El Sueno De Inocencio: Ascenso Y Caida Del Papa Mas Poderoso De La Historia (Spanish Edition)

By Gerardo Laveaga

En 1198, cuando la Iglesia cat?lica estaba a punto de ser absorbida por el imperio germ?nico, Inocencio III fue elegido Papa y llev? a la Iglesia a su monte m?s alto de la historia. Logr? convencer a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9682112958
• ISBN13: 9789682112959
• Release Date: January 2007
• Publisher: Planeta Publishing
• Length: 401 Pages
• Weight: 1.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.9" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

Good man turns bad thanks to the Church

This the story of Lothar of Segni, an Italian nobleman who was, between 1198 and 1216, Innocentius III, probably the most influential and powerful Pope in History. It's not an academic biography, but a historical novel. I did some research and it seems to be pretty seriously based on historic facts, and the fictional parts work well with the context, at least for me. Lothar's story is a Catholic drama: he is a smart and learning-hungry young man. Although very rich, he devotes to studying, first Theology in Paris and then Law in Bologna, where (and this is fictional) he meets a young girl from a heretic sect called the Valdensians. Her name is Bruna and she makes him crazy with lust. But their love will be obstructed by religious differences, and it will haunt him for the rest of his life. His other great love is Ortolana, a rich Italian who marries another man but who remains his friend for the rest of his life. Meanwhile, hisn uncle becomes the Pope Clement III. Lothar is appointed Cardinal at a very young age, and he successfully devotes to political and diplomatic tasks for the Pope. Little by little, the young, inquisitive, and liberal Lothar falls into the Church's cruel arms. He becomes convinced that the only way to eradicate war and social conflict is that all people share the same idea of Good and Justice, and that the Roman Catholic Church is the only institution capable of developing and enforcing such concepts. So, his lifelong mission will consist in leading and consolidating the Church's kingdom of this world. When his uncle dies, he becomes Pope Innocentius III. He invented confession (a devilish and masterful means of political control) and indissoluble marriage, as well as transubstantiation (the actual encarnation of Christ's body in the bread eaten at Mass), consolidated the institution of celibacy for priests, and instituted the Papacy not only as the succession of Peter, but as the direct representation of Chirst on Earth. So it's easy to see the enormous influence this man had on subsequent centuries, even to our day. He invented the Church as we know it. Innocentius III, in order to consolidate the Church, decreed the killing of all heretics, invented the Inquisition, and probably instituted the first truly Totalitarian regime in history. His journey is atrocious, criminal, demented, of a hair-raising coldness. It is the midwiving of a madness that lasts to our days. One of the greatest geniuses of evil.

Very devoted to history

Very nice Book, thought it is kind of short (less than 400 pages) is contains a very nice depiction of the church at the time and of the conflicts between church and the Holy roman empire, French and English monarchs and Constantinople