Ebook The Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages

IF edification were the sole, or even the principal, object which I had in view in undertaking to write the biographies of the Popes of the early Middle Ages, I might perhaps have hesitated about publishing the present series. But I wish to pursue a higher end than that of indulging in a style of historical writing which is supposed to be calculated to edify a certain type of mind. I would fulfil what I regard as a command laid upon me by the late glorious Head of the Church, and strive to make known the history of the Popes of Rome. And, as it was a cardinal maxim with Leo XIII. That truth would not injure the Church, I am convinced that he would not have had the Lives of some Popes written and the Lives of others left unrecorded, nor would he have wished to see some of their deeds blazoned forth and others buried in eternal oblivion.