ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 argues that, unlike other churches, the Maronites not only sought ever-closer religious union with Rome during the early Reformation, but that they even attempted to form military alliances with Catholic rulers like Charles V (1519–1556). This chapter concludes that the Maronites were much more interested in western powers than these rulers were in them, a policy of active engagement that set the stage for increased contact between the Maronites and Rome in the later sixteenth century.
