Pope John XII

When you think of the Pope, you think of a figure who is highly regarded and revered. The papacy is one of oldest enduring offices in the world, and many popes have played major roles in world history over the past two millennia. Given their status, it would be hard to believe that there have been a few popes of morally dubious character. In fact, the one we’ll discuss in today’s post was probably one of the worst, as we’ll see in a bit… 

Octavian was born c. AD 937 in Rome, Italy to Alberic II of Spoleto, the count of nearby Tusculum. At the time, the rulers of Tusculum held significant secular power over the city of Rome, so Alberic was generally accepted as the local ruler or prince of Rome. Sometime before Alberic’s death in 954, he ordered that his son Octavian be elected as the next pope when a vacancy arose. Conveniently enough, the incumbent pope, Agapetus II, died just the following year (slightly suspicious). Octavian, having already entered the Church and holding the office of Cardinal, was then elected as pope at the ripe age of 18. He remains the youngest person to ever assume the position and was basically a shoo-in, thanks to his father’s political influence. 

On being elected pope, Octavian began using the regnal name “John” instead— “John XII” to be exact, (to avoid confusion with the 11 preceding Johns to hold the office). John’s first order of business was to head to Beneventum and Capua on a campaign to reclaim territories which were taken from the Papal States by the Germanic Lombards. It would seem very unusual to us nowadays, but back in this era of the papacy, it was common for popes to personally lead armies in battle. They even held direct sovereign rule over a small collection of lands in central Italy called the Papal States, which lasted more than a thousand years from 756 to 1870. 

As it happened, John XII was particularly afraid of a certain Berengar II, who ruled the rest of Italy and posed a threat to the Papal States. To deal with this, he decided to suck up to the German king Otto the Great and declare him “Holy Roman Emperor” (a flashy title if there ever was one) in 962. Basically, John was using his religious influence in coordination with Otto’s political and military influence to ensure the protection of the Papal States. However shifty that may have seemed, it was effective, and Berengar withdrew from the papal territories. 

As pope, John saw himself as more of a secular political leader of Rome than a religious leader of the Church. He is described as a “coarse, immoral man, whose life was such that the … the moral corruption in Rome became the subject of general odium” (Kirsch). In 963, an assembly of bishops accused John of sacrilegious behavior, simony (selling religious positions), murder, incest, and adultery, none of which are great resume points for a sitting pope. John decided to strike back by abusing his authority and formally excommunicating the bishops who had indicted him. This move greatly angered Otto, who had already been critical of John’s moral decadence. Fearing the emperor, John began to enter negotiations with Adalbert, son of Berengar (the same one who he’d been trying to fend off with Otto’s help a year earlier) in order to undermine Otto’s influence in Italy. 

The furious Otto returned to Rome from his campaigns against Berengar. Using his position as Holy Roman Emperor, he formally deposed John and replaced him with Leo VIII. John attempted to revolt, marching on Rome and declaring his deposition as uncanonical within the Church. This was followed by some epic pope vs. pope combat in Rome, where John regained control over the city temporarily. However, his untimely death led to the victory of Otto and Leo. According to legends, John died on 14 May 964 either from a stroke during an act of adultery, or, if you’re inclined to believe the more colorful tale, at the hands of an enraged husband who defenestrated the pope (threw him out of a window) after he caught him in an act of adultery. 

John XII may be one of the strangest popes in history. He really only became pope for political reasons because his father wanted to maintain his family’s control over Rome. Thus, he always carried himself as more of a prince of Rome than the leader of the Church, leading a life of moral depravity more akin to that of a barbarian king than an esteemed Church figurehead. His story also presents a bit of the strange relationship between the pope and secular kings in medieval times. However, it seems in the end, his unscrupulous and indulgent lifestyle caught up with him, perhaps in a bit of an unexpected fashion… 

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “John XII”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 10 May. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-XII.  

Chamberlin, Eric Russell. The Bad Popes. Dorset Press, 1986. 

Kirsch, Johann Peter. “Pope John XII.” The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 8. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08426b.htm.