The Fisherman's Net: The Influence of the Popes on History

by Michael Collins

The papacy is the oldest non-hereditary monarchy in the world. Over its two thousand years history, it has influenced the lives of billions of people, Christian and non-Christian. The influence of the papacy has by no means been limited to the religious sphere, however. Popes have been directly involved in setting up the Holy Roman Empire, the demise of paganism and global politics. As patrons of the arts, popes have commissioned some of the finest masterpieces, including the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. In the area of politics, Pope Alexander VI divided the map of the newly discovered territories of the Americas in the late 15th century. In the area of temporal calculation, a sixth-century pope changed the global calander and in the 16th century, Pope Gregory XII reformed the calendar of Julius Caesar. From the earliest forays of the Muslim world westwards, the popes have launched crusades to stop their advance. Most recently, Pope John Paul II, in his 25-year pontificate, has raised the profile of the papacy immeasurably. Finally, THE FISHERMAN'S NET brings the story up to date with a chapter on the new pope, Benedict XVI. †

Genres: History

288 pages, Paperback

First published April 28, 2004

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
(5)The Vatican

Author Biography: Father Michael Collins, an Irish Catholic priest, was a protocol adviser to Pope John Paul II. He is currently a consultant to the Vatican Committee for the Millennium and Associate Professor of History at the American University in Rome. (from "The Story of Christianity")

Reviews

[David Szatkowski · Rating 2 out of 5]

This simply was not the best book on this history of the papacy I've ever ready. I had a couple questions about historical fact (not interpretation of the facts) in a couple places. Given that the prose lacks citation, there was no way to go back and compare either to primary sources or other authors, which resulted in the slightly lower rating. If you've not read anything about the history of the papacy, it is not a terrible book to read, simply not the one I would personally first recommend. That said, it is an easy read, at times funny and usually insightful.

[Betty · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don't Waste Your Money

Author says he is going to inform us as to the ways in which the papacy has influenced history. It would seem that the best way to do this would be to organize the book topically and devote a chapter to each topic, such as the pope's determining of the date for Easter, a method still followed by all calendar makers in the Western Christian tradition, or by the reform of the calendar promulgated by Pope Gregory XIII. Instead the author follows chronological model, reign by reign, which makes following the controversy over Easter much more difficult to follow. This form of organization also makes it difficult for the reader to distinguish the important from the trivial.

In addition the author makes some egregious errors of fact. He mentions the first century Pope Clement and then mentions how the emperor "Diocletian" forced a certain "Flavius Clemens" to commit suicide. Is Flavius Clemens the same as Pope Clement? That's implied but not made clear. Even worse , if possible, is the fact that the author has named the wrong emperor! Diocletian was an emperor of the third century. Clement lived in the first century. The author may have confused Diocletian with Domitian, who did live in the late first century. In the same vein the author tells us of the heresiarch "Marconian." The correct name is "Marcian." As I said, don't waste your money.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was kind of a neat little book. I sometimes complain that craming 2000 years of history into 200 pages is ridiculous, but this book (at 270 pages), was a highly readable introduction to papal history. I learned quite a bit (don't think I really knew much to begin with:) The book ends off with Pope John Paul II, who is the first pope that I remember.