Papacy: An Encyclopedia, The

The Papacy: An Encyclopedia. By Philippe Levillain, general editor. 3 vols. New York and London: Routledge, 2002. Vol. 1, xxxiv + 613 pp.; vol. 2, vii + 611 pp.; vol. 3, vii + 380 pp.; $395.

This formidable three-volume set impresses at first sight by its size, its weight, the quality of the materials used, perhaps even by its striking color (lavender), and even more by the list of contributors, which fills six pages with more than two hundred names, all of them persons of competence. The original French-language edition of 1994 was inspired by events of the year 1978, the year of three popes. When Pope Paul VI died (August 6), John Paul I was elected (August 26) but died only a month later (his funeral was September 28). John Paul II was elected on October 16 and has been in office since them.

Evidently the project of producing a massive encyclopedia on the papacy was motivated in part by the perception, after the Second Vatican Council of 1962-65, that the papacy and the Church were in a crisis. After the death of Pope Pius XII, his successor, Paul VI, at first attracted favorable attention for socially sensitive and progressive ideas, but he created a shock when he promulgated Humanae vitae on July 25, 1968. This strong restatement of the Roman Catholic position on contraception led to wide-- spread dissatisfaction and opposition within the Church. Unable to deal with the controversy, Paul issued no more encyclicals after Humanae vitae. When he died ten years later, much of the Church hoped for a breath of fresh air with his successor. The hopes that John Paul I aroused were rudely shattered by his death only weeks later.

The election of the first non-Italian pope since the Reformation, the unusually gifted and courageous Karol Wojtyla, Archbishop of Cracow, surprised a Catholic and general public already shocked by the sudden death of his predecessor. At the time of Cardinal Wojtyla's accession, it was widely felt, both within the Church and outside of it, that the papacy and with it the entire Roman Catholic Church was in a crisis from which it would be difficult to emerge. The new pope surprised the world with his vitality, energy, and originality. Regarded as a progressive moderate during Vatican II, he soon appeared as more than that, for he combined new departures of various kinds with a strong commitment to Catholic tradition, including veneration of the Virgin Mary, traditional sexual morality, and priestly celibacy. To all these he has held firmly in the face of all obstacles. John Paul II was to be the storm center for change and transformation in Church and state (v. Poland and the USSR). The fact that the papacy could play such a role in world affairs and Realpolitik in the twentieth century certainly helps to explain the intense energy devoted to his massive project.

The choice of the popes to be covered (all of them) in this three-volume work is not surprising; but the choice of some of the lesser people and things is. Some surprising details appear, and many that might have been expected do not. For example, the first entry, "Abbreviator," tells of lesser officials, scribes employed as assistants to the papal notaries and given the task of drafting, in an abbreviated form, the minutes of a document before it was to be recopied in its final form. The office was abolished by Pope Pius X (1903-1914); it is mentioned here only to say that there is no evidence that any abbreviator was ever at work on this maximum opus.

The entry on John Paul II is one of the longest (seven pages), compared, for example, to three pages for the pope famous for his social thought, Leo XIII (1878-1903). Both articles are by the general editor, Philippe Levillain. His article on John Paul II includes a very thorough bibliography with several entries in English. For comparison, the first pope to confront Martin Luther, Leo X (1513-1521), receives only three pages. Luther, for his part, is not in the table of contents, although together with England's King Henry VIII and numerous others he appears in the entry on the Reformation.

Some people and institutions that profoundly affected the Roman Church and its head are barely mentioned, if they appear at all. The Emperor Constantine the Great is prominent, but to find his Holy Roman successor Charles V it is necessary to consult the general index. The same is true of John Hus and the Hussite movement, which might be regarded as the first enduring challenge to papal authority before 1517. The Reformers Martin Luther and John Calvin do not appear in the list of entries, but they receive fair treatment in the six-page entry "Reformation (15 17-65)." This article goes on to end with a note of hope (from the Roman Catholic perspective) represented by a brief introduction to the Catholic counter-attacks at the Council of Trent and afterwards. Wittenberg, where the trouble started, is not an entry, not even in the index, but Rome, from the republic to the modern city, is treated very fully indeed, perhaps a reflection of the fact that this church really is Roman.