Know your popes: Historian Thomas W. Worcester traces dramatic changes in the papacy over 500 years

IDEAS: Pope Leo X, who reigned from 1513 to 1521, faced the Reformation, an immense challenge to the church. But you write that he was perhaps more interested in his pet elephant.

WORCESTER: The king of Portugal sent an elephant to the pope, which was a way of displaying, of course, Portugal’s power as an overseas empire and so on. But apparently Leo X was very much taken by that elephant.

IDEAS: It wasn’t until the middle of that century that Pope Paul III finally convened the Council of Trent to respond to the Reformation. What kind of problems did it address?

WORCESTER: [A main] reason they met was to reform the Catholic Church from within. That meant...getting the bishops to get their act together. At the time, many bishops did not even reside in their dioceses. And they often would hold several [posts]....Imagine if the archbishop of Boston were also archbishop of New York, and several other places, and didn’t reside in any of them...[and] the individual in question collected the income from all those places....If you think we have trouble today with bishops, it was worse, it was a lot worse.

IDEAS: When you talk about a papal army in that period, what does that mean?

WORCESTER: Popes raised armies just like any other head of state would do. But they often relied on mercenaries...at the time, to hire troops from outside one’s own country was done frequently....The famous Swiss guards that still exist at the Vatican, they go right back to Julius II...they’re both ceremonial at the Vatican today but they are also an actual police force.

Five hundred years ago, the pope had more in common with a secular European ruler, write the Rev. Thomas W. Worcester and his coeditor, the Rev. James Corkery, in their new book, “The Papacy Since 1500: From Italian Prince to Universal Pastor.” The pope reigned over central Italy and frequently went to war to protect his territory. His interests were not just the church, or even his own reputation, but promoting his own family’s profile and fortune. The Vatican’s vast military spending was rivaled only by the fortunes it paid to great artists, architects, and legions of craftsmen. The pope rarely preached and almost never traveled outside Italy.

To appreciate the enormous difference between contemporary popes and their Renaissance predecessors is to understand how sweeping a transformation can come over a seemingly timeless institution. Worcester’s book contains a dozen essays by papal scholars exploring how the functions and image of the papal office changed over the centuries. Inspired in part by a popular course Worcester teaches on the evolution of the papacy at the College of the Holy Cross, where he is a professor, the book highlights the moments in history where an office that seems ancient and unchanging underwent a dramatic metamorphosis....

IDEAS: It wasn’t until the middle of that century that Pope Paul III finally convened the Council of Trent to respond to the Reformation. What kind of problems did it address?

Worcester’s book contains a dozen essays by papal scholars exploring how the functions and image of the papal office changed over the centuries. Inspired in part by a popular course Worcester teaches on the evolution of the papacy at the College of the Holy Cross, where he is a professor, the book highlights the moments in history where an office that seems ancient and unchanging underwent a dramatic metamorphosis.

Please read the article and see that Proff Worcester teaches at the College of the Holy Cross.

This article is pretty tame, and seems to me to be fair, ending up showing the more contemporary Catholic Church in an overall positive light. At least compared to immediately prior to the Restoration.
If you don't mind, I'll take a portion of the quoted article out of italics, and highlight key parts for emphasis.

dozen essays by papal scholars

College of the Holy Cross, where he is a professor

After reading the complete article, I don't see the "hate" you have been accused of (in previous deleted comments).

Plain, well documented history, but not hate.

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