Download or read book The Oxford Dictionary of Popes written by John Norman Davidson Kelly and published by Oxford [Oxfordshire] ; New York : Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1986 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The papacy is the oldest of all Western institutions with an unbroken existence over almost 2,000 years. In this unique reference, J.N.D. Kelly provides a concise entry on each pope, chronologically arranged so that the book reads as a continuous history of the papacy. He covers not only all the officially recognized popes from St. Peter to John Paul II but also their irregularly elected rivals, the so-called antipopes.