Ambrogio A. Caiani

In the wake of the French Revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of France, and Pope Pius VII shared a common goal: to reconcile the church with the state. But while they were able to work together initially, formalizing an agreement in 1801, relations between them rapidly deteriorated. In 1809, Napoleon ordered the Pope’s arrest. Ambrogio Caiani provides a pioneering account...

The history of the Catholic Church in the twentieth century is one of spies, scandals and bad political choices. It’s a shadowy, ornate world of cover-ups and hidden motives. In Flirting with Evil, Ambrogio Caiani lifts back the heavy velvet curtains of the chancel and peers behind the locked mahogany doors of the Vatican to reveal the shocking truths that...