The Bad Popes

The Bad Popes is a 1969 book by E. R. Chamberlin that documents the lives of eight of the most controversial popes (papal years in parentheses):

• Pope Stephen VI (896–897), who had his predecessor Pope Formosus exhumed, tried, de-fingered, briefly reburied, and thrown in the Tiber.^[1]: 19
• Pope John XII (955–964), who gave land to a mistress, murdered several people, and was killed by a man who caught him in bed with his wife.
• Pope Benedict IX (1032–1044, 1045, 1047–1048), who "sold" the Papacy.
• Dante's Divine Comedy
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• Pope Urban VI (1378–1389), who complained that he did not hear enough screaming when Cardinals who had conspired against him were tortured.^[1]: 153
• Borgia, who was guilty of nepotism and whose unattended corpse swelled until it could barely fit in a coffin.^[1]
  ^: 204
• Medici family who once spent 1/7 of his predecessors' reserves on a single ceremony.^[1]
  ^: 218
• Medici, whose power-politicking with France, Spain, and Germany got Rome sacked
  .