Sergius III

Sergius · 904 – 911

Rose to power through violence during the papacy's darkest era and may have fathered a future pope.

Sergius III belongs to the period historians call the "pornocracy" or the Rule of the Harlots, when Roman noble families controlled the papacy through bribery, violence, and sexual influence. Sergius seized the papal throne in 904, possibly after ordering the murder of his two predecessors. He was backed by the powerful Theophylact family, and ancient sources claim he had an affair with Marozia, Theophylact's teenage daughter, who may have borne him a son who later became Pope John XI. He did rebuild the Lateran Basilica after an earthquake destroyed it. But his pontificate represents the papacy at its lowest point, controlled by Roman aristocrats and sustained by brutality.

The Church's Worst Chapter

There is no way to make Sergius III look good. His papacy was a product of violence and aristocratic manipulation. But Catholics point to this era as evidence of a different kind. If the Church survived the pornocracy and emerged intact, something beyond human competence must have been sustaining it. The institution outlasted its worst leaders, which says something about its foundation.