Some of the earlier popes, especially in the Borgia-heavy Renaissance era, were notably corrupt and secular — see Pope Alexander VI, who lived in wealth and openly doted on his children with ...

At the heart of the Florentine resurgence were three titans of art: Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarroti, and Raphael ...

Even at the height of the papacy's temporal power, when medieval and Renaissance popes deposed emperors, appointed kings, and divided the world among competing colonizers; even during the ...

Pope Francis inaugurated the Catholic Holy Year by opening St. Peter's Basilica’s Holy Door, emphasizing hope, renewal, and ...

making the Borgia the most notorious family in Renaissance Italy. They were not friends of the Medici. Rodrigo Borgia, the corrupt Pope Alexander VI, had at least two illegitimate children.

As Pope Francis became the first pope to celebrate Mass on the French island of Corsica Dec. 15, the usual excitement of an ...

the usual excitement of an open-air Mass with the pope was combined with the flair and pageantry of a Renaissance fair.