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Summary: The "Mother Church" and the reality it denies
Review: "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.
Rating:
Summary: "Holy" Mother Church: Under the Scope
Review: Perfectly easy written for the common reader. Whoever is an open minder or wonder about the teachings of the church should read this book. The Catholic church is going under a struggled to keep its believers and this book tells us why. The writer tells us about the influence Queens had over the popes and how poorly Popes were following the church's own rules (orgies,murder,money,same sex lovers...etc.) just to have the power the position of a Pope had. However, somethings have change within the church now our days. Priests are still longing for a normal sexual life while keeping their faith to God and their preaching, but since celibate is still a mayor rule for priests, they find themselves commiting crimes involving children and honest belivers. Nothing is being heard about orgies anymore or about homosexual popes or about queens ruling over popes. On the other hand, I must recognized the work the two privious Popes have done for the church and its integrity. I just hope that the next pope follows the truly believes of Jesus for the sake of us and reforms the Catholic church. I truly enjoyed this book because I was on guilt stage for being lesbian and not following the bible or attending mass. Now that I know I'm not worse than those popes, I feel more confident as to what to respond to anybody who says homosexualism is a sin. I recomend this book to everybody!
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Summary: Indulgence in all God has forbidden.
Review: This book contains everything you ever really wanted to know about the sex lives of the popes and anti popes. (Apparently there were anti popes in Rome as well as in Avignon.) The book is interesting and even humorous, but not a serious work of history. Easy reading. It's also a good review of which pope was which and what sort of people they were personally.
Rating: 
Summary: selling licenses for keeping mistresses
Review: This book emphasizes on the attitude of the popes towards the sex lives of their priests. Many popes were concerned with the celibacy of their priests and forbade marriage for priests. However, they used to sell them licenses for keeping mistresses. Usually, they were prepared to tolerate priests who kept incestuous relations with female relatives or raped women in the church. "When a woman fainted during confession and the priest seized the opportunity to rape her, the Inquisition found that this, technically, was not a case of soliciting." The pope's only concern was that priests would defile the sacrament when handling it afterwards.
The passages about the sex lives of the popes themselves are mainly based on hearsay. Cawthorne accuses several popes of incest with either their sisters or bastard daughters, like pope Alexander VI Borgia, who retired with his daughter to "an interior room and remained locked up together for more than an hour". In secret she gave birth to a baby that was hidden, but that doesn't prove that her father was the father. Many other popes seem to have had preferences for young boys, prostitutes or sex-and-food orgies in general.
Despite many unproven accusations, the book clearly shows that many popes were mainly concerned with their own pleasures and did not give a damn about Christian values. Anyway, the book is good reading stuff.
Rating:
Summary: The "Mother Church" and the reality it denies
Review: 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!
Rating: 
Summary: Poorly written European tablid drivel
Review: When there's a long line at the supermarket check-out, I pass the time by reading the Enquirer, the Star, and Soap Opera Digest. This book fullfills that illicit pleasure of getting the inside merde on the inhabitants of Peter's Throne. If one believes that the Pontiffs are next to God in the human order of things, then one must be offended by the nature of this free-flowing and eminently readible selection of papal history.If one wishes a "serious" history of the Papacy, then one should go to McBrien's "Lives of the Popes" or Eamon Duffy's "Saints and Sinners." But if you like the Star, or the New York Post, then this is the book for you, since it is totally uncluttered with footnotes and proofs of scholarly accuracy. In that respect, it rivals Woodward's histories of Boy Clinton. A sheer delight to have and to hold, from this day forth.
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