Those Naughty Popes and Their Children

Author Dillon tells how many popes who reigned during the first 16 centuries were no more than criminals. They bought the papacy by bribing cardinals with gifts of gold and benefices. When in office, they committed adultry, fathered many illegitimate children, commited murders, and even incest. They took good care of their bastards at the expense of the Church. Some children were made priests as young as age seven, and cardinals by age thirteen. They bestowed on them the benefices of churches and towns with incomes that made them rich. Learn how Sergius III (904-911) obtained the papacy by murder, and instituded a reign known as "the rule of the harlots." Read how John XII (953-963) made the St. John Latern "as if it were a brothel." He defiled virgins "even on the tombs of the apostles Peter and Paul. Women were afraid to enter St. Peter's Basilica for fear of being raped by the pope. Boniface III (1294-1303) said, "to enjoy oneself and lie with women and boys is no more of a sin that rubbing ones hands together." He callled Jesus Christ a hypocrite. Yet for all of the wicked popes, the Church and Christianity has survived.