General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Boy In Yellow Steals Pope Francis' Heart As Well As Ours At Vatican Celebration For Families [View all]warrant46
(2,205 posts)Their history is replete with scoundrels
For Example we have Pope Alexander VI
Pope of the Catholic Church from 11 August 1492 to his death in 1503
Of Alexander's many mistresses the one for whom passion lasted longest was a certain Vannozza (Giovanna) dei Cattani, born in 1442, and wife of three successive husbands. The connection began in 1470, and she bore him four children whom he openly acknowledged as his own: Giovanni, afterwards duke of Gandia (born 1474), Cesare (born 1476), Lucrezia (born 1480), and Goffredo or Giuffre (born 1481 or 1482). Three of his other children, Girolama, Isabella and Pedro-Luiz, were of uncertain parentage. However, his son Bernardo, a product of his liaison with Vittoria (Victoria) Sailór dei Venezia in 1469, is much less known because his father kept him in hiding, most likely due to shame, for he was a cardinal, who aspired to become the pope. He obviously gave up hiding his many children after he fathered four more. Therefore, Bernardo received the least amount of attention of his siblings. ( From Wiki)
Pope Stephen VI: had his predecessor exhumed, tried, de-fingered, and thrown to the river
Pope Sergius III: ordered the murder of another pope and started the "pornocracy"
This "pornocracy" was an age with women in power: Theodora, whom Liutprand characterized as a "shameless whore... [who] exercised power on the Roman citizenry like a man" and her daughter Marozia, the mother of Pope John XI (931935) and reputed to be the mistress of Sergius III.
It goes on and on