Three Popes and the Cardinal

Decades after publication, this analysis remains highly relevant to anyone attempting to glean a broad view of Popes Pius 12, John 23, Paul 6, and Vatican Council 2. Martin was in his prime when he wrote this, and never more brilliant. This is not a piece of historical research, a work of fiction, or a work of scholarship. It has been maligned or misidentified as same by various persons with apparently no experience or orientation in literature. It is, rather, a fresh analysis by someone who was equipped to make it, and was there and knew the principals. To the extent it is an opinion and a polemic, it is a thoughtful and creative one, also quite sober. The imbedded essay entitled "The Trap Gate of History" is alone worth the price of the book and the time of searching for a good copy of it. Even to those not largely interested in Catholicism, this book is one of the most acute analyses of the crisis of modern Western history on record, far broader than Fukayama though in certain critical ways consistent with him. The word portraits of the popes and Martin's mentor Cardinal Augustin Bea are on a par with high Renaissance painting. The book has many other hidden treasures and all in all, continues to reward many repeated readings.