He chronicles the Crusades and the 1204 sack of Constantinople, from which that once-great city never fully recovered.

Norwich’s history shows that until very recently, the Church’s instinctive approach to rival faiths or sects has been to crush them. There are also elements that are missing altogether, such as any reference to the debates over liberation theology. Norwich’s scholarly knowledge of the earlier centuries - as the popes struggle with the Byzantines and the Norman kings of Sicily - may be what makes those pages feel more compelling than his discussion of the Vatican in the 18th and 19th centuries. But his race to cover the most important trends and events means there are tiny errors, such as inaccurate dates for the guillotining of Marie Antoinette and Mussolini’s lynching. Norwich revels in tiny details that betray the spirit of an age, such as the medieval pope who banned physicians from treating patients who weren’t in a state of grace. Religious scholars may find little to love since Norwich devotes more time and attention to the notable figures of the papacy and less to early figures like Pope Dionysos or Pope Zephyrinus, despite the latter’s 18-year tenure in the second century.Ĭritics within the Catholic church may look with disfavor on Norwich’s occasional bursts of irony and deadpan humor, his critical evaluation of the zealous canonization program embarked on by the late John Paul II and his outright disgust at the excesses of the Church and its leaders.įor the general reader, this is an admirable, lucid and often entertaining tome - and one that manages to be respectful, despite having been penned by a self-described Protestant with little religious conviction. Peter to today’s Benedict XVI, their struggles with challenges to religious orthodoxy as well as battles with secular powers ranging from Frederick Barbarossa to Communism.

Author, historian and British peer John Julius Norwich has never displayed any lack of drive and energy, but even by his standards, “The Popes: A History” (also published as “Absolute Monarchs: A History of the Papacy”) is ambitious in the extreme.Ĭrammed into its pages are the lives of 265 popes, from St.

The Popes by John Julius Norwich