A Sorry Tale

Philip Hughes: A Popular History of the Catholic Church. Burns and Oates. London.1958. (f.p. 1939)

Very interesting book, putting some flesh on many people and movements that were little more than names to me. The author's attitude to the temporal power and the wealth of the papacy differs radically from mine. I see these as the root of most of the truly horrible abuses that he faithfully catalogues. Hughes goes so far as to commend one pope for his talent as a commander on the field of battle.

Coincidentally, the authors of the history of the Canary Islands that I'm currently reading credit "Juan de Paris, William of Occam, and Mansilio de Padua" with proposing that the pope has no temporal power. The context for their interest in the matter relates to papal bulls of 1433 and 1436, granting control of the archipelago to, respectively, Prince Henry the Navigator and the crown of Castille.