Stephen VI (896-897)
Source: Dolfi
A lot can happen in a year, especially when an individual has quite a bit of power. To illustrate that, one needs not look much further than Pope Stephen VI.
A Roman of the powerful Spoleto family, Stephen’s papacy peaked with the macabre Cadaver Synod and ended with his imprisonment and strangulation a mere seven months later. Compelled either by his mother, Algetruda, or Emperor Lambert, Stephen commanded a Cadaver Synod to an unwilling Roman clergy regarding Pope Formosus.
Inextricable from the politics that defined the papacy during that time, the pontificate tried Formosus for perjury and remaining a bishop after being deposed, among other things.
As expected, the hyperbolic event and Stephen’s frankly bizarre punishment of a corpse that January caused quite a fatal stir. After being imprisoned for several months, Stephen’s short reign as an impious pope ended with asphyxiation.
Benedict IX (1032-1044, 1045, 1047-1048)
Source: Book of Bastards
When one is described by a saint as a “a demon from hell in disguise of a priest,” it is fairly obvious that this individual didn’t lead the most savory of lives. This can readily be said about Pope Benedict IX, who is primarily remembered today for being the only man to have served the papacy for three discontinuous periods and to have actually sold his office.
Somewhat analogous to a nagging cough, Benedict’s persistent uncertainty regarding his pontifical post inspired the ire of many.
First leaving his position in 1044 for money, Benedict return to reign for a month in 1045, only to sell his office again (to his Godfather) possibly in order to marry his cousin. His final resurgence to the papacy was met with much adversity, as Benedict was eventually forced out of Rome.
His stints in power were rather seedy, seeing as Benedict was accused of rape, adultery, routine homosexuality and bestiality. Said Pope Victor III, “His life as a pope was so vile, so foul, so execrable, that I shudder to think of it.”
