The Catholic Encyclopedia (1907–1914)
Eleven thousand articles on every Catholic topic — saints, doctrines, councils, controversies, dioceses, religious orders, biblical books, scholastic terms — by the foremost Catholic scholars of the early 20th century.
Published by Robert Appleton Company in fifteen volumes from 1907 to 1914 under the editorship of Charles G. Herbermann and his peers, with the imprimatur of John Cardinal Farley of New York, the Catholic Encyclopedia set out to give "full and authoritative information on the entire cycle of Catholic interests, action, and doctrine." A century later it remains the most cited reference work in the English-speaking Catholic world — exhaustive on the history of the Church and her doctrines, with hundreds of major theologians and historians among its contributors. The text is in the US public domain. New Advent's HTML edition (Kevin Knight, 1995–present) is the canonical online presentation.
Browse the Encyclopedia
Eleven thousand articles, organized A–Z. Tap to open the reader and browse by letter.