A History of the Papacy During the Period of the Reformation: Volume 4: The Italian Princes, 1464–1518

Mandell Creighton's five-volume study of the papacy during the Reformation was first published between 1882 and 1894. Lytton Strachey paid an indirect compliment to Creighton's work by remarking that 'the biscuit is certainly dry; but at any rate there are no weevils'. Creighton (1843–1901) was an academic and an ordained Anglican. Having studied at Oxford and spent time in the parish of Embleton in Northumberland, he was appointed the first Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Cambridge, became Bishop of Peterborough and ended his career as Bishop of London. Volume 4 (1887) continues the account of Alexander VI and his son Cesare Borgia. In 1503 Julius II, the 'Warrior Pope' was elected, and Creighton gives a full narrative of the wars and alliances that the papacy subsequently became embroiled in. He also describes the sessions of the Fifth Lateran Council (1512–17), and the succession of Leo X.