{"id":17126,"date":"2025-03-30T06:53:36","date_gmt":"2025-03-30T06:53:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/umuakatimes.com\/topnews\/?p=17126"},"modified":"2025-03-30T06:57:50","modified_gmt":"2025-03-30T06:57:50","slug":"cnn-releases-the-list-of-8-worst-popes-in-church-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/umuakatimes.com\/topnews\/cnn-releases-the-list-of-8-worst-popes-in-church-history\/","title":{"rendered":"CNN releases the list of 8 worst popes in church history."},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/span> 579<\/span> Views<\/span><\/div>

Editor\u2019s note:<\/p>\n

The article below does not in any way reflect any form of animosity against Roman Catholic Church either by Umuaka Times or CNN. The purpose of the article is to advance the cause of history and shape the future.<\/p>\n

Can you imagine a Pope placing the rotting corpse of his predecessor on trial? Or putting the papacy itself up for sale?<\/p>\n

Well, history tells us that popes did all that and more at a time when they apparently played by a very different set of rules.<\/p>\n

Here are eight popes you\u2019ll find in the history books for all the wrong reasons:<\/p>\n

Pope Alexander VI: <\/strong><\/p>\n

BORN AS: Rodrigo Borgia near Valencia, Spain, in 1431.<\/p>\n

TIME IN POWER: 1492-1503.<\/p>\n

WHAT HE DID: To this day, the Borgia name is synonymous with scandal because of this guy\u2019s rule. (How many other papal families have a Showtime series named after them?)<\/p>\n

There was controversy from the start with Pope Alexander VI, a wealthy Spaniard who allegedly bought the papacy by bribing his fellow electors.<\/p>\n

Alexander also saw no problem appointing many of his relatives to positions of power, or killing off rival cardinals to claim their valuable property for himself.<\/p>\n

And he was apparently quite the ladies\u2019 man, fathering several children with his many mistresses.<\/p>\n

Pope Stephen VI: <\/strong><\/p>\n

BORN AS: Birth name, date and birthplace unknown.<\/p>\n

TIME IN POWER: May 896-August 897.<\/p>\n

WHAT HE DID: Pope Stephen VI did not have a chummy relationship with his predecessor, Pope Formosus. And that\u2019s putting it kindly.<\/p>\n

When Stephen came to power, Formosus had already been dead for months, but having his enemy six feet under was not enough punishment for the new Pope.<\/p>\n

He ordered the rotting corpse exhumed, redressed in papal robes and placed on the throne to face trial.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s safe to say the verdict didn\u2019t go Formosus\u2019 way, so Stephen commanded his body be dragged through the streets of Rome and dumped in the Tiber River.<\/p>\n

Though he won the so-called cadaver trial, Stephen was strangled to death by one of his enemies barely more than a year later.<\/p>\n

Pope Boniface VIII: <\/strong><\/p>\n

BORN AS: Benedetto Caetani in Rome, circa 1235.<\/p>\n

TIME IN POWER: 1294-1303.<\/p>\n

WHAT HE DID: With his \u201cmy way or the highway\u201d approach to the papacy, Pope Boniface VIII had a knack for starting fights.<\/p>\n

Among his many enemies was the writer Dante Alighieri, whose criticism of the church led to his exile from Florence, Italy, at the hands of Boniface\u2019s cronies.<\/p>\n

But his most heated feud was with France\u2019s powerful King Philip IV.<\/p>\n

In 1302, Boniface issued a papal bull \u2013 the church\u2019s term for an official proclamation \u2013 which placed Europe\u2019s kings and their armies under his supreme command.<\/p>\n

Many rulers may have called \u201cbull\u201d on this, especially Philip, who ordered Boniface\u2019s capture after he caught wind of the Pope\u2019s plans to excommunicate him.<\/p>\n

Boniface died soon after, but not before earning himself a permanent spot in the eighth circle of Hell in Dante\u2019s \u201cInferno.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pope Urban VI: <\/strong><\/p>\n

BORN AS: Bartolomeo Prignano in Naples, Italy, circa 1318.<\/p>\n

TIME IN POWER: 1378-1389.<\/p>\n

WHAT HE DID: When your tenure tears the church in two, consider your spot on the \u201cnot a great pope\u201d list secured.<\/p>\n

Pope Urban VI\u2019s election in 1378 triggered the Western Schism, also known as the time when there were two, and later, three, competing popes claiming the title of church leader \u00e0 la \u201cGame of Thrones.\u201d Urban also had no problem using violence to dispatch his enemies.<\/p>\n

He called for the brutal killings of cardinals who plotted against him, and legend has it he even griped that their screams weren\u2019t loud enough.<\/p>\n

Pope Leo X. <\/strong><\/p>\n

BORN AS: Giovanni de\u2019 Medici in Florence, Italy, in 1475.<\/p>\n

TIME IN POWER: 1513-1521.<\/p>\n

WHAT HE DID: A member of Italy\u2019s powerful Medici family, Pope Leo X had a taste for the finer things in life.<\/p>\n

He funded some of the Renaissance\u2019s most famous artwork, but his big spending drove the church\u2019s finances deep into the red.<\/p>\n

To help balance the books, he relied heavily on the sale of indulgences \u2013 which is forking over money to the church to buy forgiveness for sins or, say, to get a dead relative out of Purgatory.<\/p>\n

You might remember from history class that this pay-for-penance scheme angered many, including Martin Luther, whose \u201c95 Theses\u201d sparked the Protestant Reformation and tore apart the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n

Pope John XII: <\/strong><\/p>\n

BORN AS: Ottaviano in Rome, circa 937.<\/p>\n

TIME IN POWER: 955-964.<\/p>\n

WHAT HE DID: He was only about 18 when he became Pope, and history claims that John XII ran the church in a way you\u2019d expect from a hormonal teenager with enormous power.<\/p>\n

From most accounts, it sounds like the papal palace under John XII was part-raucous frat party, part-seedy brothel.<\/p>\n

Whichever version you believe, John XII was definitely not celibate, and legend has it he died of a stroke doing what he loved \u2026 with another man\u2019s wife.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Pope Benedict IX: <\/strong><\/p>\n

BORN AS: Theophylactus in Rome, circa 1012.<\/p>\n

TIME IN POWER: 1032-1044; April-May 1045; 1047-1048.<\/p>\n

WHAT HE DID: A \u201cdemon from hell\u2019\u201d and \u201cso vile, so foul, so execrable that I shudder to think of it\u201d are just a few of the kind words future saints and other popes have used to describe Pope Benedict IX.<\/p>\n

This Pope held the position three different times, and was kind of like a really bad cold that the church couldn\u2019t get rid of.<\/p>\n

His first spell as Pope ended with him fleeing Rome after a citizens\u2019 rebellion erupted over his violent behavior.<\/p>\n

He then came back into power for a second stint but sold the papacy to his godfather, who became Pope Gregory VI.<\/p>\n

But Benedict was still not finished. He returned to Rome years later, reclaimed the throne and then lost it again after German armies finally chased him out of Rome for good.<\/p>\n

Pope Sergius III: <\/strong><\/p>\n

BORN AS: Sergius in Rome. Birth date is unknown.<\/p>\n

TIME IN POWER: 904-911.<\/p>\n

WHAT HE DID: As a friend of Pope Stephen VI of \u201ccadaver trial\u201d fame, it should come as little surprise that Sergius III was also not a great Pope.<\/p>\n

Sergius came to power at a time when several players laid claim to the title, and after declaring a number of his rivals anti-popes, he had at least one of them killed. He\u2019s also said by some to be the father of Pope John XI, the product of Sergius\u2019 relationship with a Roman socialite named Marozia.<\/p>\n

Source: cnn.com <\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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