The POPE Encyclopedia
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ASSASSINATED PONTIFFS
Over the centuries, many popes have been murdered or assassinated. The first to receive this dubious honor was Pope John VIII, who in 882 was first poisoned and then clubbed to death by scheming court menbers. Most murders happened in the Middie Ages, especially during a period described by a scholar named Cardinal Baronius in his Annales ecclesiastici as the Iron Age of the Papacy, from 867 to 964 when powertul families such as the Crescentii or Theophylact had pontiffs elected, deposed, and killed to advance their political ambitions in Rome or as vengeance for some action taken by the pope that might have offended them or inconvenienced some plan or plot. Of the twenty-six popes during this era, sexen died by violence. In modern times, fortunately no pope has been assassinated so far as any official record has proven. This has not stopped conspiracy theorists or the highly imaginative from speculating on the worst. Theories and claims of murderous cabals blossomed in ghoulish fashion following the death of Popes Clement XIV in 1771 and the sudden passing of John Paul I in 1978. Pope Clement was reportedly so racked with guilt over disbanding the Jesuits that he spent his last years terified of being poisoned. After his death, so prevalent were stories about his possible murder that a full postmortem was conducted. It found nothing, but enemies of Jesuits spread lies that they had done the dirty deed. In the case of John Paul I, some theorized that he had been killed by Soviets; other more exotic and even laughable proposal placed possible guilt with the Jesuits again (the pope was supposedly planning to disband the order), the Freemasons and the secret organization in Europe called P-2, officials at the Vatican Bank, or even high-ranking members of the Curia. These were dismissed out of hand by the Vatican, which brought in its own investigatior, who found no evidence of a plot or even a cover-up. (See John Paul I.) Pope John Paul II was nearly murdered in St. Peter's Square in 1981 by Mehmet Ali Agca, a Turkish gunman who perhaps working for Bulgarians and the KGB. The following is a list of murdered pontiffs and the way in which they are thought to has been removed: John VIII (872-882): Poisoned and clubbed to death Adrian III, St. (884-885): Rumored poisoned Stephen VI (896-897): Strangled Leo V (903): Murdered John X (914-928): Suffocated under a pillow Stephen VII (VIII) (928-931): Possibly murdered Stephen VIII (IX) (939-942): Mutilated and died from injuries John XII (955-964): Suffered a stroke while with a mistress or murdered by an outraged husband Benedict VI (973-974): Strangled by a priest John XIV (983-984): Starved to death or poisoned Gregory V (996-999): Rumored poisoned, probably malaria Sergius IV (1009-1012): Possibly murdered Clement II (1046-1047): Rumored poisoned Damasus II (1048): Rumored murdered Boniface VIII (1294-1303): Died from abuse received while a captive of the French in Anagni N.B. This list does not include the antipopes, who routinely died by Violence or execution such as Boniface VII (974, 984-985), who was murdered by a mob and left under a statue of Marcus Aurelius to be stabbeb by passersby.
THE POPE ENCYCLOPEDIA - Matthew Bunson Published by Crown Trade Paperbacks 201 East 50th Street, New York New York 10022, USA ISBN 0-517-88256-6
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