Covers the last years of John Paul II and the election of Benedict XVI. This book encompasses the history of the papacy, from its beginnings.

About the Author

Eamon Duffy, Professor of the History of Christianity, and Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge, is also the author of The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, 1400-1580 and The Voices of Morebath, both published by Yale University Press.

Reviews

With characteristic flair, the sour Latinist Tertullian called Rome "the happy church on which the Apostles poured forth all their teaching together with their blood." Such emotional extremes, axiomatic of Tertullian, apply equally to papal histories, often given to the heights and depths of spiritual excitement. Duffy (Magdalene Coll., Cambridge) offers this abundantly illustrated, amiably presented history to accompany a multinational television series for Britain, France, and Ireland. Such a pedigree often provokes disdain among bookish sorts, but Duffy's scholarship and enthusiasm overcome the book's populist roots. While not necessarily uncovering anything strikingly new and more akin to a handbook than a treatise, this work merits applause for providing a people's papal retrospective. Those wishing for heavier intellectual discourse should seek out Owen Chadwick's The Popes and European Revolution (1981) or practically anything by Peter Hebblethwaite.‘Sandra Collins, Northern Tier Lib., Pittsburgh

"A minor masterpiece which is everything good, popular history ought to be... The most comprehensive single-volume history of the popes in print." John Adamson, Sunday Telegraph "... will intrigue the faithful as well as the skeptical." Economist "Duffy enlivens the long march through church history with anecdotes that bring the different pontiffs to life... Saints and Sinners is a remarkable achievement." Piers Paul Read, The Times, London "Will fascinate anyone wishing to better understand the history of the Catholic Church and the forces that have shaped the role of the papacy." Gloria J. Tysl, Christian Century"

In this lavishly illustrated and elegantly written book, Duffy, a church historian and fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge, traces the history of the papacy from its establishment in the first centuries of the common era to the present reign of Pope John Paul II. Duffy explores the development of the institution of the papacy in each succeeding generation. In his first chapter, Duffy confirms that the tradition of tracing the papacy's roots to the Apostle Peter can be found even in early Christian writers like Ignatius of Antioch, but he contends that the institution of the papacy had its true beginnings in the "monarchic episcopate," or the rule of a single bishop in Rome, of the second century A.D. Duffy offers a portrait of an institution experiencing the pains of growth through the great schisms and reform movements of the Middle Ages as well as an institution growing so powerful and influential that it has "outlived not merely the Roman and Byzantine empires, but those of medieval Germany, Spain, Britain, and the Third Reich of Hitler." In showing both the good and evil that he believes have arisen from the institution of the papacy, Duffy provides a balanced history that will be useful to people of all faiths. (Nov.) FYI: Saints and Sinners features 165 color illustrations and 50 b&w illustrations. The book is the official publication of a six-part TV series of the same title that is scheduled to appear in 1998 on the History Channel.