The Modern Papacy Since 1798

Book excerpt: This initial volume runs from the French Revolution to the fall of the Soviet Union. It ends with the pontificate of John Paul II, the first non-Italian pope since 1522. Its central theme is the response of this most ancient of institutions to the multiplying challenges of the modern age. The book begins with the philosophical upheaval brought about by the Enlightenment and the ensuing French and industrial revolutions. The intellectual, political and economic changes they inspired were to dominate the nineteenth century and continue to shadow, and shape, our own time. They challenged not only the traditional political order, but the religious establishment as well. As a result, the Papacy found its authority questioned and its power curtailed.