The Holy Alliance, later 'The Entity', a secret spy service, has been used by the Vatican for over five centuries to carry out its will. Forty popes have relied on it to carry out their policies. Yet it has played a hitherto invisible role while it has been involved in de- christianisations and schisms, revolutions and dictatorships, colonialisations and expulsions, persecutions and attacks, civil wars and world wars, assassinations and kidnappings. For the first time in English, Eric Frattini tells the comprehensive tale of this sacred secret service and its involvement in the killings of monarchs, poisonings of diplomats, financing of South American dictators, protection of war criminals, laundering of mafia money, manipulation of financial markets, provocation of bank failures, and financing of arms sales to combatants even as their wars were condemned, all in the name of God. As remarkable as it is powerful, the history of this organisation that holds the motto 'With the Cross and the Sword' will shock and amaze. 'A must read' El Universal Over 25 years as a journalist, Eric Frattini has interviewed many high-profile public figures. He has written books on the FBI, the UN and the CIA, and is the author of Cosa Nostra: A Century of History. He is a TV correspondent and lives in Spain.