Crises in the History of the Papacy

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Crises in the History of the Papacy, by Joseph McCabe, is subtitled A Study of Twenty Famous Popes whose Careers and whose Influence Were Important in the Development of the Church and in the History of the World. The preface says that probably no religious institution in the world has had so remarkable a history, or attracted so large and varied a literature, as the Papacy.

The pages sampled cover very different periods. One passage discusses Callistus, the charges Hippolytus made against him, and Bishop Zephyrin, and says a cemetery on the Appian Way that Callistus was put in charge of bears his name to this day. Another describes the rival claimants Benedict and Gregory, the death of the Anti-Pope Alexander at Bologna on 4 May 1410, and the election of Baldassare Cossa as John XXIII. A further passage turns to the pontificate of Leo and reports that the Catholic vote at the polls fell from 27.9 per cent to 19.7 in 1903.