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The Popes: Every Question Answered
Featuring Pope Francis
From Saint Peter to Pop Francis: The Fascinating Biographies of all 266 Popes.
Why is the papacy based in Rome? What is the Apostolic Succession and who was the first pope to follow St. Peter? After St. Peter, who was the first pope to suffer martyrdom during the early persecution of Christians? Which pope hired a gang of gladiators to slaughter his opponents in the papal election, and which exhumed the body of a previous pope to put his corpse on trial for heresy? Which pope launched the First Crusade, and which pope led an army into battle? What is an antipope and who was Pope Joan? Which pope hired the Renaissance genius Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel? find the answers to these questions and every other question you can think of about the 266 popes.
From Saint Peter to Pop Francis: The Fascinating Biographies of all 266 Popes.
Why is the papacy based in Rome? What is the Apostolic Succession and who was the first pope to follow St. Peter? After St. Peter, who was the first pope to suffer martyrdom during the early persecution of Christians? Which pope hired a gang of gladiators to slaughter his opponents in the papal election, and which exhumed the body of a previous pope to put his corpse on trial for heresy? Which pope launched the First Crusade, and which pope led an army into battle? What is an antipope and who was Pope Joan? Which pope hired the Renaissance genius Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel? find the answers to these questions and every other question you can think of about the 266 popes.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2013
93 people are currently reading
104 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
August 5, 2017
Very informative, I'm especially interested in the earliest popes and of course Pope Francis. Unfortunately there were far too many typos, misspellings, and inconsistencies in format to rate any higher.
September 18, 2019
This work presents thumbnail sketches for every pope in the history of the Catholic Church, many of which are conjecture. Some of the hisorical Church events and the precepts of the Church are discussed. A fair starting place for those wanting to examine the history of the Catholic Church.
March 8, 2016
A million typos, but good information.
September 29, 2022
OK. All 267 popes. One book. So “every question answered” is a blatant lie. I’m not sure why this is the subtitle. It’s not accurate, but fortunately doesn’t really hinder the enjoyment of the book. What this book is, is a very nice compendium of all popes that features some nice illustrations as well as timelines (separate) that give the reader a bit of the picture of what has been going on in the world during the various times of European History.
My guess is the vast majority of historians, even the most devout Roman Catholics, couldn’t tell you much about the majority of the 267 Popes that have held the title since the time of Christ. In fact, this book is honest when it discusses the earliest pontiffs. Some popes during the first couple of centuries may get a paragraph or so, and that’s about it. We simply know very little. The most notable popes may get 4-6 pages on average, some perhaps 8-10, but even that is rare. So a very concise history that talks about the man, the times, and the events.
Ah the events. Sadly, this is where we discover that the papal history hasn’t always been squeaky clean, yet one really shouldn’t expect that when Western Europe essentially existed as a theocracy. We mainly read about the relations of each pope with various emperors and kings, the rivals, the factions, and the ugly wars. It’s essentially all political. As depressing as such events are to read, it’s also a bit of a hindrance that history basically repeated itself for the mass majority of time during the last two centuries. It seemed as though it wasn’t until around the 18th century or so that popes started to act…you know…Christlike as opposed to wielding political power and waging inquisitions and crusades against the infidel Muslims or the pesky Protestants. It doesn’t help when it seemed every pope had the name Innocent, Gregory, Benedict or Pious. Every emperor and king seemed to have the name Charles, Louis, or Henry. So it was very easy to get lost when going though thousands of years of history at quite the rapid pace with all of these repeated names. It’s so much easier to read all this history if you have a significant difference in people’s names such as Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and John Kennedy.
This book might be better served as a reference book as opposed to a straightforward historical account. As stated though, since each pope only gets a few pages, it might be better to research a Wikipedia entry if one is really curious about a particular pontiff. It was still overall interesting, and I also found it refreshing that the author was not an apologist for many of the “bad” popes, yet he doesn’t have a malodorous feeling towards these individuals as what tends to happen in modern, evangelical Christianity. It was a balanced retrospective.
I’m not sure if it was because I read the book on a Kindle, but the illustrations were rather tiny, and I think a book such as this could be much more rewarding with more illustrations such as paintings and pictures of the various places where the popes hailed from, or served in a significant capacity. I’m sure such “illustrated” books actually exist, and that might be more to one’s liking. When reading about so many unfamiliar people and places, it’s nice to have illustrations to give the reader more of a feeling – even if many of the illustrations are quite primitive due to the early time period.
The book goes all the way to Pope Francis, so at some point, unless future editions are released, a book like this might not be as complete 50 years in the future. But if you’re reading any time around the time I’m writing (2022), it’s updated and fresh.
The last section of this book has various Papal Bulls and teachings of the many popes. It’s a bit laborious of a read (I actually just skimmed most of them), but it does serve, again, as a somewhat nice reference. “Every question answered?” Definitely not. But a good quick handy reference of two thousand years of popes.
My guess is the vast majority of historians, even the most devout Roman Catholics, couldn’t tell you much about the majority of the 267 Popes that have held the title since the time of Christ. In fact, this book is honest when it discusses the earliest pontiffs. Some popes during the first couple of centuries may get a paragraph or so, and that’s about it. We simply know very little. The most notable popes may get 4-6 pages on average, some perhaps 8-10, but even that is rare. So a very concise history that talks about the man, the times, and the events.
Ah the events. Sadly, this is where we discover that the papal history hasn’t always been squeaky clean, yet one really shouldn’t expect that when Western Europe essentially existed as a theocracy. We mainly read about the relations of each pope with various emperors and kings, the rivals, the factions, and the ugly wars. It’s essentially all political. As depressing as such events are to read, it’s also a bit of a hindrance that history basically repeated itself for the mass majority of time during the last two centuries. It seemed as though it wasn’t until around the 18th century or so that popes started to act…you know…Christlike as opposed to wielding political power and waging inquisitions and crusades against the infidel Muslims or the pesky Protestants. It doesn’t help when it seemed every pope had the name Innocent, Gregory, Benedict or Pious. Every emperor and king seemed to have the name Charles, Louis, or Henry. So it was very easy to get lost when going though thousands of years of history at quite the rapid pace with all of these repeated names. It’s so much easier to read all this history if you have a significant difference in people’s names such as Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and John Kennedy.
This book might be better served as a reference book as opposed to a straightforward historical account. As stated though, since each pope only gets a few pages, it might be better to research a Wikipedia entry if one is really curious about a particular pontiff. It was still overall interesting, and I also found it refreshing that the author was not an apologist for many of the “bad” popes, yet he doesn’t have a malodorous feeling towards these individuals as what tends to happen in modern, evangelical Christianity. It was a balanced retrospective.
I’m not sure if it was because I read the book on a Kindle, but the illustrations were rather tiny, and I think a book such as this could be much more rewarding with more illustrations such as paintings and pictures of the various places where the popes hailed from, or served in a significant capacity. I’m sure such “illustrated” books actually exist, and that might be more to one’s liking. When reading about so many unfamiliar people and places, it’s nice to have illustrations to give the reader more of a feeling – even if many of the illustrations are quite primitive due to the early time period.
The book goes all the way to Pope Francis, so at some point, unless future editions are released, a book like this might not be as complete 50 years in the future. But if you’re reading any time around the time I’m writing (2022), it’s updated and fresh.
The last section of this book has various Papal Bulls and teachings of the many popes. It’s a bit laborious of a read (I actually just skimmed most of them), but it does serve, again, as a somewhat nice reference. “Every question answered?” Definitely not. But a good quick handy reference of two thousand years of popes.
May 4, 2025
Despite the subtitle, I don’t really think we can consider this book to answer EVERY question about the Popes. Such a mass of information couldn’t possibly fit into a single volume. There have been, as of right now, 266 Popes (about to be 267) spanning approximately two thousand years. Any single volume work is necessarily going to be somewhat superficial, and that is certainly the case here.
However, though each Papal biography in this book is necessarily brief, the author did a remarkably good job of hitting some of the highlights of each pontificate. For example, each Pope’s section discusses the most important historic, political, or theological questions of the era. Will the reader gain a thorough understanding of those issues from biographies ranging from about half a page to three or four pages in length? Of course not. But the reader WILL get enough of a sense of what was happening during each pontificate that he or she can easily take to the library or the Internet and follow up on whichever questions happen to be of greatest interest.
One particularly useful element of this book is a historic timeline spanning the bottom of every page. Beginning with the crucifixion and ending in 2013, during Pope Francis’ pontificate, this timeline highlights some of the key developments of world history during the life of each Pope. Not all of those events are directly related to the Papal actions discussed in the biographies. In fact, most aren’t. but they help the reader correctly place each Pope in world history and that’s quite a useful feature indeed. An additional bonus chapter contains a selection of Papal writings from throughout history. Those will be of particular interest, I think, to those interested in the theological developments as opposed merely to the historic ones.
There are obviously plenty of omissions, and it could perhaps be argued that the book inadequately covers some of the more controversial Popes (and very little coverage at all is given to the various antipopes who’ve sprung up several times throughout history). That’s not to say it completely glosses over anything unflattering to the Papacy—it does mention the Cadaver Synod, after all, as perhaps the lowest point in Papal history. But it doesn’t really get into the meat and bones of the most important issues. I think that’s more due to its length and the breadth of its subject matter than to any attempt by the author to obfuscate.
At the end of the day, it may not be a perfect biography. But if you’re looking for just a single volume that contains an overview of the entire history of the Papacy, from St. Peter to Pope Francis, I don’t think you’re likely to find anyone else who can do a better job.
However, though each Papal biography in this book is necessarily brief, the author did a remarkably good job of hitting some of the highlights of each pontificate. For example, each Pope’s section discusses the most important historic, political, or theological questions of the era. Will the reader gain a thorough understanding of those issues from biographies ranging from about half a page to three or four pages in length? Of course not. But the reader WILL get enough of a sense of what was happening during each pontificate that he or she can easily take to the library or the Internet and follow up on whichever questions happen to be of greatest interest.
One particularly useful element of this book is a historic timeline spanning the bottom of every page. Beginning with the crucifixion and ending in 2013, during Pope Francis’ pontificate, this timeline highlights some of the key developments of world history during the life of each Pope. Not all of those events are directly related to the Papal actions discussed in the biographies. In fact, most aren’t. but they help the reader correctly place each Pope in world history and that’s quite a useful feature indeed. An additional bonus chapter contains a selection of Papal writings from throughout history. Those will be of particular interest, I think, to those interested in the theological developments as opposed merely to the historic ones.
There are obviously plenty of omissions, and it could perhaps be argued that the book inadequately covers some of the more controversial Popes (and very little coverage at all is given to the various antipopes who’ve sprung up several times throughout history). That’s not to say it completely glosses over anything unflattering to the Papacy—it does mention the Cadaver Synod, after all, as perhaps the lowest point in Papal history. But it doesn’t really get into the meat and bones of the most important issues. I think that’s more due to its length and the breadth of its subject matter than to any attempt by the author to obfuscate.
At the end of the day, it may not be a perfect biography. But if you’re looking for just a single volume that contains an overview of the entire history of the Papacy, from St. Peter to Pope Francis, I don’t think you’re likely to find anyone else who can do a better job.
September 27, 2020
There were 264 popes. That sounds like a low number, but this book starts with St. Peter and goes right up to the present. I learned so much and I learned things that make me wonder about this religion.
There were loads of popes that were poor and struggling with a new church. The Middle Ages, the popes had kingdoms working with and for them. They determined royalty and country disputes. Because Popes had to live off the charity of others, many popes were rich when they started. Many popes used their position to make their families rich.
There were popes that were murdered. There were antipopes. I hold Popes to a high standard and I find here that there were flawed popes and there were fully devout popes. So much to make sense of.
The book ends with doctrine letters that are surprisingly easy to read.
There were loads of popes that were poor and struggling with a new church. The Middle Ages, the popes had kingdoms working with and for them. They determined royalty and country disputes. Because Popes had to live off the charity of others, many popes were rich when they started. Many popes used their position to make their families rich.
There were popes that were murdered. There were antipopes. I hold Popes to a high standard and I find here that there were flawed popes and there were fully devout popes. So much to make sense of.
The book ends with doctrine letters that are surprisingly easy to read.
June 29, 2023
This was extremely interesting. I am not Catholic, nor do I want to become Catholic, but during the tumultuous time after the Resurrection, it was urgent and vital that someone help put down heresies. Were there abuses of power? Of course, but through it all, Christianity came out stronger . It gave a comprehensive history of the last 2000 years.
February 19, 2018
I liked the book because it really gave info on every pope in small, digestible chunks. You get a good insight into the scummy practices of the Catholic church for 2 millennia. My biggest problem was that the book was riddled with typos and misspellings.
February 22, 2025
A great introduction to the history of Roman papal authority. The author allows the loose ends to remain. I'm slowly making my way through, but it gives a good sense of the role the Pope plays in Roman Catholicism and other rites, as well as his role among the Popes of Orthodoxy.
November 27, 2025
Briefest of biographies of each pope, and and unnecessary appendix of key papal documents at the end. Wish the bios were more in depth for the later popes, when more is known about their early lives and papacies.
August 12, 2024
Premise was interesting but the sheer number of typos and spelling/formatting errors was honestly concerning. I also noted at least one factual error.
July 25, 2016
This is an interesting book as it outlines the history of the popes in a fairly unbiased way. a very helpful and interesting feature is the world history that runs across the bottom of each page. I starts at the beginning and includes the current pope.
September 20, 2025
Longest institution
It's great information for everyone to know, especially for those who study the history of Christianity and religion in general!
It's great information for everyone to know, especially for those who study the history of Christianity and religion in general!
July 16, 2014
I think this is a great primer about Popes, I thought it's a DK pub book but it's not. Still better than going through the internet, to read about the Popes.
August 24, 2025
Very informative, but they used a stock photo of Lando Calrissian in place for the 122nd Pope Lando from c. 914. How does something like that even make it to the presses?
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews