Though billed by the publisher as the first memoir by a sitting pope, it trails Pope Pius II's reflections on the Renaissance in "The Commentaries" by several centuries. Still, it's fairly unusual for ...

Even at the height of the papacy's temporal power, when medieval and Renaissance popes deposed emperors, appointed kings, and divided the world among competing colonizers; even during the ...

Some of the earlier popes, especially in the Borgia-heavy Renaissance era, were notably corrupt and secular — see Pope Alexander VI, who lived in wealth and openly doted on his children with ...

The small 15th century church is known the world over for its frescoe-covered ceilings, the work of famed Renaissance painter Michelangelo. Charles and Pope Francis have met on two other other ...

That honour belongs to Pope Pius II’s 15th-century chronicles, The Commentaries, a 13-book account of his life that is considered a seminal text in Renaissance humanism. Pope Francis is also not ...

It was in this Tuscan town that Renaissance town-planning concepts were first put into practice after Pope Pius II decided, in 1459, to transform the look of his birthplace. He chose the architect ...

it trails Pope Pius II's reflections on the Renaissance in "The Commentaries" by several centuries. Still, it's fairly unusual for a modern pope to reveal his thoughts so directly. Here are five ...