Absolute Monarchs

A History of the Papacy

By: John Julius Norwich

Narrated by: Michael Page

Length: 18 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

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 2,000 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. He 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.

©2011 John Julius Norwich (P)2011 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Norwich doesn't skirt controversies, ancient and present, in this broad, clear-eyed assessment." ( Kirkus)

not what I was expecting

The narrator was excellent. Too much coverage of the political action of pre-mid+evil & mid-evil Pope's. I was expecting more of a history of the Papcy.

Don't be afraid of our history!

I am a practicing Catholic (and I hope to keep practicing until I get it right!) and I started this book with some trepidation, expecting an attempt to challenge or ridicule my faith. But the author, who is not religious himself, does not attempt to draw conclusions about the Faith because of misbehavior by its leaders.
It was a fascinating history of how the Church evolved during some very complex periods in European history. The history of the papacy is, at times, a Rogue's Gallery. What I heard sounded to me like wave after wave of evil flung at the Church and the Gospel - often aided by the Church's leaders. Yet the evil does not prevail. A priest once laughingly told me that among the proofs that Catholicism is the true Faith is that it has survived for 2,000 years, despite its clergy! Now I know what he meant! Some of our Popes were AWFUL. None of them was perfect. But the Gospel stands the test of time. This book may actually have strengthened my Faith!

A little bit of all the Popes

Where does Absolute Monarchs rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I think it's pretty high up there, as it goes through a little of all the Popes, especially the early ones.

What could John Julius Norwich have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

I can't think of anything.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

Yes, it's nonfiction.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

No.

Great performance, pretty good book

This history of the papacy covers almost all of them -- right from St. Peter up to Benedict.

The excellent performance kept my interest all the way through. But I kept waiting for a bigger picture of the papacy and analysis of historical trends. It never came. The book is a series of mini-biographies with little more analysis than, "If Pope So-and-so had been a less bigoted, he might have had a great impact on XYZ."

Still, it was informative and worth listening to. If you want to learn more about the history of the papacy, this isn't a bad place to start.

Neutral, Honest, and Fascinating

I really enjoyed this book. I am a huge history buff and just finished listening to Mike Duncan's podcast series The History of Rome, which gave me little tantalizing bits of the early history of the Christian church and this audiobook was my chance to learn more.

And I got exactly what I came for. I cannot believe how much information there is in this book. I'm already considering listening to it all over again just to absorb more of it. It covers literally every pope ever, from the most obscure to most well-known, from anti-popes (yes, that is a real thing) to the genuinely pious to the most despotic and decadent rulers, and, most importantly, it covers them with a real air of neutrality and academic distance. This is not a pro-church book, but it's not an anti-church book either. It provides perspective that is painstakingly fair, even when that makes a famously "good" pope look bad, or, in some cases, finds reason to redeem even the most notorious popes. Of course, everyone goes into reading this book with their own biases and that colours their feelings about how the author portrays the church. But as an outsider myself but someone very interested in church history nonetheless, I found it dealt with something that is an emotional subject for some people in a very fair way. There was no attempt to be nice just because the truth might offend some people, but there was also clearly no agenda to smear the church either. Like any human beings, the popes all had both their faults and their strengths and this book makes sure to tell you about all of them. It holds nothing back. I can see why that has created some unhappy listeners and negative reviews, but it is the reviewers' own biases about the church being challenged that they find offensive, not the reality of history that the book provides.

The historical perspective is excellent. I would say that it would help immensely to have some background knowledge of European politics and history to understand what was going on at the time, but the author goes to great lengths to explain things directly related to the popes' reigns when necessary (a major example being the politics surrounding Napoleon Bonaparte and the unification of Italy, among others), so it's not required. Being a frequent student of history but mostly studying Britain, France, and their overseas colonies, this was a whole new perspective for me and I learned a lot about German, Austrian, and Italian history that I only knew snippets of before. I would have liked more details on the Crusades, but it does explain them in the context of the popes. This book gave me exactly what it advertised.

I did not rate the narration 5/5 only because being a French speaker I noticed some mispronounced words that bothered me. However, I admit it could be a North American/British difference, since the narrator is British and I am Canadian.

I could not have asked this book to provide any more than it did. It had not only the overall information, which I expected, but also smaller details that were fascinating and kept me interested all the time. I am a constant consumer of non-fiction, so I suppose I don't bore easily either way, but I found I was listening to the book in the car on my commute and then coming home and telling my husband things I had heard that had stuck in my head as interesting enough to share. Overall, I found the fact that the papacy never really functioned as a religious institution - rather, it was another political player vying for power in medieval Europe - to be the biggest take-home from 20 hours of listening. Learning about it is like learning about the kings of England or France, or the emperors of China. It's a political story - the only difference is that it held its power through religion rather than through military strength.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking to learn more about the history of the Catholic church. However, don't go into it thinking it will tell the history the same way the church would, or that it will tell the stories of the saints without questioning the mythology's authenticity. It won't. It's a history book, and it does an excellent job telling the historical truth in a remarkably neutral, detailed, and honest way.

Who's who of the Popes.

What did you like best about Absolute Monarchs? What did you like least?

This was an overview of the Popes. I especially liked the information on the way the Roman Catholic Church developed over the years. I was surprised to see that the "infallibility" of the Popes began in the 1800's.
What I liked least was finding out that if the Pope was a good guy, he would probably be killed fairly soon. If he was a bad guy than he would get all his family to become cardinals (even at 12 years old) and would live for a long time.
I was surprised that the corruption of the Church was an ongoing thing, (per this book at least.)

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

How do you change history? I would have tried to make it less dry and more entertaining for the reader.

What three words best describe Michael Page’s voice?

Refined, British, and Boring.

Do you think Absolute Monarchs needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

It could use an addendum as it ended at Pope Benedict and we now have a Pope Francis.

Any additional comments?

I may be biased in this review. I only knew two priests well and both turned out to be child molesters. One was the one that married my husband and I and the other was giving my husband instruction in the faith.
I no longer attend church and no longer believe in the Catholic Church.
So please understand my prejudices may shine through. :o)

The book with 5000 names and 10000 dates

The occasional anecdote makes this book acceptable, but because Norwich writes about every Pope it becomes hard to follow. So many names, so many dates, it gets a bit confusing. The book gives a good sense of the swing between traditionalism and reform within the church that has gone on for centuries. And also makes you wonder if there is any connection between God and the Catholic Church except for the occasional moment in history.

Delightful prose. Engaging audio.

The quality of the writing and the delivery of the narrative made this 19h Audible book one of the most enjoyable thus far for me. While I am a tad more conservative than the author, his editorializing was light and this too added to my enjoyment of the work.

Well written, well read, and fascinating

The book covers a lot of time and a lot of people, but it never drags and is always interesting. I burned right through it, learning and enjoying (and being appalled by bad papal behavior) all the way through.

Pooped Popes Past Prime

As someone who was raised Catholic but left a long, long time ago, I enjoyed this book from a historical perspective. The writer, who is obviously pro-Catholic, did a thorough and complete job in painting a realistic picture of the pantheon of popes who've come our way, praises, warts and all.

I come way from this book, appreciating the history but am much stronger in my convictions that there is nothing godly about the institution of the Catholic Church, but rather, its very--sorry to say--humanness in its conniving nature, its sexual escapades, its search for raw power, etc.

I don't know how anyone could read this book and then come away with the thought that this is a religion that came from a higher source. But there will be those who read it that way, and all the power to them, I guess.

But I think it illustrates perfectly how the growth of the Catholic church is much like the layers of an onion, or more accurately, a perverse game of "Telephone", played as a kid. Did you ever play that? One kid starts by whispering one thing into the ear of the kid next to him or her. Then each kid does the same thing, whispering into the next kids ear. By the time you get to the end, what the last kid says is normally 100 percent different than what was originally said.

So, too, the Catholic church. Its beginnings may have come from someone who was radical (at the time) and challenged traditional thought, but over the years, each gilded layer of the onion has come to produce a mega-rich institution, highly ornate, theatrical, and slow-moving in its errors.

I appreciate this book for its honesty. An entertaining history of human foibles.