Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes; Fourth Edition (84 page)

For Savonarola: R. Ridolfi,
The Life of Girolamo Savonarola
, New York 1959; D. Weinstein,
Savonarola and Florence: Prophecy and Patriotism in the Renaissance
, Princeton, New Jersey 1970. Catholic reforming texts in J. C. Olin (ed.),
The Catholic Reformation: Savonarola to Ignatius Loyola: Reform in the Church 1495–1540
, New York 1969.

There are hundreds of books on Erasmus: R. H. Bainton,
Erasmus of Rotterdam
, New York 1969, is a basic narrative: see also R. J. Schoeck,
Erasmus and Europe: The Making of a Humanist
, Edinburgh 1990; A. G. Dickens and W. R. D. Jones,
Erasmus the Reformer
, London 1994. In some ways the liveliest introduction is still the delightfully prejudiced and vivid Victorian life, copiously illustrated from the letters, by J. A. Froude,
Life and Letters of Erasmus
, London 1895. There is an English translation of the Julius Exclusus by J. Kelley Sowards,
The Julius Exclusus of Erasmus
, Bloomington, Indiana 1968.

On Lateran V and Trent, see H. Jedin,
History of the Council of Trent
, London 1957–, although only two of the five volumes have been translated into English, they are available in French and Italian, as well as German.

There are hundreds of books on Luther. A good introduction is E. G. Rupp,
Luther’s Progress to the Diet of Worms, 1521
, London 1951; good biography by R. H. Bainton,
Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther
, New York 1950; the German context (and anti-papalism) explored in A. G. Dickens,
The German Nation and Martin Luther
, London 1974. Overviews of the reformation in S. Ozment,
The Age of Reform
, New Haven and London 1980 and H. J. Grimm,
The Reformation Era, 1500–1650
, London 1973. German pictorial propaganda dealt with in R. W. Scribner,
For the Sake of Simple Folk: Popular Propaganda for the German Reformation
, Cambridge 1981.

On the Sack of Rome: J. Hook,
The Sack of Rome
, London 1972; A. Chastel,
The Sack of Rome 1527
, Princeton, New Jersey 1983; the account in volume 9 of Pastor,
History of the Popes
is vivid and remains worth reading.

There are several good short overviews of the Counter-Reformation, of which the best is probably Robert Bireley,
The Refashioning of Catholicism, 1450–1700
, London 1999; R, Po-Chia Hsia,
The World of Catholic Renewal 1540–1770
, Cambridge 1998; M. D. W. Jones,
The Counterreformation: Religion and Society in Early Modern Europe
, Cambridge 1995, presents a well-chosen anthology of documents; J. Delumeau,
Catholicism Between Luther and Voltaire
, London 1977, is brilliant and gripping, but extreme in its interpretation of the ‘newness’ of Counter-Reformation Catholicism; H. O. Evennett,
The Spirit of the Counter-Reformation
, Cambridge 1968, is a set of brilliant interpretative lectures, but not very useful for beginners.

The best treatment of the ‘Spirituali’ is D. Fenlon,
Heresy and Obedience in Tridentine Italy
, Cambridge 1972; of the Jesuits by J. W. O’Malley,
The First Jesuits
, Cambridge, Massachusetts 1993. In some ways (and until Fenlon’s projected biography of Philip Neri appears) the best work on the religion of sixteenth-century Rome is L. Ponnelle and L. Bordet,
St. Philip Neri and the Roman Society of His Times 1515-1595
, London 1932. A fascinating and indispensable contemporary assessment of Rome in the years immediately after the Jubilee of 1575 is Gregory Martin’s
Roma Sancta 1581
, Rome 1969, which is edited by G. B. Parks.

The crucial final phase of the Council of Trent has been treated briefly and brilliantly by H. Jedin in
Crisis and Closure of the Council of Trent
, London 1967. For Borromeo, the papacy and the Council, J. M. Headley and J. B. Tomaro,
San Carlo Borromeo: Catholic Reform and Ecclesiastical Politics in the Second Half of the Sixteenth Century
, Washington 1984, pp. 47– 63.

Surprisingly few of the Counter-Reformation popes have evoked good biographies and, apart from the relevant volumes of Pastor, there is nothing recent in English: N. Lemaître,
Saint Pie V
, Paris 1994; I. de Feo,
Sisto V: Un Grande Papa tra Rinascimento e Barocco
, Milan 1987. For the Counter-Reformation reconstruction of Rome: G. Labrot,
L’Image de Rome. Une Arme pour la Contre-Reforme 1534–1677
, Seyssel 1987; H. Gamrath,
Roma Sancta Renovata
, Rome 1987(on Sixtus V’s projects); S. Ostrow,
Art and Spirituality in Counter-Reformation Rome
, Cambridge 1996; J. Freiberg,
The Lateran in 1600: Christian Concord in Counter-Reformation Rome
, Cambridge 1995; L. Rice,
The Altars and Altarpieces of New St Peter’s: Outfitting the Basilica 1621–1666
, Cambridge 1997; Torgil Magnuson,
Rome in the Age of Bernini
, Stockholm and Atlantic Heights, New Jersey 1982–6 (2 volumes); R. Wittkower,
Art and Architecture in Italy, 1600– 1750
, Harmondsworth 1980. Irene Polverini Fosi, ‘Justice and its Image: Political Propaganda and Judicial Reality in the Pontificate of Sixtus V’,
Sixteenth Century Journal
24 (1993), pp. 75–95, examines the propagandist myth that Sixtus rid the Papal States of banditry, and in the process illuminates the objectives and self-understanding of the Counter-Reformation Papacy: the issues are explored more fully in the same author’s
La Societa Violenta. Il banditismo nello Stato pontificio nella seconda metà del Cinquecento
, Rome 1985. A. D. Wright’s
The Early Modern Papacy: from the Council of Trent to the French Revolution, 1564–1789
, London 2000, is an invaluable overview of the workings of the papacy in the Ancien Régime. A valuable survey of recent work on the Counter-Reformation papacy
is provided by Simon Ditchfield in ‘In Search of Local Knowledge: Rewriting Early Modern Italian Religious History’,
Cristianesimo nella Storia
19 (1998), pp. 255–296. The Papal Court is discussed in H. D. Fernandez, ‘The Papal Court at Rome c.1450–1700’ in John Adamson (ed.),
The Princely Courts of Europe
, London 1999, pp. 141– 63, and is set in a wider context in the essays gathered in G. Signorotto and M. A. Viscaglia (eds.),
Court and Politics in Papal Rome,1492–1700
, Cambridge 2002.

On the religious situation in the Empire in the age of the Counterreformation, R. J. W. Evans,
The Making of the Habsburg Monarchy 1550–1700
, Oxford 1979. For Venice, W. J. Bouwsma,
Venice and the Defense of Republican Liberty
, Berkeley 1968, and P. F. Grendler,
The Roman Inquisition and the Venetian Press 1540–1605
, Princeton, New Jersey 1977. For the confessional polarising of politics and the Thirty Years War: J. Lecler,
Toleration and the Reformation
, London 1960(2 volumes); C. C. Eckhardt,
The Papacy and World Affairs as Reflected in the Secularization of Politics
, Chicago 1937; G. Parker (ed.),
The Thirty Years War
, London 1984 (good political narrative and interpretation); R. Bireley,
Religion and Politics in the Age of the Counterreformation: Emperor Ferdinand II,William Lamormaini SJ, and the Formation of Imperial Policy
, Chapel Hill 1981.

On Propaganda Fide and papal missionary involvement: Delumeau,
Catholicism
, and R. H. Song,
The Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith
, Washington 1961; see also the invaluable commemorative collection,
Sacrae Congregationis de Propaganda Fide Memoria Rerum
, Freiburg 1971– 6 (3 volumes in 5).

On the pontificate of Urban VIII and Baroque Rome: Wittkower,
Art and Architecture;
F. Haskell,
Patrons and Painters: Italian Art and Society in the Age of the Baroque
, London 1963; A. Leman,
Urbain VIII et la rivalité de la France et de la Maison d’Autriche de 1631 à 1635
, Lille 1920; J. Grisar,
Päpstliche Finanzen, Nepotismus und Kirchenrecht unter Urban VIII
, Rome 1943; brief treatment of the Galileo affair, with bibliographies, Stillman Drake,
Galileo
, Oxford 1980; documents in M. A. Finnochiaro,
The Galileo Affair: A Documentary History
, Berkeley 1989; Vatican symposium in G. V. Coyne (ed.),
The Galileo Affair:A Meeting of Science and Faith
, Vatican City 1985.

Papal involvement in the Jansenist debates is best followed through successive volumes of Pastor, but an overview of the issues can be gained from: N. J. Abercrombie,
The Origins of Jansenism
, Oxford 1936; L. Cognet,
Le Jansénisme
, Paris 1961; A. Sedgwick,
Jansenism in Seventeenth-Century France
, Charlottesville 1977; on
Unigenitus
, there is a useful overview
by J. M. Gres-Gayer, ‘The
Unigenitus
of Clement XI: a Fresh Look at the Issues’ in
Theological Studies
49 (1988), pp. 259–82 and an older work, A. le Roy,
La France et Rome de 1700 à 1715
, Paris 1892. On Innocent XI: J. Orcibal,
Louis XIV contre Innocent XI
, Paris 1949; L. O’Brien,
Innocent XI and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes
, Berkeley 1930.

For the eighteenth-century Church and papacy, apart from the general works indicated in Section A, and Wright’s
Early Modern Papacy
, three books in English provide basic orientation and flesh out the detail: W. J. Callahan and D. Higgs (eds.),
Church and Society in Catholic Europe of the Eighteenth Century
, Cambridge 1979, contains excellent essays with good bibliographies; Owen Chadwick,
The Popes and European Revolution
, Oxford 1981, is a wonderfully detailed and entertaining book which despite its title is mostly devoted to the eighteenth century; Hanns Gross,
Rome in the Age of Enlightenment: The Post-Tridentine Syndrome and the Ancien Regime
, Cambridge 1990, is particularly good on social context. C. M. S. Johns,
Papal Art and Cultural Politics: Rome in the Age of Clement XI
, Cambridge 1993, throws light on ideology and papal patronage in the early eighteenth century; F. Heyer’s
The Catholic Church from 1648 to 1870
, London 1969, is brief and sometimes inaccurate, but has a good deal of material on papal relations with Germany which is not otherwise easily available in English. Volume 1 of an older work, F. Nielsen,
The History of the Papacy in the Nineteenth Century
, London 1906, is devoted to the later eighteenth-century popes. S. J. Miller,
Portugal and Rome c.1748–1830: An Aspect of the Catholic Enlightenment
, Rome 1978, provides a useful case-study. For Benedict XIV, Pastor’s account in volumes 35 and 36 is full and very good; R. Haynes,
Philosopher King:The Humanist Pope Benedict XIV
, London 1970, is light-weight. There is a valuable collection of papers delivered at a convention on Benedict XIV in Bologna in December 1979, dealing with every aspect of his work, as canonist, bishop and pope, in M. Cecchelli (ed.),
Benedetto XIV (Prospero Lambertini)
, Ferrara 1981 (3 volumes).

On the dissolution of the Jesuits, volume 38 of Pastor on Clement XIV is the fullest and fairest account. Chapter 5 of Chadwick,
Popes and European Revolution
, is a balanced and compassionate survey, and chapters 5 and 6 of W. J. Bangert,
A History of the Society of Jesus
, St Louis 1986, cover the affair from a Jesuit perspective.

CHAPTER FIVE
: ‘
THE POPE AND THE PEOPLE
’

In addition to the multi-volume histories recommended in Section A, there is good coverage of the papacy in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in F. Nielsen,
The History of the Papacy in the Nineteenth Century
, London 1906; E. E. Y. Hales’s
Revolution and Papacy
, Notre Dame, Indiana 1966, is a lively and judicious narrative, and Chadwick’s
The Popes and European Revolution
is also indispensable. Chadwick has continued his overview of the papacy in his delightful and weighty
A History of the Popes 1830–1914
, Oxford 1998. F. J. Coppa’s
The Modern Papacy since 1789
, London 1998, is a little colourless in its judgements, but is based on a wide range of valuable material. The best biography of Pius VI is that in the final volumes (39 and 40) of Pastor, but see also A. Latreille,
L’Eglise Catholique et la Revolution Française
, Paris 1946–50. Jeffrey Collins’s
Papacy and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Rome: Pius VI and the Arts
, Cambridge 2004, explores an important and hitherto neglected aspect of Pius VI’s pontificate. On Josephinism, in addition to Chadwick and Hales: T. C. W. Blanning,
Joseph II and Enlightened Despotism
, London 1970; S. K. Padover,
The Revolutionary Emperor: Joseph II of Austria
, London 1967; M. C. Goodwin,
The Papal Conflict with Josephinism
, New York 1938. On Scipio Ricci and the Synod of Pistoia, C. A. Bolton,
Church Reform in Eighteenth Century Italy
, The Hague 1969.

On the French Revolution and the Church: Latreille,
L’Eglise Catholique et la Revolution Française
(above); A. Dansette,
Religious History of Modern France
, Edinburgh and London 1961, (volume 1 is good for the whole Napoleonic episode); J. McManners,
The French Revolution and the Church
, London 1969. For Pius VII, in addition to Hales,
Revolution and Papacy
(above), see J. Leflon,
Pie VII: Des Abbayes Bénédictines à la Papauté
, Paris 1958.

Apart from the general histories and the material in Nielsen, Hales and Chadwick, there is no specialist study of the pontificates of Leo XII or Gregory XVI in English. J. D. Holmes,
The Triumph of the Holy See: A Short History of the Papacy in the Nineteenth Century
, London 1978, is slight but covers the ground. For the Liberal Catholic Movement and its condemnation, A. R. Vidler,
Prophecy and Papacy: A Study of Lamennais, the Church and the Revolution
, London 1954. The theological basis of Ultramontanism is studied in Bernard Reardon,
Liberalism and Tradition:Aspects of Catholic Theology in Nineteenth-Century France
, Cambridge 1975. For a fascinating and illuminating contemporary source, see N. Wiseman,
Recollections of the Last Four Popes and of Rome in Their Times
, London 1858 (the popes concerned are Pius VII, Leo XII, Pius VIII and Gregory XVI).