Historian Will Durant refers to the period from 867 to 1049 as “the nadir of the papacy”. It was an era that saw many unholy acts by Holy Fathers of the Catholic Church. Just about all the seven deadly sins were openly practiced by various popes in that period. Few popes were more brazen, however, than Benedict IX, who sold the office of pope, and used the proceeds of the sale to fund a comfortable retirement. Below are some fascinating facts about this most unholy Holy Father.

A Violently Depraved Holy Father

Benedict IX (circa 1012 – 1056) was a real life Young Pope, who became Holy Father in 1032 at the age of twenty. He holds the distinction of being the only person to have ever been pope on more than one occasion. He also held the distinction of being the only pope to have ever resigned the papacy, until Benedict XVI resigned and went into retirement in 2013. Unlike his modern successor, however, Benedict IX holds the – still – unique distinction of being the only pope to have ever sold the papacy on his way out.

A nephew of his immediate predecessor, Pope John XIX, Benedict’s father used bribery to secure his election to the papacy in 1032. He was a complete disaster as a pope, who stood out for his moral unfitness even in an era when few popes were paragons of moral virtue. Church leaders accused him of adulteries and murders. Like John XII, he hosted orgies in the Lateran Palace. Also, as if competing to live down to that predecessor’s reputation, he forced himself upon men, women, boys, and girls. Benedict IX was also a sadist who enjoyed torturing, burning, drowning, and flaying to death those who angered him.

The Pope Who Literally Sold the Papacy

The deranged behavior of Pope Benedict IX led to an uprising, and he was forced to flee Rome within a year of his election as pope. He was brought back and reinstated by the armies of Holy Roman Emperor Conrad II. In 1044, he was again forced out of the city, and a new Pope, Sylvester III, was elected in his place. Benedict returned with an army, captured Rome, forced Sylvester to abdicate, and had himself elected pope for the third time. In short, this unholy Holy Father was greatly disliked by contemporaries.

Benedict IX finally grew tired of the cycles of getting ousted, then fighting his way back to the papal throne. So in 1045, not long after his third election as pope, he decided to retire. To fund his retirement, he sold the papacy on his way out to a priest, who became Pope Gregory VI. He was charged by the church for that and other misdeeds, and excommunicated. Saint Peter Damian described him as “a demon from hell in the disguise of a priest“. Pope Victor III referred to Benedict IX having a “life as a pope so vile, so foul, so execrable, that I shudder to think of it”.

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Some Sources & Further Reading

All That is Interesting – Better Know a Pope: Benedict IX

Chamberlain, E. R. – The Bad Popes (1969)

History Halls – Unholy Holy Fathers: Alexander VI, the Corrupt Borgia Pope

Llewellyn, Peter – Rome in the Dark Ages (1971)