Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Greek Law" to "Ground-Squirrel"

chapter in the history of the popedom as an institution; it contains the

germs of far-reaching modifications of the church, and it gave new impulses to both theory and practice, the value of which may indeed be differently estimated, but of which the effects are indubitable. It was he who conceived and formulated the ideal of the papacy as a structure embracing all peoples and lands...