The old boys’ network - 30 March 2009 |
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In her next chapter, Tuchman turns to the Renaissance Popes, who were (in her view) responsible for provoking ‘the Protestant Secession’ by the sheer outlandish incompetence, immorality and folly of their rule.
One prevailing lowlight was the apparent inability of many of the cardinals to realise that reform, not mere preservation of the old boys’ network, was the real need. Blind to the increasing unrest among street-level Catholics, the Popes were ‘elected out of the Sacred College, and in turn [appointed] cardinals of their own kind.’ Consequently,
Folly, in the form of absorption in shortsighted power struggles and perverse neglect of the Church’s real needs, became endemic, passed on like a torch from each of the Renaissance six to the next. (p. 70).
Thus an underlying feature of the papacy that made revolution a virtual necessity (since gradual reform was a virtual impossibility) was the existence of a ‘closed circle’ of ecclesiastical power-mongers, all with a vested interest in perpetuating the status quo.
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Posted by Steve Jeffery · Topics: Books, Minister's Blog, The March of Folly