The most controversial Popes in the history of the Roman Catholic Church: Benedict IX

Dear readers, I believe I should apologize upfront for revealing to you what the Church of Rome was in other times, because, at least to me, it is scandalous to think that there could have been, and existed such nefarious characters as those we are going to see here, and that they could have been Popes of the Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman Church.

But I also believe that uncovering the miseries of those Popes (depraved, fornicators, incestuous rapists, thieves, simoniacs, and even murderers) and of that Church (corrupted, erotic, apostate, sexual slave, and demonic) helps reaffirm the divinity of its origin, as it would have been impossible for it to have been maintained, and to continue to be maintained, for more than 2,000 years.

There is no other Institution like it in History, nor is there another that has survived the heresies of the early times (Gnosticism, Docetism, Mandaeism, Manichaeism, Monarchianism, and Ebionism), the persecution and the catacombs (those of Nero, Domitian, Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus, Maximian, Decius, Valerian, Aurelian, and Diocletian), the competition of other religions (Judaism, Paganism, Islam, Buddhism, Protestantism, Shintoism, Hinduism, Taoism, and Satanism), the clash with science and atheism of the Renaissance, the Schism of Luther and Protestantism, communism, Nazism, fascism, and savage capitalism.

A miracle. Only a miracle could have sustained and can continue to sustain a rotten building, as the Church was for centuries.

For this reason, I have dared to enter the "Black Chamber" (or "Hidden Chamber") that the Vatican hides in its basements, even if only in a fleeting and superficial way, given that this 2,000-year History is so manipulated (by legitimate interests, but often bastard) that discerning what is true and what is legend constitutes an impossible effort.

Everything can be true, everything can be invented, or everything can be half true and half false.

But let's go to the first of the seven Popes I have selected for this series. That is, to the pontiff Benedict XI, who among other atrocities sold the Chair of Peter for 1,500 gold crowns to leave Rome and marry one of his lovers... and we begin with his official biography.

Biography

Benedict was three times Pope and a member of a family, the Theophylacts, that gave the Church six Popes. He was the nephew of John XIX and Benedict VIII and a descendant of John XI, John XII, John XIII, and therefore was the 145th Pope of the Church, the 147th, and the 150th.

His first Papacy lasted from the year 1032 to 1044. According to his biographers, he was twelve years old since his father, Count Alberic III, who was the true owner of that Rome, bribed the Roman Curia and obtained such a precious position for his son. During those years, that child Pope turned the Vatican into a brothel and, as we will see later, ended up being overthrown by a Roman noble, Captain Gerardo di Sasso, when the pontiff wanted to remove from his side this man's niece, who was his lover.

But Benedict was not satisfied and returned to the charge and, with an army he had managed to gather, invaded the Vatican and forcibly deposed Pope Sylvester III, being re-elected Pope again in April of the year 1045. However, at that moment came the second "madness" of that depraved Pope, in the words of his biographer Rodolfus Glabel, since he wanted to seat his new lover beside him on the Chair of Saint Peter and that could not be allowed by the cardinals gathered in conclave. Seeing that he had no choice but to leave the position, he put the Papacy up for sale and obtained 1,500 gold crowns for the Papal Chair, which was bought, by the way, by the new Pope, Gregory VI.

Benedict leaves Rome, but wants to be Pope again and returns to the gates of Rome with a mercenary army, and it seems that the clergy and the Roman people, to avoid riots and bloodshed, ended up giving in, giving him the papacy again. It was the year 1047, and Rome was living a ruthless war between the two most powerful families of those centuries... in the end, he was expelled and excommunicated in July 1048, after eight months, by the Councils of Saint Bartholomew, and already, although young, he was only 34 years old, he gave up, took refuge, and became a monk of Saint Basil, in the city of Grottaferrata, where he ended his life.

The Most Depraved Pope in History

I assure you that I have read up to seven versions about the life, miseries, and madness of Benedict IX, but of all the accounts I have read about his life, I believe the most reasonable and the most documented is the one written by the expert in the History of the Popes of Rome, Mr. Javier Ramos. Therefore, I am pleased to reproduce the complete text, included in the work, Benedict XI the Worst Pope in History.

"In the Middle Ages, one of the popes appeared who denigrated the pontifical chair of the Vatican like few others throughout its history. Benedict IX, who assumed the tiara on three occasions (from 1032 to 1044; from April to May 1045 and from 1047 to 1048), was considered 'the demon disguised as a priest who occupied the throne of Peter' being accused of bisexuality, sodomizing animals, and ordering murders. He was also blamed for witchcraft, Satanism, and rape. A real gem, indeed.

His dissolute life already came from his family. He belonged to the papal dynasty of the Theophylacts, which gave six high priests to Christianity: he was the nephew of Popes John XIX and Benedict VIII, and a descendant of John XI, John XII, and John XIII.

The sources of the time tell us that Benedict IX 'grew up doing what he wanted, and astonished the dull sensibility of that era which was disgusting and cruel with scandals in its daily life'. From a very young age, he already began to manifest a precocity for all kinds of evil. He was appointed Pope at barely twelve years old.

According to the chronicles, what seems certain is that this Pope was one of the most depraved men of his time, due to his immoral customs. For example, Saint Peter Damian, Archbishop of Ostia, described Benedict IX as 'the Nero of Saint Peter'.

It was said that the young cleric used to escape in the dark nights from the Lateran palace and went to a nearby forest where he used to invoke evil spirits, and through necromancy incited and pushed pious women toward lust.

The power that his position granted him was used to live like a sultan in the pontifical palace. He surrounded himself with a large harem, which he frequently resorted to calming his low carnal instincts. Even so, if he could not fully vent with his women, he would resort to his fifteen-year-old sister, whom he even shared with some bedmate, on more than one occasion. Benedict IX was excited to watch his sister have sex with up to nine partners.

His passion for lust and depravity kept him away from the government of Rome. His brothers took care of it through a wave of crimes that filled the streets with blood, robberies, and rapes. Even Dante Alighieri (the author of The Divine Comedy) was of the opinion that during this time the papacy reached 'the lowest level of degradation to which a pontificate could reach', and condemned him to hell.

Homosexual Orgies

"Nobles, soldiers, and vagabonds were part of the orgies that Benedict IX himself organized in the Lateran palace. After one of them, the Pope suffered his first assassination attempt. After the mass celebrated on the feast of the Apostles, a nobleman lunged at him to strangle him. But fortune smiled on the pontiff, as a sudden solar eclipse occurred. The complete darkness in which the church was plunged caused fear among those gathered there. The commotion made the murderer desist.

In 1035, Benedict IX had to face a popular uprising from which he emerged unscathed thanks to the help provided by the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Conrad II, who sent troops to combat the revolt and kept them garrisoned in Rome to defend the Pope.

Likewise, the Pope's excesses provoked an uprising in September 1044, partly promoted by the Crescenzi family, forcing Benedict IX to flee Rome. In his place, on January 20, 1045, John, Bishop of Sabina, was elected as his successor, who would take the name Sylvester III.

But Benedict had not yet said his last word. At the end of that same year, our protagonist returned to the Vatican capital with the help of the troops of the King of Germany, Henry III, who expelled Sylvester III and restored him to the pontifical throne. However, he only remained in power for barely two months. He got bored of so much mass and resigned to marry his beautiful cousin and daughter of Gerard de Saxo.

Benedict IX sold his tiara to John Gratian, archpriest of Saint John and belonging to a wealthy family of Jewish origin, the Pierleoni. He asked for the cession of the throne 1,500 pounds of gold, as well as everything collected by the Church among the faithful of England. After accepting these concessions, John Crescenzi became Gregory VI. Meanwhile, the infamous previous Pope left Rome to retreat to a family castle to prepare the wedding with his relative".

Three Popes in Rome

"By law, there were at the same time three living popes: the newly arrived Gregory VI, the resigning Benedict IX, and the deposed Sylvester III. The situation called for the celebration of a new synod convened by the Pope at the behest of the monarch Henry III. Finally, Sylvester III was deposed and deprived of holy orders; Benedict IX was dispossessed under the grave accusation of simony; while the first was forced to abdicate and sent to the Rhineland.

As the new pontiff, Suidger, Bishop of Bamberg, would be appointed, who would adopt the name Clement II. But the joy was short-lived. On October 9, 1047, the new Pope died in the Abbey of Saint Thomas. Benedict IX took advantage of the power vacuum (perhaps he collaborated in the disappearance of his successor) and tried to regain control of the papacy. And indeed, he succeeded again on November 8 of that same year. But our protagonist had not changed for the better. During the eight months that his pontificate lasted, Benedict IX once again indulged in all kinds of vices, after being abandoned by his cousin.

Henry III deposed him again and appointed Poppo of Bressanone, Bishop of Brixen, as the new pontiff. He would be Damasus II. Although 23 days after being consecrated, he would die poisoned. Was Benedict IX's hand behind it again? The emperor sent him out of Rome, and according to the chronicles, he would die alone and abandoned in some month of the year 1055, at the age of 34".

The Crime of Simony

"Benedict IX was also accused of simony, that is, of profiting by selling masses and other ecclesiastical liturgies. Polish clerics had asked the Pope for a dispensation for Prince Casimir, who had taken priestly vows, but the Poles wanted to make him king. The Pope refused, but a suggestion from the supreme pontiff to the Poles could provoke such a dispensation. The suggestion was to grant the document in exchange for a good amount of gold to Benedict's pockets and not to the Vatican's coffers. Another good donation to Benedict IX from King Casimir of Poland even allowed him to marry. And he had no remedy".

I conclude with the words written by another of his biographers: At fourteen, he writes, he had surpassed in debauchery and extravagance all those who had preceded him. In his third book of Dialogues, Pope Victor III wrote that the life of Benedict IX “was so vile, so filthy, so execrable, that I shudder to think of it”. According to his contemporaries, the Holy Father “committed murders and adulteries in broad daylight; he had pilgrims robbed in the catacombs of the martyrs”. Saint Peter Damian, a sharp judge of sin, defined the child pope as “a demon, come out of hell sitting on the chair of Saint Peter”.