A history of the popes : from Peter to the present

Preface

Introduction

Part I: From the margins to the center of the Roman world

Peter : bishop of Rome?

After Peter and Paul

Constantine : the thirteenth apostle

Prosperity to crisis : Damasus and Leo the Great

Gregory the Great

Part II: Bringing order out of chaos

Greeks, Lombards, Franks

Charlemagne : savior or master?

Their darkest hour

Saving the papacy from itself

Gregory VII : who's in charge here?

Part III: Development, decline, disarray

Compromises, crusades, councils, concordats

Innocent III : vicar of Christ

Boniface VIII : big claims, big humiliation

Avignon : the Babylonian captivity

Three popes at a time : the Great Western Schism

Part IV: Renaissance and Reformation

The restored papacy

The Renaissance popes

Luther, Leo, and the aftermath

Paul III : a turning point

Five popes and a council

The new Rome

Part V: Into the modern era

The storm breaks

Pius VII : bowed down and raised up

Beleaguered, infallible, and prisoner again

Leo XIII : searching for solutions

Pius X : confronting modern culture

Part VI: The papacy as a global institution

War, peace, fascism

Pius XII : saint or sinner?

John XXIII : peace and reconciliation

Paul VI : in a tight spot

John Paul II : the world is my parish