A vivid and revealing history of one of the most enduring and influential of human institutions.Clear-eyed and judicious - this is the first complete history by an non-Catholic.A single-volume history of the Papacy is a rare achievement.Roger Collins has mastered the vast literature on papal history and used the riches of the Vatican Library in Rome, as well as accounts by such outsiders as ambassadors and spies.The narrative includes vivid portraits of individual popes and their policies, the development of the Curia, the administration of the Papal States, issues of theology and canon law, the papacy's relationship with the city of Rome, the long tradition of artistic patronage, and much more.Analyses the contemporary controversies that divide the billion-strong worldwide Catholic community.'Few historians write as engagingly and wittily as Roger Collins. This is a wonderful, magnificent account of an institution that has touched the lives of millions and still does' ALEXANDER MCCALL SMITH'Always accessible .

impeccably fair and even detached when it comes to analysing controversial actions. [A] vast and admirable tome' SUNDAY TIMES.