A Sudden Terror: The Plot to Murder the Pope in Renaissance Rome

by D’Elia

In 1468, on the final night of Carnival in Rome, Pope Paul II sat enthroned above the boisterous crowd, when a scuffle caught his eye. His guards had intercepted a mysterious stranger trying urgently to convey a warning―conspirators were lying in wait to slay the pontiff. Twenty humanist intellectuals were quickly arrested, tortured on the rack, and imprisoned in separate cells in the damp dungeon of Castel Sant’Angelo.

Anthony D’Elia offers a compelling, surprising story that reveals a Renaissance world that witnessed the rebirth of interest in the classics, a thriving homoerotic culture, the clash of Christian and pagan values, the contest between republicanism and a papal monarchy, and tensions separating Christian Europeans and Muslim Turks. Using newly discovered sources, he shows why the pope targeted the humanists, who were seen as dangerously pagan in their Epicurean morals and their Platonic beliefs about the soul and insurrectionist in their support of a more democratic Church. Their fascination with Sultan Mehmed II connected them to the Ottoman Turks, enemies of Christendom, and the love of the classical world tied them to recent rebellious attempts to replace papal rule with a republic harking back to the glorious days of Roman antiquity.

From the cosmetic-wearing, parrot-loving pontiff to the Turkish sultan, savage in war but obsessed with Italian culture, D’Elia brings to life a Renaissance world full of pageantry, mayhem, and conspiracy and offers a fresh interpretation of humanism as a dynamic communal movement.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published November 15, 2009

Reviews

[Xinyue · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this novel to be a riveting account of the politics during this time period. It is informative and raises quite a few questions, particularly about the intersection between religious faith and the mercilessness of rulers during this time. According to the book, Pope Paull was considered lenient, as his predecessors were merciless when it came to any threat to their power, let alone their lives. Given that the Pope acts as the father of the worldwide Catholic Church, I have to wonder how they justified such torture and execution in the religious context. Of course, this is seen repeatedly throughout history and different religious systems. I genuinely enjoyed the historical lens of this book, and reading the author's own voice.