Absolute Monarchs

A SWEEPING CHRONICLE OF ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT; AND CONTROVERSIAL;INSTITUTIONS IN HISTORY

With the papacy embattled in recent years, it is essential to have the perspective of one of the worldrsquo;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.brbrNorwich 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) Attila 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 ldquo;pornocracy,rdquo; the five libertines who were descendants or lovers of Marozia, debauched daughter of one of Romersquo;s most powerful families.brbriAbsolute Monarchs/i brilliantly portrays reformers such as Pope Paul III, ldquo;the greatest pontiff of the sixteenth century,rdquo; who reinterpreted the Churchrsquo;s teaching and discipline, and John XXIII, who in five short years starting in 1958 ldquo;opened up the church to the twentieth century,rdquo; 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.brbrEpic and compelling, iAbsolute Monarchs/i is the astonishing story of some of historyrsquo;s most revered and reviled figures, men who still cast light and shadows on the Vatican and the world today.

*From the Hardcover edition.*