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Really Inappropriate Deaths in History

Khalid Elhassan December 19, 2020 32 min

12. Love-Crazed Pope Turns the Papal Palace Into a Brothel

Pope John XII. Engraving, ca. 10th century. The grandson of Marozia, Pope John XII created a brothel in the papal palace, and he indulged his several mistresses. He was beaten to death by the jealous husband of one of his lovers, when he walked in on the pope in bed with his wife. Blogger Priest.

Another of Pope John XII’s quirks was his refusal to make the sign of the cross – seemingly a basic part of his job description. He had so little respect for the dignity of church offices, that he once ordained a deacon in a stable. This Holy Father was also a violent psychopath, who reportedly castrated a deacon before killing him. When his own confessor angered him, the pope blinded him, before killing him.

As to licentiousness, contemporaries described him as having turned the papal palace into a brothel. It was not just the calumny of political opponents, but a charge for which there is historical support. There is a near-unanimous consensus by historians of the period that John XII was a dissolute pope with carnal loving constantly on his mind. He had many women in his palace, which became notorious for its o-r-g-i-e-s and drunken parties.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.