The Bad Popes Audiobook By E.R. Chamberlin cover art

The Bad Popes

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The Bad Popes

By: E.R. Chamberlin
Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
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A dramatic account of some of the most notorious figures of medieval and Renaissance history who ruled from the Eternal City. It is sure to grip fans of John Julius Norwich, Tom Holland, and Peter Ackroyd.

The papal tiara has been worn by a number of infamous men through the course of its history.

Some have been accused of murder, many have had mistresses, while others sold positions in the church to their followers or gave land and wealth to their illegitimate children.

E. R. Chamberlin examines the lives of eight of the most controversial popes to have ruled over the Holy See, from the reign of Pope Stephen VI, who had his predecessor exhumed, put on trial and thrown in the Tiber, in the ninth century, through to Pope Clement VII, the second Medici pope, whose failed international policy led to the Sack of Rome in 1527.

The Bad Popes explains how during these six centuries the papal monarchy rose to its greatest heights, as popes attempted to assert not only their spiritual authority but also their temporal power, only for it to come crashing down.

©1969 The Estate of E.R. Chamberlin (P)2020 Tantor Biographies & Memoirs Christianity Church & Church Leadership Europe Ministry & Evangelism Religious Renaissance Middle Ages Italy Rome Crusade Roman Catholicism
All stars
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I appreciated the frankness. I also appreciated the narrator. I am actually going to reread this.

A needed read by all Catholics

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The author himself points out how difficult it is to be objective about the papacy. He rejects much nonsense but seems alert to genuine scandals. Not exactly a study guide but an interesting and informed read.

A Lurid Delight

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The author constantly confuses Hun vs Hungarians. Hungarians are actually called Magyars a completely different set of people who settled in Hungary. This is are huge mistakes. Huns arrived terrorized Europe in the 5th century the Magyars did the same in the 10th century. This would be ok if they were only mentioned here or there, but the author focuses a chapter on the effect of the "huns" in the 10 century. I can't see how you could make a mistake like this if you researched the topic since the sources clearly say Magyars. Would you trust an author about Roman history, if they stated that the Germans sacked Rome in 410 vs the Visigoths? How can I trust the rest of this book?

Complete trash.

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This is a very engaging history of the medieval papacy, however, it is presented as being a recent work of scholarship, rather than a book that was written in the late 1960s. Thus, you have to take all the details with a grain of salt, knowing that there has been an additional fifty years of scholarship since its publication. That said, Chamberlin’s broad point that the Papacy’s temporal authority undermined its spiritual authority still rings true today.

Very good, if somewhat outdated.

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this book covers so many of the little interactions and plots during one of the most interesting conflicts in European history at least to me. The performance by the reader was incredible too

astounding depth

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An interesting read of Catholic leadership during the dark ages. So much for continual line of authority…

Bad popes for 500 years

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I have been focusing on the history of the Renaissance starting in Florence the complete history of the Medici family intertwined with people history, particularly of the Borgia family and have found this to be extremely informative, tying in multiple predecessors to the Medici and Borgia popes.

Concise account

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Only a man would write a book where kidnap and rape is described as ‘kept her and enjoyed her for several days.” Then also try to convince readers that a 16 year old girl was desperately attracted to a 50+ year old man and begged to be his mistress.

Some weird stuff in here

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Ok overall I guess but hard to follow sometimes due to lack of dates throughout. It would be a better read with more dates and character descriptions added. Getting lost in his sections is easy. I miss Gibbons and Josephus type vocabulary also. Overall hard to follow in my opinion.

Needs more dates and character descriptions

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