Tales of the Popes

This is a book for all those who may have wondered what the Borgias did to acquire such infamy, who the Medici were, who were the antipopes, and who was responsible for the cruelty of the Inquisition. All these questions are linked to the papacy of the Roman Catholic Church. From Eden to El Dorado covers the papacy up to the year 1600, ending with the burning at the stake of the free thinker and philosopher Giordano Bruno, at the order of a pope. It concludes at that year, not only because by then many of the most remarkable papal episodes have taken place, but because after the sixteenth century the Church begins its decline in real power against the rational assertion of the Enlightenment, the wealth of banks and armies of nations, the momentous changes in science and technology, and the make-up of human societies, political structures and cultures. In dealing with such intriguing and often extreme figures the author has worked to bring them back to life as characters in a book which deals with popes as men, rather than simply religious figureheads. As such, this is a work which considers the papacy as a human institution, very human, with all the flaws and failings, and the intelligence and resourcefulness of humans.