The Blasphemous Things Pope Benedict IX Did During His Reign

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When a historian writes “The Church”, he or she only means one thing – the Catholic Church. For many hundreds of years, the Catholic Church was really the only Christian church in Europe. Or at least in western, central and northern Europe. In Russia and the Byzantine Empire, which included much of the Balkan peninsula, the Orthodox faith held sway. Both the pope in Rome and the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church in Constantinople worked tirelessly to make theirs the ONLY Christian church, but despite much bloodshed and treasure spent, neither one could gain the upper hand in the others' territories.

You see, aside from being religious leaders with great power and influence, the popes and patriarchs were often men who wielded great political power as well. For many centuries in the West, the pope controlled not only the Vatican and the Church, but was the political chief of what were known as “The Papal States”, a swathe of land across Italy from Rome to the Adriatic Sea. At times, the Papal States shrunk in size due to a weak pope or military defeat, and at times, the Church's land in Italy grew.

Aside from this, the pope's controlled the Church, and to varying degrees depending on distance, influence and politics, received money in the form of tithes and other payments from the churches and cathedrals throughout Western Europe. In other words, the Church was incredibly rich – at least for much of history. That meant that the pope, as head of the Church, was incredibly rich too!

In our most recent video about the papacy, we told you of the man many consider the “worst pope in history”, John XII. Among the many things that John did was nearly bankrupt the Catholic Church. Think about that for a moment. Today, the Catholic Church is worth billions and billions of dollars It was not much different when John was pope – and he spent, or allowed to be spent, nearly all the Churches money. A large part of these expenditures were spent on military campaigns, booze, women and gambling – all decidedly “unpope” things. In the early 11th century, another pope did his best to take the title of “Worst Pope in History” away from John XII.

Meet Benedict IX

Though their reigns as pope were separated by one hundred years, Pope John XII and Benedict were members of the same extended family – the Tusculum clan of Rome, who liked to brag that they had been related to the Caesars – maybe they were, maybe they weren't, but they WERE powerful in the early Middle Ages. So powerful that they could, and did, get popes elected and appointed. If you saw our video on John XII, you know that in his time, the people of Rome, not the College of Cardinals or a panel of bishops, elected the pope. The people of Rome were easy to bribe, and the many families vying to put one of their own on the Papal Throne spent huge sums of money to do just that. If they succeeded, the payoff was huge, but for at least a century, the leaders of the Tusculum clan were the power brokers in Rome.

#popebenedictix #history #catholic #popehistory #badpope

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Scriptwriter: Matthew Gaskill

Video Editor & Motion Graphics: Naman Meena

Voice-over Artist: Lain Heringman

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