Saints & sinners: a history of the Popes

'Upon this rock' c. AD 33-461. From Jerusalem to Rome ; The Bishops of Rome ; The age of Constantine ; The birth of papal Rome.

Between two empires 461-1000. Under Gothic kings ; The age of Gregory the Great ; The Byzantine captivity of the papacy ; Empires of the West.

Set above nations 1000-1447. The era of papal reform ; From papal reform to papal monarchy ; The pinnacle of papal power ; Exile and schism.

Protest and division 1477-1774. The Renaissance popes ; The crisis of Christendom ; The Counter-Reformation ; The popes in an age of absolutism.

The pope and the people 1774-1903. The church and the revolution ; From recovery to reaction ; Pio Nono: the triumph of ultramontanism ; Ultramontanism with a liberal face: the reign of Leo XIII.

The oracles of God 1903-2005. The age of intransigence ; The attack on modernism ; The age of the dictators ; The age of Vatican II ; Papa Wojtyla ; The way we live now.

Appendix A: Chronological list of popes and antipopes.

Appendix B: Glossary.

Appendix C: How a new pope is made.