Introduction
Prelude. The Legate
PART I. GREGORY IX
Chapter 1. A Contested Vow
Chapter 2. Reforming the Peace
Chapter 3. The Widening Gyre
Chapter 4. Christendom in Crisis
Interlude. The Vacancy
PART II. INNOCENT IV
Chapter 5. A New Hope
Chapter 6. The Council
Chapter 7. Christendom at War
Chapter 8. The Price of Victory
Postlude. The Afterworld
Epilogue
List of Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
Covering decades that included the last major crusades, the birth of the Inquisition, and the unexpected invasion of the Mongols, The Two Powers shows how Popes Gregory and Innocent's battles with Emperor Frederick shaped the political circumstances of the thirteenth-century papacy and its role in the public life of medieval Christendom.
Brett Edward Whalen is Associate Professor of History at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is author of The Medieval Papacy and Dominion of God: Christendom and Apocalypse in the Middle Ages.
"[A] penetrating look at the incredible power struggles of
13th-century Europe…Whalen has written a wise, in-depth, and
passionate account of the struggle of the two 13th-century Popes
Gregory the IX and Innocent the IV, both of whom were determined to
put their political agendas ahead of the Church and their own
priestly roles...This is an easy book to read, especially for
anyone interested in the history, religion, and politics of the
medieval world. It is well written, and the well-organized ideas
help readers understand specific regions, topics, and periods. This
is the resource book lecturers and students have been waiting
for."
*Reading Religion*
"The Two Powers offers a new and convincing statement on the
relations between papacy and empire in the first half of the
thirteenth century and demolishes the current rather simplistic
assessments of papal attitudes to Frederick II."
*R. N. Swanson, University of Birmingham*
"Brett Edward Whalen narrates engagingly with a wonderful eye for
the telling detail or anecdote. Never the cheerleader nor the
scold, he looks carefully at all sides in each major stage of the
ongoing confrontation between Frederick II and the popes and makes
an original contribution of paradigmatic significance."
*Thomas F. X. Noble, University of Notre Dame*
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