Absolute Monarchs, John Julius Norwich
Absolute Monarchs, John Julius Norwich
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Absolute Monarchs
A History of the Papacy

Author: John Julius Norwich

Narrator: Michael Page

Unabridged: 18 hr 57 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 09/05/2011


Synopsis

With the papacy embattled in recent years, it is essential to have the perspective of one of the world's most accomplished historians. In Absolute Monarchs, John Julius Norwich captures nearly two thousand years of inspiration and devotion, intrigue and scandal. The men (and maybe one woman) who have held this position of infallible power over millions have ranged from heroes to rogues, admirably wise to utterly decadent. Norwich, who knew two popes and had private audiences with two others, recounts in riveting detail the histories of the most significant popes and what they meant politically, culturally, and socially to Rome and to the world.

Norwich presents such brave popes as Innocent I, who in the fifth century successfully negotiated with Alaric the Goth, an invader civil authorities could not defeat, and Leo I, who two decades later tamed (and perhaps paid off) Atilla the Hun. Here, too, are the scandalous figures: Pope Joan, the mythic woman said (without any substantiation) to have been elected in 855, and the infamous "pornocracy," the five libertines who were descendants or lovers of Marozia, debauched daughter of one of Rome's most powerful families.

Absolute Monarchs brilliantly portrays such reformers as Pope Paul III, "the greatest pontiff of the sixteenth century," who reinterpreted the Church's teaching and discipline, and John XXIII, who in five short years starting in 1958 "opened the church to the the twentieth century," instituting reforms that led to Vatican II. Norwich brings the story to the present day with Benedict XVI, who is coping with a global priest sex scandal.

Epic and compelling, Absolute Monarchs is the astonishing story of some of history's most revered and reviled figures, men who still cast light and shadows on the vatican and the world today.

About John Julius Norwich

John Julius Norwich is the New York Times bestselling author of many books, including A History of Venice, A Short History of Byzantium, Absolute Monarchs: A History of the Papacy, and Sicily: An Island at the Crossroads of History. He has also written on architecture, music, and the history plays of Shakespeare, and has presented approximately thirty historical documentaries on BBC television.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Anastasia on May 08, 2011

A Curate’s Egg I’m a huge admirer of the past work of John Julius Norwich, a popular historian in the sense of being widely read and accessible, in the sense of being informative without being weighed down by an intrusive scaffolding of scholarship. He is learned but he wears his learning lightly, w......more

Goodreads review by Emma Deplores Goodreads Censorship on November 11, 2023

Wow, this was disappointing. I’d been seeking a readable, secular history of the Catholic Church for years, and while this is readable, secular and a history, it has almost nothing else going for it. It’s an endless series of summaries of the political careers of popes, lacking a thesis, analysis or......more

Goodreads review by Frank on July 02, 2011

This was the least entertaining of all of the history books written by Norwich. As a result, it was a letdown from one of my very favourite authors. The author prides himself about having no axe to grind, and this is one his traits that I have appreciated the most. But, when discussing a history of......more

Goodreads review by Justin on July 29, 2014

Perfectly good airport history. I'm stuck at around page 150 of Norwich's condensed history of the Byzantines, so I wasn't expecting much from this. But I've learned something very important about Mr. Norwich: if he's writing about things you know even reasonably well (e.g., for me, the early Byzant......more

Goodreads review by Colleen on April 17, 2024

This was a fascinating read for Catholics, fallen away Catholics, and anyone just interested in the topic. I was raised Catholic but knew very little about most of the popes. I remember watching The Borgias on Showtime and thinking what a corrupt monster he was but really about his contemporaries I......more