Quotes from John Julius Norwich

The Patriarch Joseph, after agreeing with the Latins that their formula of the Holy Ghost proceeding FROM the Son meant the same as the Greek formula of the Holy Ghost proceeding THROUGH the Son, fell ill and died. An unkind scholar remarked that after muddling his prepositions what else could he decently do?' (Sir Steven Runciman, The Fall of Constantinople, pp. 17-18).

All forms of literature are dangerous; but in none is the danger more acute than in historical fiction...

God has given us the Papacy," the thirty-seven-year-old pope is said to have written to his brother Giuliano soon after his accession, "now let us enjoy it." The

When Sicily became part of the Kingdom of Naples, Palermo lost its capital status. It was never to regain it. It is now essentially a baroque city, beautiful though sadly dilapidated. But the setting – the Conca d'Oro or Shell of Gold – is as lovely as ever, and the Sicilian parliament still meets in King Roger's old palace – so all, perhaps, is not lost.

the pope was God's representative here on Earth—and there the matter ended. Emperors might enjoy the privilege of protecting and defending the Church; they had no right to interfere in its affairs. The pope's authority was absolute; synods were summoned merely to carry out his orders; bishops, archbishops, and even patriarchs were bound to him in loyalty and obedience.

Had the Saracens captured Constantinople in the seventh century rather than the fifteenth, all Europe – and America – might be Muslim today.

At Lavenham in Suffolk, ten thousand men planned to converge in active protest; it was said that they failed only because the clappers had been removed from the church bells that were to signal the start of the uprising.

The fact remains that he was less a pope than a Renaissance prince. Homosexual like his predecessor, he was a cultivated and polished patron of the arts, far more magnificent than his father, Lorenzo, had ever dared to be. A

Although pressed on all sides, the Pope did not allow himself to be drawn into any demonstration of reproof at the deportation of the Jews of Rome. The only sign of disapproval was a veiled allusion in Osservatore Romano on 25–28 October, in which only a restricted number of people could recognize a reference to the Jewish question.

he had violently opposed—as had the entire Curia—the foundation of the State of Israel.

he should be remembered as the first pope in history to undertake an active defense of the Jewish people, wherever they might be found.

Renard was obliged to report ruefully to his master that the laws of England were so unsatisfactory that it was impossible to have people executed unless they had previously been proved guilty.

la plus belle des savants, la plus savante des belles

which would leave the body in its natural state." This it singularly failed to do. From time to time appalling eructations were heard coming from the coffin, and during the lying in state the smell was such that one of the attendant Swiss Guards fainted. Meanwhile, the nose fell off.

Martyrs were innumerable, among them, Saint Denis, 3rd century bishop of Paris, who, when beheaded, calmly picked up his severed head and walked several miles to the site of the abbey that bears his name while preaching a sermon on repentance. It seems a long way but, as the French regularly point out, 'c'est le premier pas qui compte', it's the first step that counts.

With the Roman Empire effectively gone (...) Gaul disintegrated into a mass of small barbarian states under so-called kings, dukes, and counts. As we know however, nature abhors a vacuum, sooner or later one state becomes stronger than the rest and ultimately achieves domination. This time, it was the Salian Franks.

It was the last time in history that a pope was to crown an emperor; on that day the seven-hundred-year-old tradition, which had begun in ad 800, when Pope Leo III had laid the imperial crown on the head of Charlemagne, was brought to an end.

American intelligence officers, somewhat better informed than the Duce, understood that for the projected invasion to be successful it was vitally important to have the Mafia firmly on the Allied side.

consumption that had accounted for his father, his elder brother and his bastard son, and which was soon to carry off his legitimate son, King Edward VI.

In the first instance it would carry the American Seventh Army under the celebrated gun-toting General George S. Patton and the British Eighth Army under General (later Field Marshal) Sir Bernard Montgomery.

Few Allied generals can have hated each other more than Patton and Montgomery.

Patton loved war; Monty loved himself.

We're going to murder those lousy Hun cocksuckers by the bushel-fucking-basket …

Francis asked his sister Margaret, Duchess of Alençon, to do the honours in her place, but she flatly refused to meet 'the King of England's whore'.