 First edition | |
| Author | Bruce Marshall |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Gérard Lecoeur |
| Country | Scotland |
| Publisher | Constable |
Publication date | 1975 |
| Media type | Print (hardback) |
| Pages | 181 |
| ISBN | 0-09-460640-4 |
| Preceded by | Urban the Ninth |
| Followed by | Peter the Second |
Marx the First is a 1973 novel by Scottish writer Bruce Marshall. It is the second novel of a three volume series. Urban the Ninth is the first and Peter the Second the final. [1]
In this Catholic comic thriller Pope Marx the First returns to the Vatican after being thought lost in an air crash two years previous. He takes over from Cardinal Stephen, who had been elected as Urban IX, an "accidental Pope" during the time Marx was thought lost.
Pope Marx, a very liberal Catholic, plans to make many radical changes to Catholic teaching, practices and doctrines. Stephen, who opposes these planned changes, is now serving as the Vatican's Secretary of State so that the Pope "can keep his eye on him."
The mother superior of a religious order is attempting to get the order's founder canonised. A number of miraculous occurrences happen and some say these events are due to the founder's intercession while others contest this. This leads to diplomatic friction between the USSR, Spain, The United Kingdom and the Vatican. [2]
The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the Second Vatican Council, or Vatican II, was the 21st ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. The council met in Saint Peter's Basilica in Vatican City for four periods, each lasting between 8 and 12 weeks, in the autumn of each of the four years 1962 to 1965. Preparation for the council took three years, from the summer of 1959 to the autumn of 1962. The council was opened on 11 October 1962 by John XXIII, and was closed on 8 December 1965 by Paul VI.
Pope Leo XIII was head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 to his death in July 1903. Living until the age of 93, he was the oldest pope holding office, and the second-longest-lived pope in history after Pope Benedict XVI as Pope emeritus. He also had the fourth-longest reign of any pope, behind those of St. Peter, Pius IX and John Paul II.
The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican, or simply Saint Peter's Basilica, is a church built in the Renaissance style located in Vatican City, the papal enclave that is within the city of Rome, Italy. It was initially planned by Pope Nicholas V and then Pope Julius II to replace the aging Old St. Peter's Basilica, which was built in the fourth century by Roman emperor Constantine the Great. Construction of the present basilica began on 18 April 1506 and was completed on 18 November 1626.
The College of Cardinals, or more formally the Sacred College of Cardinals, is the body of all cardinals of the Catholic Church. As of 14 January 2023, its membership is 223, of whom 124 are eligible to vote in a conclave to elect a new pope. Cardinals are appointed by the pope for life. Changes in life expectancy partly account for the increases in the size of the college.
The Apostolic Palace is the official residence of the pope, the head of the Catholic Church, located in Vatican City. It is also known as the Papal Palace, the Palace of the Vatican and the Vatican Palace. The Vatican itself refers to the building as the Palace of Sixtus V, in honor of Pope Sixtus V, who built most of the present form of the palace.
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2019. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a prominent role in the history and development of Western civilization. The church consists of 24 sui iuris churches, including the Latin Church and 23 Eastern Catholic Churches, which comprise almost 3,500 dioceses and eparchies located around the world. The pope, who is the bishop of Rome, is the chief pastor of the church. The bishopric of Rome, known as the Holy See, is the central governing authority of the church. The administrative body of the Holy See, the Roman Curia, has its principal offices in Vatican City, a small enclave of the Italian city of Rome, of which the pope is head of state.
Pope Francis is the head of the Catholic Church, the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State. Francis is the first pope to be a member of the Society of Jesus, the first from the Americas, the first from the Southern Hemisphere, and the first pope from outside Europe since Gregory III, a Syrian who reigned in the 8th century.
The Catholic Church in Europe is part of the worldwide Catholic Church in full communion with the Holy See in Rome, including represented Eastern Catholic missions. Demographically, Catholics are the largest religious group in Europe.
Annibale Bugnini was a Catholic prelate. Ordained in 1936 and named archbishop in 1972, he was secretary of the commission that worked on the reform of the Catholic liturgy that followed the Second Vatican Council. Both critics and proponents of the changes made to the Roman Rite Mass and other liturgical practices before and after Vatican II consider him a dominant force in these efforts. He held several other posts in the Roman Curia and ended his career as papal nuncio to Iran, where he acted as an intermediary during the Iran hostage crisis of 1979 to 1981.
John Christopher "Aidan" Nichols is an English academic and Catholic priest.
Reinhard Marx is a German cardinal of the Catholic Church. He serves as the Archbishop of Munich and Freising. Pope Benedict XVI elevated Marx to the cardinalate in a consistory in 2010.
Social teachings of the papacy encompass papal views described in social encyclicals and other papal communications, beginning with Rerum novarum, Pope Leo XIII's encyclical of 1891.
Urban the Ninth is a 1973 Novel by Scottish writer Bruce Marshall. It is the first novel of a three volume series. It was followed by Marx the First and concludes with Peter the Second.
Windswept House: A Vatican Novel is a 1996 novel by Roman Catholic priest and theologian Malachi Martin. The book charts the turmoil within the Catholic faith and within Vatican City.
Laudato si' is the second encyclical of Pope Francis. The encyclical has the subtitle "on care for our common home". In it, the pope critiques consumerism and irresponsible development, laments environmental degradation and global warming, and calls all people of the world to take "swift and unified global action."
Pope Francis issued the document Magnum principium dated 3 September 2017 on his own authority. It modified the 1983 Code of Canon Law to shift responsibility and authority for translations of liturgical texts into modern languages to national and regional conferences of bishops and restrict the role of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (CDW). It was made public on 9 September 2017 and its effective date was 1 October of the same year.
The Vatican sexual abuse summit, officially the Meeting on the Protection of Minors in the Church, was a four-day Catholic Church summit meeting in Vatican City that ran from 21 to 24 February 2019, convened by Pope Francis to discuss preventing sexual abuse by Catholic Church clergy.
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