Synopses & Reviews
John Pollard, a leading historian of the papacy, explores the transformation of the Vatican into a major financial power and the part money played in the development of the modern papacy. Using hitherto unexplored sources, he sheds new light on tensions between the Vatican's engagement with capitalism and the Church's social teaching, and conflicts between the Vatican and the Allies during the Second World War and the early Cold War.
Review
"This excellent book treats an important though neglected subject with care and sophistication. It deserves a place on the bookshelf of anyone interested in the history of the Papacy."
David Alvarez, Saint Mary's College of California, The Catholic Historical Review
Review
"Pollard has carried out extensive research for this study and has mined accessible archives in England, Italy, the Vatican, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and the United States. Most important, he secured access to the important diary of Negara, which gave him a vital insight into the financial operations of the papacy under Pius XI and Pius XII. On the basis of his thorough research, he is able to challenge a number of the interpretations of earlier writers on the subject. The book is well organized and well written and is enlivened by flashes of Pollard's droll sense of humor."
The International History Review
Review
"Pollard has written an informed and thoughtful study that constitutes a significant advance over previous secondary scholarship." Business History Review Peter J. Walsh, New York University
Synopsis
This the first scholarly study of the finances and financiers of the Vatican between 1850 and 1950.
About the Author
John F. Pollard is a Fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He is the author of The Vatican and Italian Fascism, 1929-32: A Study in Conflict (1985).
Table of Contents
1. Introduction; 2. The reign of Pius IX: Vatican finances before and after the fall of Rome (1850-1878); 3. The Pontificate of Leo XIII (1878-1903); 4. Vatican finances under the 'Peasant Pope', Pius X (1903-1914); 5. 'The great charitable lord'?: Vatican finances under Benedict XV (1914-1922); 6. 'Economical and prudent bourgeois'?: Pius XI, 1922-1929; 7. The Wall Street crash and Vatican finances in the early 1930s; 8. Vatican finances in an age of global consolidation, 1933-1939; 9. Vatican finances in the reign of Pius XII: the Second World War and the early Cold War, 1939-1950; 10. Conclusion; Appendices; Bibliography; Index.