INDEED!!
Pope Stephen VI (896–897), who had his predecessor Pope Formosus exhumed, tried, de-fingered, briefly reburied, and thrown in the Tiber.[1]
Pope John XII (955–964), who gave land to a mistress, murdered several people, and was killed by a man who caught him in bed with his wife.
Pope Benedict IX (1032–1044, 1045, 1047–1048), who "sold" the Papacy
Pope Boniface VIII (1294–1303), who is lampooned in Dante's Divine Comedy
Pope Urban VI (1378–1389), who complained that he did not hear enough screaming when Cardinals who had conspired against him were tortured.[2]
Pope Alexander VI (1492–1503), a Borgia, who was guilty of nepotism and whose unattended corpse swelled until it could barely fit in a coffin.[3]
Pope Leo X (1513–1521), a spendthrift member of the Medici family who once spent 1/7 of his predecessors' reserves on a single ceremony[4]
Pope Clement VII (1523–1534), also a Medici, whose power-politicking with France, Spain, and Germany got Rome sacked.
OK, I know all about the Renaisance Popes, Popes with mistresses & offspring, warrior Popes, got it.
So what’s been shakin’ in the Vatican since 1534, hmmmm?
As noted, Catholic-bashing used to bother me. But now it’s actually gotten kind of fun to listen to the brush-arbor crowd go on ‘bout them Romish Mary-worshippers with their holy water & rosaries & `cursin’ themselves’ (making the sign of the Cross) oh and you know them Catholics is a bunch of drunks.
I’m being awful, aren’t I? Did this entire thread start over the validity of the books of the Apocrypha as part of the Biblical Canon? We sure ran off the rails in a hurry.
;^)