History of the papacy
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Within Catholicism, the pope is head of the Catholic Church, a position which Catholics believe spans from the time of Saint Peter to the present day.
According to Catholic doctrine, the popes are successors of Saint Peter (kneeling, right).
Raphael's The Baptism of Constantine depicts Sylvester I instead of his actual baptizer Eusebius of Nicomedia, an Arian bishop.
Justinian I re-conquered Rome and appointed the next three popes.
The papal palace in Viterbo...
Papal States
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The Papal States, officially the State of the Church, were a conglomeration of territories on the Italian Peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope from 756 to 1870. They were among the ma
History of the papacy
…Papacy, Byzantine Papacy, and Frankish Papacy. Over time, the papacy consolidated its territorial claims to a portion of the peninsula known as the Papal States. Thereafter, the role of neighboring sovereigns was replaced by powerful Roman families during the saeculum obscurum, the Crescentii era, and the…
The Quirinal Palace, 1777
Pope Gregory XVI.
Barricades at Porta San Giovanni, photographed on 21 September 1870, after the breach of the Aurelian Walls
Men and women in traditional dress seated on a rocky outcrop in the Roman countryside, c. 1850–1853