Vicars of Christ: The Dark Side of the Papacy

by Peter de Rosa

Argues that the holy fathers, from St. Peter to Pope John Paul II, have included document forgers, men with numerous mistresses and illegitimate children, those who murdered thousands of Christians, and who caused tremendous suffering

Genres: Religion, History, Nonfiction, Catholic, Biography, Theology

484 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

De Rosa is a writer of both fiction and non-fiction, focusing on Catholic and Irish history. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1956 but left the priesthood in 1970, after which he became a Staff Producer for the BBC and then a full-time writer. After living for thirty years in County Wicklow, Ireland, Peter now lives in Bournemouth, England.

Reviews

[Wayne]

"A Binful of Garbage" was the review of this 1988 publication given by the British Jesuit, Philip Caraman. No wonder when the book's subtitle is "The Dark Side of the Papacy."

I was also taken with the book's dedication:

Humbly and with Penitence
to
All the Victims of the Holocaust

It would seem the author, Peter de Rosa, himself an ex-Jesuit,
has done what my novice-master had warned us against in 1965:
"It's a dirty bird that dirties its own nest."

Whistleblowers have never been popular and for an institution that one would expect to value Truth above all else, which claims to spread truth, to have one of its own, someone from its Inner Sanctum come out and say what ISN'T is a bit of a slap in the face.

Having myself been into the Inner Sanctum ,I can tell you the House is in Disorder.
And I remember vividly the day I chose to leave, my Catholic uncle exiting the room in a rage as I honestly began to answer the questions of my curious Auntie Pat
as to what really went on behind monastic walls.

The recent suicide,one of many over the years, of one of the
ex-religious, the day after revisiting with his wife and two children the monastery where he had spent a couple of years in his youth, not only shocked me, but made me also consider that it was quite a reasonable response to what we endured. Most of my memories of monastic days are happy and humorous, but there was certainly something rotten in the state of Denmark. I have never known so many people suffering from nervous breakdowns, needing psychiatric help, and finding solace in alcoholism during my 7 years inside. At the moment in my present life I can think of no one in those situations.

Binful of garbage, indeed!

I approach this book with curiosity and interest.

[The Final Chapter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mid 3. De Rosa sets out to chart the dark history of the papacy across the estimated 263 incumbents of the papal throne up to and including John Paul II. He attempts to clear those fallacies held true, such as the fact that St Peter never held the title of Bishop of Rome, only being invested with it centuries after he died. Imprisoned as a foreigner espousing a dangerous sect, Peter was finally brought out of confinement to be executed in the persecution of the Christians blamed by Nero for the fire of 64AD. Christianity would not become more central to the faith of Roman citizens until the arrival of Constantine in 312. Laying seige to Rome in his attempt to remove his rival Maxentius and secure sole control of the Empire, and facing superior odds, Constantine had a vision which attached commitment to 'Christos' as presaging victory. Incredibly, Maxentius relinquished his secure advantage within Rome to flee north and Constantine routed his force at Milvian Bridge, where his rival and many of the latter's trops drowned in the Tiber. Yet, Constantine never made Christanity the official religion and was a cold-hearted despot. However, with the Edict of Milan, he did establish freedom of worship for all faiths, something the author decries the Catholic Church as never offering in the centuries since. Enjoying the fruits of this Pax Romana, the Christian faith was not only able to spread across the Empire, but also to gain the trophies of secular power. The early days of the papacy thus experienced corruption, bribery and bloodfeuds, as rival candidates fought to attain the trappings of power. The papacy also had to defend itself against the jealous interests of other powers and so, Pope Stephen III in 753 sought military protection in anointing Pepin, and his son Charlemagne, as 'patricians of the Romans'. In persuading the latter, the Pope presented a document of great antiquity - the 'Donation of Constantine'. This was claimed to be the deed whereby the late emperor, in return for being baptised in the faith, acknowledged the rule of the papal throne across the empire. An obvious fake due to inaccuracies in the text, it wouldnt be proven as such till 1517, but even so Rome continued to proclaim its authenticity for centuries. The truth was that Constantine and not the Bishop of Rome embodied the authority of church and state, as evidenced by the fact that he summoned the very first General Council of the Church in Nicaea in 325, to avoid a schism in the church by proclaiming the indivisibility of God the Father and his Son. Having secured temporal power the early papacy became embroiled in depravity. Pope Benedict V had to flee Rome after dishonouring a young girl before being eventually murdered by a jealous husband and having his corpse paraded through the streets and dumped in a cesspool. While John XII, also in the tenth century, was caught cheating with a married woman by her husband and killed in flagrante delicto with a hammer blow to the back of the head. Restoring strength to the papacy, Gregory VII set out to establish once and for all the suzerainty of the Papal see over temporal sovereigns. Gregory would enlist a whole school of forgers to provide him with documents for any occasion, but by extending the principle of excommunication to emperors and kings in 1078 he sowed rebellion and civil unrest. In excommunicating the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry IV, he fought for his absolutist ideals, and though he would die in exile in 1085, he set the seal for future papal supremacy. Inocent III would put whole nations under papal interdict, such as King John's England between the years 1208-1214, for their challenge to the power of the church, while single-handedly forging the Papal states. However, papal autocracy reached its apogee with Boniface VIII who according to Dante, turned the Vatican into 'a sewer'. From the outset his reign was embroiled in scandal, being suspected of having tricked his predecessor into resigning. In one of the strangest episodes in papal history, faced with months of fruitless discussion to nominate a papal successor in 1292, Boniface had hoped to be elected as a compromise candidate. Yet, his strategy of producing a supposed plea from a respected old hermit, backfired when the latter was offered the papal throne. The hermit accepted, becoming Celestine V, and opting to establish his reign in Naples to avoid the licentiousness of Rome. Incorporated into the newly-appointed Pope's wooden cell at his palace, Boniface had a speaking tube installed through which he pretended to be the voice of the Holy Spirit calling for Celestine to step down. Once his own election was achieved in December 1294, Boniface had his predecessor locked up where he died of starvation and neglect. This ambitious and greedy occupant of Peter's throne would further blacken the papacy's reputation when in 1299 he ordered the levelling of his rivals' citadel of Palestrina on the outskirts of Rome with the deaths of some six thousand people. However, his lasting legacy was the consequences unleashed by his composing of the papal bull, 'Unam Sanctam' in 1302, by which he declared the salvaton of all men depended upon subjecting themselves to the power of the Pope. This was in retaliation to the challenge to papal and ecclesiastical authority posed by Philip the Fair of France, and led to the joining of forces of rival factions with the French crown which ended one year later with the forcible removal of Boniface from his throne and his incarcration and death. Though this prevented his being taken to France for trial, Philip would secure his victory with the electon of a French pope, compliant to his wishes and the eocaton of the papal court to Avignon in 1309. After seven successive Avignon Popes, in 1378 the election of the Pope reurned to the auspies of the Vatican, but with an nruly mob securing the election of an Italian cardinal wo refused to blindly sucumb to French wishes, a schism occured with the election of a French alternative. A hastily convened church council in Pisa in 1409 sought to end the schism by appointing a third Pope, but all three now claimed infalliblity and excommunicated their rivals. Eventually, at the Council of Constance between 1414-1418, the power of the General Council of the Church was declared as having auhority direct from Christ and thus superior to the auhority of the Pope. The schism was at an end, though not the excesses of the papacy. Francesco de la Rovere as Sixtus IV was not only the first pope to licence the brothels of Rome, but also the progenitor of indulgences and the first to sanction the Inquisition in Castile in 1478. With the election of Rodrigo Borgia as Alexander VI in 1492, the papacy ploughed its depths. Rumoured to have had incestuous relations with his daughter, Borgia sired and brought up in public ten illegitimate children. Of these, Cesare would serve as the inspiration for Machiavelli's Prince, and was so devoid of moral compass that he would steal a man's wife, rape her, and throw her in the Tiber. Having murdered his own brother and his sister's lover and husband, Cesare would poison himself and his father, causing the most horrible demise to the latter in 1503. The Reformation revealed the extent to which the papacy refused to countenance any internal dissent, believing itself to have a monopoly on the truth. De Rosa provides a concise history of papal suppresion of any challenge to its theological interpretation or from other religions. In doing so, he subscribes to the view that the tradiional early Christian beief in he sanctity of human life was abandoned in he face of the militaristic competition of Islam. As such, the role-model switched from the ascetic monk to the sword-weilding Christian knight sworn to cast out the infidel, and assured, like his Muslim counterpart, of absolution for all his acts for serving the one true religion. Perhaps the bloodiest chapter was written when Innocent III called for the eradication of the Cathars in his Bull Of Anathema in 1208. The Cathars had flourished for over a century in Languedoc in SE France, and condemned Rome as the Whore of Babylon and the Pope as the Antichrist, yet their beliefs are still unveiled with no evidence left behind aside from the biased judgement of Catholic authorities. Their principal crime being not showing the Pope due deference, the Cathars were routed and wiped out by the Crusaders at Beziers in July 1209 before further massacres throughout the province,turning it into a wasteland over the following seventeen years. In 1232 the Inquisition was born and over the next five centuries tortured and executed all guilty of dissent. The most tyrannical inquisitor would be Torquemada, confessor to Queen Isabella, who from his appointment in 1483 tallied 114,000 victims. Ironically, De Rosa reveals that this executiner in the name of the true church was himself descended from a Jewish grandmother.The author opines that the greatest cover up in history concerns the artistic and theological representation of Christ on the cross, attired in a loincloth to hide his Jewishness, which has allowed centuries of pogroms against the Jewish people as deicides. Centuries before Hitler's Final Solution, the Holy Roman Catholic Church codified the prejudicial treatment and persecution of the Jewish race through the enactments of the Third and Fourth Lateran Councils in 1179 and 1215. These edicts banned all Jews from administration and commerce, and deprived them of ownership of land. Moreover, the Crusades routed their first victims, ahead of arrival in the Holy Land, in the slaughter of Jews within Christendom itself. Then in 1555 Pope Paul IV published a bull which forced them into ghettos and to wear a badge of shame. Another controversial issue raised in the book concerns the papacy's claim to infalibility. As De Rosa explains, within the Early Catholic Church, Popes could be removed from office by church councils accused of heresy. Yet, at what has since become termed as Vatican I, Pope Pius IX in 1870 defined the terms of papal supremacy which still shackles the Roman Catholic faith to this day, and failed its ablity to meet the challenges of twentieth century society on issues such as divorce and abortion. The second half of the book is informative but becomes more of a sermon fom the author, though the points he makes are extremely relevant and persuasive.

[Deirdre · Rating 5 out of 5]

From Saint Peter to Pope John Paul II. This is a fairly complete, though quick history of all the popes from the saintly (Peter), the most exhumed (Formosus), to the most corrupt and sinful (the Borgia Alexander VI, Gregory VII; really too many to list here). Far too often it appears popes were elected for their hatred of women (or was it fear?), their arrogance and downright stupidity, rather than their beneficence and erudition. We have left the Dark Ages, so it is said, but the same cannot be said for the Vatican City State.

[Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peter de Rosa was a Jesuit theologian who wrote one of the most devastating critiques of Roman Catholicism I've ever read... It's also a very compelling read -- not difficult to force through, except for the sense of disillusionment and outrage...

[Brian Griffith · Rating 3 out of 5]

De Rosa catalogues the ups and downs of papal leadership through the centuries - focusing particularly on the downs. He contrasts each pope with others, so that changes in policy over time appear glaring. For those who believe no human is infallible the lesson seems obvious, but still De Rosa's history lessons are fascinating. Why did the Roman pontifs turn to requiring celibacy for priests in the 11th century? Was it to prevent the rise of dynastic families and family property within the church? If so, why was this measure not needed to protect property in Islam, Judaism, or Eastern Christianity?

De Rosa points out that in 580, Pope Pelagius II tried to achieve control of church property without challenging clerical families. He just ruled that no wives or children of priests could inherit any church wealth. To enforce this, Pelagius directed that each clergyman must give an inventory of all property in his care on taking office, with a full accounting for the same on his departure. (p. 566.) Likewise in the Eastern Church, Justinian's Code of the 500s forbade any member of the clergy from giving, selling, or bequeathing anything belonging to the church. So it might be possible to block inheritance to clerical families without destroying the families themselves. On the other hand, the rules against privatizing church wealth might be violated even with all clerical families destroyed -- especially if the church was an hierarchy in which the higher ranks were not accountable to the lower orders. So, even after the great Gregorian reform had finally banned clerical families around 1074, Pope Boniface VIII (1294-1303) channeled approximately one fourth of all church income to his extended relatives. (p. 570.) Most of his subordinates felt they could not protest, due to the supposedly Christian obligation of unquestioning obedience to superiors.

All told, the book is gripping and potentially infuriating -- but that's the way we like our history books, no?

[Matias Perez · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a bold description of the history of the popes of the Catholic Church, from the very first ones (who were Bishops of Rome since the papal authority did not as yet exist) to the most recent ones.

The author is undoubtedly knowledgeable about the topic, having been an ordained priest himself.

There is a clear bias against the church which might or might not be totally accurate.

But in broad terms, I think this is a far more objective history of papacy than any official one.

In spite of some opinionated passages, most accounts have plenty of historical proofs, rendering the book a credible and even more so, an accurate, one.

I don't recommend it for those whose adherence to Catholicism is strong, since it will prove to be a hurtful book, and they will not believe it anyway.

[Jeff Russo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part One of this books is, let's face it, the reason why most would buy it, the part most in tune with the subtitle. The sex, the corruption, the power grabs, the scandals, it's all there and de Rosa writes it with great flair, the knowledge of a former priest with a dash of British tabloid style.

As we move on the titillation goes down and the analysis of theological issues goes up, and late in the book we get tremendous detail on the intrigues on contentions issues at the Second Vatican Council, not bad but not narrowly in the "Dark Side of the Papacy" theme.

I was perhaps more interested in some of the dogmatic theology than most would be, as I've been looking at that issue in other media for a couple years now.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

POPES GONE WILD. Some of this might be hyperbolic and sensationalized--but it's too juicy and good of a story to ignore.

[Paul McCormack · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read. Heavy enough in places

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

A SYMPATHETIC VIEW OF SOME "SUPPRESSED" SIDES OF PAPAL HISTORY

Peter De Rosa has also written books such as 'Jesus Who Became Christ,' 'Christ in Our World: A Study of Baptism, Eucharist, Penance and Marriage,' etc. His "Note to the Reader" in this 1988 book states, "This book is not a work or theology, still less a textbook on the papacy. It is an investigation of the role of the popes in the light of history, culture, ethics and the personalities of the pontiffs themselves. Though, like Dante, I stress here the dark side of the papacy, it is the work of a friend not an enemy."

He says, "There does not seem to be any theological bar to a woman becoming pope, even if, as John Paul says, women are forbidden by divine law to become priests. Many archbishops and popes were not ordained. For instance, Adrian V... was not a bishop, nor even a priest, but he was lawful pope." (Pg. 49) He notes that "(Gregory VII) was the only pope to canonize himself but he is best remembered as a man haunted by a single memory. It pursued him for close on forty years until he came to die, probably the most revered and power-crazed pontiff in history." (Pg. 57)

He observes, "The less amusing side of the Index (of Forbidden Books) was that in Paul IV's time there was such a blaze of books that publishers feared for their livelihood. Authors, valuing their skins, stopped writing altogether. Free thought and expression came to an end in papal Italy, never to return. The effect of this on the Curia, and via the Curia on the Catholic church was incalculable." (Pg. 173-174)

He argues, "The tradition of heresy among Bishops of Rome went back way beyond Honorius. Take Liberius (352-66). He did his best, like other bishops, to sort out the Arian controversy. Arius believed the Son was less than the Father. The great champion of orthodoxy was Athanasius. Liberius had been forced into exile, and the condition of his return was to condemn Athanasius. This he did, thereby suggesting that the Son was lower than the Father... Liberius' error was an unassailable proof throughout the Middle Ages that popes can fall into heresy like anyone else." (Pg. 206-207)

He suggests, "The significance of this controversy (over Pope Vigilius) does not lie in what was debated at the time. It lies in the fact that a Council believed itself to be above the pope, so much so that it excommunicated and deposed him for heresy. During the Middle Ages, this was one of those famous case histories that proved to all theologians that a Council was superior to a pope." (Pg. 207-208) Of Honorius, he wrote, "The new pontiff Leo II, elected in 682, confirmed the condemnation of his predecessor... It was not a matter of condemning some private opinion or theological quirk. Leo condemned him for publicly undermining the faith of the church.... From this time on, all pontiffs were obliged at their consecration to endorse the council's decision by an oath condemning Pope Honorius' heresy." (Pg. 209)

Despite its subtitle, and its subtle "progressive/liberal" orientation, this is an excellent historical work dealing with some of the "dark underbelly" of the Catholic Church and the papacy.

[Henry Semmler · Rating 4 out of 5]

The one book that destroyed my faith in the Catholic Church

Now let me start out by saying that this book could use some more editing and I would have liked some more inclusion on the current sex abuse crisis in the Church.
But this is in my opinion an overall great book. Before I started reading it I was on the fence about whether to rejoin the fold of the RCC. But after finishing it that is no longer the case. Thank heavens I came across this book!
I would recommend this book to anyone that is thinking about coming back to the RCC or current parishioners who feel frustrated and alienated by the leadership of the RCC!

[suleiman alrawhi · Rating 4 out of 5]

كتاب ممتع وشيق يسرد لك تاريخ الكنيسة الاسود منذ تأسيسها حتى العصر الحالي .
يناقش قضايا عديدة مثل 1- بدعة عصمة البابا
الخطيئة الاصلية
الزواج والعزوبة
صكوك الغفران
محاكم التفتيش
الحرق والتكفير والقتل ...
.... الى غيرها الكثر الكثير
ما يلاحظ على الكتاب تهميشه او إقصائه جرائم الكنيسة ضد المسلمين من أمثال الحروب الصليبية وجرائمهم ضد مسلمي الاندلس بالاضافة الى جرائمهم في شرقي آسيا كالهند والدول المجاورة لها وجرائمهم في قارة أميركا مع الشعوب الاصلية .

[Dom · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lots of good information, a few gold nuggets.

But...poorly structured, poorly written and poorly paced. Many leaps in the narrative, the author becomes increasingly agitated as the book develops. Felt like he tried to talk about everything.

His other book on sex in the church is much better but it also suffers from turbulent writing.

[Rock Angel]

i was looking for a book by Peter de Rosa that mentions how Pope Innocent VIII got blood from 3 ten-yr-old boys on his death bed, apparently this acct answered my que:

http://www.news-medical.net/health/Hi...

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

really one of the best books I've read about the papacy,and that's including E.R. Chamberlain's "The Bad Popes" and Gary Willis's "Papal Sin." The most interesting stuff in the book is probably anecdotal, and spurious, but it's incredibly entertaining, and enlightening, nonetheless.

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book to bring out when Catholics start arguing the validity of apostolic succession.

[Clare · Rating 4 out of 5]

Totally gripping and salacious, bound to offend all good Catholics.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read the dutch translation

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Papal infallibility is highly questionable in the light of popes behaving badly with intrigue and forgery.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is worth reading. It provides a background to understanding the Catholic Church. It also illustrates the destructiveness of absolute power.

[GERALD GENTRY · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second tome on the Vicars of Christ I'm not Catholic but could not put this book down.