However, in the form of Savonarola, an unprepossessing provincial monk, Lorenzo found his nemesis. Filled with Old Testament fury and prophecies of doom, Savonarola's sermons reverberated among a disenfranchised population, who preferred medieval Biblical certainties to the philosophical interrogations and intoxicating surface glitter of the Renaissance. Savonarola's aim was to establish a 'City of God' for his followers, a new kind of democratic state, the likes of which the world had never seen before.The battle which this provoked would be a fight to the death, a series of sensational events - invasions, trials by fire, the 'Bonfire of the Vanities', terrible executions and mysterious deaths - featuring a cast of the most important and charismatic Renaissance figures.

This famous struggle has often been portrayed as a simple clash of wills between a benign ruler and religious fanatic, between secular pluralism and repressive extremism. However, in an exhilaratingly rich and deeply researched story, Paul Strathern reveals the paradoxes, self-doubts and political compromises which made the battle for the soul of the Renaissance city one of the most complex and important moments in Western history.

St Paul was one of the most influential figures in the early Church.

But who was he?

And why was he so important?

William Mitchell Ramsay, one of the twentieth century’s foremost scholars on the early church, here uncovers the real story of St Paul.

Ramsay charts his journey from Antioch to Galatia, Asia Minor to Macedonia, his shipwreck off Malta to his final years in Rome.

Using archaeological evidence to further understand the writings of the New Testament allows Ramsay to gain a new layer of meaning behind Paul’s work.

Although Paul was never one of the original Twelve Apostles he used his status as a Jew and a Roman to talk to wide audiences across the Mediterranean and brought Christianity to a larger number of people in the 1st century AD.

Paul’s influence over the early church was immense, and fourteen of the twenty-seven books in the New Testament have traditionally been attributed to Paul.

He continues to be a revered figure of the Christian faith as his continue to be vital roots of the theology, worship, and pastoral life in the Catholic and Protestant traditions of the West, and the Orthodox traditions of the East.

'St Paul the traveller and Roman Citizen' is a fascinating biography of one the most influential people the world has ever seen.