A Review and a Rant

INFINITY! INFINITY!
Hi. First of all, head over to Chocolate Pope's blog. It's where all the peeps at.

Secondly, a book review for your pleasure:

If you feel scandalized by Pope Benedict's recent comments about condom distribution, then stay away from Nigel Cawthorne's quick and clear book Sex Lives of the Popes. If you are some sort of sexual historian, however, then you should be on this book like Jesus on Mary Magdalene. (That sentence written by Dan Brown.)
(Disclaimer: what follows may be highly scandalizing.) From a brothel purchased in Jesus' name to syphilis in the Vatican, from naked boys in large puddings to popes participating in underage incest, Cawthorne's book is an unapologetic catalog of debauchery. At times hilarious and always irreverent, Sex Lives finds most of its humor not in Cawthorne's thoughts or comments, but in the ridiculousness of the examples he skillfully provides: a fifteen-year-old boy who dies from an "excess of intercourse"; women who faint at confession only to be raped by their confessors; and the mind-boggling Joust of the Whores, where some fifty prostitutes came before Pope Alexander VI and stripped, competed on all fours to collect chestnuts, and were then "carnally attacked" by cardinals and other male guests. "Whoever had sex with the greatest number of prostitutes won a prize," Cawthorne writes in his typical manner-of-fact voice.
While sex and sexuality is his focus, Cawthorne doesn't limit himself. Murder, theft, bribery, torture, and lies of the boldest face saturate the book's pages. Not to mention the time Pope Stephen VI had his predecessor's corpse dug up, dressed up, and placed on trial for "perjury and coveting the papacy." What do you call that kind of activity? Necrojurisprudence, maybe.
By the time Sex Lives ends, basilicas have collapsed, lightning has hit the Vatican, and a woman may or may not have taken the papal throne for a time. All of this plus an incredibly handy timeline of all the popes which have ever been (as far as current records can tell us, anyway). It makes for a fast-paced and fascinating read, whether you're interested in the church's history or not, because Cawthorne isn't writing about popes, he's writing about people. Utterly crazy and powerful people doing evil and sexual things. And that much, at least, is universal.
Sex Lives of the Popes on Amazon
And check out Nigel Cawthormne's website here

We hope to bring you more pope-related book, film, and multi-media art installation reviews, so send us your suggestions.

Peace Buggy, no Peace Back!
-Y&W P