Vivid stories of the ten popes the author judges "the most influential in history," including St. Peter, the Rock upon whom the Catholic Church was built, and follows with Leo the Great (fifth century), Gregory the Great (sixth century), Gregory VII (eleventh century), Innocent III (thirteenth century), Paul III (sixteenth century), and Pius IX (nineteenth century). Among twentieth-century popes, Duffy examines the lives and contributions of Pius...

In Holy Father, celebrated papal commentator Greg Tobin surveys the extraordinary legacy of John Paul II and examines the new head of the Church, Pope Benedict XVI. Who is the German-born Joseph Ratzinger? Tobin sheds light on every chapter of the new Pope's life, from his childhood to his seminary education and through the career that led to the papacy. Tobin also provides an insider's look at the conclave that captivated the entire world while electing...

Four hundred of the 3,800 people who permanently live or work in the State of Vatican City, the smallest sovereign and independent state on the globe, are women. They are nuns and members of the laity; some are housekeepers of churchmen; others are secretaries, translators, editors, lawyers, and middle-level officials of the papal administration. Expansive in scope and enlightening in detail, The Vatican's Women recalls women who wielded power in...

Catholic Bishop John Stephen Vaughan lays down the arguments for the existence of the office of Pope, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, and of the structure and hierarchy of the Church.

"Faithful Catholics are beginning to realize it's not their imagination. Pope Francis has led them on a journey from joy to unease to alarm and even a sense of betrayal. They can no longer pretend that he represents merely a change of emphasis in papal teaching. He seems to be engaged in a deliberate effort to undermine fundamental Catholic doctrines. Assessing the confusion sown by this pontificate, Lost Shepherd explains what's at stake, what's...

The humanist perception of fourteenth-century Rome as a slumbering ruin awaiting the Renaissance and the return of papal power has cast a long shadow on the historiography of the city. Challenging this view, James A. Palmer argues that Roman political culture underwent dramatic changes in the late Middle Ages, with profound and lasting implications for city's subsequent development. The Virtues of Economy examines the transformation of Rome's governing...

"Welcome to Florence, 1517, a world of intrigue and opulence, murder and betrayal. Seventeen-year-old conwoman Rosa Cellini arrives in the city the same day that the Medici Pope, Leo X, returns to take up the reins of power. This is not a coincidence. The new Pope is extorting a mountain of indulgence money from the people of Florence to bolster his power and standing, and Rosa has a plan to take it back. To pull off the Renaissance’s greatest...