deposed Leo V., took possession of the papal throne, and soiled it with every vice; but he deserves
credit for restoring the venerable church of the Lateran, which had been destroyed by an earthquake
in 896 and robbed of invaluable treasures.^276
After the short reign of two other popes, John X., archbishop of Ravenna, was elected,
contrary to all canons, in obedience to the will of Theodora, for the more convenient gratification
of her passion (914–928).^277 He was a man of military ability and daring, placed himself at the head
of an army—the first warrior among the popes—and defeated the Saracens. He then announced
the victory in the tone of a general. He then engaged in a fierce contest for power with Marozia
and her lover or husband, the Marquis Alberic I. Unwilling to yield any of her secular power over
Rome, Marozia seized the Castle of St. Angelo, had John cast into prison and smothered to death,
and raised three of her creatures, Leo VI., Stephen VII. (VIII.), and at last John XI, her own (bastard)
son of only twenty-one years, successively to the papal chair (928–936).^278
After the murder of Alberic I. (about 926), Marozia, who called herself Senatrix and Patricia,
offered her hand and as much of her love as she could spare from her numerous paramours, to
Guido, Markgrave of Tuscany, who eagerly accepted the prize; and after his death she married king
Hugo of Italy, the step-brother of her late husband (932); he hoped to gain the imperial crown, but
he was soon expelled from Rome by a rebellion excited by her own son Alberic II., who took
offence at his overbearing conduct for slapping him in the face.^279 She now disappears from the
stage, and probably died in a convent. Her son, the second Alberic, was raised by the Romans to
the dignity of Consul, and ruled Rome and the papacy from the Castle of St. Angelo for twenty-two
years with great ability as a despot under the forms of a republic (932–954). After the death of his
brother, John XI. (936), he appointed four insignificant pontiffs, and restricted them to the
performance of their religious duties.
John XII.
On the death of Alberic in 954, his son Octavian, the grandson of Marozia, inherited the
secular government of Rome, and was elected pope when only eighteen years of age. He thus united
a double supremacy. He retained his name Octavian as civil ruler, but assumed, as pope, the name
John XII., either by compulsion of the clergy and people, or because he wished to secure more
license by keeping the two dignities distinct. This is the first example of such a change of name,
(^276) Baronius, following Liutprand, calls Sergius "homo vitiorum omnium servus." But Flodoard and the inscriptions give
him a somewhat better character. See Hefele IV. 576, Gregorovius III. 269, and von Reumont II. 273.
(^277) Gfrörer makes him the paramour of the younger Theodora, which on chronological grounds is more probable; but
Hefele, Gregorovius, von Peumont, and Greenwood link him with the elder Theodora. This seems to be the meaning of Liutprand
(II. 47 and 48), who says that she fell in love with John for his great beauty, and actually forced him to sin (secumque hunc
scortari non solum voluit, verum etiam atque etiam compulit). She could not stand the separation from her lover, and called
him to Rome. Baronius treats John X. as a pseudopapa. Muratori, Duret, and Hefele dissent from Liutprand and give John a
somewhat better character, without, however, denying his relation to Theodora. See Hefele, IV. 579 sq.
(^278) Liutprand, Antapodosis, III. 43 (Migne, l.c., 852): "Papam [John X.]custodia maniciparunt, in qua non multo post
ea defunctus; aiunt enim quod cervical super os eius imponerent, sicque cum pessime su ffocarent. Quo mortuo ipsius Marotiae
filium Johannem nomine [John XI.] quem ex Sergio papa meretrix genuerat, papam constituunt." The parentage of John XI.
from pope Sergius is adopted by Gregorovius, Dümmler, Greenwood, and Baxmann, but disputed by Muratori, Hefele, and
Gfrörer, who maintain that John XI. was the son of Marozia’s husband, Alberic I., if they ever were married. For, according to
Benedict of Soracte, Marozia accepted him "non quasi uxor, sed in consuetudinem malignam." Albericus Marchio was an
adventurer before he became Markgrave, about 897, and must not be confounded with Albertus Marchio or Adalbert the Rich
of Tuscany. See Gregorovius, III. 275; von Reumont, II. 228, 231, and the genealogical tables in Höfler, Vol. I., Append. V.
and VI.
(^279) See the account in Liutprand III. 44.