Losing a Kingdom, Gaining the World: The Catholic Church in the Age of Revolution and Democracy

by Ambrogio A. Caiani

Overview

Despite its many crises, especially in Western Europe, there are 1.3 billion Catholics in the world today. The Church remains a powerful but controversial institution.

In Losing a Kingdom, Gaining the World, Ambrogio A. Caiani explores the epic history of the Roman Catholic Church. Throughout the early modern period, the Pope was a secular prince in central Italy. Catholicism was not merely a religion but also a political force to be reckoned with.

After the French Revolution, the Church retreated into a fortress of unreason and denounced almost every aspect 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, until a disastrous series of concordats with fascist states in the 1930s.

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.

Ambitious and authoritative, this is an account of the Church's fraught encounter with modernity in all its forms: from liberalism, socialism and democracy, to science, literature and the rise of secular culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781800240483
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	06/10/2025
Pages:	512
Product dimensions:	5.08(w) x 7.79(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Dr Ambrogio A. Caiani received his PhD from Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge in 2009. Since then he has taught at the universities of Greenwich, York and Oxford. He is currently Senior Lecturer in Modern European History at the University of Kent. Caiani's main research interests are Revolutionary France and Napoleonic Italy, and his work has been published in several leading academic journals. He is the author of Louis XVI and the French Revolution, 1789–1792 and To Kidnap a Pope: Napoleon and Pius VII, which won the 2021 Franco-British Society book prize.

Editorial Reviews

“With searching scholarship, wry wit and the gift of easy communication, Ambrogio Caiani reveals the relentless web of fascinating dramas which brought the Catholic Church from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. For anyone trying to understand the Church's place in the modern world, this book is literally a Godsend and utterly absorbing from start to finish.” —Mary McAleese, Chancellor of Trinity College Dublin and former President of Ireland

“A fascinating look at the bumpy road traveled by the popes and the Roman Catholic Church from the French Revolution to the turn of the twentieth century. Caiani masterfully weaves in historical nuggets that shine a bright light on the papacy's fraught struggle against modernity.” —David Kertzer

“An enthralling account, both thoughtful and entertaining, of one of the great survival stories of the modern world.” —Professor Tim Blanning

“Moving from intimate portraits to epic scenes of historical change, Losing a Kingdom, Gaining the World paints an extraordinarily vivid picture of how the Catholic Church weathered the tumultuous centuries from early modernity to the Industrial Age. Caiani's treatment of this vast and fascinating subject, which is global in scope and takes in every aspect of life, is masterful and deeply compelling.” —Dr Edward Wilson-Lee

“We have long lacked an even-handed survey of how Europe's oldest absolute monarchy, the papacy, negotiated first the Enlightenment, then the Industrial Revolution combined with Global Imperialism, taking in the French Revolution, Napoleon and Garibaldi on the way. That the paradoxical transformation described in the book's title was the unintended consequence of sincerely but stubbornly held opinions of successive popes who were unanimously (though variously) hostile to modernity only adds to the fascination of this story. Caiani tells it with wit, verve and unfailing fluency; ever alive to the humour as well as tragedy of his cast of hundreds for whom the papacy and Rome was the symbol of all that was wrong, or right, with the world.” —Simon Ditchfield

“An outstanding introduction to a crucial period in formation of the modern Catholic Church. Caiani's richly textured account channels the spirit of the late Owen Chadwick to retell eighteenth- and nineteenth-century history from the Roman perspective, showing how the great forces of Enlightenment, Revolution, and Counter-Revolution reshaped the lives of popes, priests, and the humble Catholic faithful alike.” —Dr Miles Pattenden

“In Losing a Kingdom Gaining the World, Ambrogio Caiani tells the fascinating and largely overlooked story of how the papacy transformed itself from Ancien Régime monarchy into a twentieth-century spiritual superpower . . . Intelligently and sensitively written with an impressive command of both Vatican intrigue and international power politics, plus a nice eye for the colourful anecdote, Losing a Kingdom, Gaining the World is compelling reading.” —Colin Jones

“Caiani combines narrative flair, immense scholarship, and a crispness of analysis to tell the story of the Catholic Church not just as a major force in society, culture, and politics in Europe and the Americas, but also as a global phenomenon in a time of revolution, nation-building, and imperialism. Caiani has written a book that is rich in fascinating detail, enlivened by brilliant character sketches, and sympathetic to the Catholic Church without ever dodging its complicity in political reaction and some of the worst aspects of colonialism.” —David Laven

“PRAISE FOR AMBROGIO CAIANI:

'In gripping, vivid prose, Caiani brings to life the struggle for power that would shape modern Europe... a historical read which is both original and enjoyable'” —Antonia Fraser

“OTHER REVIEWS:

'Caiani relates this dramatic story in telling detail but never loses sight of the broader picture, and uses his archival discoveries to excellent effect... the result is both an exciting narrative and a fine work of scholarship' Literary Review

'A riveting and compelling account of how the soft power of the Pope proved more durable than the military might of Napoleon' Tim Blanning

'Caiani leads the reader expertly through diplomatic and theological disputes, a dynastic marriage, international relations and war... He handles this complex narrative deftly' TLS

'Tells the story of an epic struggle'” —Financial Times

“A fascinating history of Catholicism, in which the Pope features as a great Italian prince as well as religious leader. Ambrogio Caiani traces the development of the Catholic religion as the Pope claims his own infallibility. In Professor Caiani's hands, all this reads like a huge thriller, perfect for the holiday period.” —The Tablet

“[A] major new interpretation of the Catholic Church” —The Historian

From the Publisher