"Dad can, Dad can do anything"
According to official documents, the Pope is an exceptional person. However, even among the great pontiffs, from time to time, there are those who are not alien to human weaknesses. Our material is about unholy saints - the successors of Peter, who went down in history as sinners and degraded.
Sergius III (IX-X century)
In fact, many Romans literally adored Pope Sergius III: he was generous and took care of the dilapidated temples of the Eternal City. However, those seven years that he spent on the papal throne are most often characterized as "pornocracy", or "the power of harlots." One of the chroniclers of the 16th century calls him "a villain worthy of rope and fire," and his pontificate is described as "gloomy, shameful and merciless." Sergius III, according to another chronicler, "filled the papal court with mistresses and illegitimate children and turned the palace into a den of thieves."
Sources of that time say that Sergius III organized the assassination of two of his predecessors: Pope Leo V and Antipope Christopher. Sergius III, most likely, had love affairs with the daughter of Count Theophylact I, Marozei, who, being married, bore him a son. So Sergius III became the only pope, whose illegitimate son also became Pope.
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Benedict IX (XI century)
Benedict IX, known in the world as Count Tuscolo Theophylact III, received the title of Pope at a young age: according to some sources, at the age of 18, according to others - generally at 11. One of the youngest popes in history acted boldly and decisively: he excommunicated his opponents from the church, actively lobbied for the interests of his family, left Rome because of the uprising, but, returning, again won the papal throne. However, he did this only in order to soon sell the papal powers. According to one version, he had to leave this post due to rumors about his depraved behavior and the upcoming marriage.
But the story of his relationship with the Catholic Church did not end there either: he, taking advantage of the problems of the new pope who bought the throne, led the church for the third time. A year later, he was finally figured out: Benedict IX was excommunicated. The former pontiff could not accept this and unleashed a full-scale war against the new Pope Leo IX. Then Benedict IX was excommunicated from the church again, soon the unfortunate pope died. In various sources of that time, he is described as follows: "the devil from hell, who came under the guise of a priest", "a disgrace for the church" and "a murderer and adulterer."
Boniface VIII (XIII century)
Benedetto Caetani, who became Pope, had a very influential enemy in the person of Dante Alighieri. The writer, who visited Rome and the Vatican, argued that Boniface was a hater of free Florence and the culprit in the expulsion of Dante himself. For these reasons, he places Pope Boniface VIII in the eighth circle of hell and blasphemes him as best he can. In general, writers in this regard showed unprecedented solidarity: Boccaccio and François Rabelais in their work indicate that Pope Boniface VIII eks out a miserable existence in hell among other scoundrels. The nine years that Benedetto Caetani remained on the papal throne, judging by the sources of that time, he devoted to political intrigue, trying to prove that kings should obey the Pope. Historians of the Catholic Church traditionally call Boniface VIII domineering, impulsive and unrestrained.
Alexander VI (XV century)
During the 11 years that Rodrigo Borgia was in power in the Vatican, the Papal States expanded its borders significantly, but at the same time experienced an endless decline in morals. The sly Rodrigo Borgia was able to bribe the papal throne and immediately began to distribute cardinal hats to his entourage: including the young son and brother of his mistress. Alexander VI allegedly got rid of enemies with the help of poison, he hanged the same stubborn one and burned it with a huge crowd of people. At the same time, all over Europe there were rumors about the great pontiff's love affair with his own daughter, who, perhaps, even bore him a son. Once in the Tiber they fished out the body of a young man who turned out to be the beloved son of the Pope. The assassins inflicted nine stab wounds on him.
After the death of Rodrigo Borgia, it suddenly became clear that he was one of the richest people of that time. In addition to wealth, he left behind numerous illegitimate offspring. Even during his lifetime he was called "the monster of debauchery" and "the pharmacist of Satan", but today in the official history of the Catholic Church he is considered the darkest figure of the papacy.