History of the papacy
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According to Roman Catholicism, the history of the papacy, the office held by the pope as head of the Catholic Church, spans from the time of Peter to the present day.[1]
In the first three centuries of the Christian era, many of Peter's successors as bishops of Rome are obscure figures, most suffering martyrdom along with members of their flock in periods of persecution.
The
During the Roman Empire (until 493)
Early Christianity
Roman-Catholics recognize the pope as both the successor to
Today we have kept the holy Lord's day, on which we have read your letter, which we shall ever possess to read and to be admonished, even as the former one written to us through Clement ...[9]
Many[
Many of the bishops of Rome in the first three centuries of the Christian era are obscure figures. However, most of Peter's claimed successors in the first three centuries following his life are said[by whom?] to have suffered martyrdom along with members of their flock in periods of persecution.
From Constantine (312–493)
The legend surrounding the victory of
The "
Although the "Donation" never occurred, Constantine did hand over the Lateran Palace to the bishop of Rome, and around 310 AD began the construction of Basilica of Constantine in Germany, called Aula Palatina.
Emperor Constantine also erected the Old St. Peter's Basilica, or Constantinian Basilica, the current location of the current, Renaissance era, St. Peter's Basilica within the Vatican, on the place of St. Peter's burial, as held by the Catholic community of Rome, after his conversion to Catholicism.
Pope Leo I (440–461), also called Leo the Great, was so influential that he was later named a Doctor of the Church, a distinction he shares with only one other pope (Gregory I). During his papacy, the term Pope (which previously meant any bishop) came to exclusively mean the Bishop of Rome.[14]
Middle Ages (493–1417)
Ostrogothic Papacy (493–537)
The Ostrogothic Papacy period ran from 493 to 537. The papal election of March 483 was the first to take place without the existence of a Western Roman emperor. The papacy was strongly influenced by the Ostrogothic Kingdom, though the pope was not outright appointed by the Ostrogothic King. The selection and administration of popes during this period was strongly influenced by Theodoric the Great and his successors Athalaric and Theodahad. This period ended with Justinian I's reconquest of Italy and City of Rome itself during the Gothic War, inaugurating the Byzantine Papacy (537–752).
The role of the Ostrogoths became clear in the first schism, when, on November 22, 498, two men were elected pope. The subsequent triumph of Pope Symmachus (498–514) over Antipope Laurentius is the first recorded example of simony in papal history.[15] Symmachus also instituted the practice of popes naming their own successors, which held until an unpopular choice was made in 530, and discord continued until the selection in 532 of John II, the first to rename himself upon succession.
Byzantine Papacy (537–752)
The
With the exception of
The Duchy of Rome was a Byzantine district in the Exarchate of Ravenna, ruled by an imperial functionary with the title dux. Within the exarchate, the two chief districts were the country about Ravenna where the exarch was the centre of Byzantine opposition to the Lombards, and the Duchy of Rome, which embraced the lands of Latium north of the Tiber and of Campania to the south as far as the Garigliano. There the pope himself was the soul of the opposition.
The pains were taken, as long as possible, to retain control of the intervening districts and with them communication over the Apennine mountains. In 728, the Lombard King Liutprand took the Castle of Sutri, on the road to Perugia, but restored it to Pope Gregory II "as a gift to the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul". The popes continued to acknowledge the imperial Government.
In 738, the Lombard duke Transamund of Spoleto captured the Castle of Gallese, which protected the road to Perugia. By a large payment, Pope Gregory III induced the duke to restore the castle to him.
Frankish influence (756–857)
In 751,
The pope anointed Pepin at the abbey of St Denis, near Paris, together with Pepin's two young sons Charles and Carloman. Pepin duly invaded northern Italy in 754, and again in 756. Pepin was able to drive the Lombards from the territory belonging to Ravenna but he did not restore it to its rightful owner, the Byzantine emperor. Instead, he handed over large areas of central Italy to the pope and his successors.
The land given to pope Stephen in 756, in the so-called Donation of Pepin, made the papacy a temporal power and for the first time created an incentive for secular leaders to interfere with papal succession. This territory would become the basis for the Papal States, over which the popes ruled until the Papal States were incorporated into the new Kingdom of Italy in 1870. For the next eleven centuries, the story of Rome would be almost synonymous with the story of the papacy.
After being physically attacked by his enemies in the streets of Rome, Pope Leo III made his way in 799 through the Alps to visit Charlemagne at Paderborn.
It is not known what was agreed between the two, but Charlemagne traveled to Rome in 800 to support the pope. In a ceremony in St Peter's Basilica, on Christmas Day, Leo was supposed to anoint Charlemagne's son as his heir. But unexpectedly (it is maintained), as Charlemagne rose from prayer, the pope placed a crown on his head and acclaimed him emperor. It is reported that Charlemagne expressed displeasure but nevertheless accepted the honour.
Charlemagne's successor, "Louis the Pious", intervened in the papal election by supporting the claim of Pope Eugene II; the popes henceforth were required to swear loyalty to the Frankish Emperor.[18] Papal subjects were made to swear loyalty to the Frankish Emperor and the consecration of the pope could be performed only in the presence of the Emperor's representatives.[19] The consecration of Pope Gregory IV (827-844), chosen by the Roman nobles, was delayed for six months to attain the assent of Louis.[18][20] Pope Sergius II (844-847), choice of the Roman nobility, was consecrated without reference to Emperor Lothaire, the latter sent his son Louis with an army,[21] and only when "Sergius succeeded in pacifying Louis, whom he crowned king" did Lothair I side with Sergius II.[21]
Influence of powerful Roman families (904–1048)
The period beginning with the installation of Pope Sergius III in 904 and lasting for sixty years until the death of Pope John XII in 964 is sometimes referred to as Saeculum obscurum or the "dark age." Historian Will Durant refers to the period from 867 to 1049 as the "nadir of the papacy".[22]
During this period, the
Conflicts with the Emperor and East (1048–1257)
The Imperial crown once held by the Carolingian emperors was disputed between their fractured heirs and local overlords; none emerged victorious until
The history of the papacy from 1048 to 1257 would continue to be marked by conflict between popes and the
Long-standing divisions between East and West also came to a head in the
Unlike the previous millennium, the process for papal selection became somewhat fixed during this period. Pope Nicholas II promulgated In nomine Domini in 1059, which limited suffrage in papal elections to the College of Cardinals. The rules and procedures of papal elections evolved during this period, laying the groundwork for the modern papal conclave. The driving force behind these reforms was Cardinal Hildebrand, who later became Gregory VII.
The wandering popes (1257–1309)
The pope is the
According to Eamon Duffy, "aristocratic factions within the city of Rome once again made it an insecure base for a stable papal government. Innocent IV was exiled from Rome and even from Italy for six years, and all but two of the papal elections of the thirteenth century had to take place outside Rome. The skyline of Rome itself was now dominated by the fortified war-towers of the aristocracy (a hundred were built in Innocent IV's pontificate alone) and the popes increasingly spent their time in the papal palaces at Viterbo and Orvieto."[26]
Avignon Papacy (1309–1377)
During this period, seven popes, all French, resided in Avignon starting in 1309: Pope Clement V (1305–14), Pope John XXII (1316–34), Pope Benedict XII (1334–42), Pope Clement VI (1342–52), Pope Innocent VI (1352–62), Pope Urban V (1362–70), Pope Gregory XI (1370–78). The papacy was controlled by the French King in this time. In 1378, Gregory XI moved the papal residence back to Rome and died there.
Western Schism (1378–1417)
The French cardinals withdrew to a conclave of their own, where they elected one of their number, Robert of Geneva. He took the name Clement VII. This was the beginning of the period of difficulty from 1378 to 1417 which Catholic scholars refer to as the "Western Schism" or, "the great controversy of the antipopes" (also called "the second great schism" by some secular and Protestant historians), when parties within the Catholic Church were divided in their allegiances among the various claimants to the office of pope. The Council of Constance, in 1417, finally resolved the controversy.
Another council was convened in 1414 at Constance. In March 1415, the Pisan antipope, John XXIII, fled from Constance in disguise; he was brought back a prisoner and deposed in May. The Roman pope, Gregory XII, resigned voluntarily in July.
The council in Constance, having finally cleared the field of popes and antipopes, elected Pope Martin V as pope in November.
Early Modern and Modern Era (1417–present)
Renaissance Papacy (1417–1534)
From the election of Pope Martin V of the Council of Constance in 1417 to the Reformation, Western Christianity was largely free from schism as well as significant disputed papal claimants. Martin V returned the papacy to Rome in 1420. Although there were important divisions over the direction of the religion, these were resolved through the then-settled procedures of the papal conclave.
Unlike their European peers, popes were not hereditary monarchs, so they could only promote their family interests through nepotism.[27] The word nepotism originally referred specifically to the practice of creating cardinal-nephews, when it appeared in the English language about 1669.[28] According to Duffy, "the inevitable outcome of all of this was a creation of a wealthy cardinalatial class, with strong dynastic connections."[29] The college was dominated by cardinal-nephews—relatives of the popes that elevated them, crown-cardinals—representatives of the Catholic monarchies of Europe, and members of the powerful Italian families. The wealthy popes and cardinals increasingly patronized Renaissance art and architecture, (re)building the landmarks of Rome from the ground up.
The Papal States began to resemble a modern nation state during this period, and the papacy took an increasingly active role in European wars and diplomacy. Pope Julius II become known as "the Warrior Pope" for his use of bloodshed to increase the territory and property of the papacy.[30] The popes of this period used the papal military not only to enrich themselves and their families, but also to enforce and expand upon the longstanding territorial and property claims of the papacy as an institution.[31] Although, before the Western Schism, the papacy had derived much of its revenue from the "vigorous exercise of its spiritual office," during this period the popes were financially dependent on the revenues from the Papal States themselves. With ambitious expenditures on war and construction projects, popes turned to new sources of revenue from the sale of indulgences and bureaucratic and ecclesiastical offices.[32] Pope Clement VII's diplomatic and military campaigns resulted in the Sack of Rome in 1527.[33]
Popes were more frequently called upon to arbitrate disputes between competing colonial powers than to resolve complicated theological disputes. Columbus' discovery in 1492 upset the unstable relations between the kingdoms of Portugal and Castile, whose jockeying for possession of colonial territories along the African coast had for many years been regulated by the papal bulls of 1455, 1456, and 1479. Alexander VI responded with three bulls, dated May 3 and 4, which were highly favorable to Castile; the third Inter caetera (1493) awarded Spain the sole right to colonize most of the New World.
According to
Reformation and Counter-Reformation (1517–1580)
Baroque Papacy (1585–1689)
The pontificate of Pope Sixtus V (1585–1590) opened up the final stage of the Catholic Reformation, characteristic of the Baroque age of the early seventeenth century, shifting away from compelling to attracting. His reign focused on rebuilding Rome as a great European capital and Baroque city, a visual symbol for the Catholic Church.
During the Age of Revolution (1775–1848)
Roman Question (1870–1929)
The last eight years of his long pontificate – the longest in church history – Pope Pius IX spent as prisoner of the Vatican. Catholics were forbidden to vote or be voted for in national elections. However, they were permitted to participate in local elections, where they achieved successes.[34] Pius himself was active during those years by creating new diocesan seats and appointing bishops to numerous dioceses, which had been unoccupied for years. Asked if he wanted his successor to follow his Italian policies, the old pontiff replied:
My successor may be inspired by my love to the Church and my wish to do the right thing. Everything changed around me. My system and my policies had their time, I am too old to change direction. This will be the task of my successor.[35]
His encyclicals changed church positions on relations with temporal authorities, and, in the 1891 encyclical
From the creation of Vatican City (1929)
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The pontificate of
Negotiations for the settlement of the
The
A national concordat with Germany was one of Pacelli's main objectives as secretary of state. As nuncio during the 1920s, he had made unsuccessful attempts to obtain German agreement for such a treaty, and between 1930 and 1933 he attempted to initiate negotiations with representatives of successive German governments, but the opposition of Protestant and Socialist parties, the instability of national governments and the care of the individual states to guard their autonomy thwarted this aim. In particular, the questions of denominational schools and pastoral work in the armed forces prevented any agreement on the national level, despite talks in the winter of 1932.[40][41]
Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor on 30 January 1933 and sought to gain international respectability and to remove internal opposition by representatives of the church and the Catholic Centre Party. He sent his vice chancellor Franz von Papen, a Catholic nobleman and former member of the Centre Party, to Rome to offer negotiations about a Reichskonkordat.[42] On behalf of Cardinal Pacelli, his long-time associate Prelate Ludwig Kaas, the out-going chairman of the Centre Party, negotiated first drafts of the terms with Papen.[43] The concordat was finally signed, by Pacelli for the Vatican and von Papen for Germany, on 20 July and ratified on September 10, 1933.[44]
Between 1933 and 1939, Pacelli issued 55 protests of violations of the Reichskonkordat. Most notably, early in 1937, Pacelli asked several German cardinals, including Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber to help him write a protest of Nazi violations of the Reichskonkordat; this was to become Pius XI's encyclical Mit brennender Sorge. The encyclical, condemning the view that "exalts race, or the people, or the State, or a particular form of State … above their standard value and divinizes them to an idolatrous level", was written in German instead of Latin and read in German churches on Palm Sunday 1937.[45]
World War II (1939–1945)
When Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, the Vatican declared neutrality to avoid being drawn into the conflict and also to avoid occupation by the Italian military. The Church policies after World War II of Pope Pius XII focused on material aid to war-torn Europe with its 15 million displaced persons and refugees, an internal internationalization of the Catholic Church, and the development of its worldwide diplomatic relations. His encyclical Evangelii praecones[46] increased the local decision-making of Catholic missions, many of which became independent dioceses. Pius XII demanded recognition of local cultures as fully equal to European culture.[47][48] He internationalized the College of Cardinals by eliminating the Italian majority and appointed cardinals from Asia, South America and Australia. In Western Africa[49] Southern Africa[50] British Eastern Africa, Finland, Burma and French Africa Pope Pius established independent dioceses in 1955.
While after years of rebuilding the church thrived in the West and most of the developing world, it faced most serious persecutions in the East. Sixty million Catholics came under Soviet dominated regimes in 1945, with tens of thousands of priests and religious killed, and millions deported into Soviet and Chinese Gulags. The communist regimes in Albania, Bulgaria, Romania and China practically eradicated the Catholic Church in their countries[51]
From Vatican II (1962–1965) to the present
On October 11, 1962, Pope John XXIII opened the Second Ecumenical Vatican Council. The 21st ecumenical council of the Catholic Church emphasized the universal call to holiness and brought many changes in practices. On December 7, 1965, a Joint Catholic-Orthodox Declaration of Pope Paul VI and the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I lifted the mutual excommunication against Catholic and Orthodox which had been in force since the Great Schism of 1054.
The bishops agreed that the pope exercises supreme authority over the church, but defined "collegiality", meaning that all bishops share in this authority. Local bishops have equal authority as successors of the Apostles and as members of a larger organization, the church founded by Jesus Christ and entrusted to the apostles. The pope serves as a symbol of unity and has additional authority to ensure the continuation of that unity. During the Second Vatican Council, Catholic bishops drew back a bit from statements which might anger Christians of other faiths.[52] Cardinal Augustin Bea, the President of the Christian Unity Secretariat had always the full support of Pope Paul VI in his attempts to ensure that the Council language is friendly and open to the sensitivities of Protestant and Orthodox Churches, whom he had invited to all sessions at the request of Pope John XXIII. Bea also was strongly involved in the passage of Nostra aetate, which regulates relation of the church with the Jewish faith and members of other religions[53][54]
He became the first pope to visit all five continents.
An inner joy seems to have been a characteristic of Paul VI. His confessor, the
With the accession of
But this world without God exists under capitalism too. Therefore, as did his predecessors, John Paul reiterated Christianity's defense of the human person, and warned against the dangers of capitalism, particularly in Centesimus annus. "Unfortunately, not everything the West proposes as a theoretical vision or as a concrete lifestyle reflects Gospel values."
The long pontificate of John Paul is credited with re-creating a sense of stability and even identity to the Catholic Church after years of questioning and searching.[64] His teaching was firm and unwavering on issues which seemed to be in doubt under his predecessor including the ordination of women, liberation theology and priestly celibacy.[65] He virtually stopped the liberal laicisation of problem priests policy of Pope Paul VI,[66] which inadvertently may have contributed to problems in the USA.[67] His authoritative style was reminiscent of Pope Pius XII, whose teaching he repeated in his own words, such as the identity of the Catholic Church with the Body of Christ and his condemnations of capitalism "viruses": secularism, indifferentism, hedonistic consumerism, practical materialism, and also formal atheism.[68]
As always after a long pontificate, a new page was opened in the history of the church with the election of a new pope. Pope Benedict XVI was elected in 2005. In his inaugural homily, the new Pontiff explained his view of a relation with Christ:
Are we not perhaps all afraid in some way? If we let Christ enter fully into our lives, if we open ourselves totally to Him, are we not afraid that He might take something away from us? […] No! If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and great. No! Only in this friendship do we experience beauty and liberation […] When we give ourselves to Him, we receive a hundredfold in return. Yes, open, open wide the doors to Christ – and you will find true life.[69]
On February 11, 2013, Pope Benedict XVI announced that he would tender his resignation on February 28, 2013, less than three weeks later. On March 13, 2013, Pope Francis—the first Jesuit pope and the first pope from the Americas—was elected to the papacy.
See also
- List of popes
- Papal States
- Papal Zouaves
- Index of Vatican City-related articles
References
- ^ Roger Collins, Keepers of the Keys: A History of the Papacy (2009).
- ^ "Papacy". Catholic Answers. Retrieved 2023-01-14.
- ^ Catechism of the Catholic Church (2nd ed.). Libreria Editrice Vaticana. 2019. Paragraph 881.
- ^ Kirsch, Johann Peter. "St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles." Archived 2019-01-06 at the Wayback Machine The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 21 Jul. 2014
- ^ Joyce, G. H. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).
- ISBN 978-0-19-826695-2..
- ^ "Second Vatican Council". p. 22. Archived from the original on 2014-09-06.
- ^ "Pageant of the Popes: First Century".
- ^ "CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Dionysius".
- ^ The Early Christian Church by Chadwick
- ^ Baumgartner, 2003, p. 6.
- ^ "CONSTANTINE THE GREAT (A.D. 312-37): HIS LIFE, RISE TO POWER AND ACHIEVEMENTS | Facts and Details".
- ISBN 0-415-31937-4
- ^ Asimov, Isaac (1967) The Roman Empire, Houghton Mifflin: Boston, p. 236
- ^ Richards, 1979, p. 70.
- ^ "Löffler, Klemens. "Ostrogoths." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 21 Jul. 2014". Archived from the original on 2019-07-12. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
- ^ Goodson, 2010, p. 13.
- ^ a b Baumgartner, 2003, p. 14.
- ^ Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. .
- ^ Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. .
- ^ a b Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. .
- ^ Durant, Will. The Age of Faith. New York: Simon and Schuster. 1972, p. 537.
- ^ Brook, Lindsay (2003). "Popes and Pornocrats: Rome in the early middle ages". Foundations. 1 (1): 5–21.
- ISBN 978-1-4000-6715-2.
- ISBN 978-1-4000-6715-2.
- ^ Duffy, 2006, p. 156.
- ^ a b Spielvogel, 2008, p. 369.
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary. September 2003. "Nepotism"
- ^ a b c Duffy, 2006, p. 193.
- ^ Spielvogel, 2008, p. 368.
- ^ Duffy, 2006, p. 190.
- ^ Duffy, 2006, p. 194.
- ^ Duffy, 2006, p. 206.
- ^ Schmidlin 119.
- ^ Schmidlin 109.
- ^ Schmidlin 409.
- ^ Schmidlin 413.
- ^ Schmidlin 414.
- ^ in his book Die Arbeiterfrage und das Chistentum
- ^ Ludwig Volk Das Reichskonkordat vom 20. Juli 1933, p. 34f., 45–58.
- ^ Klaus Scholder "The Churches and the Third Reich" volume 1: especially Part 1, chapter 10; Part 2, chapter 2
- ^ Volk, p. 98-101. Feldkamp, 88–93.
- ^ Volk, p. 101,105.
- ^ Volk, p. 254.
- ^ Phayer 2000, p. 16; Sanchez 2002, p. 16-17.
- ^ issued on June 2, 1951
- ^ Audience for the directors of mission activities in 1944 A.A.S., 1944, p. 208.
- ^ Evangelii praecones. p. 56.
- ^ in 1951,
- ^ 1953
- ^ see Persecutions of the Catholic Church and Pius XII
- ^ Peter Heblethwaite, Paul VI
- ^ October 28, 1965
- Humanae Vitae
- ^ Graham, Paul VI, A Great Pontificate, Brescia, November 7, 1983, 75
- ^ a b c d Graham, 76.
- ^ Pallenberg, Inside the Vatican, 107,
- ^ Guitton, 159
- ^ a b Josef Schmitz van Vorst, 68
- ^ Hebblethwaite,339
- ^ Hebblethwaite, 600
- ^ "The pope started this chain of events that led to the end of communism," Wałęsa said. "Before his pontificate, the world was divided into blocs. Nobody knew how to get rid of communism. "He simply said: Don't be afraid, change the image of this land."
- ^ "What has happened in Eastern Europe in recent years would not have been possible without the presence of this Pope, without the great role even political that he has played on the world scene" (quoted in La Stampa, March 3, 1992).
- ^ George Weigel, Witness to Hope, biography of Pope John Paul II
- ^ Redemptor Hominis Orinatio 'Sacercotalis
- ^ Peter Hebblethwaite, Paul VI New York, 1993
- ^ According to some critics like Hans Küng in his 2008 autobiography
- ^ see Anni sacri
- ^ Vatican.va – Homily on Christ Archived 2009-03-09 at the Wayback Machine
Further reading
- Adiele, Pius Onyemechi. The Popes, the Catholic Church and the Transatlantic Enslavement of Black Africans 1418–1839 (Georg Olms Verlag, 2017).
- Aradi, Zsolt. The Popes: The History Of How They Are Chosen Elected And Crowned (1955) online
- Bauer, Stefan. (2020): The Invention of Papal History: Onofrio Panvinio between Renaissance and Catholic Reform. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198807001
- Buttler, Scott; Norman Dahlgren; David Hess (1997). Jesus, Peter & the Keys: A Scriptural Handbook on the Papacy. Santa Barbara: Queenship. ISBN 978-1-882972-54-8.
- Chadwick, Owen, The Popes and European revolution (Oxford UP, 1981) online. covers 1789 to 1815
- Chadwick, Owen. A history of the popes, 1830–1914 (Oxford UP, 1998), scholarly online
- Collins, Roger (2009). Keepers of the Keys: A History of the Papacy. Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-01195-7.
- Coppa, Frank J. The Papacy in the Modern World: A Political History (2014) online review
- Coppa, Frank J. ed. The great popes through history: an encyclopedia (2 vol, 2002) online
- Duffy, Eamon (2006). Saints & Sinners (3 ed.). New Haven Ct: Yale Nota Bene/Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-11597-0.
- Fletcher, Stella. The Popes and Britain: a history of rule, rupture and reconciliation (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2017).
- Lascelles, Christopher. Pontifex Maximus: A Short History of the Popes (Crux Publishing Ltd, 2017).
- Mcbrien, Richard (1997). Lives of the Popes: The Pontiffs from St. Peter to John Paul II. San Francisco: Harper San Francisco. ISBN 978-0-06-065304-0.
- McCabe, Joseph (1939). A History of the Popes. London.: Watts & Co.
- Maxwell-Stuart, P. (1997). Chronicle of the Popes: The Reign-by-Reign Record of the Papacy over 2000 Years. London: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-01798-2.
- ISBN 978-1-4000-6715-2., popular history
- O’Malley, S.J., John W. The Jesuits and the Popes: A Historical Sketch of Their Relationship (2016)
- Pennington, Arthur Robert (1882). Epochs of the Papacy: From Its Rise to the Death of Pope Pius IX. in 1878. G. Bell and Sons.
- Rendina, Claudio (2002). The Popes: Histories and Secrets. Washington: Seven Locks Press. ISBN 978-1-931643-13-9.
- Schatz, Klaus. Papal Primacy from its Origins to the Present (Collegeville, MN, 1996).
- Schimmelpfennig, Bernhard. The Papacy (New York, 1992)
- Toropov, Brandon (2002). The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Popes and the Papacy. Indianapolis: Alpha Books. ISBN 978-0-02-864290-1., popular history
- Vaughan, Herbert. The Medici Popes (Jovian Press, 2018).
Early and Medieval
- Barraclough, Geoffrey (1979). The Medieval Papacy. New York: Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-95100-4.
- Dunn, Geoffrey D., ed. The bishop of Rome in late antiquity (Routledge, 2016), scholarly essays.
- Housely, Norman. The Avignon Papacy and the Crusades (Oxford UP, 1986).
- Larson, Atria, and Keith Sisson, eds. A Companion to the Medieval Papacy: Growth of an Ideology and Institution (Brill, 2016) online
- Moorhead, John. The Popes and the Church of Rome in Late Antiquity (Routledge, 2015)
- Noble, Thomas F.X. "The Papacy in the Eighth and Ninth Centuries". New Cambridge Medieval History, v. 2: c. 700–c.900, ed. Rosamund McKiterrick (Cambridge UP, 1995).
- Robinson, Ian Stuart. The Papacy, 1073–1198: Continuity and Innovation (Cambridge, 1990).
- Richards, Jeffrey. Popes and the Papacy in the Early Middle Ages, 476–752 (London, 1979).
- Setton, Kenneth M. The Papacy and the Levant, 1204–1571 (4 vols. Philadelphia, 1976–1984)
- Sotinel, Claire. "Emperors and Popes in the Sixth Century". in The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Justinian, ed. Michael Maas (Cambridge UP, 2005).
- Sullivan, Francis (2001). From Apostles to Bishops: The Development of the Episcopacy in the Early Church. New York: Newman Press. ISBN 978-0-8091-0534-2.
- Ullmann, Walter. A short history of the papacy in the Middle Ages. (1960) online