Reveals a paradoxical figure: a prophetic reformer of limited vision whose leadership stimulated the emergence of a global Catholicism while sowing doubt and dissension among some of the Church's most faithful servants. The Cold War and Pius XII's manner of engaging with the mod…
"The Pope and Mussolini tells the story of two men who came to power in 1922 and together changed the course of twentieth-century history. In most respects, they could not have been more different. One was scholarly and devout, the other thuggish and profane. Yet Pius XI and 'Il…
The Knights Templar are one of the most secretive and powerful religious orders in history: for over two centuries they were the elite fighting force of the Crusades. Highly trained, and adhering to a strict chivalric code, their success on the battlefield brought them both weal…
This book is about change in the Roman Catholic community in England and Wales. It argues that in the post-war years of economic growth and expanded educational opportunities, Catholics born in Great Britain achieved rates of upward social mobility comparable to those of the gen…
In the reign of Charles II, over a century after the Protestant Reformation, England was faced with the prospect of a Catholic king when the King's brother, the future James II became a Catholic. The reaction to his conversion, the fears it aroused and their background form the …
The Roman Catholic Church's critical stance towards liberalism and democracy following the French Revolution and through the19th century was often entrenched, but the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s saw a shift in the Church's attitude towards democracy. In recent years, a c…
