A review by brnycx
The Popes: A History by John Julius Norwich

3.0

An expansive history of a hugely influential institution which has lasted for eons, going up to the 2000s. Reading it is like watching history on fast-forward - imagine Popes getting elected and dying on a single page, Emperors and Kings flitting in and out (and dying off screen), territories passing from one power to another to another in a single chapter. Occasionally it slows down and focuses on specific time periods, and there's even a whole chapter devoted to the legend of Pope Jean, a female Pope (who almost definitely didn't exist) and, as the story goes, gave birth during a ceremonial procession. But this pace can be a little exhausting, and I'd rather the book had concentrated on a handful of Popes across history and examined them in a little more detail. It could also have been a little more critical (the whole endemic child abuse scandal is only mentioned in a single sentence, for example).