In The Standard Bearer of the Roman Church, Andrew J. G. Drenas introduces a compelling new perspective on the Catholic Reformation in central Europe to Anglophone historiography, which in his geographical area of focus—eastern Habsburg lands—has included a few notable studies but has been limited by the region's linguistic diversity. In particular in this monograph, Drenas examines the Capuchin missionary career of Lawrence of Brindisi, a “Doctor of the Church” in Roman Catholicism and a giant in Capuchin history, who nonetheless remains largely obscure in the modern era outside of Italian and Capuchin literature. From Drenas's vivid prose, studying Lawrence's life and work emerges as a crucial lens to the intentions, processes, and consequences of early modern organized efforts to recatholicize parts of central Europe that had been transformed by Hussitism or Protestantism.

The author's primary intention is to properly fill out the narrative of Lawrence's missionary experiences (c. 1599–1613) and more generally to examine the goals and initiatives of Capuchin missionary activity in Reformation central Europe, both of which to date have been overlooked by historians outside of the Capuchin order. For Drenas, such a narrative serves to provide “additional insight into the process of recatholicization of parts of Europe that had been lost to heresy and into efforts made to win non-Catholics back to the Church” (15). Using letters and literary prose written by Lawrence himself, fellow Capuchins, and various contemporaries, Drenas systematically reconstructs Lawrence's pursuit of recatholicization in Bohemia, Austria, and Styria, including his interactions with superiors, his negotiation of the local practicalities of constructing missions, his debates with confessional adversaries, and his exchanges with the populace. Such an approach personalizes Lawrence for the reader while thoroughly illustrating the practical components and achievements of early modern Capuchin missionary activity in central Europe.

Drenas uses his introduction to couch his research in a broad historiography. He succinctly explains both the scholarly conversations into which The Standard Bearer of the Roman Church enters and the variety of lacunae that it begins to address. The range of pertinent secondary literature includes centuries of Capuchin historical studies, modern Italian hagiography of Lawrence of Brindisi, surveys of early modern Catholicism and pieces devoted to defining the terms of such, academic works focused on preeminent early modern Catholic reformers and religious, examinations of the processes and legacies of the Council of Trent, and compelling investigations of localized or regionalized efforts to recatholicize parts of central Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. According to the author, though, none of these works sufficiently illuminate the missionary career of Lawrence, and few of them adequately address Catholic missionary efforts among Protestant populations other than those of the Society of Jesus.

In the light of his introduction, Drenas systematically explores Lawrence's activities as a leading Catholic missionary in central Europe for the Capuchin order, identifying and dissecting specific components of mission that were integral to his success, or at the very least to his notoriety. Chapter 1 surveys Lawrence's longer life and legacy, illustrating for the reader the several overlapping contexts into which his missionary efforts fit, with and without conflict. Then in the second chapter, the author details how Lawrence and his Capuchin brothers founded the missionary institutions of the commissariate of Bohemia-Austria-Styria at the turn of the seventeenth century. Drenas begins his analysis of Lawrence's specific missionary activities in chapter 3, particularly with the priest's polemical preaching, most often from the Capuchin Church of St. Mary of the Angels in Prague. Lawrence's theological disputations are the focus of the fourth chapter, and his intense exchanges with Lutheran preacher Polycarp Leyser emerge as a key intellectual node in the Reformations of central Europe. Finally, Drenas uses his fifth chapter to analyze Lawrence's polemical text The Express Image of Lutheranism, which was a direct rebuke to Leyser but was never finished and was published only three centuries later. Then Drenas's conclusion briefly summarizes the effects of Lawrence's missionary activity, especially emphasizing the difficulty of quantifying the success of early modern missionary efforts.

As this monograph is primarily intended to fill a gap in the Anglophone historiography in the narrative of one individual's life and to reveal some of the details of Capuchin missions to particular Protestant populations, its arguments rely closely upon the lived experiences gleaned from primary sources and stop short of drawing ambitious or inflated conclusions. Drenas focuses on what details and patterns he can demonstrate about this roughly fourteen-year missionary tenure of Lawrence's Capuchin career, and he delivers a logical, thorough, and convincing presentation. He does, however, also give measured suggestions for how scholars ought to apply this evidence to broader narratives of early modern Catholicism, most especially how historians should consider a more varied array of missionary work in their treatments of the Reformations. Both of these levels of analysis prove convincing, and at the very least Drenas provides a detailed, vivid illustration of how the Capuchin missionary enterprise proceeded in central Europe in the early seventeenth century, led by the charismatic Lawrence. The only lamentable aspect of this work is that at times the reader would benefit from broader context within the analytical chapters in order to emphasize the significance of Lawrence's unique experiences. More specific description of particular Catholic missionary efforts—e.g. preaching, polemical writing, disputations, even legal approaches—in other parts of Europe or from other orders during the Reformations would contextualize Lawrence's efforts more fully.

Overall, though, in The Standard Bearer of the Roman Church, Andrew J. G. Drenas thoroughly introduces the Capuchin missionary Lawrence of Brindisi to the Anglophone historiography of Catholic reform in central Europe. With Lawrence as a vehicle, Drenas makes an excellent case for why historians need to continue to search for new perspectives on the Catholic Reformation, and he ensconces himself solidly within the cadre of modern central Europeanist scholars who are leading the search for novel insights on this topic.