Book Reviewed: Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes, by Eamon Duffy

Crisis in Christendom: Vicars of the Christ through the years

Pope is the spiritual leader of 1.3 billion Catholics who form a major part of 2.2 billion Christians. The pontiff symbolizes the rule of God himself over hearts and minds of the faithful. Their words weigh in the halls of power, and in the bedrooms of the followers. The papacy is the oldest as well as the most influential of all human institutions. They determined the fate of yet to be discovered world between colonial powers in the name of peace, and they plunged nations and continents into war. Historical studies of the Vatican through the years have reflected on greed, sex, wealth, power, and world domination. Papal history though the past 1900 years illuminate on the corrupt election process in the Vatican. Politics, cronyism, favoritism and influence of money thrust one improbable candidate after another into the position of the ecclesiastical jurisdiction as the Holy See and the successor of Apostle St. Peter.

In Chapter Three, entitled “Set above Nations” the author discusses attempts by some leaders to reform the church but the popes themselves were deeply embroiled in the internecine dynastic warfare of the Roman nobility. The election to the chair of Apostle Peter was frequently a commodity for sale or barter. New bishops were required to pay large sums of money to the ruler who had nominated them. At the opening of the eleventh century the papacy was a contradictory mixture of exalted theory and squalid reality. In theory the bishops of Rome were lords of the world, exercising a unique spiritual supremacy symbolized by their exclusive right to anoint the western or 'Holy Roman' Emperor. In practice, the popes were subordinated to the power of the local Roman aristocracy or to the German ruling house. This struggle progressively helped the Holy Father to gain upper hand in European politics. The Roman Catholic Church encouraged catholicization of the new colonies often using brute force. Native Americans and other populations across the globe were subjected to pressure and heavy-handedness to abandon their own culture, beliefs and practices. In this regard, the British, Spanish and Portuguese invaders promoted Christianism in Africa, Asia and the Americas. The resistance to Biblical influence from smaller sects within Europe was met with brutal wars and tragic ends to their leaders and followers. The church orchestrated genocide of Cathars, an ascetic sect of France who believed that God and the Devil shared the world. But in the year 1231 C.E many were subjected to horrific tortures and burned on the stake including thousands of supposed witches, wizards, and sorcerers. The Knights Templar had a distinguished record of service to Christendom but fell under suspicion of the church and many leaders were burnt alive.

After massacring the entire population in the Italian town of Palestrina, Pope Boniface VIII (1294-1303) indulged in ménages with a married woman and her daughter and became renowned through Rome as a shameless pedophile. He famously declared that having sex with young boys was no more a sin than rubbing one hand against the other. Pope Innocent VIII (1484-92) is remembered as the Golden Age of Bastards: He acknowledged eight illegitimate sons and was known to have many more. On his death bed, he ordered a comely wet nurse to supply him with milk fresh from her breast. The romantic Pope Julius III (1550-55) fell in love with a handsome young man and appointed this illiterate 17-year-old kid as a cardinal, inspiring an epic poem, “In Praise of Sodomy.” When Pope Sixtus III (432-40) went on trial for seducing a nun. He was acquitted after quoting from Christ in his defense: “Let you who are without sin cast the first stone.” Pope Sergius III (904-11) auctioned off top Vatican jobs like baubles and gewgaw. The 16-year-old Pope John XII (955-64) had incestual relationship with his two sisters was killed at the age of 27 by a jealous husband when the Pope was found in bed with his wife. Pope John X had no principles in his diplomatic, political or private conduct. He spurned his mistress Theodora who helped him to the pontification and enticed the charming young daughter of Hugh of Provence into his papal bedroom. Spurned, Theodora then married Guido, Marquis of Tuscany, and together they carried out a coup d'état against Pope John X. Soon after this Theodora died suddenly by suspected poisoning. Pope John X entered into a bitter quarrel with Theodora’s daughter Marozia, Marozia led a group of nobles and drove Pope John X and his troops out of the city. The next bishop of Rome was Pope John XI, the son of Marozia, was also a true debauchee and incestuous Satanist who liked to dance with scantily clad women who looked similar to his mother Marozia. The two voluptuous Imperial women, Theodora and her daughter Marozia, "ruled the papacy of the tenth century" as the renowned Vatican historian Cardinal Caesar Baronius (1538—1607) called it the "Rule of the Whores"