Short History of the Papacy in the Middle Ages

A Short History of the Papacy in the Middle Ages by Walter Ullmann, 332 pages

 

Ullmann's book is not a history of the popes, but of the development of the idea of the Papacy, and the role of that idea, and that institution, as the midwife of Western civilization.  The universal claims of the bishop of Rome established the idea of a united Christendom, even as the development of a uniform code of canon law encouraged the transition to governments based on laws rather than custom.

 

Ullmann stresses the impact of the Byzantine imperial example during the period between Constantine and Charlemagne, a vitally important time for the papacy.  In his telling, the popes supported the growth of the Holy Roman Empire to counter the power of the Eastern emperors, then the assertion of national monarchies to undermine the power of the German emperors.  This new nationalism produced a centrifugal force that, combined with the new focus on the individual fostered by Renaissance humanism, pulled apart the medieval papacy.

 

If, as Macaulay famously claimed, "There is not, and there never was on this earth, a work of human policy so well deserving of examination as the [Papacy]", this is a good place to start that examination.