Joëlle Rollo-Koster , Robert A. Ventresca , Melodie H. Eichbauer, and Miles Pattenden, eds.: The Cambridge History of the Papacy, 3 Vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2025.
Edited by Joëlle Rollo-Koster, Robert Ventresca, Melodie Eichbauer, and Miles Pattenden and published in three volumes in 2025, The Cambridge History of the Papacy offers a new sweeping and critical overview of the papacy as a multifaceted institution whose evolution over two millennia defies simplistic narratives of continuity or survival. Rather than presenting the papacy as a monolithic or static entity, the editors argue for a nuanced understanding of its historical trajectory as one marked by continual reinvention, adaptation, and contestation. This work situates the papacy not merely within ecclesiastical history but as a central actor in world history, whose influence has extended across domains as diverse as theology, politics, diplomacy, arts, and social ethics. Each volume approaches the subject with a distinct thematic focus: Volume 1, The Two Swords, examines the interplay between spiritual and temporal authority; Volume 2, The Governance of the Church, delves into the internal mechanisms of papal administration; and Volume 3, Civil Society, explores the papacy's cultural and societal impacts. Together, these volumes offer a robust and nuanced account of one of history's most fascinating and disputed institutions.
The editors begin by problematising the commonplace characterisation of the papacy as the world's oldest surviving institution. While acknowledging the claim of apostolic succession from Peter to the present pope, they rightly caution against conflating this theological assertion with historical continuity. Instead, the papacy should be understood as a series of institutional forms and ideological constructs that have been repeatedly made, unmade, and remade in response to shifting historical contexts. This interpretative framework foregrounds discontinuity and transformation as central to the papacy's longevity and resilience. Four overarching questions cut across the individual volumes: the pope's centrality within the Catholic Church; the primacy of papal power as a governing instrument; the papacy's cultural influence; and the implications of secularisation for its authority among believers and non-believers. Several articles across the c.2400 pages of text address these themes, albeit not all of them engage with them directly. There is nevertheless quite a lot of coherence among the 83 essays: a testament to the mammoth task undertaken by the editors.
The volumes aim to offer (I) an innovative contribution and a revision of the history of the historiography of the papacy, as well as (II) a reframing of its conceptualisation. Let
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