Pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and
sloth; these are the seven deadly sins as declared by Pope Gregory the I in the 6th century A.D.
We all try our best to steer clear of sinning, just to stay out of trouble, or to save our
mortal souls. Therefore, you might assume that the pope of the Catholic Church should
be the embodiment of what it means to be good. They do after all have a direct connection to God.
But you might be surprised to learn that not all popes avoided the seven deadly sins, in fact, some
popes even went as far as to indulge and enjoy every single one of them. Let’s take a look at
some of the most sinful Popes and the atrocities they committed. The craziest part is that there is
at least one pope we know of who ended up in hell. Since there are seven deadly sins we thought it
appropriate to talk about seven sinful popes. The things they did would have gotten any
normal person excommunicated from the Church. But when you’re God’s right hand man, one
of the perks is being able to do pretty much whatever you want… for a time.
We are going to start with a pretty mild sinner and work our way through
popes who did things you won’t believe. The horrors you are about to witness were
done by men who were believed to be closer to God than anyone else- well, by politicians of
the time anyways. It's a cringeworthy thought. Pope John the XII was born in Rome with the name
Ottaviano. He was elected as head of the Catholic Church in 955 and reigned until 967. John the XII
was one of the youngest popes to ever be elected. Records of his birthdate are disputed, but
he became pope when he was between 18 and 25 years old. John ran the church just like you’d
expect a young man full of power to, full of sin. John the XII threw lavish parties with
indulgence such as alcohol and orgies. For a man who was supposed to remain
celebate, and give his entire life to God, he may have enjoyed earthly pleasures a
little too much. He consistently lied to the cardinals and church members about
his sinful activities, and continued on with them until his death. He sold lands owned
by the church to wealthy associates to collect money and favors to support his frat boy
lifestyle. Unfortunately for John the XII, his promiscuity eventually caught up with him. It
is said that he was killed by a man in cold blood when he found the pope in bed with his wife.
At least John the XII died doing what he loved. Popes are supposed to be forgiving. They
absolve people of their sins, but what happens when a pope is so unforgiving that he
becomes sinful? You get Pope Stephen the VI. He was voted into the papacy in 896, but
lasted less than a year as the Holy Father. In the little time he was pope he didn’t do
anything of note that was good for the church or its people. Instead, Stephen the VI spent his
papacy getting revenge on his predecessor, who had just passed away. Pope Stephen did not
get along with Pope Formoses who held the position before him. They constantly were in disagreement
and Stephen the VI took it very personally. When he became pope Stephen had his predecessor's
body dug up and had his corpse stand trial for blasphemy. Obviously this was not a fair trial,
and accounts state that it was pretty much just Stephen the VI screaming at the old pope’s corpse
for a couple of hours. Formosus' only crime was that he agreed with a different faction of
cardinals within the Vatican than Stephen the VI did. Formosus’ corpse was given a lawyer during
the trial who remained silent the entire time, which was probably the smart choice. After
Stephen the VI found Formosus guilty he had all of his vestments removed, cut
off three fingers on his right hand, and dragged the corpse through the streets of Rome
until it was finally dumped in the Tiber river. Stephen the VI was clearly not a forgiving
person, but neither were his enemies. Less than a year after becoming the pope,
Stephen the VI was strangled to death by members of the opposing faction, bringing his
short reign over the Catholic Church to an end. You have probably heard of, or remember,
the Medici family from your history classes. So it should come as no surprise that
Pope Leo the X, born Giovanni de' Medici, is on our list for the popes who committed the
greatest sins. The Medici family had tastes for the finer things in life, and even though
Leo the X was supposed to give up all worldly possessions to become the pope, he decided
to indulge in greed and gluttony instead. Leo the X commissioned, bought, and sold massive
amounts of artwork during the Renaissance. He did not use his family's wealth however,
instead he used the Church’s money to pay for his expensive taste in the fine arts. This caused the
Catholic Church to go almost completely bankrupt. Leo the X was going through money much faster than
the Church was bringing it in. That being said, some of the greatest works of art, especially
those created by Raphel, were funded by Leo the X. In order to bring in more money to the church,
Leo began selling indulgences. Indulgences are basically the forgiveness of sin from the church
in exchange for money. For those who were wealthy enough, deadly sins were no longer a hindrance.
All they needed to do was spend a little money, buy an indulgence, and instantly they’d be
forgiven by the church. It was definitely a shady business. So shady in fact that this is what
caused Martin Luther to write his 95 Theses and pin them to the door of the church. Pope Leo the X
had gone too far, and had become too sinful. Large groups of people broke away from the Catholic
Church during his reign and started the Protestant religion. You have to ask yourself: is there
anything more sinful than selling forgiveness? Like Leo the X, Pope Urban the VI also
tore people away from the church. However, what happened under Pope Urban was so much
worse. He was born Bartolomeo Prignano in Naples, Italy and became pope in 1378. He continued
to lead the Catholic Church until 1389. It was under Urban the VI that the Western Schism
occurred. This dismantling of the Catholic Church ended with two popes competing for the right
to be the one true ruler ordained by God. Leading up to Pope Urban the VI’s papacy there
had been different factions in the upper ranks of the church. Pope Urban intensified this divide
by using extreme violence to remove those who opposed him. If a group of cardinals did not agree
with Urban the VI he would sentence them to death, using brutal killings to send a message.
It was recorded that when watching his adversaries be tortured he complained
that their screams weren’t loud enough. It should come as no surprise to you that
killing and torturing are considered sins. Urban the VI vicious behavior led to the
wars being waged, people assassinated, and the congregants losing their faith in the church.
All of this was due to Pope Urban VI’s power lust. Another sinful pope was Pope Benedict the
IX who was described as a “demon from hell.” He was so vile and sinful that he actually
had his papacy stripped from him. However, he somehow kept weaseling his way back into
power. Benedict the IX’s first reign over the Catholic Church lasted from 1032 to 1044. He had
been grinding Catholic followers into the ground, trying to get every ounce of
money and resources out of them by using any means necessary. This
often resulted in violence and death. In 1044 the people of Rome were so fed up with
this sinful behavior that they rebelled and drove Benedict out of the city. For many cardinals
and members of the church this was a relief. However, in 1045 Benedict the IX came back and
reclaimed the papacy. He quickly found that the Church would not provide him enough money to
continue the lifestyle he had become accustomed to, so he sold the papacy to his godfather who
became Pope Gregory the VI. Again, the whole of the Catholoic world sighed in relief, but
they were not rid of Benedict the IX quite yet. In 1047 he once again came back to
reclaim the title of pope. After a year, the people of the Catholic faith had had
enough. Benedict the IX was merciless and clearly did not take the responsibilities of
being pope seriously. A German army led the charge to remove Benedict the IX as pope once
and for all. Many people joined the army in hopes that this would be the last they’d see of
Pope Benedict. He was successfully removed from the papacy and lived the rest of his life
as a priest at the Abbey of Grottaferrata. Pope Alexander the VI was a Borgia. That’s
right, he was part of the family that has their own series about corruption and sin on
Showtime. Alexander the VI lived a life full of every single one of the deadly sins.
He already had the groundwork set by his uncle Pope Callixtus III when he bought the
papacy. Nepotism ran deep in the Borgia family. Continuing on with this tradition Alexander
put family members in positions of power all around him. When a spot was filled by
someone less sympathetic to his cause, Alexander the VI was not above killing them
off and replacing them with a family member. This happened even in the cardinal chambers.
He would have rival cardinals murdered just to claim their property for himself. He
amassed wealth through sinister means, and then used that wealth to live a life
of luxury. He also did not believe in remaining celibate for God. He was often
found having carnal relations with women, and even fathered several illegitimate children.
It has also been suggested that Alexander the VI even had incestual relations with his
own daughter. If there was ever a pope who should have been sentenced to hell…
Alexander the VI should have been it. Although, there was one Pope who was hated
so much for the sins he committed that he was actually placed in a sort of hell. In
Dante’s Inferno there is a Pope who was relegated to the eighth circle of hell. His name
was Pope Boniface the VIII and he sinned a lot. Boniface the VIII was born Benedetto Cartani,
and was the pope from 1294 to 1303. Boniface made a lot of enemies, but his biggest one was King
Philip the IV of France. In 1302 Boniface the VIII issued a papal bull that placed the kings of
Europe and their armies under his control. Basically Boniface made himself emperor
of Europe under the name of God, his lust for power knew no bounds. This led to harsh
pushback from the kings around the continent. Not only was Boniface the VIII
power hungry, but he used the armies and resources he had claimed for
conquest of lands and to gain riches; two things that a pope was not supposed to covet.
When King Philip IV did not relent his power, or give his army to Boniface the VIII, he was
excommunicated. When King Philip got wind of this, he and his allies sent their armies to Rome to
force Boniface the VIII to abdicate his papacy. Accounts vary from a single slap to the brutal
beating of Boniface the VIII when the French soldiers eventually captured him. But what
we do know is that because of his sins, Boniface the VIII was removed as the
pope and died only a month later. This brings us to Boniface the VIII in hell.
While he was the pope he became mortal enemies with Dante Alighieri. Boniface the VIII did
not like Dante’s criticisms of the church, even though they were true. Boniface had
his men forcibly remove Dante from the city of Florence and sent him into
exile. Dante would not forget this, and when he wrote Divine Comedy, he placed
Boniface the VIII in the eighth circle of hell. Another French writer named Francois Rabelais
also relegated Boniface to hell in his works. His punishment there was to "skim the
scum off soup pots" for all eternity. These seven popes most definitely
indulged in the seven deadly sins. They embodied everything that the Catholic Church
told its congregations not to be. That being said, there were plenty of popes who lived pious
lives and followed the teachings of God. If hell does exist, then these seven
popes most definitely are there right now. Now check out “How Much Power
Does The Vatican Have?” Or watch the video “Most Evil Pope in History
- Alexander VI The Devil Pope.”
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