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Since World War II and especially since the election of Pope John XXIII in 1958, the papacy--the oldest of all Western institutions--has attracted steadily growing interest from non-Christians as well as Christians. Written for people of every religious allegiance and none, J.N.D. Kelly's ...

Since World War II and especially since the election of Pope John XXIII in 1958, the papacy--the oldest of all Western institutions--has attracted steadily growing interest from non-Christians as well as Christians. Written for people of every religious allegiance and none, J.N.D. Kelly's biographical dictionary presents a wealth of information about the papacy and the astonishing succession of churchmen who have loomed large on the world scene for almost two thousand years. It contains concise accounts not only of all the officially recognized popes from St. Peter to John Paul II, but also of all their irregularly elected rivals, the so-called antipopes. It also includes an appendix which records the once generally accepted, but long since discarded, legend that at some date in the ninth, tenth, or eleventh century a female pope called Joan existed. The Dictionary provides an entry for each pope and antipope which covers--except where (as in the early centuries) information is unavailable--his family and social background and pre-papal career, as well as his activities in office. Each entry has a separate select bibliography, usually including references to the primary source for the pope's life and his official acts. Arranged chronologically, the volume places each pope in the proper historical context and offers, in effect, a continuous history of the papacy. Based on careful research, but eminently readable, this reference work reveals an extraordinarily diverse group of men who have designated themselves as St. Peter's successors, and records their varying involvement in great power politics, personal or family aggrandizement, patronage of the arts, theological controversy, or spiritual leadership. It presents a graphic and moving picture of the fluctuating fortunes of the Christian Church centered in Rome, sometimes submerged by secular forces, but at other times, staging a spectacular revival and confronting the world (as today) with a daunting challenge.

Could a Pope ever consent to be the subject of a political power? Chadwick presents an analysis of the causes and consequences of the end of the historic Papal State, and the psychological pressures upon old Rome as it came under attack from the Italian Risorgimento; and not only from Italy, but ...

Could a Pope ever consent to be the subject of a political power? Chadwick presents an analysis of the causes and consequences of the end of the historic Papal State, and the psychological pressures upon old Rome as it came under attack from the Italian Risorgimento; and not only from Italy, but from liberal movements in Germany, France, Spain, and Portugal, as well as Tsarist Russia as it oppressed its Polish subjects. If a united Italy was to be achieved, the State would have to disappear. These pressures caused Popes to resist "the world" rather than to try to influence it, to make the Vatican more of a sanctuary behind high walls, and to preach the more otherworldly aspects of Catholic faith. At the same time they met new moral demands: the rights of the laborer in industry, divorce, and toleration--which they could confront because the Revolution had destroyed the powers of the Catholic kings over their churches. Thus, Chadwick points out, Catholic authority could be far more centralized in Rome.