I ran across this little bit of information today:
"In 1032, Count Alberic III paid a fortune to keep the job (papacy) in the family. Who better to fill the vacancy than his own son, Theophylactus? Raoul Glaber, a monk from Cluny, reports that at his election in October of 1032 his Holiness was eleven years old. . .
It was an odd spectacle: a boy not yet in his teens, his voice not yet broken, was chief legislator and ruler of the Catholic church, called upon to wear the tiara, celebrate high mass in St Peter's, grant livings, appoint bishops and excommunicate heretics. His Holiness's exploits with the ladies prove that the boy-pope reached the age of puberty very early. By the time he was fourteen, a chronicler said, he had surpassed in profligacy and extravagance all who had preceded him. St. Peter Damian, a fine judge of sin, exclaimed: `That wretch, from the beginning of his pontificate to the end of his life, feasted on immorality.' Another observer wrote: `A demon from hell in the disguise of a priest has occupied the Chair of Peter'."
Well...well..well...looks to me like it's been all down hill from there for the Cathylicks!!
"In 1032, Count Alberic III paid a fortune to keep the job (papacy) in the family. Who better to fill the vacancy than his own son, Theophylactus? Raoul Glaber, a monk from Cluny, reports that at his election in October of 1032 his Holiness was eleven years old. . .
It was an odd spectacle: a boy not yet in his teens, his voice not yet broken, was chief legislator and ruler of the Catholic church, called upon to wear the tiara, celebrate high mass in St Peter's, grant livings, appoint bishops and excommunicate heretics. His Holiness's exploits with the ladies prove that the boy-pope reached the age of puberty very early. By the time he was fourteen, a chronicler said, he had surpassed in profligacy and extravagance all who had preceded him. St. Peter Damian, a fine judge of sin, exclaimed: `That wretch, from the beginning of his pontificate to the end of his life, feasted on immorality.' Another observer wrote: `A demon from hell in the disguise of a priest has occupied the Chair of Peter'."
Well...well..well...looks to me like it's been all down hill from there for the Cathylicks!!
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