Inventing the Modern Papacy: Vol 2: From Feudal Kingdom to Global Soft Power (1789–1914)

The nineteenth century brought unremitting conflict over the Papal States. As temporal sovereignty slipped from the pope’s hands in the Italian peninsula, the papacy developed into a soft power on a global scale. This transformation was driven both by the papacy’s conscious efforts to reinvent itself, and by increasing lay Catholic support in the face of mounting challenges: war, revolution, the rise of nationalism and increasing secularization. Though the reinvention of Church government entailed divisions among Catholics, it eventually allowed the pope to develop a new authority, subtler yet firmer than the one before. This volume tells the story of this profound transformation from the point of view of social, political and cultural history.