← Back to the front page

Really Inappropriate Deaths in History

Khalid Elhassan December 19, 2020 32 min

34. Rise Through the Church Hierarchy With the Help of Another Pope Who Died While Getting It On

Leo VIII was born in Rome into a powerful aristocratic family, which helped give him a leg up as he rose through the Catholic Church’s hierarchy. He was a trusted assistant to Pope John XII, an even more depraved Holy Father who also ended up dying while loving it up – popes dying during sex used to be a thing, especially in the tenth century – who appointed him school superintended for Roman scribes.

In 963, John XII sent the future Pope Leo VIII as an ambassador to the newly crowned Holy Roman Emperor Otto I. However, relations between pope and emperor soured, and Otto I invaded Rome, forcing Pope John XII to flee. The emperor convened a synod, which deposed the absconded pope, and replaced him as Holy Father with the emperor’s choice, Leo VIII. Once the emperor left Rome, however, the deposed John XII returned. He organized a rebellion that forced his replacement, Leo VIII, to flee and seek shelter with Emperor Otto I, convened another synod that excommunicated Leo and voided his papacy, and resumed office as Holy Father.

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.