We follow the paths by which the bishops of Rome – leaders of what had been a small church on the fringe of the Christian world – established themselves as the foremost spiritual leaders of Western Christendom and with time, as supreme heads of the global Catholic Church. We follow the dramatic turns in the Papacy’s fortunes, as Popes alternate between pinnacles of power and prestige, commanding lands and armies, launching Crusades and outwitting emperors, and extreme lows of feebleness and humiliation, overruled by councils and overthrown by foreign kings. We consider how the Papacy made use of the Renaissance and struggled to respond to the Protestant Reformation—before examining the history of the modern Papacy and the more recent Popes for Part 2.

Suggested further reading: Norwich, “Absolute Monarchs : A History of the Papacy”; La Due, “The Chair of Saint Peter : A History of the Papacy”

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Image: Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, offering submission to Pope Alexander III, as part of Treaty of Venice, 1177, as depcited in a fresco in Palazzo Pubblico, Siena, by Spinello Aretino, ca. 1407