This comprehensive sourcebook focuses on the Vatican from the Renaissance through the 1990s. Developments are studied within the context of European and world history. Crucial pre-Renaissance events are included as are entries on all of the popes, and the twenty-one councils from Nicaea (325) to Vatican II (1962-1965). Alphabetically arranged, the entries provide valuable and often difficult-to-find information on the structure and organization of the church.

While the emphasis remains on the interaction between the Vatican and Papal Institutions within the wider political, diplomatic, social, and cultural world arena, theological questions are considered as well as the attitudes and reactions of the Vatican to key historical events, such as the French Revolution, Imperialism, World War I and II, the Ethiopian War, and the Holocaust. Entries on heresies and condemnations are included along with those on the Vatican reaction to various ideological movements such as Arianism, Jansenism, Gnosticism, Fascism, Racism, Marxism, and Americanism.

Entries address current issues such as the Papal position on social questions, abortion, homosexuality, liberation theology, and birth control.