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| Pope Francis and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI |
Chatto & Windus published a book called The Popes by John Julius Norwich. The Popes: That means about 300 historical figures for a single book. You will guess that the result is less than impressive if you are expecting more than just the names and the dates. Too much to say, too little space to say it in, and an author with some weird ideas add up to a entirely strange book.
John Julius Norwich claims to write about history with The Popes. The first trap he falls straight into is using 19th century historical prejudice to name and number his popes. That makes even something as easy as a list controversial if not outright wrong. By following these historical prejudices, he took the easy way out of a quandary. This book is all about easy writing. It has nothing to do with research or finding facts.
19th century historical convention divided popes (and kings and emperors, too) into ‘real’ popes and into ‘counter’ or ‘anti’ popes. The line drawn by historians was subjective and completely arbitrary. The classification was based on things like which one lost or won a battle, or which one survived for longer, or just by wishful thinking of the author. When things were happening, though, reality tended to be much murkier. Lines of succession don’t do anyone the favour of becoming straight just by wishful thinking; they certainly don’t straighten out for Norwich.
Trampling the worn paths of accepted history writing further, plunges the author into the trap of parroting slanderous books and pamphlets commissioned by successors and survivors. Instead of offering originality, the book trudges tamely on roads travelled too often already. Reading along lines you already know mustn’t always the worst thing, especially if a few gems are hidden among the usual suspects. That is the only redeeming aspect of this book, but the gems are rarer than gold.
Squeezing a chapter about each of the popes and ‘counter-‘popes into a book leaves little space for each of them. In that little space, the author includes a summary of that pope’s live. It is just unfortunate that the little remaining space leaves no room for him to give the facts upon which he based his summary. Meaning that even if you have the book, you start from scratch if you want to do some research yourself.
The book isn't a total loss: If you are amused by a collection of anecdotes (and sometimes even historically proven anecdotes) about popes across the centuries, it offers some amusing reading. Don’t read it front to back in one go, though (my mistake), it just becomes tedious and repetitious reading after a few chapters. It is not that the popes were a tedious lot, quite the contrary. The amount of slaughter, rape, and murderous succession is just a bit much if taken all in one go.
John Julius Norwich states in his book that he left out any musings on religion from his writing. I still wonder how he thought he had done that. How do you propose to write about the leaders of one of the most important Christian sects without writing about their religion? Try describing the conquest of the Americas without referring to geography! Just by acknowledging their existence, the author admits to using religion in his writing.
What you get is a something that is too long for a list; the information contained is too general to be used as a reference book; and for history it is too anecdotal. John Julius Norwich has not only managed to write a book about the Popes without religion, but also without purpose. If you are not desperate, don't buy it.
Further reading
And God Granted Their Wishes
The Elect Circle of Elected Monarchs in Europe
How Many Monarchies Exist in Europe?
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