2,000 Years of Papal History: The History of the Popes, the Papacy, and the Catholic Church

This book wasn’t quite what I expected. I think I thought we would walk through the reigns of most popes, starting with what we know of Peter and moving forward. In doing so, we would watch the Roman Catholic Church, the government’s it interacted with, and the people it serves evolve toward the modern day. That isn’t really what we got. Instead, we covered briefly only two of the first 31 popes, getting glimpses into what life was like in the early church. Then we took a long look at Emperor Constantine and his important contributions to establishing fourth century Catholicism. And then we started jumping forward again, taking a quick look at Charlemagne, exploring the Nadir of the papacy when popes (mostly unqualified for the office) were murdered and deposed with regularity, and continuing to leap frog throughout history until the modern day.I was disappointed in O’Malley’s coverage of the Investiture Controversy. It struck me that, despite his promises in the beginning of the book, he really couldn’t throw off his own understanding of what is proper for the church to explore this important church-state struggle. While Catholics today agree that the state should not have a role in appointing bishops, it was a traditional function of secular rulers at the time. Gregory’s attempt to exclude Henry IV from appointing his own bishops was a radical act. Instead of making this point and exploring how the understanding of the papacy and Christian society changed as a result of the Investiture Controversy, O’Malley spends a lot of time talking about Henry IV’s arrogance. While it is true that he was arrogant, it is also true that he was fighting for the traditional rights of his office. After all, his father was the one who ended the Nadir of the Papacy and started the Gregorian Reform movement by throwing a corrupt pope and antipope out of office and appointing his own pope.On the other hand, his coverage of the first French pope, Clement V, shows in admirable detail how he was under the thumb of the French king, Clement V, and how his corrupt policies (making five of his relatives cardinals) helped to make the Avignon Papacy last for decades. (This is something that often gets only passing reference in many overviews.)So there’s a mixture of strong and weak coverage and lots of gaps, but it’s still an interesting read. If you’re interested in what happened at major church councils, matters like the papal states, the pope’s actions during the French Revolution and World War II, and in general how the office of the papacy evolved over time, O’Malley gives a pretty good overview.

This book, together with Thomas Noble's History of the Papacy, form an outstanding intro to papal history. Father O'Malley's style of talking is pleasing to the ears, and the way he presents papal history is memorable. He will remain on the "permanent list" of papal history resources that I recommend to others (BTW, his book on Vatican II forever shaped my understanding of that Council -- another "must read"). The only fly in the ointment with this book is the accompanying pdf -- it is so full of typographical errors that Fr. O'Malley must've had someone else write it. The errors are embarrassing, e.g., Charlemagne is consistently misspelt Charlamagne. This sloppiness extends to the title listed here: "Pacacy" should be "Papacy." Since Fr. O'Malley is such an esteemed scholar, simply regard the pdf summary as a bizarre aberration. Ignoring the numerous typographical errors, the summary is excellent.

The speaker indicates there were 260 popes over the past 2000 years; depending on how one counts (remember the Schism and various anti-popes). Before listening to this series, I thought popes were elected without much difficulty. It was eye-opening to learn that between 1201 and 1300 CE, there were 7 anti-popes!One thing that Dr. O'Malley said that I thought was profoundly appropriate was in reference to the Crusades. He said that Pope Urban II unleashed the 'Law of Unforeseen Circumstances.' He used this term in relation to the events that occurred during the Catholic Crusades. The blood lust must have been truly horrible when most of the Muslims and Jews were murdered when the Crusaders took the Holy Cities. Dr. O'Malley mentions that ONLY the First Crusade was successful, in relation to recapturing the Holy Lands.The presenter picks-and-chooses the important/infamous popes over the years and centuries. The PDF book that comes with these lessons is important reading to reinforce the points made. He also asks 3 questions after each lesson, to cement the important points into the reader's mind. I liked Dr. O'Malley's style of speaking and his clear narration. I walked away with a genuine understanding of the popes and their times. The presenter explained that the early leaders of the Church were more likely to be the erudite Bishops (St. Augustine and St. Ambrose), or later, the Abbots of Cluny. The pope, as the undisputed leader of the Catholic Church, is a fairly recent emergence. With world travel and worldwide communication, the papacy has become more acknowledged than ever before. 2000 years of the papacy has provided us with continuity and change at the same time.