The Popes: Twenty Centuries of History

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A complete series of mosaic portraits of the Popes, from St. Peter to the present, is conserved in the nave of the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls. The present volume contains reproductions of the portraits which are accompainied by a brief historical note on each of the Roman Pontiffs (in this edition, from St. Peter to Pope John Paull II).The book closes with a note on the legend of Pope Joan, a synthesis of the rules governing the election of the Popes, a chronologicial list of the Popes and anti-Popes, and an alphabetical list of 262 Popes. This book seeks to combine rigorous scholarship with easy accessibility for the general public. Covering over twenty centuries, the reader of these biographies cannot but be impressed by the institutional continuity of the Papacy. It is a unique phenomenon in the history of the West. The theological significance attached to that continuity is also based on its historical importance.