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This is a list of sexually active popes, list of priests who were sexually active before becoming pope and popes who were legally married, who belonged to the Catholic Church. Some candidates were sexually active before their election as pope, and it has sometimes been claimed that other Popes were sexually active during their papacies. Since such relationships were sometimes undertaken outside of the bonds of matrimony, and because sometimes the Pope was under a vow of celibacy, the Catholic Church considers these to be grave abuses and causes of scandal. However, it does not undermine the Catholic doctrines considering the authority and succession of the Papacy from Saint Peter the Apostle.

Contents 1 Introduction 2 Allegedly and factually sexually active popes 2.1 Popes married before receiving Holy Orders 2.2 Popes sexually active in violation of Catholic teachings on sexual morality 2.2.1 Sexually active only before receiving Holy Orders 2.2.2 Sexually active after receiving Holy Orders 2.2.3 Sexually active during their pontificate 2.3 Popes who have been accused of being sexually active since the Catholic Reformation (1565) 3 See also 4 Notes 5 References

[edit] Introduction

Since the Middle Ages, the Latin (Western) rite of the Catholic Church has required priest and bishops to be celibate.^[1] Previously, celibacy was not absolutely required for those ordained, but still was a discipline practiced in the early Church. In this context, celibate is not synonymous with sexually abstinent; it means not married and only entails sexual abstinence because a different Catholic doctrine requires sexual abstinence outside marriage.

The discipline of priestly celibacy is not considered one of the infallible immutable dogmas, but Catholic doctrine does say that virginity and celibacy, lived out as abstinence, are higher than marriage, following the Letters of Paul of Tarsus and confirmed by a dogma in the Council of Trent.

In some cases a married Protestant minister who converts to Catholicism may be ordained to the priesthood. Present-day canon law allows the College of Cardinals to elect a married man to the papacy. In the Eastern Catholic Churches, married men are routinely ordained to the priesthood, but not to the episcopate. According to the Gospels, Saint Peter, Whom the Catholic Church maintains as the founder, bishop and first Pope of the Christian community in Rome, was married, and several other Popes have also been married.

[edit] Allegedly and factually sexually active popes

There have been 265 popes. There are various classifications for those who were sexually active at some time during their life. Periods in parentheses refer to the years of their papacies.

[edit] Popes married before receiving Holy Orders

It was within canon law, and still is, for priests to have once been married before receiving Holy Orders. In the Eastern Rite branches of the Catholic Church, it is within canon law to be a priest and married.

• Saint Peter, whose mother-in-law is mentioned in the Bible as having been miraculously healed (Matthew 8:15). However, the Church Fathers^[who?] suggest that after being called to be an Apostle he abstained from marital relations.^{[citation needed]}
• Pope St. Hormisdas (514–523) was married and widowed before ordination. He was the father of Pope Saint Silverius.^[2]
• Pope Adrian II (867–872) was married, before taking orders, and had a daughter.^[3]
• Pope John XVII (1003) was married before his election to the papacy and had three sons, who all became priests^[4]
• Pope Clement IV (1265–1268) was married, before taking holy orders, and had two daughters.^[5]
• Pope Honorius IV (1285–1287) was married before he took the Holy Orders and had at least two sons. He entered the clergy after his wife died, the last pope to have been married.^[6]

[edit] Popes sexually active in violation of Catholic teachings on sexual morality

[edit] Sexually active only before receiving Holy Orders

• Pope Pius II (1458–1464) had at least two illegitimate children (one in Strasbourg and another one in Scotland), born before he entered the clergy.^[7]
• Pope Innocent VIII (1484–1492) had at least two illegitimate children, born before he entered the clergy.^[8]
• Pope Clement VII (1523–1534) had one illegitimate son before he took holy orders. Some sources identify him with Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence but this identification has not been ascertained.^[9]
• Pope Gregory XIII (1572–1585) had an illegitimate son before he took holy orders.^[10]

[edit] Sexually active after receiving Holy Orders

• Pope Julius II (1503–1513) had at least one illegitimate daughter, Felice della Rovere (born in 1483, twenty years before his election). Some sources indicate that he had two additional illegitimate daughters, who died in their childhood.^[11]
• Pope Paul III (1534–1549) held off ordination^[12] in order to continue his promiscuous lifestyle, fathering four illegitimate children (three sons and one daughter) by his mistress Silvia Ruffini. He broke his relations with her ca. 1513. There is no evidence of sexual activity during his papacy.^[13]
• Pope Pius IV (1559–1565) had three illegitimate children before his election to the papacy.^[14]

[edit] Sexually active during their pontificate

Along with other complaints, the activities of the popes between 1458 to 1565, helped encourage the Protestant Revolt.

• Pope Sergius III (904–911) was supposedly the father of Pope John XI by Marozia. Bertrand Fauvarque underlines that the sources backing up this parenthood, notably Liutprand of Cremona in his Antapodosis are dubious, Liutprand being "prone to exaggeration" while other mentions of this fatherhood appear in satires written by supporters of late Pope Formosus.^[15]
• Pope John XII (955–963) (deposed by Conclave) was said to have turned the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano into a brothel and was accused of adultery, fornication, and incest (Source: Patrologia Latina).^[16] (See also pornocracy).
• Pope Benedict IX (1032–1044, again in 1045 and finally 1047–1048) was said to have conducted a very dissolute life during his papacy.^[17]
• Pope Alexander VI (1492–1503) had a notably long affair with Vannozza dei Cattanei before his papacy, by whom he had his famous illegitimate children Cesare and Lucrezia. A later mistress, Giulia Farnese, was the sister of Alessandro Farnese, who later became Pope Paul III. He fathered a total of at least seven, and possibly as many as ten illegitimate children.^[18] (Also see Banquet of Chestnuts.)

[edit] Popes who have been accused of being sexually active since the Catholic Reformation (1565)

There have been forty-one popes since 1565. None of them is known to have been sexually active during their papacy.

[edit] See also

• Legends surrounding the papacy

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• The Pope Encyclopedia: An A to Z of the Holy See , Matthew Bunson, Crown Trade Paperbacks, New York, 1995.
• The Papacy, Bernhard Schimmelpfennig, Columbia University Press, New York, 1984.
• Lives of the Popes, Richard P. McBrien, Harper Collins, San Francisco, 1997.
• Papal Genealogy, George L. Williams, McFarland& Co., Jefferson, North Carolina, 1998.
• Sex Lives of the Popes, Nigel Cawthorne, Prion, London, 1996.