The M+G+R Foundation
Myths
About the Papacy
Part
II - The Reality: Papal Sins and
Heresies
A Guest Document
by
Lee Penn
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Catholic
apologists magnify the Pope and the Papacy, saying: “The Pope is the
flesh-and-blood reminder” of the “Church and its teachings. He personifies Catholicism –
and for some this is personally offensive.”
Leaving
aside the bait-and-switch tactic (why would the Pope -
not Christ - personify Catholicism?), to exalt the person of the Pope
ignores history. The Popes of the 20th
Century were, for the most part, virtuous in their personal lives. Many who preceded them were quite otherwise. Whatever it was that they personified, it was
not from God.
The Papacy
From 896 to 1048 AD
·
Even the Vatican’s
apologists acknowledge that the Papacy passed through a dark age from
896 to 1048; they describe the Papacy of the 900s as a “pornocracy,”
due to its domination by the Theophylacts, a corrupt family of Roman
nobles. The Papal misdeeds of this era
include:
Boniface VI
(896): died after about 15 days in office – the second shortest
Papal
term of office in history. He
was elected despite having been
defrocked twice (once
from the
sub-diaconate, and once from the priesthood, and without being
canonically reinstated to orders) by Pope John VIII for immorality.
Stephen VI
(896-897): exhumed the corpse of Pope Formosus (891-896), tried
it for
offenses against canon law in the “Cadaver Synod,” and had the former
Pope's body mutilated (the three fingers used for blessing were chopped
off) and the remains tossed into the Tiber. This
outraged the population to the point of insurrection.
Stephen was deposed and strangled – and then buried in St.
Peter's.
Sergius
III (904-911):
jailed and strangled his predecessor Leo V (903), as well as the
antipope Christopher who had overthrown Leo. Sergius
reaffirmed the “Cadaver Synod” verdict against Pope Formosus, and bore
an illegitimate son with the Theophylact noblewoman Marozia; the boy
later became Pope John XI.
John
X (914-928): In
order to gain the release of the French King
(Charles the Simple) from his imprisonment by Count Heribert of Aquitaine,
John confirmed the election of the Count's five-year-old son as
Archbishop of Rheims.
John
XII (955-964): elected
at age 18, deposed for “perfidy and treason” in 963, overthrew his
successor after a few months, and “died at age twenty-eight – of a
stroke suffered while in the bed of a married woman.” A
traditionalist historian says, “The Lateran Palace was called a brothel
in his day, thanks to his diverse taste in lovers – both in terms of
gender and number.” John
“did not hesitate to consecrate as bishop a ten-year-old boy as token
of his affection, or to give sacred vessels to prostitutes.”
John
XIX (1024-1032):
won election through bribery.
Benedict
IX (1032-1045):
According to a traditionalist historian, “his personal life was so
disgusting (filled as it was with mistresses and rumors of incest and
sodomy) that one of the city's factions was able to rally support
against him and drive Benedict out of Rome.” After
he fought his way back to power, he soon “accepted
a bribe to abdicate in favor of his godfather, the archpriest John
Gratian.”
Gregory
VI (1045-1046):
John Gratian was deposed for having bought election to the Papacy.
The Papacy From 1455 to 1555 AD
·
The Papacy of 1455-1555 likewise
earned infamy for its immorality. As
is obvious, various Papal decisions (those that apologists describe as
“disciplinary acts”) led directly to Protestant revolts in Germany and England. During this
period, ancient paganism became respectable in the Vatican;
Curial writing referred to “God the Father as ‘Jupiter Optimus
Maximus,’ to the Virgin Mary as ‘Diana,’ to the Apostles as ‘legates,’
and to the bishops as ‘proconsuls.’”
Callistus III
(1455-1458): made two nephews
cardinals,
and made a third nephew the commander of the Papal army.
One of these nephews, Rodrigo Borgia, was made
cardinal-deacon at age 25, and became vice-chancellor of the Holy See
at age 26. This
posting – and the immense wealth that the young cardinal was able to
gain from it – paved the way for Rodrigo’s election as Pope Alexander
VI in 1492.
Pius II (1458-1464):
“known throughout Italy
and beyond as a connoisseur, an historian, and the author of erotic
plays and tales.” Pius
II made two nephews cardinals; one of these – who got his red hat at
age 21 – reigned for a month as Pius III (1503).
Paul
II
(1464-1471): according to a liberal historian, he was “among the
worst
of the Renaissance popes: a vain, intellectually shallow, ostentatious
playboy.”
Sixtus
IV (1471-1484):
named six nephews to the College of Cardinals; one of these would later
become Pope Julius II. Sixtus’ coronation
tiara cost 100,000 ducats – and this was just the beginning of his
extravagances. He “connived at the Pazzi
conspiracy to murder Lorenzo and Giuliano de’ Medici at High Mass at
the Duomo in Florence.” Giuliano
died, but Lorenzo survived, and Florence
rose against the Pope's allies. In
response, “the pope placed Florence
under interdict, and a two years’ war with the city began.”
Innocent
VIII (1484-1492):
won election by bribery, and created a plethora of unnecessary new
posts in the Curia, auctioning them to the highest bidder to raise
money. In 1489, he struck a deal with the
Turkish Sultan. The
Pope detained the Sultan Bayezit's fugitive (and rival) brother in
Rome, and the Sultan gave the Pope an initial payment “almost equal to
the total annual revenue of the papal state,”
plus an annual fee of 45,000 gold ducats, plus the relic of the Holy
Lance, which supposedly pierced the side of Christ on the Cross. He made Giovanni Medici a cardinal at age 13;
the young man was later elected as Pope Leo X.
Alexander
VI (1492-1503):
The father of “at least nine illegitimate children,”
he won his election by “generous bribes and promises of lucrative
appointments and benefices,” and soon made clear that “the consuming
passions of his pontificate would be gold, women, and the interests of
his family. He named his son Cesare, at
age eighteen, a cardinal, along with the brother of the current papal
mistress. He
also arranged several marriages for his daughter Lucrezia and often
left her in charge of the papacy, as virtual regent, when he was away
from Rome.” The
aforementioned papal mistress was Giulia Farnese, wife of Orsino
Orsini; Romans referred to her sarcastically as “the bride of Christ.”
Julius
II (1503-1513):
the nephew of Sixtus IV, and made cardinal by him at age 18. While a cardinal, he sired three daughters. With
the aid of “substantial bribes and promises of ecclesiastical
preferments,” he won unanimous election to the Papacy in a one-day
conclave. Julius
donned silver armor and led his armies across Italy
to expand the Papal States.
He gave Henry VIII, the King of England, a dispensation to
marry his brother's widow, Catherine of Aragon. (The
dispensation soon backfired. When Henry
sought an annulment from his marriage to Catherine, Pope Clement VII
refused. This led to the Anglican schism
of 1534.) Julius
laid the cornerstone of the new Basilica of St. Peter in 1506 – but
made the fateful decision to cover the construction costs by selling
indulgences. In the bull Cum
tam divino,
he also declared Papal elections invalid if gained through simony – an
ironic ruling, given the circumstances of his own election.
Ironically,
the sainted Pope Pius X reversed this decree. In
the 1904 decree Vacante Sede Apostolica, Pius condemned simony, but held that this would
not invalidate a Papal election. His
successors did the same. John
Paul II ruled in 1996 that “If – God forbid – in the election of the
Roman Pontiff the crime of simony were to be perpetrated, I decree and
declare that all those guilty thereof shall incur excommunication latae sententiae.
At the same time I remove the nullity or invalidity of the same
simoniacal provision, in order that – as was already established by my
Predecessors – the validity of the election of the Roman Pontiff may
not for this reason be challenged.”
Leo
X
(1513-1521): Upon his election, he said, “God has given us the
papacy;
now let us enjoy it.” He
continued the sale of indulgences to finance construction of St.
Peter's. It
was the marketing of this “spiritual benefit” by the Dominican preacher
John Tetzel that caused Luther to post the “95 Theses” on the cathedral
door at Wittenberg in
1517, starting the Reformation. King Henry
VIII publicly opposed Luther and wrote In Defense of the
Seven Sacraments;
as a reward for this book, Leo gave the English King the title of
“Defender of the Faith” – a title that the English royalty have
continued using ever since, despite their schism from Rome. One of Leo's cardinals was his nephew, Giulio
de’ Medici, who was later elected as Clement VII (1523-1534).
Paul
III (1534-1549):
while serving as a cardinal, he had kept a mistress, by whom he
had
four children. Upon his election, the
first two cardinals he chose were his teenage grandsons.
Paul
“was an ardent believer in astrology, timing consistories, audiences,
even the issue of bulls, according to the most auspicious arrangement
of the stars.”
Julius
III
(1550-1555): “created a scandal because of his infatuation with
a
fifteen-year-old boy whom he picked up in the streets of Parma,
had his brother adopt, and then made a cardinal and head of the
Secretariat of State.” Another
biographer describes this youth, Fabiano (who took the name of
Innocenzo del Monte), as a “depraved … custodian of monkeys,” and a Roman satirist of the time
described Fabiano as an “empty and feminine boy.” Fabiano
fell from grace after Julius III died. Pius
IV jailed Fabiano for killing two people at a banquet, and exiled him
after his release from prison; Pius V removed Fabiano’s red hat.
The Standards
set forth by St. Paul for Bishops
Contrast the behavior of these Popes
to the standards that St. Paul
set forth for bishops:
“The
saying is sure: If any one aspires to the office of bishop, he desires
a noble task. Now a bishop must be above reproach, the husband of one
wife, temperate, sensible, dignified, hospitable, an apt teacher, no
drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, and no lover of
money. He must manage his own household well, keeping his children
submissive and respectful in every way; for if a man does not know how
to manage his own household, how can he care for God's church? He must
not be a recent convert, or he may be puffed up with conceit and fall
into the condemnation of the devil; moreover he must be well thought of
by outsiders, or he may fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.”
(1 Tim. 3:1-7)
Some
Popes have been
evil,
indeed. Their
good works notwithstanding (John XII, for example, supported the
monastic reform that began at Cluny, and the Renaissance popes
commissioned great works of religious art), these Popes demonstrate
that no earthly religious leader “personifies Catholicism.” The deeds of these Popes show that Gregory VII
(1073-1085) was in error when he asserted, in the Dictatus
Papae, that “the Roman pontiff, if he have been canonically
ordained, is undoubtedly made a saint by the merits of St. Peter.”
Another part of the Dictatus
was “the claim that the Pope alone has the right to use the imperial
insignia, or that princes shall kiss his foot;” these were derived from
the Donation of Constantine, a fraudulent document.
The Defenders
of the Hierarchy Fail in Their Efforts
Defenders
of the Hierarchy say that (a)
even the worst of Popes never formally
taught heresy, and (b) that
the evil behavior of some Popes does not
impair their authority and accuracy as teachers of the Faith. This defense fails on both counts:
1.
Several
Popes have indeed fallen into heresy, at least for a time, and one Pope was anathematized by an
Ecumenical Council.
Liberius
(352-366): initially opposed the Arian heresy (which denied the
divinity
of Christ), and was exiled in 355 by the Arian emperor Constantius II. Under
duress, Liberius approved a semi-Arian creed that had been produced by
a church synod, and excommunicated the orthodox bishop Athanasius. The Emperor allowed the Pope to return to Rome
in 358. Only
after the Emperor died in 361 did Liberius return to orthodoxy,
reinstating Athanasius and urging all bishops to adhere to the faith
that had been stated at the Council of Nicaea.
Zosimus
(417-418):
initially revoked the prior Pope’s condemnation of Pelagius (who
promoted the heresy that men can be saved by their own efforts, without
the need for divine grace). After protests
from bishops in North Africa, including St.
Augustine), the Pope reversed himself and
restated Rome’s opposition
to the heresy.
Vigilius
(537-555):
vacillated between support for orthodox theology (as taught by Chalcedon
– that Christ is fully God and fully man, thus having two natures) and
the Monophysite heresy, which teaches that Christ has only one nature. (As with Liberius, coercion by the Emperor
explained some of Vigilius’ conduct.)
Vigilius’
greatest crime had been the way he obtained the Papacy: he had aligned
himself with the dissolute Empress Theodora, posed as a Monophysite
sympathizer to gain her support, and went to Rome with her money to buy election as Pope. The
clergy there had already elected Silverius as Pope; the Imperial
authorities responded by sending Silverius into exile and declaring the
Holy See to be vacant. Vigilius won the
new Papal election, arrested Silverius as soon as the former Pope
returned to Rome, and exiled him again – leading to Silverius’
early death by starvation. As
a historian of the Papacy reports, “To all intents and purposes, one
Pope, and he the son of a pope, had been deposed and murdered by
another.” These
acts raise a question: shouldn't posing as a heretic, and doing so with
such lethal effect, “count” against a Pope in the same way that
intentionally issuing a heretical encyclical would?
Honorius I
(625-638): adhered to Monothelitism, which held that there is
only one
(divine) will in Christ. After
Honorius died, he was solemnly condemned as a heretic by the Third
Council of Constantinople, (680-681 – the Sixth Ecumenical Council). Pope
Leo II (682-683) affirmed the verdict, saying, “We anathematize …
Honorius, who did not attempt to sanctify this Apostolic
Church with the teaching
of Apostolic tradition, but by profane treachery permitted its purity
to be polluted.” The Seventh Ecumenical Council (787)
restated this condemnation. Even
though Honorius did not formally define his view as Church teaching, this event clearly shows that
Popes can be heretical.
2.
“Teaching” involves more that putting
orthodox words into an encyclical with the appropriate canonical
formulae. Jesus taught by
his acts as well as with his sermons. Any
wise parent, teacher, or manager knows that bad example can – and
usually will – negate even the most inspired or well-intentioned of
their words (or teachings) given to those under their authority. As the Apostle James said: “faith, by itself,
if it has no works, is dead.” (James 2:17). Thus,
when Popes lived evil lives – and yet more, when they pursued evil
policies using the power, resources, and authority associated with
their office – they were teachers of evil.
Lord Acton, a Catholic historian in 19th
Century England,
makes this case for sober and realistic judgment of the behavior of
Popes (and other powerful men):
“I
cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike
other men, with a favourable presumption that they did no wrong. If there is any presumption it is the other
way against the holders of power, increasing as the power increases. Historic responsibility has to make up for the
want of legal responsibility. Power tends
to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Great
men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and
not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the
certainty of corruption by authority. There
is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.”
_________________________________________________________
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