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Author Collins, Paul, 1940- author

Title Absolute power : how the pope became the most influential man in the world / Paul Collins
Edition First edition
Published New York : PublicAffairs, 2018
©2018

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Location Call no. Vol. Availability
 W'PONDS  262.13 Col/Aph  AVAILABLE
Description xv, 366 pages : map ; 25 cm
Contents Part I. Extinction? -- A death in Valence -- The "new consciousness" and "neo-ultramontanism" -- Part II. From "supreme power" to supreme pontiff -- Tackling a whole new world -- "God and the revolver!" -- "Obbedire, Obey" -- Pontificating on everything -- Part III. Rolling out and rolling back Vatican II -- Good Pope John -- "Throwing open the windows" -- The Polish colossus -- Part IV. "The smell of the sheep" -- "Reform of the reform" -- The "field hospital" -- Death and resurrection
Summary "In 1799, the papacy was at rock bottom: The Papal States had been swept away and Rome seized by the revolutionary French armies. With cardinals scattered across Europe and the next papal election uncertain, even if Catholicism survived, it seemed the papacy was finished. In this gripping narrative of religious and political history, Paul Collins tells the improbable success story of the last 220 years of the papacy, from the unexalted death of Pope Pius VI in 1799 to the celebrity of Pope Francis today. In a strange contradiction, as the papacy has lost its physical power--its armies and states--and remained stubbornly opposed to the currents of social and scientific consensus, it has only increased its influence and political authority in the world"--
The sensational story of the last two centuries of the papacy, its most influential pontiffs, troubling doctrines, and rise in global authority
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 329-348) and index
Subject Papacy -- History.
Popes -- Temporal power.
Roman question.
SUBJECT Papal States -- History -- 1815-1870. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85097566
Vatican City http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n80053295 -- History. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh99005024
LC no. 2018932568
ISBN 1610398602
9781610398602