LONDON - 5 March 2007 - 530 words
Book review: Chronicle of the Popes
Gemma Simmonds CJ
P.G. Maxwell-Stuart, Chronicle of the Popes: the Reign-by-Reign Record of the Papacy from St. Peter to the Present, (London, Thames & Hudson, 2006)
This handsomely-illustrated book is an
updated and expanded version of a popular history of the papacy
previously published in 1997. For those interested in the detail
of papal history it offers a feast of information, weaving a remarkably
clear and coherent path through some fearsomely complex events.
The author, a lecturer in the department of history at the University
of St Andrews, favours narrative over analysis, but is a born
story-teller who treats his subject with an understated wit. The
lay-out of the book helps to keep the bewildering array of names,
places and times in order, with timelines, data files and sidebars
offering further illustrations of artistic, archaeological or
legendary details about a given pontiff.
There is a sure-footed account of papal policies against the shifting
background of power-plays across Europe in both church and state.
Kingdoms and empires rise and fall and we see popes resisting
or supporting attempts to subordinate the church to other interests.
While the politics are being played out there is also a parallel
account of theological developments within the church including
the history of relations between East and West and, later on,
with Protestantism.
This is not a book for the faint-hearted, or those whose faith
depends on a rosy view of those who have occupied the see of Peter
down the ages. The author is even-handed, and is not out to do
a hatchet job on the papacy, but he is dealing with some sorry
parts of history. The personal stories of many popes makes disedifying
reading. Honorius I's Christological views were later condemned
as heretical. Stephen VII exhumed the corpse of Pope Formosus
and placed it, dressed in pontifical vestments, on the papal throne
in order to stand trial. Deposed by a popular uprising, he was
later imprisoned and strangled by a mob. John XII was said to
have died from a blow to the head delivered by Satan during an
act of adultery. Popes who led disastrous military campaigns succeed
popes famous for nepotism, violence or political ineptitude. We
find popes fascinated by magic and horoscopes, insane popes, popes
who have their rivals murdered, a pope who wrote a novel and an
erotic comedy and one rumoured to take sapphires and rubies to
bed with him.
Despite the often chaotic background to papal reigns, this is
nevertheless also an account of men who did good, sometimes almost
despite themselves. They protected Jews from mob violence, slaves
and the poor from the worst oppression, supported and instigated
some of the great movements for ecclesial reform and established
key theological milestones in the church's understanding of itself.
Yet this is balanced against the papal preaching of the Crusades,
the condemnation of Galileo, the pastorally disastrous Chinese
Rites controversy and the extensive period in the nineteenth century
when the papacy appeared to stand for all that was most politically
and socially reactionary.
Two things stand out in this account. The first is the astonishing
vigour and survival of the church when one looks at it in this
less than auspicious perspective. The other is the remarkably
recent view of the Roman pontiff as a world religious leader widely
assumed to be both holy and capable in his office. The book's
chief weakness is its disappointingly spare treatment of early
twentieth-century popes, with Benedict XV and Pius XII rating
only two brief paragraphs apiece, while the section on John XXIII
and the Second Vatican Council is ludicrously thin. This is set
against the extensive coverage given to John Paul II's reign and
the emphasis on Benedict XVI's opposition to the abolition of
the Tridentine Mass. Despite this imbalance, the book is lively,
informative and well worth having as a reference text.
© Independent Catholic
News 2007
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