Although a highly visible part of the ecclesiastical furniture of the Roman Catholic Church and the Vatican for thirteen centuries, surprisingly little has been written about cardinals or (apart from some notable individual biographies), about the men who became papal princes'. The cardinals of the Roman Church are the nearly men of Catholicism - those whose office since the 11th century has been chiefly to choose the Pope, following efforts to wrest this power from Rome's nobility and militia. This compelling history traces the origins and growth of the office of cardinal and tells the stories of some of the remarkable (for all kinds of reasons) men who have worn the red cap, coveted by some, refused on occasion and sometimes laid down in exchange for marriage, though one maverick got wed in his red hat. The Cardinals is an informative and entertaining look at the lives of some of the more colourful characters who have worn the cardinatial red or purple. It reveals an unlikely company of saints and villains, patrons of the arts and scholars, cardinals who might have been pope but who were blackballed, and cardinals who were deprived of the title because of their dissolute lives, doubtful opinions, or interference in papal policies. There are diplomats in these pages, statesmen, kingmakers and soldiers. There are members of royal and noble families, and the son of a Doge of Venice. And there are the cardinals whose fame simply lies in their goodness and their care of the dioceses entrusted to them."
