Publisher's Synopsis
Christianity arrived in Rome with the Apostles Peter and Paul, and took root there, eventually becoming the state religion with the conversion of the Emperor Constantine. June Hager has used the story of 40 of Rome's churches - from the earliest in the catacombs and churches constructed to honour the martyred dead, to those devised to show the power of the papacy during the Renaissance and to reaffirm its authority during the Counter-Reformation, to those showing the emotive splendour of the Baroque and the changing emphasis of the Enlightenment - to offer a unique and fascinating perspective on the history of the Church and Christianity. Each of the churches holds many stories, which in turn reveal changes in the wider world as well as in both the doctrine and the presentation of Catholicism. Finally the origins of jubilees and the churches especially dedicated to them are considered and their significance explained.
