In an initial evaluation of the source material contained in RPG IV (cf. Neuerscheinungen 1995/II, p. 60) the editors analyze 4028 regesta from German-speaking areas recorded by the Penitentiary during the pontificate of Pius II. (1458-1464). This is the first time the registers of the supreme Papal tribunal on penance and dispensations have been examined in this way and it provides an entirely new perspective on the religious situation in the mid 15th century.

The roles of popes, saints, and crusaders were inextricably intertwined in the Middle Ages: papal administration was fundamental in the making and promulgating of new saints and in financing crusades, while crusaders used saints as propaganda to back up the authority of popes, and even occasionally ended up being sanctified themselves. Yet, current scholarship rarely treats these three components of medieval faith together. This book remedies that by bringing together scholars to consider the links among the three and the ways that understanding them can help us build a more complete picture of the working of the church and Christianity in the Middle Ages.