Sex Lives of the Popes

This book was very interesting but gory--I had to put it down a few times. I thought it was just because I am a female but the male friend who refered it to me, said the same thing. This book is actually very freeing. I also find it amazing how these men made up all these "rules", that they did not live by, themselves. I am furthur convinced that nobody had a choice but be a "christian". To think they would actually murder each other just to be in power...hmm so much for "thou shall not kill" I realize the interpretation of these events could be part of the author's imagination, but I dont think he is very far off IF he is at all with the facts.

The author managed to keep an excellent sense of humor throughout the entire book, starting from Peter and ending with the late Jean Paul II. Fascinating, revealing, exposing -- great in one word. Taboos are shattered, beliefs given new horizons. I recomend this book to any reader. Interesting read. I liked the phrase "Julius II was an insatiable bisexual"...

"Sex Lives of the Popes" reads fluidly and easily. Others may find that a weakness in the lack of endless "scholastic" efforts to document every work by reference to "previous scholars." Well, for the minority among us who are "academia," that may be of interest. But for the ordinary reader, there is sufficient substantiation, and the book retains its vitality instead of succumbing to mind-numbing scholarly endedavor. It's real, and revealing, and surely an anathema to all the scholars of the "Holy Mother Church," to which the work may lend a new meaning. If one isn't a hidebound statistician, or a blindly faithful Catholic Cleric, then this book will be a great source of wondrous information, with relevance to the religious events and practices of the past centuries as well as to the present day's less than presentable (reported and unreported) practices of many of the Church's selected clergical leaders. By all means, everyone should read this book, in the interests of presentation of all the facts, whether they agree with the book or not. For example, do you know why the new pope must sit on the "saddle" before he's confirmed by the Cardinals? And did you know that there was a female Pope? It's a great book. Rush out and read it.

When I bought this book, I honestly thought that it would be a riotous laugh - after all it is in the humour section. But soon after starting to read it I was taken aback by the depth and quality of research - so much so that the acquisition of the facts portrayed becomes more wonderful than the sordid acts of the assorted pontiffs. They don't all get a mention here, presumably because they weren't all as bad as those mentioned, but there are sufficient here to keep even the most hardened reader amazed. Every type of debauchery seems to have taken place at one time or another, and Nigel Cawthorne suitably whets the appetite of the open-minded reader - although he's probably lucky that they're all dead and can't sue!

Sex lives of the popes is an informative and humorous look at the historical sex lives of the various popes since St. Peter. Cawthorne traces the personal pecadillos o the popes including orgies, gay affairs, incest and other startling behavior from holy men. It is also a look at the way religion was used to consolidate power. The papacy was a thing to be feared before the church cleaned up its act making celibacy mandatory and even then it was up for debate. Cawthorne even informs that not only did we have as many as three popes at one time, one of them may have been a woman. Easy reading.