The Decline and Fall of the Roman Church

Martin wrote this book to analyse the sudden and rapid decline of the Roman Catholic Church in its ecclesiastical organization and doctrinal unity since the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965).

Martin shows the transformations that took place in the institution of the papacy as the relationship between temporal power and spiritual authority was worked out throughout the years.

Kirkus Reviews called it a "Vivid, impressionistic, chimerical history of the papacy" and concluded that it was "Lively stuff, certainly, but rife with distortions.

"[1] Christopher Small of the Glasgow Herald characterized it as a "highly dramatised, not to say sensational, tour through the history of the papacy", the author's main purpose being to depict what he sees as the church's long and problematic association with state power.

[2] On the other hand, National Catholic Reporter journalist Peter Hebblethwaite found parts of the book to be "incoherent" and "dogmatic" and wrote that Martin "seems to be making it all up".