston College), theology (STB 1970 Gregorian University), and History (MA 1966 Boston College, PhD 1977 Harvard University, with a dissertation on "Episcopal Reform at the Fifth Lateran Council (1512-17)" directed by Myron P. Gilmore. He is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities (1978), Villa I Tatti (1979), the American Academy in Rome (1979-80), American Council of Learned Societies (1979-80, 1986, 1990), the American Philosophical Society (1984), the Renaissance Society of America (2001), and the National Humanities Center (2004-05). From 2007 until retiring in 2022, he was a member of the Pontificio Comitato di Scienze Storiche. Among the books he has published or co-authored are a Festschrift honoring John Tracy Ellis (1985), three collections of studies that deal mostly with conciliar history from Pisa I to Trent (1993, 2007), and a volume (Collected Works of Erasmus 84) on Erasmus's controversies with Alberto Pio (2005), collections of papers presented at international conferences commemorating the 500th anniversary of the Fifth Lateran Council (2019) and Luther’s posting of the Ninety-fve Theses (2021), and a companion to the Council of Trent (2023). He served as the associate editor for the eighty church history entries in the six-volume Encyclopedia of the Renaissance (1999). He is author of 33 chapters in books, 40 articles in scholarly journals, and over thirty entries in encyclopedias and reference works, and numerous book reviews. He is active in his local parish of St. Jerome's in Hyattsville, Maryland and is an avid contra and waltz dancer at the Glen Echo Park Ballroom, Maryland.

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    Selected Publications

    • The Cambridge History of Reformation Era Theology

      The Cambridge History of Reformation Era Theology

      Kenneth G. Appold and Nelson H. Minnich, ed., The Cambridge History of Reformation Era Theology (Cambridge University Press, 2023)

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    • The Cambridge Companion to the Council of Trent

      The Cambridge Companion to the Council of Trent

      Nelson H. Minnich, ed., The Cambridge Companion to the Council of Trent (Cambridge University Press, 2023)

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    • Martin Luther and the Shaping of the Catholic Tradition

      Martin Luther and the Shaping of the Catholic Tradition

      Martin Luther and the Shaping of the Catholic Tradition: Proceedings of the International Conference Held in Washington, D.C. May 30 to June 1, 2017, ed. Nelson Minnich and Michael Root (Washington: The Catholic University of America Press, 2021)

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    • Alla ricerca di soluzioni nuova luce sul Concilio Lateranense V

      Alla ricerca di soluzioni nuova luce sul Concilio Lateranense V

      Nelson H. Minnich, ed., Alla ricerca di soluzioni nuova luce sul Concilio Lateranense V. Studi per i 500 anni del Concilio (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2019)

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    • The Decrees of the Fifth Lateran Council

      The Decrees of the Fifth Lateran Council

      Nelson H. Minnich, The Decrees of the Fifth Lateran Council (1512-17): Their Legitimacy, Origins, Contents, and Implementation (Routledge, 2016)

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    • Journeys in Church History

      Journeys in Church History

      Nelson H. Minnich, ed., Journeys in Church History: Essays from the Catholic Historical Review (Catholic University of America Press, 2015)

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    • Councils of the Catholic Reformation

      Councils of the Catholic Reformation

      Nelson H. Minnich, Councils of the Catholic Reformation: Pisa I (1409) to Trent (1545-63) (Ashgate/Variorum, 2008)

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    • Controversies: Responsio ad epistolam paraeneticam Alberti Pii

      Controversies: Responsio ad epistolam paraeneticam Alberti Pii

      Controversies: Responsio ad epistolam paraeneticam Alberti Pii, Apologia adversus rhapsodias Alberti Pii, Brevissima scholia, ed. Nelson H. Minnich and Daniel Sheerin, Collected Works of Erasmus vol. 84 (University of Toronto Press, 2005)

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    • Encyclopedia of the Renaissance

      Encyclopedia of the Renaissance

      Encyclopedia of the Renaissance, general editor Paul F. Grendler, associate editor Nelson H. Minnich, 6 vols. (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999)

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    • The Catholic Reformation

      The Catholic Reformation

      Nelson H. Minnich, The Catholic Reformation: Council, Churchmen, Controversies (Variorum, 1993)

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    • Studies in Catholic History

      Studies in Catholic History

      Nelson H. Minnich, Robert B. Eno, S.S., and Robert Trisco, ed., Studies in Catholic History: In Honor of John Tracy Ellis (Michael Glazier, 1985)

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