Based on careful research but eminently readable, The oxford Dictionary of Popes provides revealing vignettes of the extraordinary variety of men who have claimed to be successors of St Peter, and their varying involvement in great power politics, personal or family aggrandizement, patronage of the arts, theological controversy, or spiritual leadership. It also presents a graphic and moving picture of the fluctuating fortunes of the Christian Church centered on Rome, sometimes submerged by secular forces, but also at other times, under popes of determination and vision, staging a spectacular revival and confronting the world (as today) with a daunting challenge.