Death, deception and (little) sex: “Conclave” offers a great trinity

“No sane man would want the papacy,” a cardinal tells Cardinal Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) at the start of “Conclave”, a new film. Perhaps that is why so many popes have been so mad. There was Pope Urban VI, who grumbled when a cardinal he had ordered to be tortured did not scream loudly enough. And Benedict IX, who not only committed rape, murder and bestiality but who also, rather naughtily, sold the papacy. And who could forget Innocent VIII, who, despite that promising name, allegedly drank the blood of young boys?