September 14, 2025 • 14 mins
The Cadaver Synod of 897, where Pope Stephen VI put his predecessor's rotting corpse on trial, marked the beginning of the most corrupt period in papal history. For the next sixty years, the papal office became a prize fought over by Roman aristocratic families through murder, seduction, and betrayal. This episode explores the era when powerful women like Theodora and Marozia used sex and violence to control the successors of Saint Peter, transforming spiritual leadership into hereditary political property.
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Unlock an ad-free podcast experience with Caloroga Shark Media! Get all our shows on any player you love, hassle free! For Apple users, hit the banner on your Apple podcasts app. For Spotify or other players, visit caloroga.com/plus. No plug-ins needed!
Subscribe now for exclusive shows like 'Palace Intrigue,' and get bonus content from Deep Crown (our exclusive Palace Insider!) Or get 'Daily Comedy News,' and '5 Good News Stories’ with no commercials! Plans start at $4.99 per month, or save 20% with a yearly plan at $49.99. Join today and help support the show!
We now have Merch! FREE SHIPPING! Check out all the products like T-shirts, mugs, bags, jackets and more with logos and slogans from your favorite shows! Did we mention there’s free shipping? Get 10% off with code NewMerch10 Go to Caloroga.com
Get more info from Caloroga Shark Media and if you have any comments, suggestions, or just want to get in touch our email is info@caloroga.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Calarogu shark media. In January eight hundred ninety seven, one
of the most grotesque spectacles in the history of Christianity
unfolded in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome.
Pope Stephen the sixth had ordered the corpse of his
predecessor Formosus exhumed from its tomb after seven months in
(00:27):
the ground. The rotting body was dressed in papal vestments,
propped up in a chair, and put on trial before
a horrified assembly of clergy. Stephens screamed accusations at the
decomposing remains, while a terrified deacon was forced to speak
for the dead pope. The corpse was found guilty of
perjury and illegally holding the papal office. Its papal vestments
(00:52):
were stripped away, the three fingers used for blessing were
hacked off, and the body was thrown into the Tiber River.
This maca cadaver synod, as historians would later call it,
marked the beginning of the most corrupt and scandalous period
in papal history. For the next sixty years, the papal
office would become a prize fought over by Roman aristocratic
(01:14):
families through murder, seduction, and betrayal, the spiritual leadership of
Western Christianity would fall into the hands of thugs, courtesans,
and their illegitimate children. Today we explore the era known
as the pornocracy, when the successors of Saint Peter became
pawns in the hands of powerful women who used sex
(01:36):
and violence to control the most important religious office in
the world. This is White Smoke, Episode thirty. The Pornocracy.
The chaos that engulfed the papacy in the late ninth
and early tenth centuries emerged from the collapse of the
Carolingian system that had provided stability for nearly a century.
(01:57):
The death of Emperor Charles the fat in An eight
hundred eighty eight had left the Empire divided and weakened,
creating a power vacuum that ambitious Roman nobles rushed to fill.
Without imperial protection, the papal office became vulnerable to local
political forces that had been building strength throughout the ninth century.
Wealthy Roman families like the Theophilacte had accumulated vast estates,
(02:22):
military resources, and political connections that enabled them to challenge
traditional church authority. The papacy which had once been a
partner of Empress, now became a prize to be captured
by whoever could muster the most force. The Cadaver Synod
represented the first dramatic manifestation of this new reality. Pope
(02:43):
Stephen the sixth, who had ordered the ghoulish trial, was
himself a creature of the powerful Spoleto faction that sought
to control Rome. His bizarre persecution of Formosis's corpse was
not religious fanaticism, but political theater, designed to demonstrate his
patron's total vs victory over their enemies. The Cadaver Synard
revealed how completely the papal office had been subordinated to
(03:06):
secular political interests, explains doctor Walter Ullman, the magisterial authority
on Papal institutional development, Stephen's grotesque performance was not the
act of a spiritual leader, but of a political operative,
destroying his patron's enemies through symbolic violence against the dead.
The Roman population's horrified reaction to Stephen's spectacle demonstrated that
(03:30):
even in this corrupt era, there remained some sense of
proper limits. Stephen was deposed, imprisoned, and strangled in his
cell by an outraged mob yet his death solved nothing,
because the underlying problem remained. The papal office had become
a tool of competing Roman factions rather than a genuine
spiritual authority. The rapid succession of popes in the following
(03:54):
years revealed the complete breakdown of legitimate succession procedures. Between
eight hundred ninety six and nine hundred four, seven different
men claimed the papal throne, most ruling for only months
before being murdered, deposed, or driven into exile by their rivals.
Each represented different aristocratic factions seeking to use papal authority
(04:15):
for their own territorial and political ambitions. Into this chaos
stepped a figure who would transform papal corruption from mere
political manipulation into something far more personal and degrading. Theophal Act,
Count of Tusculum, had been building his power base throughout
the turmoil of the late ninth century. Unlike earlier noble
(04:37):
patrons of the papacy, Theophial Act understood that controlling popes
required more than military force or political pressure. Theophal Act
possessed two secret weapons that would prove more effective than armies.
His wife Theodora and his teenage daughter Marozzia. These women
would discover that sexual seduction could accomplish what violence and
(04:58):
bribery had failed to achieve, creating a system of papal
control that would endure for generations through the most intimate
possible means. The installation of Sergius the Third as pope
in nine hundred four marked the true beginning of what
historians would later call the pornocracy. Sergius had been a
co judge in the original Cadaver Synod and had spent
(05:20):
years in exile after his initial attempt to claim the
papal throne failed. His return to power was made possible
by Theophilactus military support, but his long tenure would depend
on far more personal arrangements. Theodora, Theophilact's wife, had already
demonstrated her understanding of how to manipulate powerful men through
sexual relationships. As a beautiful and intelligent woman from one
(05:44):
of Rome's most influential families, she possessed both the social
standing and personal skills necessary to move among the highest
levels of church hierarchy. Her alleged affairs with multiple church
officials created a network of obligation and depending that served
her family's political interests. Yet it was Theodora's fifteen year
(06:12):
old daughter, Morozia who would perfect the techniques that would
define the pornocracy era. In nine hundred four, shortly after
Sergius became Pope, Morozia began a sexual relationship with the
forty five year old pontiff that would produce a son
and establish patterns of control that would dominate the papacy
for the next half century. Morozia's affair with Sergius was
(06:35):
not a romantic relationship, but a calculated political arrangement that
served multiple purposes. For Sergius, the young woman provided sexual
gratification and personal companionship during the isolation of papal office.
For Theophilacht's family, the relationship created intimate influence over papal
decisions and access to church resources that could never be
(06:58):
achieved through normal political channels. The birth of Marozzius's son,
who would later become Pope John the eleventh, represented a
revolutionary development in papal politics. For the first time in
church history, a reigning pope had acknowledged an illegitimate child
who would eventually claim the papal throne himself. This biological
(07:19):
connection between papal authority and aristocratic family interest created unprecedented
opportunities for long term political control. Mourosia's relationship with Sergius
the Third established a new model for controlling papal authority
through intimate personal relationships. Observes doctor Sandra measl specialist in
(07:39):
medieval church corruption. Rather than simply threatening or bribing popes,
the theophil Acte family had discovered how to make papal authority
genuinely dependent on their continued favour through the most personal
possible means. Sergius's seven year reign demonstrated the effectiveness of
this system. Despite holding strong per personal opinions about church
(08:01):
governance and theological disputes, he consistently implemented policies that served
theophalact family interests. His reaffirmation of the Cadaver Synod's decisions
against formosis, his promotion of family allies to important church positions,
and his use of papal resources to support theophalact military
operations all reflected the intimate control Morozia and her family
(08:24):
exercised over papal authority. When Sergius died in nine hundred eleven,
the Theophalact family faced the challenge of maintaining their control
over papal succession without their intimate connection to the reigning pope.
Their solution revealed the sophistication of their approach to ecclesiastical manipulation.
They would install puppet popes while preparing Morozia's son for
(08:46):
eventual succession to his father's throne. The two popes who
followed Sergius Anastasius the Third and Lando were both weak figures,
entirely dependent on theophalact support for their position. Neither lasted
more than two years, and both spent their brief reigns
implementing policies dictated by their aristocratic patrons rather than exercising
(09:08):
independent papal authority. During this period, Morozia herself began to
assume more direct political control. No longer simply the teenage
mistress of a deceased pope, she had become a powerful
political figure in her own right through her combination of
sexual relationships, family connections, and personal ruthlessness. Contemporary sources describe
(09:32):
her as a woman of exceptional beauty and intelligence who
understood how to use both assets to achieve her political objectives.
Morozia's marriage to Alberic, the first of Spolato in nine
hundred nine, represented a strategic alliance that extended her family's
influence beyond Rome into the broader Italian political landscape. Alberic
(09:54):
brought military resources and territorial control that complemented the Theophalact
family's dominance of Roman politics, creating a power base that
could challenge any external threats to their papal control system.
The true test of Morosia's power came with the election
of John tenth in nine hundred fourteen. Unlike the puppet
(10:14):
popes who had preceded him, John possessed genuine ability and
independent political ambitions that threatened to break free from theophal
Act family control. His successful military leadership against Muslim raiders
and his attempts to assert papal authority over church appointments
demonstrated that effective papal leadership remained possible even in this
(10:34):
corrupt era. Morozia's response to John's independence revealed the ruthless
methods that had made her family's control possible. Rather than
accept reduced influence over papal decisions, she arranged John's imprisonment
in nine hundred twenty eight and his subsequent murder through
suffocation with a pillow. This elimination of an effective pope
(10:55):
demonstrated that the theophial act system would not tolerate even
competent leadership if it threatened family interests. The two brief
papal reigns that followed John's murder, Leo the sixth and
Stephen the seventh, served as placeholders while Morozia prepared for
the culmination of her long term strategy. In nine hundred
(11:16):
thirty one, at age twenty one, her son John became
Pope John the eleventh, making him the first and only
illegitimate son of a pope to claim the papal throne himself.
John the eleventh selevation represented the complete triumph of the
pornocracy system. The papal office, which had begun as the
spiritual leadership of persecuted Christians and had evolved into partnership
(11:40):
with emperors, had now become the hereditary possession of a
Roman aristocratic family, maintained through sexual manipulation and violence. Yet
even this ultimate success contained the seeds of its own destruction.
Morozia's other son, Alberic the Second, had grown increasingly resentful
of his mother's power. And her plans to marry Hugh
(12:00):
of Italy, which would have made her empress while reducing
his own political prospects. During Morozia's wedding celebration in nine
hundred thirty two, Alberic organized an uprising that imprisoned both
his mother and his papal brother, establishing his own rule
over Rome. Morozia spent her final years in prison, dying
around nine hundred thirty seven, after a remarkable career that
(12:22):
had seen her control the papal office through intimate relationships
with multiple popes. Her legacy would continue through her descendants,
who would occupy the papal throne intermittently for the next century,
but the most dramatic phase of direct female control over
papal authority had ended with her imprisonment. The pornocracy era
(12:43):
revealed the complete corruption of papal authority when it became
subordinated to purely secular political interests pursued through the most
intimate possible means. The spiritual office that should have provided
moral leadership for Western Christianity had become a prize distributed
through section favours and maintained through murder. Yet the period
(13:04):
also demonstrated the remarkable resilience of papal institutional structures. Despite
decades of corrupt leadership, the basic administrative functions of the
papal office continued to operate, Churches were built, charitable activities continued,
and the fundamental structures of church governance remained intact even
under the most debased leadership. The eventual end of the
(13:28):
pornocracy would require external intervention from German emperors, who possessed
both the military power and political motivation to impose reform
on the corrupt Roman system, but the legacy of this
era would continue to haunt papal authority for centuries, providing
ammunition for critics who questioned whether spiritual leadership could ever
be separated from temporal corruption. The story of Theodora and
(13:51):
Morozia remains one of the most dramatic examples in history
of how powerful women could exercise political authority in society
that formerly excluded them from official power. Their methods were
corrupt and their objectives purely selfish, yet their success demonstrated
possibilities for female political influence that conventional medieval society refuse
(14:14):
to acknowledge. White Smoke is a production of Calaroga Shark
media portions of which were made with the help of anerration,
but still written and produced by real podcasters Mark Francis
and John McDermott.
Calarogu shark media. In January eight hundred ninety seven, one
of the most grotesque spectacles in the history of Christianity
unfolded in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome.
Pope Stephen the sixth had ordered the corpse of his
predecessor Formosus exhumed from its tomb after seven months in
(00:27):
the ground. The rotting body was dressed in papal vestments,
propped up in a chair, and put on trial before
a horrified assembly of clergy. Stephens screamed accusations at the
decomposing remains, while a terrified deacon was forced to speak
for the dead pope. The corpse was found guilty of
perjury and illegally holding the papal office. Its papal vestments
(00:52):
were stripped away, the three fingers used for blessing were
hacked off, and the body was thrown into the Tiber River.
This maca cadaver synod, as historians would later call it,
marked the beginning of the most corrupt and scandalous period
in papal history. For the next sixty years, the papal
office would become a prize fought over by Roman aristocratic
(01:14):
families through murder, seduction, and betrayal, the spiritual leadership of
Western Christianity would fall into the hands of thugs, courtesans,
and their illegitimate children. Today we explore the era known
as the pornocracy, when the successors of Saint Peter became
pawns in the hands of powerful women who used sex
(01:36):
and violence to control the most important religious office in
the world. This is White Smoke, Episode thirty. The Pornocracy.
The chaos that engulfed the papacy in the late ninth
and early tenth centuries emerged from the collapse of the
Carolingian system that had provided stability for nearly a century.
(01:57):
The death of Emperor Charles the fat in An eight
hundred eighty eight had left the Empire divided and weakened,
creating a power vacuum that ambitious Roman nobles rushed to fill.
Without imperial protection, the papal office became vulnerable to local
political forces that had been building strength throughout the ninth century.
Wealthy Roman families like the Theophilacte had accumulated vast estates,
(02:22):
military resources, and political connections that enabled them to challenge
traditional church authority. The papacy which had once been a
partner of Empress, now became a prize to be captured
by whoever could muster the most force. The Cadaver Synod
represented the first dramatic manifestation of this new reality. Pope
(02:43):
Stephen the sixth, who had ordered the ghoulish trial, was
himself a creature of the powerful Spoleto faction that sought
to control Rome. His bizarre persecution of Formosis's corpse was
not religious fanaticism, but political theater, designed to demonstrate his
patron's total vs victory over their enemies. The Cadaver Synard
revealed how completely the papal office had been subordinated to
(03:06):
secular political interests, explains doctor Walter Ullman, the magisterial authority
on Papal institutional development, Stephen's grotesque performance was not the
act of a spiritual leader, but of a political operative,
destroying his patron's enemies through symbolic violence against the dead.
The Roman population's horrified reaction to Stephen's spectacle demonstrated that
(03:30):
even in this corrupt era, there remained some sense of
proper limits. Stephen was deposed, imprisoned, and strangled in his
cell by an outraged mob yet his death solved nothing,
because the underlying problem remained. The papal office had become
a tool of competing Roman factions rather than a genuine
spiritual authority. The rapid succession of popes in the following
(03:54):
years revealed the complete breakdown of legitimate succession procedures. Between
eight hundred ninety six and nine hundred four, seven different
men claimed the papal throne, most ruling for only months
before being murdered, deposed, or driven into exile by their rivals.
Each represented different aristocratic factions seeking to use papal authority
(04:15):
for their own territorial and political ambitions. Into this chaos
stepped a figure who would transform papal corruption from mere
political manipulation into something far more personal and degrading. Theophal Act,
Count of Tusculum, had been building his power base throughout
the turmoil of the late ninth century. Unlike earlier noble
(04:37):
patrons of the papacy, Theophial Act understood that controlling popes
required more than military force or political pressure. Theophal Act
possessed two secret weapons that would prove more effective than armies.
His wife Theodora and his teenage daughter Marozzia. These women
would discover that sexual seduction could accomplish what violence and
(04:58):
bribery had failed to achieve, creating a system of papal
control that would endure for generations through the most intimate
possible means. The installation of Sergius the Third as pope
in nine hundred four marked the true beginning of what
historians would later call the pornocracy. Sergius had been a
co judge in the original Cadaver Synod and had spent
(05:20):
years in exile after his initial attempt to claim the
papal throne failed. His return to power was made possible
by Theophilactus military support, but his long tenure would depend
on far more personal arrangements. Theodora, Theophilact's wife, had already
demonstrated her understanding of how to manipulate powerful men through
sexual relationships. As a beautiful and intelligent woman from one
(05:44):
of Rome's most influential families, she possessed both the social
standing and personal skills necessary to move among the highest
levels of church hierarchy. Her alleged affairs with multiple church
officials created a network of obligation and depending that served
her family's political interests. Yet it was Theodora's fifteen year
(06:12):
old daughter, Morozia who would perfect the techniques that would
define the pornocracy era. In nine hundred four, shortly after
Sergius became Pope, Morozia began a sexual relationship with the
forty five year old pontiff that would produce a son
and establish patterns of control that would dominate the papacy
for the next half century. Morozia's affair with Sergius was
(06:35):
not a romantic relationship, but a calculated political arrangement that
served multiple purposes. For Sergius, the young woman provided sexual
gratification and personal companionship during the isolation of papal office.
For Theophilacht's family, the relationship created intimate influence over papal
decisions and access to church resources that could never be
(06:58):
achieved through normal political channels. The birth of Marozzius's son,
who would later become Pope John the eleventh, represented a
revolutionary development in papal politics. For the first time in
church history, a reigning pope had acknowledged an illegitimate child
who would eventually claim the papal throne himself. This biological
(07:19):
connection between papal authority and aristocratic family interest created unprecedented
opportunities for long term political control. Mourosia's relationship with Sergius
the Third established a new model for controlling papal authority
through intimate personal relationships. Observes doctor Sandra measl specialist in
(07:39):
medieval church corruption. Rather than simply threatening or bribing popes,
the theophil Acte family had discovered how to make papal authority
genuinely dependent on their continued favour through the most personal
possible means. Sergius's seven year reign demonstrated the effectiveness of
this system. Despite holding strong per personal opinions about church
(08:01):
governance and theological disputes, he consistently implemented policies that served
theophalact family interests. His reaffirmation of the Cadaver Synod's decisions
against formosis, his promotion of family allies to important church positions,
and his use of papal resources to support theophalact military
operations all reflected the intimate control Morozia and her family
(08:24):
exercised over papal authority. When Sergius died in nine hundred eleven,
the Theophalact family faced the challenge of maintaining their control
over papal succession without their intimate connection to the reigning pope.
Their solution revealed the sophistication of their approach to ecclesiastical manipulation.
They would install puppet popes while preparing Morozia's son for
(08:46):
eventual succession to his father's throne. The two popes who
followed Sergius Anastasius the Third and Lando were both weak figures,
entirely dependent on theophalact support for their position. Neither lasted
more than two years, and both spent their brief reigns
implementing policies dictated by their aristocratic patrons rather than exercising
(09:08):
independent papal authority. During this period, Morozia herself began to
assume more direct political control. No longer simply the teenage
mistress of a deceased pope, she had become a powerful
political figure in her own right through her combination of
sexual relationships, family connections, and personal ruthlessness. Contemporary sources describe
(09:32):
her as a woman of exceptional beauty and intelligence who
understood how to use both assets to achieve her political objectives.
Morozia's marriage to Alberic, the first of Spolato in nine
hundred nine, represented a strategic alliance that extended her family's
influence beyond Rome into the broader Italian political landscape. Alberic
(09:54):
brought military resources and territorial control that complemented the Theophalact
family's dominance of Roman politics, creating a power base that
could challenge any external threats to their papal control system.
The true test of Morosia's power came with the election
of John tenth in nine hundred fourteen. Unlike the puppet
(10:14):
popes who had preceded him, John possessed genuine ability and
independent political ambitions that threatened to break free from theophal
Act family control. His successful military leadership against Muslim raiders
and his attempts to assert papal authority over church appointments
demonstrated that effective papal leadership remained possible even in this
(10:34):
corrupt era. Morozia's response to John's independence revealed the ruthless
methods that had made her family's control possible. Rather than
accept reduced influence over papal decisions, she arranged John's imprisonment
in nine hundred twenty eight and his subsequent murder through
suffocation with a pillow. This elimination of an effective pope
(10:55):
demonstrated that the theophial act system would not tolerate even
competent leadership if it threatened family interests. The two brief
papal reigns that followed John's murder, Leo the sixth and
Stephen the seventh, served as placeholders while Morozia prepared for
the culmination of her long term strategy. In nine hundred
(11:16):
thirty one, at age twenty one, her son John became
Pope John the eleventh, making him the first and only
illegitimate son of a pope to claim the papal throne himself.
John the eleventh selevation represented the complete triumph of the
pornocracy system. The papal office, which had begun as the
spiritual leadership of persecuted Christians and had evolved into partnership
(11:40):
with emperors, had now become the hereditary possession of a
Roman aristocratic family, maintained through sexual manipulation and violence. Yet
even this ultimate success contained the seeds of its own destruction.
Morozia's other son, Alberic the Second, had grown increasingly resentful
of his mother's power. And her plans to marry Hugh
(12:00):
of Italy, which would have made her empress while reducing
his own political prospects. During Morozia's wedding celebration in nine
hundred thirty two, Alberic organized an uprising that imprisoned both
his mother and his papal brother, establishing his own rule
over Rome. Morozia spent her final years in prison, dying
around nine hundred thirty seven, after a remarkable career that
(12:22):
had seen her control the papal office through intimate relationships
with multiple popes. Her legacy would continue through her descendants,
who would occupy the papal throne intermittently for the next century,
but the most dramatic phase of direct female control over
papal authority had ended with her imprisonment. The pornocracy era
(12:43):
revealed the complete corruption of papal authority when it became
subordinated to purely secular political interests pursued through the most
intimate possible means. The spiritual office that should have provided
moral leadership for Western Christianity had become a prize distributed
through section favours and maintained through murder. Yet the period
(13:04):
also demonstrated the remarkable resilience of papal institutional structures. Despite
decades of corrupt leadership, the basic administrative functions of the
papal office continued to operate, Churches were built, charitable activities continued,
and the fundamental structures of church governance remained intact even
under the most debased leadership. The eventual end of the
(13:28):
pornocracy would require external intervention from German emperors, who possessed
both the military power and political motivation to impose reform
on the corrupt Roman system, but the legacy of this
era would continue to haunt papal authority for centuries, providing
ammunition for critics who questioned whether spiritual leadership could ever
be separated from temporal corruption. The story of Theodora and
(13:51):
Morozia remains one of the most dramatic examples in history
of how powerful women could exercise political authority in society
that formerly excluded them from official power. Their methods were
corrupt and their objectives purely selfish, yet their success demonstrated
possibilities for female political influence that conventional medieval society refuse
(14:14):
to acknowledge. White Smoke is a production of Calaroga Shark
media portions of which were made with the help of anerration,
but still written and produced by real podcasters Mark Francis
and John McDermott.
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