Character guide

Hadrian VII

major

Also known as Hadrian, Hadrian the Seventh, Hadrian I, IX Hadrian, Rose alias Hadrian, XV Hadrian

Hadrian VII enters the papacy as an outsider whose plain white garb and frank, genial bearing unsettle the ceremonial grandeur of emperors and cardinals alike. His defining tension is between the humility of his origins and the absolute authority now placed in his hands, a paradox he resolves by treating power as a form of service rather than spectacle. In the novel's early-middle arc, his refusal to play the expected political game — his insistence that the Father must go to the son, that mercy be shown even to a boastful emperor — establishes him as a pontiff whose sanctity is inseparable from his stubbornness.

George Arthur Rose

major

Also known as George, the Reverend George Arthur Rose, The Reverend George Arthur Rose, Rose, Rose fhen, Georgie, Reverend

Before the tiara, Rose is a lonely, overeducated Englishman in a shabby blue linen suit, filling publishers' dummies with archaic handwriting and compiling his own private dictionary of Greek and Latin coinages. His body betrays him — a vaccination-swollen arm, a toothache that makes him want someone to suffer — while his mind races ahead of his pen, and only his cat Flavio receives his affection. His fierce, almost hybristic sense of his own worth, set against years of unrewarded toil and clerical rejection, is precisely the tension that makes his sudden elevation feel like both vindication and danger.

Mrs. Crowe

supporting

Also known as XI Dear Mrs. Crowe

Mrs. Crowe arrives in Rome expecting to bask in her old connection to George Arthur Rose, only to discover that the Pope's generosity flows to blind boys, weeping prostitutes, and threadbare strangers rather than to her. She calls his charity 'disgusting' and 'highly improper' at the hotel table, yet privately burns with envy as one grateful recipient after another describes the mysterious windfall that saved them. Her wounded vanity and her scheming attempts to reach him through convents and English residents make her a comic and quietly cutting mirror of how grace looks to those who feel entitled to it.

Jerry Sant

supporting

Also known as Comrade Jerry Sant, Jerry, Jeremiah Sant, Sant, Comrade Jeremiah Sant, The blameless Sant, the virtuous Jerry, XVI Jerry Sant, XIV Jerry Sant

Jerry Sant moves through the novel as a reminder that Hadrian's old life of political agitation and bare-knuckled poverty did not simply vanish when the white robes went on. His elevation to the cardinalate places a man of the world's causes inside the Church's most intimate circle, and the friction between his socialist instincts and papal absolutism is never fully resolved. He matters because he embodies the question the book keeps asking: whether the Pope's radical sympathies can survive the machinery of the institution he now commands.

Mr. Rose

major

Also known as Rose

As 'Mr. Rose,' the protagonist exists in the registers of ordinary English life: a man of letters, a failed candidate for the priesthood, a figure whose eccentricities were always anchored to some deliberately fixed point of reason. This formal identity is what the cardinals remember when they consider him, and what the newspapers seize upon when they construct their ferocious caricature of the 'Strange Career of the Pope.' The gap between the mundane Mr. Rose and the pontiff he becomes is the novel's central transformation, and the early chapters dwell in that gap before it closes.

George Semphill

supporting

Also known as Mr. George Semphill, Semphill, Mr. Semphill, Cardinal Semphill, Δ. Semphill

Semphill had quietly arranged his will in favour of the archdiocese of St. Gowff's, expecting to end his days there in comfortable obscurity, when the new Pope's allocution — with its 'tops-i'-th'-turfy straightforwardness' — delighted him and upended his plans. His sincere pleasure in Hadrian's literary quality and blunt honesty marks him as one of the few cardinals who appreciates the Pope as a person rather than merely obeying him as an office. As a cardinal-deacon of St. Mary-in-Broad Street, he becomes part of the inner circle that must translate Hadrian's startling intentions into the Church's daily machinery.

Sir John

supporting

Also known as John, The faithful young Sir John

Sir John serves as gentleman-of-the-secret-chamber, the quiet figure posted by the little table while cardinals, ambassadors, and even emperors file past the throne. His loyalty is absolute but almost wordless—he carries the pigskin kit-bag, summons the curious, and disappears into corridors without comment. In a Vatican where every cardinal calculates and every sovereign schemes, his plain fidelity makes him the still point around which Hadrian's more theatrical gestures turn.

Mariano Ragna

supporting

Also known as Ragna, Cardinal Mariano Ragna, Cardinal Ragna

Ragna moves through the Sacred College with the ease of a man who knows which way the room will turn. He is the one who leans in during the morning congratulations to murmur that the German Emperor has quit the Palazzo Caffarelli, a piece of intelligence that sets the whole reception on edge. His value to Hadrian is precisely this: he translates the dangerous choreography of kings and cardinals into a single whispered sentence, letting the Pope stand at the foot of his throne and receive the world on his own terms.

Cardinal Talacryn

supporting

Also known as Talacryn, Cardinals Talacryn, Francis Talacryn, Frank, the Lord Francis Talacryn

Talacryn is the kind of churchman Hadrian both uses and quietly judges: capable, corpulent, useful for errands that require discretion and a big figure moving through Roman streets. Kneeling to receive a breve he must not disclose, pinched silent by the Pope's own fingers, he becomes the instrument of a plan he cannot yet announce. His tendency to flesh and his willingness to obey make him a perfect foil for a pontiff who intends to walk to the Lateran like a beggar.

Sir Iulo

minor

A nobleman and attendant in the papal court.

Cardinal Leighton

minor

Also known as Leighton, Good honest innocent Leighton

A naive and good-hearted cardinal.

Percy Van Kristen

minor

Also known as Van Kristen, Percy, Cardinal Van Kristen

A cardinal from the Netherlands, often skeptical of Hadrian.

Cardinal Carvale

supporting

Also known as Carvale, O Carvale, little Carvale, Robert Carvale, Robert, Herbert

Carvale approaches Hadrian in Greek, quoting Aischylos as a dodge, and gets back a Pope who caps his verses and then dissects the letter that prompted them. He is honest, blinking, easily moved—'Good honest innocent Leighton' is a different man, but Carvale shares that quality of being visibly stirred by the pontifical presence. His devotion matters because it shows what Hadrian inspires in the sincere: not policy but awe, and the painful gap between a flame-like Pope and the ordinary men who must warm themselves at it.

Mr. Macleod

minor

Also known as Macleod, Hamish Macleod, Hamish

A Scottish journalist who interviews Hadrian.

Pope Leo

minor

Also known as Leo, Pope Leo, the dead Leo

The deceased pope whose death leads to the conclave.

Luigi Orezzo

minor

Also known as Orezzo

A cardinal known for his cunning and ambition.

Cardinal Nefski

minor

Also known as Nefski

A Russian cardinal in the papal court.

Cardinal Courtleigh

minor

Also known as Courtleigh, Dr. Courtleigh

A cardinal and physician who attends to Hadrian.

Victor Emanuel

supporting

Also known as the Southern Emperor Victor Emanuel, Victor, Victor Emanuel III

Victor Emanuel is the Southern Emperor who keeps away from the Vatican over a point of protocol inherited from his father, and Hadrian, rather than wait, resolves to go to him. He lines the streets with troops for a ceremony that is not his, behaves 'extremely well' under the occupation of his own capital by visiting kings, and receives the Pope in a light-grey flannel suit with proofs of his numismatic catalogue on the desk. His stiff, pale dignity and his family—the Empress Elena, the boy Filiberto—make the reconciliation a human scene rather than a diplomatic one.

Cardinal Sterling

minor

Also known as Sterling, Mr. Sterling

An English cardinal who supports Hadrian.

Flavio

minor

A young page or servant in the Vatican.

Cardinal Gentilotto

minor

Also known as Gentilotto, Hieronimo Gentilotto

An Italian cardinal, often part of the opposition.

Fiamma

minor

Also known as Domenico Fiamma, Cardinal Fiamma

A cardinal known for his fiery rhetoric.

William II

minor

Also known as William

The German Kaiser who interacts with the Vatican.

Cardinal della Volta

minor

Also known as Della Volta, della Volta

A cardinal involved in Vatican politics.

Cardinal Berstein

minor

Also known as Berstein, Cardinal-Deacon Berstein

A German cardinal in the conclave.

Bishop of Caerleon

minor

Also known as Caerleon

A Welsh bishop who visits Rome.

Monsignor Cateran

minor

Also known as Cateran

A Vatican monsignor and official.

Edward Lancaster

minor

Also known as Edward III, Edward Lancaster, Lancaster

A claimant to the English throne.

Signor Cabelli

minor

Also known as Cabelli, dear old Cabelli

An Italian journalist or writer.

Father Dawkins

minor

Also known as Father

An English priest who visits Hadrian.

Alaric Crowe

minor

Also known as Alaric

Mrs. Crowe's son, a troubled young man.

Signor Panciera

minor

Also known as Signore Panciera

A Vatican official or monsignor.

Serafino Vagellaio

minor

Also known as Serafino, Vagellaio, Vincenzo Vagellaio, Vincenzo

A cardinal or church figure with a dramatic presence.

Prince Filiberto

minor

Also known as The Prince Filiberto, Filiberto, The fair Prince Filiberto

An Italian prince and military figure.

Sir Francis Bertram

minor

Also known as Sir Francis

A British diplomat or envoy to the Vatican.

Cardinal Mundo

minor

Also known as Mundo, the Portugal Mundo

A Portuguese cardinal in the curia.

William Jameson

minor

Also known as Jameson

A Scottish journalist or writer.

Comrade Frank Conollan

minor

A socialist comrade of Jerry Sant.

Brother Peter Baptist

minor

Also known as Peter

A monk who serves in the Vatican.

Cardinal Whitehead

minor

Also known as Whitehead

An English cardinal in the curia.

Cardinal Popk

minor

Also known as Popk

A cardinal from Eastern Europe.

Sultan Ismail

minor

Also known as The Sultan, The new Sultan, Ismail

The Sultan of Turkey who sends envoys.

Don Umberto

minor

Also known as Donovan, Umberto

An Italian nobleman or priest.

Mr. Guthrie

minor

A visitor to the Vatican.

Cardinal Macca

minor

Also known as Macca, Cardinal-Archdeacon Macca

A cardinal who serves as archdeacon.

Cardinal Moccolo

minor

Also known as Moccolo, Cardinal-Scrutator Moccolo

A cardinal who acts as scrutator in conclave.

Prince Orso

minor

Also known as Orso

An Italian prince and military leader.

Alfred Elms

minor

Also known as Elms

A minor English character in Rome.

Signor Zanatello

minor

Also known as Zanatello

A Vatican functionary.

Empress Elena

minor

Also known as The exquisite Empress Elena

The Empress of Italy, wife of Victor Emanuel.

Dom Jaime de Bourbon

minor

A Spanish Bourbon claimant to the throne.

Comrade Pete Quillet

minor

Also known as Peter

A socialist comrade of Sant.

Prince Clenalotti

minor

An Italian prince.

Mrs. Agnes Dixon

minor

Also known as Mrs. Dixon

An Englishwoman who visits Rome.

Lady Wimborne

minor

An English noblewoman in Rome.

Signor Barconi

minor

An Italian merchant or banker.