Apostolic era and papacy by
Pietro Perugino in the
Sistine Chapel showing
Jesus giving the
keys of heaven to
Saint Peter in the
Santa Maria delle Grazie Church in
Milan, Italy, a late 1490s mural painting by
Leonardo da Vinci, depicting the
Last Supper of Jesus and his
twelve apostles, depicts the
final meal of
Jesus before
his crucifixion and death. The
New Testament, particularly the
Gospels, records Jesus' activities and teaching, his appointment of the
Twelve Apostles, and his
Great Commission to them, instructing them to continue his work. The
Acts of Apostles recounts the founding of the
Christian Church and the spread of its message throughout the Roman Empire. The Catholic Church teaches that its public ministry began on
Pentecost, which occurred fifty days after the date on which Christ is believed to have
risen from the dead. The Catholic Church further teaches that the
college of bishops, led by the
bishop of Rome, is the
successor to the apostles. In the account of the
Confession of Peter found in the
Gospel of Matthew, Christ designates Peter as the "rock" upon which his Church will be built. The Catholic Church considers the bishop of Rome, the pope, to be the successor of
Saint Peter. Some scholars hold that Peter was the first bishop of Rome, while other scholars argue that the institution of the papacy does not depend on the view that Peter was bishop of Rome, or even on the claim that he ever resided in Rome. Many scholars maintain that a church structure consisting of multiple presbyters/bishops persisted in Rome until the mid-2nd century, when a structure with a single bishop and multiple presbyters was adopted, and that later writers retrospectively applied the title "bishop of Rome" to the most prominent members of the clergy in the earlier period, as well as to Peter himself. In 313,
Constantine the Great—the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity—issued the
Edict of Milan, which legalized the Christian faith, and he moved the imperial capital to
Constantinople (modern
Istanbul, Turkey) in 330. In 380, the
Edict of Thessalonica made
Nicene Christianity the
state church of the Roman Empire, a status that continued within the shrinking territory of the
Byzantine Empire until its
fall in 1453. Elsewhere, the church functioned independently of imperial authority, becoming especially evident after the
East-West Schism. During the period of the
Seven Ecumenical Councils, five principal sees emerged—Rome, Constantinople,
Alexandria,
Antioch, and
Jerusalem—formalized in the mid-6th century, arranged by
Justinian I, the
Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565, as the pentarchy. In 451, the
Council of Chalcedon, in a canon of disputed validity, elevated the
see of Constantinople to a role "second in eminence and power to the bishop of Rome". From , the bishops, or popes, of Rome steadily increased their authority through consistently intervening in helping
orthodox leaders during theological disputes, which encouraged appeals to them. Emperor
Justinian, under his controlled territories, established a form of
caesaropapism where he could regulate "the minutest details of worship and discipline" and "theologian opinions" in the church—establishing imperial influence over Rome and other Western territories again. This act created the
Byzantine Papacy period (537–752) in which popes required approval from the emperor or his representative for consecration, leading to most being selected by the emperor from his Greek-speaking subjects, which created a "melting pot" of Western and Eastern Christian traditions in art and liturgy. In the following centuries, Germanic tribes who invaded the Roman Empire adopted Christianity in its
Arian form, which the
Council of Nicaea declared
heretical, causing discord between Germanic rulers and Catholic subjects. In 497,
Clovis I, the
Frankish ruler, converted to orthodox Catholicism and he aligned himself with the papacy and the
monastic communities—an act that unified Germanic rulers and Catholic subjects for the most part. Following his lead, the
Visigoths converted to Catholicism in 589, and the
Lombards in Italy gradually adopted it during the 7th century.
Western Christianity—particularly through its monastic institutions—played a massive role in preserving
classical civilization, including its
artistic traditions and literacy.
Benedict of Nursia (c. 480–543), one of the founders of
Western monasticism, with his
Rule, exerted a crucial influence on European culture with his appropriation of the church's monastic spiritual heritage and his preservation and transmission of ancient culture with the spread of the
Benedictine tradition. During this time, monastic
Ireland became a center of scholarship; early Irish missionaries such as
Columbanus and
Columba spread Christianity and established monasteries across
continental Europe. A
Stanford University historian Paul Legutko said the church is "at the center of the development of the values, ideas, science, laws, and institutions" of
Western civilization. Monks established the
first universities in Europe in the time of Western
Christendom. In
higher education, several older cathedral schools became universities beginning in the 11th century, including the
University of Oxford,
University of Paris, and
University of Bologna. Dating back to 6th-century AD,
monks and
nuns spearheaded higher education with Christian cathedral schools or monastic schools. These new universities expanded their curriculums to include academic programs for clerics, lawyers, civil servants, and physicians. Thus, due to its initial origins, the university is generally regarded as starting in a
Medieval Christian setting. Massive
mid-7th century Islamic invasions elongated the struggles of power between Christianity and Islam throughout the
Mediterranean Basis; the Byzantine Empire lost its lands of the eastern patriarchates of Jerusalem, Alexandria and Antioch were reduced to Constantinople, the empire's capital, and the Frankish state, centered away from the
Islamic domination of the Mediterranean, evolved into the dominant power that shaped the Western Europe of the Middle Ages. Battles in
Toulouse and
Tours halted Islamic advancements in the West; a failed siege of
Constantinople halted them in the East. In 751, the Byzantine Empire lost the city of
Ravenna, which
governed the small fragments of Italy, including Rome, to the Lombards, meaning confirmation by a no longer existent
exarch was not asked during the election of
Pope Stephen II in 752—the papacy had to look elsewhere for a civil power to protect it. The Frankish king
Pepin the Short conquered the Lombards in 754 at the urgent request of Pope Stephen, and then gifted the lands back to the pope, initiating the time of the
Papal States. In the 860s, Rome and the Byzantine East had a conflict during the
Photian schism, as
Photius criticized the
Latin West for adding the
filioque clause, after being
excommunicated by
Nicholas I, causing unresolved issues that led to further divisions. by
Carlo Dolci. A 14th century Catholic mystic associated with
Dominican spirituality, she helped to heal the
Great Western Schism. In the 11th century the efforts of
Hildebrand of Sovana led to the creation of the
College of Cardinals to elect new popes, starting with
Pope Alexander II in the
papal election of 1061. When Alexander II died, Hildebrand was elected to succeed him, as
Pope Gregory VII. The basic election system of the College of Cardinals which Gregory VII helped establish has continued to function into the 21st century. Pope Gregory VII further initiated the
Gregorian Reforms regarding the independence of the clergy from secular authority. This led to the
Investiture Controversy between the church and the
Holy Roman emperors, over which had the authority to appoint bishops and popes. In 1095 the Byzantine emperor,
Alexius I, appealed to
Pope Urban II for help against renewed Muslim invasions in the
Byzantine–Seljuk wars, which caused Urban to launch the
First Crusade aimed at aiding the Byzantine Empire and returning the
Holy Land to Christian control. In the
11th century strained relations between the primarily Greek church and the Latin Church separated them in the East–West Schism, partially due to conflicts over papal authority. The
Fourth Crusade and the sacking of Constantinople by renegade crusaders proved the final breach. In the twelfth century,
inquisitions began in the Catholic
Kingdom of France in response to the
Albigensians. The system spread throughout other European countries in the succeeding centuries, through multiple forms: first as individual inquisitors sporadically appointed for certain problem areas by popes, then as state-sponsored tribunals. The
ad hoc use of torture by secular medieval judges was common, and the directives governing inquisitions progressively allowed various situations where non-maiming, non-bloody torture could or must be used to corroborate testimony, not only on some classes of accused but sometimes even on denouncers and witnesses. In the early 13th century
mendicant orders were founded by
Francis of Assisi and
Dominic de Guzmán. The
studia conventualia and
studia generalia of the mendicant orders played a large role in the transformation of church-sponsored cathedral schools and palace schools, such as that of
Charlemagne at
Aachen, into the prominent universities of Europe.
Scholastic theologians and philosophers such as the Dominican priest
Thomas Aquinas studied and taught at these studia. Aquinas'
Summa Theologica was an intellectual milestone in its synthesis of the legacy of
ancient Greek philosophers such as
Plato and
Aristotle with the content of Christian revelation. A growing sense of church-state conflicts marked the 14th century. In 1309, to escape instability in Rome,
Pope Clement V became the first of seven popes to reside in the fortified city of
Avignon in southern France during a period known as the
Avignon Papacy. The Avignon Papacy ended in 1376 when the pope returned to Rome. In 1378 a 38-year-long
Western Schism began, with claimants to the papacy located in Rome, Avignon and, after 1409, Pisa. In 1438 the
Council of Florence convened, which featured a strong dialogue focussed on understanding the theological differences between the East and West, with the hope of reuniting the Catholic and Orthodox churches. Several eastern churches reunited, forming the majority of the
Eastern Catholic Churches.
Age of Discovery and Counter-Reformation The
Age of Discovery beginning in the 15th century saw the expansion of Western Europe's political and cultural influence worldwide. Because of the rise in power overseas of strongly Catholic nations of Spain and Portugal (as well as France), Catholicism was spread to the Americas, Asia and Oceania by explorers, conquistadors, and missionaries, as well as by the conversion of people who lived in these societies to the Catholic faith.
Pope Alexander VI had awarded sovereignty rights over most of the newly discovered lands to
Spain and
Portugal (later confirmed by the
Treaty of Tordesillas) and the ensuing
patronato system allowed state authorities, not the Vatican, to control all clerical appointments in the new colonies. In 1521 the Portuguese explorer
Ferdinand Magellan made the first Catholic converts in the
Philippines. Elsewhere, Portuguese missionaries under the Spanish Jesuit
Francis Xavier evangelized in India, China and Japan. The
French colonization of the Americas beginning in the 16th century established a Catholic
Francophone population and forbade non-Catholics to settle in
Quebec. In 1415 popular Bohemian preacher
Jan Hus was burned at the stake for refusing to recant
Wycliffite heresies. His "hot-headed" reform efforts presaged
Martin Luther, an
Augustinian friar in Germany, who
sent a list of topics for academic disputation, the
Ninety-five Theses, to several bishops in 1517. His theses protested against some Catholic
doctrines as well as contemporary practices such as the supposed sale of
indulgences, and these were the start of a rapidly escalating series of inflammatory works ending with
On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church (1520) which accused the Pope of being the anti-Christ: this led to
his excommunication in 1521. In Switzerland
Huldrych Zwingli,
John Calvin and other
Protestant Reformers further criticized certain Catholic teachings. These challenges developed into the Reformation, which gave birth to the great majority of
Protestant denominations and also
crypto-Protestantism within the Catholic Church. Meanwhile,
Henry VIII of the
Kingdom of England petitioned
Pope Clement VII for a
declaration of nullity concerning his marriage to
Catherine of Aragon. When this was denied, he had the
Acts of Supremacy passed to make himself
Supreme Head of the
Church of England, spurring the
English Reformation and the eventual development of
Anglicanism. of
São Miguel das Missões in Brazil The Reformation contributed to clashes between the Protestant
Schmalkaldic League and the Catholic Emperor
Charles V and his allies. The first nine-year war ended in 1555 with the
Peace of Augsburg but continued tensions produced a far graver conflict—the
Thirty Years' War—which broke out in 1618. This ended under
Pope Clement VIII, who hesitantly accepted King
Henry IV of France's 1598
Edict of Nantes granting civil and
religious toleration to French Protestants.
Enlightenment and modern period From the 17th century onward, the Enlightenment questioned the power and influence of the Catholic Church over Western society. In the 18th century, writers such as
Voltaire and the
Encyclopédistes wrote biting critiques of both religion and the Catholic Church. One target of their criticism was the 1685
revocation of the Edict of Nantes by King
Louis XIV of France, which ended a century-long policy of religious toleration of Protestant Huguenots. As the papacy resisted pushes for
Gallicanism, the
French Revolution in 1789 shifted power to the state, caused the destruction of churches, the establishment of a
Cult of Reason, and the martyrdom of
nuns during the
Reign of Terror. In 1798
Napoleon's General
Louis-Alexandre Berthier invaded the
Italian Peninsula, imprisoning
Pope Pius VI, who died in captivity. Napoleon later re-established the Catholic Church in France through the
Concordat of 1801. The end of the
Napoleonic Wars brought Catholic revival and the return of the
Papal States. In 1854
Pope Pius IX, with the support of the overwhelming majority of Catholic bishops, whom he had consulted from 1851 to 1853, proclaimed the
Immaculate Conception as a
dogma in the Catholic Church. In 1870 the
First Vatican Council affirmed the doctrine of
papal infallibility when exercised in specifically defined pronouncements, striking a blow to the rival position of
conciliarism. Controversy over this and other issues resulted in a breakaway movement called the
Old Catholic Church. The
Italian unification of the 1860s incorporated the Papal States, including Rome itself from 1870, into the
Kingdom of Italy, thus ending the papacy's
temporal power. In response Pius IX excommunicated
King Victor Emmanuel II, refused payment for the land and rejected the Italian
Law of Guarantees, which granted him special privileges. To avoid placing himself in visible subjection to the Italian authorities, he remained a "
prisoner in the Vatican". This stand-off, which was spoken of as the
Roman question, was resolved by the
Lateran Treaty in 1929, whereby the Holy See acknowledged Italian sovereignty over the former
Papal States in return for payment and Italy's recognition of papal sovereignty over Vatican City as a new sovereign and independent state. Catholic missionaries generally supported, and sought to facilitate, the European imperial powers'
conquest of Africa during the late nineteenth century. According to the historian of religion
Adrian Hastings, Catholic missionaries were generally unwilling to defend African rights or encourage Africans to see themselves as equals to Europeans, in contrast to Protestant missionaries, who were more willing to oppose colonial injustices.
20th century in audience with
Pope Pius XII on 4 July 1944, following the
Battle of Anzio, which liberated Rome from
Nazi German and the
Italian fascist occupation during
World War II in the early 1960s and then U.S. president
Ronald Reagan (pictured with his wife
Nancy) meeting in June 1982; both Pope John Paul II and Reagan were credited with contributing to the
Revolutions of 1989, which led to the fall of communism and the end of the
Cold War two years later, in 1991. During the 20th century, the church's global reach continued to grow, despite the rise of
anti-Catholic authoritarian regimes and the collapse of European
colonial empires, accompanied by a general decline in religious observance in the West. Under the popes
Benedict XV and
Pius XII the Holy See sought to maintain public neutrality through the World Wars, acting as peace broker and delivering aid to the victims of the conflicts. In the 1960s
Pope John XXIII convened the
Second Vatican Council, which ushered in radical change to church ritual and practice, and in the later 20th century the long papacy of
Pope John Paul II contributed to the
fall of communism in Europe, and a new public and international role for the papacy. From the late 20th century, the Catholic Church has been
criticized for its doctrines on
sexuality, its inability to
ordain women and its handling of
sexual abuse cases. The Second Vatican Council (1962–65) introduced the most significant changes to Catholic practices since the Council of Trent, four centuries before. Initiated by Pope John XXIII, this ecumenical council modernized the practices of the Catholic Church, allowing the Mass to be said in the
vernacular (local language) and encouraging "fully conscious, and active participation in liturgical celebrations". It intended to engage the church more closely with the present world (
aggiornamento), which was described by its advocates as an "opening of the windows". In addition to changes in the liturgy, it led to changes to the church's approach to
ecumenism, and a call to improved relations with non-Christian religions, especially Judaism, in its document
Nostra aetate. The council, however, generated significant controversy in implementing its reforms: proponents of the "
Spirit of Vatican II" such as the Swiss theologian
Hans Küng said that Vatican II had "not gone far enough" to change church policies.
Traditionalist Catholics, such as
Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, however, strongly criticized the council, arguing that its liturgical reforms led "to the destruction of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the sacraments", among other issues. The teaching on the morality of
contraception also came under scrutiny; after a series of disagreements,
Humanae vitae upheld the church's prohibition of all forms of contraception. In 1978
Pope John Paul II, formerly
Archbishop of Kraków in the
Polish People's Republic, became the first non-Italian pope in 455 years. His 26 1/2-year
pontificate was one of the longest in history and was credited with hastening the fall of communism in Europe. John Paul II sought to evangelize an increasingly
secular world. He travelled more than any other pope, visiting 129 countries, and used television and radio as means of spreading the church's teachings. He also emphasized the
dignity of work and natural rights of labourers to have
fair wages and safe conditions in
Laborem exercens. He emphasized several church teachings, including moral exhortations
against abortion,
euthanasia and
against the widespread use of capital punishment, in
Evangelium Vitae.
21st century Pope Benedict XVI, elected in 2005, was known for upholding traditional
Christian values against
secularization, and for increasing use of the
Tridentine Mass as found in the
Roman Missal of 1962, which he titled the "Extraordinary Form". Citing the frailties of advanced age,
Benedict resigned in 2013, becoming the first pope to do so in nearly 600 years.
Pope Francis became in 2013 the first pope from the Americas, the first from the
Southern Hemisphere and the first from outside Europe since the eighth-century
Gregory III. Francis made efforts to further close Catholicism's estrangement with the Eastern churches. His installation was attended by
Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the first time since the
Great Schism of 1054 that the
Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople has attended a papal installation, while he also met
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, head of the largest Eastern Orthodox church, in 2016; this was the first such high-level meeting between the two churches since the Great Schism of 1054. In 2017 during a visit in
Egypt, Pope Francis re-established mutual recognition of baptism with the
Coptic Orthodox Church.
Pope Leo XIV was elected as Pope in the
2025 conclave, following the death of Francis. He is the first Augustinian pope, the first North American pope (born in
Chicago in the
United States), and the first pope of
Peruvian citizenship. ==Organization==