The Pope Who Would Be King: The Exile of Pius IX and the Emergence of Modern Europe

Pulitzer Prize-winning scholar Kertzer (Dupee Univ. Professor of Social Science, Brown Univ.) has written several books about the papacy, including The Pope and Mussolini. His new work focuses on Pope Pius IX (1792–1878), who led during a time of major transition and experienced a period of exile from Rome. While this deals with Pius IX and his time as Pope, it has a broader emphasis on the transition toward modern Europe that occurred during his reign. When Pius IX first became Pope, he was a key leader both in religion and in politics in the Papal States. During his final years, the Pope was still a religious leader, but his political authority did not extend beyond papal grounds. After detailing his popularity and eventual exile, Kertzer recounts how Pius guided his key Catholic leaders, after they had returned to Rome, to reinstate full papal rule there and punish those who turned against him.