Table of Contents

Introduction
Prelude. The Legate
PART I. GREGORY IX
Chapter 1. A Contested Vow
Chapter 2. Reforming the Peace
Chapter 3. The Widening Gyre
Chapter 4. Christendom in Crisis
Interlude. The Vacancy
PART II. INNOCENT IV
Chapter 5. A New Hope
Chapter 6. The Council
Chapter 7. Christendom at War
Chapter 8. The Price of Victory
Postlude. The Afterworld
Epilogue
List of Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments

Promotional Information

Covering decades that included the last major crusades, the birth of the Inquisition, and the unexpected invasion of the Mongols, The Two Powers shows how Popes Gregory and Innocent's battles with Emperor Frederick shaped the political circumstances of the thirteenth-century papacy and its role in the public life of medieval Christendom.

About the Author

Brett Edward Whalen is Associate Professor of History at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is author of The Medieval Papacy and Dominion of God: Christendom and Apocalypse in the Middle Ages.

Reviews

"[A] penetrating look at the incredible power struggles of 13th-century Europe…Whalen has written a wise, in-depth, and passionate account of the struggle of the two 13th-century Popes Gregory the IX and Innocent the IV, both of whom were determined to put their political agendas ahead of the Church and their own priestly roles...This is an easy book to read, especially for anyone interested in the history, religion, and politics of the medieval world. It is well written, and the well-organized ideas help readers understand specific regions, topics, and periods. This is the resource book lecturers and students have been waiting for."
*Reading Religion*

"The Two Powers offers a new and convincing statement on the relations between papacy and empire in the first half of the thirteenth century and demolishes the current rather simplistic assessments of papal attitudes to Frederick II."
*R. N. Swanson, University of Birmingham*

"Brett Edward Whalen narrates engagingly with a wonderful eye for the telling detail or anecdote. Never the cheerleader nor the scold, he looks carefully at all sides in each major stage of the ongoing confrontation between Frederick II and the popes and makes an original contribution of paradigmatic significance."
*Thomas F. X. Noble, University of Notre Dame*