Anglo-American culture has traditionally had a very hostile attitude to the papacy, so I wanted to learn something more about it from a more neutral perspective. I've noted before how anti-Catholic propaganda has smoothly mutated into anti-religious propaganda, with the same portrayal of believers as mindlessly obedient drones unquestioningly following their leader.

The course is pretty linear, following the chronology closely. Not that much is known about the earliest centuries. At first popes were elected "by clergy and people", but nobody seems to know exactly how that worked. Interesting to speculate how things might have been different if popes were elected by popular vote.

As the Western Roman Empire finally collapsed, the Papacy was more or less forced into filling the gap in governance. Popes like Hadrian I, Leo IV needed to rebuild Rome, since no-one else was going to do it. The habit of changing your name as Pope took hold in the 900s

Noble has some detail on the "Dark Age", "Age of Iron" or "Pornocracy" in the Tenth Century when the popes were highly corrupt. By his account, they remained effective abroad, negotiating international treaties with the Byzantines, acquiring Poland and Hungary for the church, and promoting monastic reform with Cluny; even while enjoying mistresses, wives and nepotism at home.

He covers the Investiture Controversy, the struggle between Popes and Holy Roman Emperors; and the Great Schism, the struggle between popes and antipopes in Rome and Avignon; in some detail. Unfortunately those are among the topics that I instantly forget as soon as I've learned anything about them.

They attempted to solve the Great Schism by calling a general church council, which decreed that a compromise candidate should be Pope instead. Naturally both the Rome and Avignon Popes-Antipopes refused to accept that, so there were then three Pope-candidates instead of two. But eventually one resigned; another became increasingly irrelevant though he passed his candidacy onto successors, and they whittled it down to just the one Pope.

Popes seem to have gradually lost influence during the Renaissance, the Reformation and the Enlightenment. These sections aren't so interesting as the early and modern parts of the course.

I would have liked to see a lot more emphasis on a couple of topics. The Crusades only get occasional references: would have thought they deserved a full lecture at least. And there's only the briefest of references to Galileo. Maybe Noble didn't want to look too defensive.

He does devote a lot of space to the "Pius Wars", the controversy over whether Pius XII was too sympathetic to the Nazis. Noble is mildly critical. He thinks that as a lifelong diplomat, Pius was instinctively reluctant to issue plain denunciations. While he took practical measures to help the Jews, he somehow felt that he'd cause a harmful backlash if he spoke out. But also Pius seems to have regarded Communism as a more dangerous phenomenon than Nazism.

The modern popes are covered in some detail. The account of the Vatican II reforms is good, though he's a bit prematurely hagiographic in his account of John Paul II.

Overall, an interesting and well-presented course, though with some annoying gaps.

What I'm Watching
Saw The Devil Wears Prada on DVD: comedy about a young journalist working for a fictionalised version of Anna Wintour. Thought I might was well after seeing "The September Issue" documentary about the real Wintour, but it would probably be best to do it in the other order.

Mildly amusing, but again I'm not really in the target audience. Thought the bitchiness of the magazine girls was a bit over-the-top; especially when they keep calling the heroine fat despite all being apparently the same size. Meryl Streep does a decent job at delivering bitchy lines.

Review, review, review, review.

Politics
So, for the third time a BNP member has been convicted on explosives charges.

So naturally, the story is buried away in the centre pages. Compare that the massive front-page coverage of the Underpants Bomber.

Imagine if a Muslim organization had had three different members convicted of explosive charges on three separate occasions. There'd be a media frenzy.

Operation Don't Get Fatter
Food diaries seem to be back in fashion. I haven't been keeping one lately, but tried it again for the last few days.

Monday 11 Jan 2010
Breakfast: Small bowl Frosties with skimmed milk
Lunch: Small cheese roll
Supper: Chicken curry, rice. Cornetto ice cream
Snacks: Apple, orange
Exercise: 5BX Chart 2 Level A-. 3.5 miles walking.
Booze: 1 beer, 1 whisky

Tuesday 12 Jan 2010
Breakfast: 2 thick slices white bread, 2 rashers bacon, tomato
Lunch: Large cheese sandwich
Supper: 2 boiled eggs, 2 slices toast. Crunchie ice-cream.
Snacks: Mango
Exercise: 5BX Chart 2 Level A-. 3.5 miles walking. Dumb-bells
Booze: 1 large whisky

Wednesday 13 Jan 2010
Breakfast: 4 slices white toast, 2 rashers bacon, 1 tomato
Lunch: Coronation chicken baguette
Supper: Can of All Day Breakfast, 2 slices toast. Feast ice cream
Exercise: 5BX Chart 2 Level A-. 3.5 miles walking
Booze: 1 large whisky

Thursday 14 Jan 2010
Breakfast: None
Lunch: Chicken wrap
Supper: Pork chop, mashed potatoes, parsnip, sweetcorn, peas, beans. Alpini choc bar (186 kcal)
Exercise: 5BX Chart 2 Level A-. 1.75 miles walking
Snacks/booze: Hot choc with splash whisky

Friday 15 Jan 2010
Breakfast: Cornflakes
Lunch: Small tuna roll
Supper: Spaghetti, meatballs. Malteser ice cream
Exercise: 5BX Chart 2 Level A-. 3.5 miles walking. Dumb-bells
Booze: 1 large whisky

I put on 5 pounds over the holidays, have lost 3 of those so far. Not sure if it's worth the effort of losing any more after the next 2.

Web
1972 book 2010: Living in the Future.

Video. Grey Bloke on his continued existence. Hope this is just the character, it'a getting a bit worrying. Police riot shield sledging. Piccadilly nightlife 1929. Nice Coke ad.

Economics. Does the Great Recession really mean the end of the Great Moderation?

Science. Electrosensitives annoyed to find problem tower was actually switched off. Bipolar kids: why only in America?

Avatar. Nicely sarcastic Metacontextual edition. View from China. Motion capture.

Articles. Second Terrace on Haiti. Media should treat Brown/Darling row as about serious spending issues, not details of spin. Lenin's Tomb on Cameron campaign.