ABSOLUTE MONARCHS: A HISTORY OF THE PAPACY by John Julius Norwich ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Part three of my mad rush to cram every piece of knowledge about my trip destinations into my brain as possible, and I think I stumbled upon not just an account of every Catholic pope and their papacy, but an entire history of Europe.

I’ve somehow tread an unintentionally chronological path through these books. Starting with SPQR and the rise of Rome, A Day in the Life took me into the days of its peak. Unbeknownst to me before Absolute Monarchs, when the great empire lost its sway and split into western and eastern halves, the rule of Rome became enmeshed with the church. What better way to carry on through the ages than with the successive leaders of that church. They seem to be the more interesting city figures of the time anyway, especially having lasted to this day.

Now for something on-theme — a confessional: I skimmed a good 1/3 of the passages. The origins of the church and St. Peter had me gripped, but after countless rounds of good popes dying before their merciful reign even started and bad popes practicing nepotism and ruthlessness for decades, I was worn out. I made it through most of the Middle Ages — about the time of the Byzantine Empire’s ending and the early machinations of the church we know today — before I started searching for the highlights.

But not for lack of quality. Being the target audience — a layperson just trying to learn more about this famous position everyone has heard of — I was astounded to see the detail in each chapter and the strings connecting the pope to what seems like every cataclysmic event in history. I crossed paths with the Crusades, with Charlemagne and Napoleon, with royal scuffles and the torching of countless cities (some more than once), and multiple run-ins with the next big group on my hit-list, the Venetians. It’s an exhaustive account, and by the end, I was exhausted.

It’s hard to imagine the ups and downs Rome has endured since the great heights of the pre-Christianity world, given the romantic beauty of today. But this book does the job of explaining what the heck happened in between and how they finally clawed back to prestige. And with that, I close the written Rome of the past, and look toward the personal Rome of the near future.