Here are eleven of those stories, revealing some of those men who claim to be the vicars of God in Earth in spite of their power-hungry, sexually immoral, and ungodly characters during their term as head of the universal Church.
1. Pope Stephen VI: had his predecessor exhumed, tried, de-fingered, and thrown to the river
Cadaver Trial
Stephen VI was Pope from 896 to 897.
Fueled by his anger with Pope Formosus, his predecessor, he exhumed
Formosus’s rotting corpse and put “him” on trial, in the so-called
“Cadaver Synod” in January, 897.
With the corpse propped up on a throne, a
deacon was appointed to answer for the deceased pontiff, who was
condemned for performing the functions of a bishop when he had been
deposed and for receiving the pontificate while he was the bishop of
Porto, among other revived charges that had been leveled against
Formosus in the strife during the pontificate of John VIII.
The corpse was found guilty, stripped of
its sacred vestments, deprived of three fingers of its right hand (the
blessing fingers), clad in the garb of a layman, and quickly buried; it
was then re-exhumed and thrown in the Tiber. All ordinations performed
by Formosus were annulled.
The trial excited a tumult. Though the
instigators of the deed may actually have been Formosus’ enemies of the
House of Spoleto (notably Guy IV of Spoleto), who had recovered their
authority in Rome at the beginning of 897 by renouncing their broader
claims in central Italy, the scandal ended in Stephen’s imprisonment and
his death by strangling that summer. Talk about bad Popes.
- Pope Benedict IX
Benedict IX was Pope from 1032 to 1044,
again in 1045, and finally from 1047 to 1048, the only man to have
served as Pope for three discontinuous periods, and one of the most
controversial Popes of all time. Benedict gave up his papacy for the
first time in exchange for a large sum of money in 1044. He returned in
1045 to depose his replacement and reigned for one month, after which he
left again, possibly to marry, and sold the papacy for a second time,
to his Godfather (possibly for over 650 kg /1450 lb of gold). Two years
later, Benedict retook Rome and reigned for an additional one year,
until 1048. Poppo of Brixen (later to become Pope Damascus II)
eventually forced him out of Rome. Benedict’s place and date of death
are unknown, but some speculate that he made further attempts to regain
the Papal Throne. St. Peter Damian described him as “feasting on
immorality” and “a demon from hell in the disguise of a priest” in the
Liber Gomorrhianus, a treatise on papal corruption and sex that accused
Benedict IX of routine homosexuality and bestiality.
- Sergius III
Sergius III was Pope from 897 to 911, and
has been the only pope known to have ordered the murder of another pope
and the only known to have fathered an illegitimate son who later
became pope; his pontificate has been described as “dismal and
disgraceful.” The pontificate of Sergius III was remarkable for the rise
of what papal historians call a “pornocracy,” or rule of the harlots, a
reversal of the natural order as they saw it, according to Liber
pontificalis and a later chronicler who was also biased against Sergius
III. This “pornocracy” was an age with women in power: Theodora, whom
Liutprand characterized as a “shameless whore… [who] exercised power on
the Roman citizenry like a man” and her daughter Marozia, the mother of
Pope John XI (931–935) and reputed to be the mistress of Sergius III
John XII was Pope from 955 to 964. On 963, Holy Roman Emperor Otto I summoned a council, levelling charges that John had ordained a deacon in a stable, consecrated a 10-year-old boy as bishop of Todi, converted the
- Pope John XII
Lateran Palace into a brothel, raped
female pilgrims in St. Peter’s, stolen church offerings, drank toasts to
the devil, and invoked the aid of Jove, Venus, and other pagan gods
when playing dice. He was deposed, but returned as pope when Otto left
Rome, maiming and mutilating all who had opposed him. On 964, he was
apparently beaten by the husband of a woman with which he was having an
affair, dying three days later without receiving confession or the
sacraments.
Leo X was Pope from 1513 to his death in 1521. He is known primarily for the sale ofindulgences to reconstruct St. Peter’s Basilica and his challenging of Martin Luther’s 95 theses.
According to Alexandre Dumas, “under his pontificate, Christianity assumed
Pope Leo X
a pagan character, which, passing from
art into manners, gives to this epoch a strange complexion. Crimes for
the moment disappeared, to give place to vices; but to charming vices,
vices in good taste, such as those indulged in by Alcibiades and sung by
Catullus.” When he became Pope, Leo X is reported to have said to his
brother Giuliano: “Since God has given us the papacy, let us enjoy it.”
His extravagance offended not only people like Martin Luther, but
also some cardinals, who, led by Alfonso Petrucci of Siena, plotted an
assassination attempt. Eventually, Pope Leo found out who these people
were, and had them followed. The conspirators died of “food poisoning.”
Some people argue that Leo X and his followers simply concocted the
assassination charges in a moneymaking scheme to collect fines from the
various wealthy cardinals Leo X detested.6. Pope Alexander VI: nepotism, orgies and the rise of the Borgia family
Pope Alexander VI
Alexander's daughter, Lucrezia Borgia
7, Pope Innocent IV: introduced torture on the Inquisition
Pope Innocent IV
Innocent IV was Pope from 1243 to 1254.
Certainly the Inquisition represents the darkest of Roman Church
history, and it was Innocent IV who approved the use of torture to
extract confessions of heresy. He aggressively applied the principle
that “the end justifies the means.” It is shocking to learn about the
deranged instruments of torture that were used on so many innocent
people. One of the most famous people to suffer at the hands of Roman
inquisitors was Galileo. The church condemned Galileo for claiming that
the earth revolved around the sun.
Scene after Innocent's "ad extirpanda" delivered.
Pope Urban VI
Urban VI was Pope from 1378 to 1389. He
was the first Pope of the Western Schism (which ultimately lead to three
people claiming the Papal throne at the same time). Once elected, he
was prone to outbursts of rage. The cardinals who elected him decided
that they had made the wrong decision and they elected a new Pope in his
place, so he took the name of Clement VII and started a second Papal
court in Avignon, France. Later he would launch a program of violence
against those he thought to have been conspiring against him,
imprisoning people at will and mistreating them brutally. Later
historians have considered seriously that he might have been insane.
The second election threw the Church into
turmoil. There had been antipopes, rival claimants to the papacy,
before, but most of them had been appointed by various rival factions;
in this case, the legitimate leaders of the Church themselves had
created both popes. The conflict quickly escalated from a church problem
to a diplomatic crisis that divided Europe. Secular leaders had to
choose which pope they would recognize. The schism was repaired forty
years later when all three of the (then) reigning Popes abdicated
together and a successor elected in the person of Pope Martin V.
9. Pope John XV: split the church’s finances among his relatives
Pope John XV
Pope John XV
Pope John XV
John XV was Pope from 985 to 996. The
Pope’s venality and nepotism had made him very unpopular with the
citizens, as he split the church’s finances among his relatives and was
described as “covetous of filthy lucre and corrupt in all his acts.”
Pope Clement VII
Clement VII was Pope from 1523 to 1534. A
member of the powerful Medici family, Clement VII possessed great
political and diplomatic skills – but he lacked the understanding of the
age necessary to cope with the political and religious changes he
faced. His relationship with Emperor Charles V was so bad that, in May
1527, Charles invaded Italy and sacked Rome.
Imprisoned, Clement was forced into a
humiliating compromise which forced him to give up a great deal of
secular and religious power. Eventually, Clement became ill and never
recovered. He died on September 25, 1534, hated by the people of Rome,
who never forgave him for the destruction of 1527.
11. Pope Gregory VII: one who claim boastful attributions to himself.
The Dictates of Hildebrand (a set of principles which had been initiated by Gregory decades before he ascended the throne as Gregory VII) states;
Pope Gregory VII absolving Emperor Henry IV.
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