UNZIPPED: THE POPES BARE ALL

Mention an institution associated with vice, corruption, nepotism and murder and most people would call to mind the Mafia, or Cosa Nostra.  Add to this blind faith, torture, and human degradation, all hiding behind a cloak of righteous respectability, and you have a history of the Vatican.  Unlike the Cosa Nostra, however, the Vatican searched high and low for its victims, flogging, imprisoning and killing anyone who questioned its authority in any way or dared to profess a different religious persuasion.

Author Arthur Ide details all of this as well as a number of other juicy historical tidbits such as the kinky sexual practices of some of the holy fathers.  Pope Gregory I (Gregory the Great) had a penchant for youthful boys which does not seem surprising when we look at the papers today and see his spiritual descendants with the same inclinations.  His predilections were surpassed by a number of other popes, including the completely depraved John XII, who enjoyed sexual relations with underage girls and horses.

Nowhere is papal barbarity better illustrated than in the instruments of torture invented, perfected, and repeatedly employed by the Catholic Church.  The Iron Maiden, Witches Seat, Spanish Tickler and Spider are graphically illustrated and their uses explained in gruesome detail.  Pope Pius V was a most enthusiastic supporter of torture, often tightening thumbs screws himself and personally consigning several victims to the Iron Maiden.  Today, the church revers him as a saint.  Boniface V murdered his predecessor only to reign for a month before being driven out after raping a young girl, taking most of the papal treasury with him.  He returned nine years later and murdered the reigning pontiff to regain the papal throne.

There are a few textual errors: Ide tells us that Rodrigo de Borgia (Pope Alexander VI) died with is son Cesare after the two were poisoned.  In fact, Cesare survived another four years.  Ide also has Leo XIII reigning for 56 years when in fact it was only 25.

Despite these errors, Ide has done a superb job of bringing the underside of the Catholic Church to the top.  Unzipped: The Popes Bare All exposes the papacy’s ridiculous history for all to see.  It is an immensely fun read, highly recommended.