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The popes played a vicious game of power and pleasure. No crime was too diabolical for these heirs of St Peter. In the early tenth century, the papacy became dominated by one aristocratic family, the debauched and merciless House of Theophylact. The scurrilous chronicler of their rise to power was Bishop Liudprand of Cremona. Liudprand doesn' t exactly hold back, especially with the women of the family, who he described, without exception, as a tribe of sexmad megalomaniacs. He says Count Theophylact' s wife Theodora was a " shameless harlot", and that her two daughters were, if anything, " faster in the exercise of Venus". The most infamous was Marozia. A wily politician and a murderous maneater, Marozia must have been as gorgeously depraved as she was dynastically effective. She seduced or married an entire apostolic succession of popes and kings, and managed to dominate Rome for years. Drawn deeper into the mire, Rome' s oncemighty popes became pawns in the cesspit of local politics. |
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jiào huáng wán nòng quán shì, zhè shì yī chǎng sǐ wáng yóu xì ér tā men què lè zài qí zhōng. bǐ shí zhèi xiē shèng bǐ dé de jì chéng rén biàn chéng le mó guǐ, tā men de zuì xíng lìng rén fà zhǐ. zài shí shì jì zǎo qī, jiào huáng de zhí quán wèi shèng bǎo lù shì jiā suǒ zhǎng kòng. shèng bǎo lù shì jiā yǐ shēng huó mí làn shǒu duàn cán rěn ér zhù chēng. kè léi mò nà zhǔ jiào lì wū pǔ tè lán dé, shì tā jiāng shèng bǎo lù jiā zú biàn de xīng wàng fā dá, quán shì xūn tiān. ér zhè wèi zhǔ jiào què shì yí gè bēi bǐ wú chǐ de xiǎo rén. tā cóng lái bú shì shén me qīng xīn guǎ yù, tā hé gè zhǒng nǚ rén yǒu rǎn, yóu qí shì zì jǐ jiā zú de nǚ juàn. ér shèng bǎo lù jiā zú de nǚ juàn yě bù shǒu fù dào, tā men bèi miáo shù wèi wéi xìng shēng huó suǒ fēng kuáng de nǚ rén. jiào zhǔ lì wū pǔ tè lán dé rèn wéi lì wū pǔ tè lán dé bó jué de fū rén xī ào duō lā shì" bù zhī lián chǐ de jì nǚ", ér tā de liǎng gè nǚ ér, ruò shì shuō tā men hé mǔ qīn yǒu shén me bù tóng de huà, nà jiù shì tā men zài ài qíng" dòng zuò" zhōng gèng" kuài". shèng bǎo lù jiā zú zhōng chòu míng zhāo zhù de shì mǎ luò jí yà, tā shì yí gè mǎn nǎo zi yīn móu guǐ jì de zhèng kè, yí gè xiōng cán de shí rén zhě, tā shì zài zhǎng kòng le dì guó shí quán de róng guāng zhōng duò luò de. tā hé suǒ yǒu de jiào huáng jì chéng rén huáng wèi jì chéng rén yǒu rǎn. duō nián lái tā tōng guò chuáng zǐ jiān shì lái bǎ chí luó mǎ dì guó de quán lì. ér jiào huáng, luó mǎ xī rì de huī huáng, què shēn xiàn běn guó zhèng zhì de chòu ní tán, chéng wéi quán lì jué zhú de qí zǐ. |