Electing a pope: The real story

Dirtier popes
The dirty politics gave the church some pretty nasty popes:

• Formosus, the excommunicated-but-later-restored cardinal who was elected pope in 891, had a tumultuous life and papacy. But his afterlife was even rockier.

Formosus scandalized many cardinals, including Stephen VI, his successor as pope, by agreeing to the installation of an illegitimate son of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor. Upon taking office, Stephen dug up Formosus’ corpse and put it on trial.

Even though (constitutional scholars take note) Formosus did have counsel — a cleric whom Stephen appointed to speak for him — he was convicted, three of his fingers (the ones that bestowed blessings) were cut off, and he was dumped in the Tiber River.

Stephen, it should come as no surprise, was eventually assassinated.

• Just a few years later, in 897, Sergius III conquered Pope Leo V’s forces and seized power, whereupon he had Leo strangled. He in turn was deposed by the antipope Christopher, but Sergius’ patrons revolted and invited him back in 904.

It has been alleged, though never proved, that Sergius ordered the assassinations of Christopher and another enemy, former Pope Leo V.

• Pope Anastasius III was reputed to be his illegitimate son. Another presumed illegitimate son became John XII. His papacy was dubbed “the pornopacy.”
• Sixtus V, who took office in 1595, was the first wholesale urban redeveloper. Until the end of the 19th century, when Italy became an independent country, the pope was also head of the Papal States, and as ruler, Sixtus destroyed hundreds of homes to build wide, luxurious streets.

When Sixtus died after five years, the official announcement noted that his passing was greeted with “universal jubilation and mutual congratulations of the entire population of the city of Rome.”

Not so Innocent
Then there was the comically, ironically named Innocent VIII. Giovanni Battista Cibo became pope in 1484 in one of the many elections of the Middle Ages that was menaced by competing mobs. By 1487, he had launched a real witch hunt: His “Malleus Maleficarum” (or “The Hammer of Witches”) inspired the great witch hunts that stretched through the 1600s, even though the Spanish Inquisition itself condemned the book.

Speaking of the Spanish Inquisition, it was during Innocent’s reign that the church’s torture-driven quest to covert Spain’s Jews and Muslims hit its stride. It was Innocent, in fact, who appointed Torquemada as grand inquisitor.

Innocent celebrated the surrender of the moors at the Spanish city of Granada in 1492 with parties and official celebrations, which included his acceptance of 100 Moorish prisoners as slaves, whom he apportioned out as gifts to his friends.

Innocent was known as the Father of Rome, but not for his beneficence or leadership. When he died in July 1492, he left behind as many as 16 illegitimate children.

(Information for this report is drawn from the official Catholic Encyclopedia; “Conclave: The Politics, Personalities, and Process of the Next Papal Election,” by John L. Allen Jr., Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter; “Lives of the Popes,” by the Rev. Richard McBrien, a theology professor at the University of Notre Dame; “Behind Locked Doors: A History of the Papal Elections,” by Frederic Baumgartner, a historian at Virginia Polytechnic Institute; and “The Bad Popes,” by historian Russell Chamberlin.)

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