Between Two Empires (461 - 1000)

Overview

This episode focuses on the developing role of the papacy as a religious and political force, as well as the conversion of Europe to Christianity. Often thugs, bandits and womanizers, the popes of the ninth and tenth centuries led the papal institution to a state of moral decadence, encouraged by the outrageous Pope John XII who was "elected" at the ripe age of eighteen.