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In his latest book, Losing a Kingdom, Gaining the World: the Catholic Church in the Age of Revolution and Democracy, Ambrogio Caiani looks at the history of the Roman Catholic Church in the modern age and its encounters with modernity in all its forms from liberalism, socialism and democracy, to science, literature and the rise of secular culture.
He contends that the Church retreated after the French Revolution and the democratic rebellions of 1848 and denounced almost all aspects of modern life. The Pope proclaimed his infallibility; the cult of the Virgin Mary and her apparitions became articles of faith; the Vatican refused all accommodation with the modern state.
These dark days threatened the very existence of the Church. But as Catholicism lost its temporal power, it made significant spiritual strides and expanded across continents. Between 1700 and 1903, it lost a kingdom but gained the world.
Ambrogio Caiani is a senior lecturer in history at the University of Kent, specialising in Revolutionary France, Napoleonic Italy and Catholicism. His books include To Kidnap a Pope: Napoleon and Pius VII, 1800-1815 and Louis XVI and the French Revolution, 1798-92.