The Unknown Pope - (Benedict XV (1912-1922) and the Pursuit for Peace) by John Pollard (Paperback)

About the Book

Best known for his efforts to end World War I, Benedict XV was the first contemporary pope to assume the role peacemaker, a role that has persisted in the papacy since. Although Benedict's 1917 Peace Note was rejected by officials, he went on to help establish Save the Children and to lead European efforts at humanitarian aid. His brief pontificate resulted in a positive reassessment of the Church's attitude towards colonialism and colonized peoples. Using previously unpublished correspondence and private papers from the Vatican archives, John Pollard has written the first biography on Benedict XV in almost half a century.

Book Synopsis

Best known for his efforts to end World War I, Benedict XV was the first contemporary pope to assume the role peacemaker, a role that has persisted in the papacy since. Although Benedict's 1917 Peace Note was rejected by officials, he went on to help establish Save the Children and to lead European efforts at humanitarian aid. His brief pontificate resulted in a positive reassessment of the Church's attitude towards colonialism and colonized peoples. Using previously unpublished correspondence and private papers from the Vatican archives, John Pollard has written the first biography on Benedict XV in almost half a century.

Review Quotes

"This book is clearly the fruit of many years' careful work amongst the primary sources in Rome and elsewhere and I warmly recommend it." New Directions

"This is an important book and it deserves to be read by all those who are seriously interested in modern papal and modern Italian history." The Catholic Historical Review

"A serious and readable study of this regrettably overlooked 20th-century Pope."
- Library Journal

"An interesting and informative biography of an important and unjustifiably obscure historical figure."
- Booklist

About the Author

John Pollard is a British historian, fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and Emeritus Professor of Modern European History at Anglia Polytechnic University