Pope Sergius III - Reputation

Reputation

Much of Sergius’ pontificate has been maligned throughout history, principally through the reporting of his character and the state of Rome at the time by Liutprand of Cremona. His recounting of the period was remarkable for the rise of what 19th century papal historians saw as a "pornocracy", or "rule of the harlots", a reversal of the natural order as they saw it, according to Liber pontificalis and a later chronicler who was also biased against Sergius III. This "pornocracy" was an age with women in power: Theodora, whom Liutprand characterized as a "shameless whore... exercised power on the Roman citizenry like a man" and her daughter Marozia, the mother of Pope John XI and reputed to be the mistress of Sergius III, largely upon a remark by Liutprand.

Caesar Baronius, writing in the 16th century, and basing himself on Luitprand, was particularly scathing, describing Sergius as:

”a wretch, worthy of the rope and of fire... flames could not have caused this execrable monster to suffer the punishments which he merited. It is impossible to believe that such a pope was a lawful one.”

However, the reality is that when Sergius was forcibly exiled by Lambert, duke of Spoleto, all the official records were destroyed; consequently, most of the surviving documentation about Sergius comes from his opponents. The Catholic Encyclopedia states the following concerning the alleged illicit relationship of Pope Sergius III with Marozia: "that he put his two predecessors to death, and by illicit relations with Marozia had a son, who was afterwards John XI, must be regarded as highly doubtful. These assertions are only made by bitter or ill-informed adversaries, and are inconsistent with what is said of him by respectable contemporaries."

Nevertheless, most modern opinions about Sergius’ pontificate remain poor. According to Horace K. Mann,

“Sergius was, unfortunately, a pronounced party-man, and anxious for the supremacy of his party.”

The best that Ferdinand Gregorovius could say of him was:

“That Sergius, who remained Pope throughout the storms of seven years, was at least a man of energy must be admitted, although apostolic virtues are scarcely to be looked for in a character such as his.”

James S. Packer described him as malignant and ferocious, slaughtering his enemies with a private army, while Walter Ullmann described Sergius as a typical representative of the House of Theophylact, concerned with power and sexual liaisons.