Saints & sinners: a history of the Popes

1. 'Upon this rock' : c. AD 33-461

From Jerusalem to Rome

The bishops of Rome

The age of Constantine

The birth of papal Rome

2. Between two empires : 461-1000

Under Gothic kings

The age of Gregory the Great

The Byzantine captivity of the papacy

Empires of the West

3. Set above nations : 1000-1447

The era of papal reform

From papal reform to papal monarchy

The pinnacle of papal power

Exile and schism

4. Protest and division : 1447-1774

The Renaissance popes

The crisis of Christendom

The counter-Reformation

The popes in an age of absolutism

5. The pope and the people : 1774-1903

The church and the revolution

From recovery to reaction

Pio Nono: the triumph of Ultramontanism

Ultramontanism with a liberal face: the reign of Leo XIII

6. The oracles of God : 1903-2005

The age of intransigence

The attack on Modernism

The age of the dictators

The age of Vatican II

Papa Wojtyla

The professor

Crisis and resignation

A pope for the poor

Appendix A : Chronological list of popes and antipopes

Appendix B : Glossary

Appendix C: How a new pope is made

Notes

Bibliographical essay.