This volume is part of the Renaissance Society of America’s Texts and Studies series and, like the other titles, serves as a reference work that provides an authoritative overview. This collection sets itself in a long line of authors who have studied the history of the popes, from the Liber pontificalis to von Ranke, von Pastor and beyond; however, it should also be considered alongside contemporary overviews of the papacy that have appeared in recent years, many of which cover longer chronological periods.Footnote ¹

The comparatively narrow framing of this volume works quite effectively. Chronologically, it focuses on the ‘Renaissance’ rather than ‘early modern’ papacy, examining the period from the Great Western Schism and its resolution under Nicholas v to the pontificate of Clement viii, or roughly the years 1400 to 1600. Rather than examining each pontificate individually, this collection approaches the subject thematically, arguing – convincingly – that the best way to understand the period is through common challenges to which all these popes were forced to respond. The thirty-three popes studied here had different priorities, goals and approaches to these issues, but as the editor argues and the chapter authors demonstrate, they faced a ‘commonality of concerns’ (p. 13). The authors suggest that the Renaissance popes were largely successful in meeting these challenges, steadily strengthening the papal office and consolidating their authority during these two centuries. Curbing the continued spread of Protestantism stands out as the one area in which they were much less effective.

Nearly all the volume’s chapters are contributed by senior scholars who have been writing about their respective topics for years. Each chapter serves as a synthesis of the state of the field and, helpfully, each concludes with a short bibliography for further reading, meaning that curious readers can progress to other studies, often including additional work by the chapter’s author.

After an introductory chapter by the editor, the volume opens with overviews of ecclesiological themes and disputes by Francis A. Oakley and the workings of the papal curia by Nelson H. Minnich. Readers of this Journal will find both incredibly helpful and well-written. Other chapters offer important details about the different contexts in which popes operated, whether in the city of Rome (with an essay by Anna Esposito), the Papal States (Christine Shaw) or among European powers (Silvano Giordano). Despite the variety of subjects treated, each author underlines the papacy’s relatively weak position in the early fifteenth century before tracing how Renaissance popes slowly consolidated power, whether by reducing the authority and independence of the College of Cardinals, subduing baronial families in the Papal States, or regularising diplomatic relations and entering alliances with European states. Papal finances are a common theme throughout, specifically papal efforts to stabilise and grow sources of revenue while simultaneously enriching their own families and restoring the city of Rome. Indeed, financial stability enabled many of the Renaissance papacy’s most visible projects, as a chapter by Ingrid D. Rowland confirms, tracing papal patronage in the arts.

A second group of essays points to the Roman Church’s reach beyond Europe, especially how the papacy interacted with members of other faiths, Churches and cultures. Margaret Meserve offers a fascinating history of the idea of ‘crusade’ during this period, arguing that its meaning expanded beyond a strict focus on the Holy Land to instead encompass ‘any campaign to defend Christians or to attack “infidels” or “enemies of the faith”, Muslim or otherwise, that could be waged by almost anyone, anywhere in the world’ (p. 211). Emanuele Colombo provides an overview of the papacy’s relationship to overseas missions, especially in Spanish and Portuguese possessions in the Americas; here too, one sees the Renaissance papacy’s effort to claw back authority it had previously delegated to other bodies. This collection is notable for the attention it pays to Eastern Churches, with several chapters summarising the papacy’s relations with Greek, Slavic, Armenian, Georgian, Coptic, Ethiopian and Syriac Churches, including Maronites and Chaldeans.

The volume concludes with several chapters that look toward the end of the Renaissance and the changing circumstances in which the papacy found itself. Two essays by the late Agostino G. Borromeo trace papal responses to heretical movements such as the Waldensians and Hussites, as well as the dilatory responses to Luther and other reformers. These are followed by an essay on Catholic reform by the late John W. O’Malley, which explores how sixteenth-century popes slowly embraced the charge to reform the Church ‘in head and members’, eventually convoking the Council of Trent and supporting its reform efforts while deftly avoiding the perils of conciliarism that had curtailed their predecessors’ authority.

The editor wishes, in the preface, that this volume ‘be a worthy contribution to the study of the Renaissance papacy’. In this, he and the other authors have certainly succeeded. This is an updated, solidly researched and accessible handbook that can be reliably consulted by students and professionals alike.