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.

"[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 (on the previous edition)"[T]races the history of the papacy from its humble beginnings . . . with St. Peter, to the distinctly different institution . . . [of] today."—Washington Post Book World

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.

"[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 (on the previous edition)"[T]races the history of the papacy from its humble beginnings . . . with St. Peter, to the distinctly different institution . . . [of] today."—Washington Post Book World

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.

"[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 (on the previous edition)"[T]races the history of the papacy from its humble beginnings . . . with St. Peter, to the distinctly different institution . . . [of] today."—Washington Post Book World