An Apt End to a Depraved Pope
Contemporaries wrote that John XII turned the Lateran 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. He had many women in his palace, which became notorious for its orgies and drunken parties. He especially liked to defile holy sites by having explicit relations in them. He had relations in the papal palace, and if visitors refused his advances, he went ahead and forced himself upon them.
John XII carried on with one of his deceased father’s mistresses, with his own niece, and reportedly with his two younger sisters as well. After a tumultuous and riotous nine years as pope, he finally died as he lived, doing what he liked most: he met his Maker in the middle of getting it on. There are two accounts of John XII’s death. In one, he died from a massive stroke while fornicating. Another account has him perish in the middle of an adulterous encounter: the cuckolded husband burst in on the couple and put an end to the pope.
