Thomas F. Madden Audio

As the world entered the modern age, the Catholic Church faced new challenges to its authority, both from without and within. As one of the planet's oldest institutions, the Church had already survived sixteen centuries, but as winds of change altered the global landscape, the Church's very existence would be called into question.

Esteemed history professor Thomas F. Madden explores the reformations that swept across Christendom in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Even millennia after its fall, the grand expanse of Roman achievement continues to affect not only American society, but the entire world as well. What caused a civilization of such accomplishments to disintegrate?

In this epic course, esteemed university professor Thomas F. Madden offers a fascinating history of the remarkable culture and state that developed out of the ancient Roman Empire, particularly its eastern portion, throughout the Middle Ages.

In Empires of Trust, Professor Thomas F. Madden explores surprising parallels between the Roman and American republics.

Entrusting the apostles to continue the work he had started by instructing them to "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit...," Jesus kindled the fires of a new religion in a world largely dominated by polytheism, cult leader worship, and mysticism.

As late as 1518, plans were laid by Pope Leo X and the monarchs of Europe to set aside their internal quarrels and once more embark on a holy crusade to wrest the Middle East from the Ottoman Turks.

For many, the Inquisition conjures Gothic images of cloaked figures and barbarous torture chambers. So enmeshed is this view of the Inquisition in popular culture that such scenes play out even in comedies such as Mel Brooks' History of the World and Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Renowned professor Thomas F. Madden focuses his expertise on what has been called the most beautiful city in the world—Venice.

Even millennia after its fall, the grand expanse of Roman achievement continues to affect not only American society, but the entire world as well. What caused a civilization of such accomplishments to disintegrate?