Review Essay Speak of the Devil: Hubert Wolf on Pope Pius XI and the Vatican Archives

Abstract

Hubert Wolf's subtle and understated book shows that the writing of good history requires access to good sources. In 2006 Benedict XVI opened to researchers all files in the Vatican Secret Archives relating to the pontificate of Pius XI (February 1922 to February 1939). This is a vast cache: by Wolf's estimate, it includes about 100,000 “archival units, each containing up to a thousand pages” (17). Of course Wolf could not examine all or even much of this enormous collection, but he saw enough to present what he calls a “double perspective” on relations between the Vatican and Germany in the prewar years of National Socialist rule: “the view from Rome and the consultations within the Vatican about German affairs” (18). By sticking close to his sources Wolf uncovers many surprises and reveals that the devil in its modern, totalitarian guise is, as ever, in the details.