Intrigue, double-dealing and conspiracy in the Eternal City. ''A fascinating narrative of the intermingling of secular and religious power'' New Statesman ''A highly enjoyable and thrilling read... Hollingsworth has peeled back the veil of secrecy surrounding papal conclaves'' History Today ''Full of lively detail and colour'' Literary ReviewAugust 1559. As the long hot Italian summer draws to its close, so does the life of a rigidly orthodox and profoundly unpopular pope. The papacy of Paul IV has seen the establishing of the Roman Inquisition and the Index of Prohibited Books, an unbending refusal to open dialogue with Protestants, and the ghettoization of Rome''s Jews. On 5 September 1559, as the great doors of the Vatican''s Sala Regia are ceremonially locked, the future of the Catholic Church hangs in the balance.Mary Hollingsworth offers a compelling and sedulously crafted reconstruction of the longest and most taxing of sixteenth-century
