David I. Kertzer

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Maryland

Describes the kidnapping and forced conversion from Judaism to Catholicism of a six-year-old Italian boy in 1858, and explores how this incident began a campaign to end the dominance of the Catholic Church in Italy

The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara

7205dbcc-847e-4ff1-86f4-863396038404-1

Good condition due to dust jacket. #hardcover #history #vatican

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Ohio

The Popes' Secret Plot to Capture Rome from the New Italian State

We think of Italy as an ancient nation, but in fact the unified Italian state was born only in the nineteenth century -- and only against the adamant refusal of the pope to relinquish his rule of Rome. In this riveting chronicle of international intrigue, the renowned historian David Kertzer delves into secret Vatican archives to reveal a venomous conflict that kept the pope a self-imposed prisoner of the Vatican for more than fifty years.
King Victor Emmanuel, his nemesis Garibaldi, the French emperor Napoleon III, England, Spain, Germany, Austria, and even America play a part in this astonishing drama. On September 20, 1870, the king's battle to unite the disparate Italian states came to a head when his troops broke through the walls of Rome, which the pope had ruled for centuries. Pope Pius IX, ensconced with the Vatican Council, denounced the usurpers and plotted with his advisers to regain power or else flee Italy altogether. A dramatic struggle unfolded over the next two decades, pitting church against state and the nations of Europe against one another. This is a story of outrageous accusations, mutual denunciations, raucous demonstrations, frenetic diplomacy, and secret dealings. Rocks were hurled along with epithets, and war across Europe seemed inevitable.
The antagonists were as explosive as the events. Pius IX, the most important pontiff in modern history, engineered the doctrine of papal infallibility but ended his days reviled and denounced. The blustering Victor Emmanuel schemed behind the backs of his own ministers. Garibaldi, Italy's dashing national hero, committed naive and dangerous mistakes. Beyond Italy, the pope’s main protector, Napoleon III, was himself being taken prisoner.
This devastating conflict, almost entirely unknown until now, still leaves a deep mark on the Italian soul. No one who reads David Kertzer's revelatory account will ever think of Italy or the Vatican in quite the same way again.

Prisoner of the Vatican

4e0e956a-1a6c-49bc-bb8e-c090d0efe363

The Exile of Pius IX and the Emergence of Modern Europe

The Pulitzer-winning author of The Pope and Mussolini takes on a pivotal, untold story- the bloody revolution that spelled the end of the papacy as a political power and signaled the birth of modern Europe.

The longest-reigning pope, Pope Pius IX, also oversaw one of the greatest periods of tumult and transition in Church history. When Pius IX was elected in 1846, the pope was still a king as well as a spiritual leader, and the people of the Papal States sang his praises, hopeful that he would reform the famously corrupt system of "priestly rule" over which his much unloved predecessor, Gregory XVI, had presided. At first, Pius IX tried to please his subjects, replacing priests with laymen in government and even granting the people a constitution. But, as the revolutionary spirit of 1848 swept through Europe, the pope found he could not both please his subjects and defend the rights of the church. The resulting drama--involving a colorful cast of characters, from Louis Napoleon Bonaparte and his rabble-rousing cousin Charles Bonaparte, to Garibaldi, Tocqueville, and Metternich--was one of treachery, double-dealing, and international power politics. By its end, the Papacy--and Europe--was transformed.

Save this search

David I. Kertzer

The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara

David I. Kertzer

Prisoner of the Vatican

David I. Kertzer

The Pope Who Would Be King