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Really Inappropriate Deaths in History

Khalid Elhassan December 19, 2020 32 min

30. Yet Another Pope Who Died While Enjoying the Pleasures of the Flesh

Pope John VII. Direct Media Publishing GmbH

Pope John VII (circa 650 – 707) was elected Holy Father on March 1^st, 705, and retained the office until his death on October 18^th, 707. That day, he was reportedly beaten to death by an angry husband, who burst in on the Holy Father while he was carnally knowing his wife. An ethnic Greek, John VII was born within the borders of the Byzantine Empire. However, he got along better with the Lombards, who ruled most of Italy back then, than he did with the then-reigning Byzantine Emperor Justinian II.

Although his reign was brief, John VII was an energetic pope, who devoted significant time and resources to building and restoring churches. Had he reigned longer, he might have gone down as one of history’s great popes. Unfortunately, he seems to have had trouble keeping it in his robes, and his pontificate – and life – were cut short when an angry husband bludgeoned him to death after catching him doing the deed with his wife.

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.