THE POPE'S ARMY: The Papacy in Diplomacy and War

1-221820

The period of political and military activism by the Roman Catholic Church can be dated to roughly from 410, when Pope Innocent I vainly tried to avert the sack of Rome by the Visigoths, to about 1870, when Pope Pius IX was abandoned by his protectors, the French Army, and forced to submit to the new Italian state by surrendering any political power the Vatican had left. Includes 20 black and white illustrations.

During those centuries, the popes employed every means at their disposal, including direct military action, to maintain their domains centered on Rome. Some pontiffs, such as Alexander VI, Julius II (15th century), plus the energetic Borgia popes later, built the Papal States into a power in their own right. In the following century and a half, Europe's destructive religious wars almost always had a papal component, with the Lateran and later Vatican fielding their own armies. Climaxing the story are the little-known yet bitter late-nineteenth century battles between the papal volunteers from all over Europe and America, and the Italian nationalists who ultimately prevailed.