Over the centuries, many popes have been murdered or
assassinated. The first to receive this dubious honor was
Pope John VIII, who in 882 was first poisoned and then
clubbed to death by scheming court menbers. Most murders
happened in the Middie Ages, especially during a period
described by a scholar named Cardinal Baronius in his
Annales ecclesiastici as the Iron Age of the Papacy, from
867 to 964 when powertul families such as the Crescentii or
Theophylact had pontiffs elected, deposed, and killed to
advance their political ambitions in Rome or as vengeance
for some action taken by the pope that might have offended
them or inconvenienced some plan or plot. Of the twenty-six
popes during this era, sexen died by violence. In modern
times, fortunately no pope has been assassinated so far as
any official record has proven. This has not stopped
conspiracy theorists or the highly imaginative from
speculating on the worst. Theories and claims of murderous
cabals blossomed in ghoulish fashion following the death of
Popes Clement XIV in 1771 and the sudden passing of John
Paul I in 1978.
Pope Clement was reportedly so racked with guilt over
disbanding the Jesuits that he spent his last years terified
of being poisoned. After his death, so prevalent were
stories about his possible murder that a full postmortem was
conducted. It found nothing, but enemies of Jesuits spread
lies that they had done the dirty deed.
In the case of John Paul I, some theorized that he had been
killed by Soviets; other more exotic and even laughable
proposal placed possible guilt with the Jesuits again (the
pope was supposedly planning to disband the order), the
Freemasons and the secret organization in Europe called P-2,
officials at the Vatican Bank, or even high-ranking members
of the Curia. These were dismissed out of hand by the
Vatican, which brought in its own investigatior, who found
no evidence of a plot or even a cover-up. (See John Paul I.)
Pope John Paul II was nearly murdered in St. Peter's Square
in 1981 by Mehmet Ali Agca, a Turkish gunman who perhaps
working for Bulgarians and the KGB.
The following is a list of murdered pontiffs and the way in
which they are thought to has been removed:
John VIII (872-882): Poisoned and clubbed to death
Adrian III, St. (884-885): Rumored poisoned
Stephen VI (896-897): Strangled
Leo V (903): Murdered
John X (914-928): Suffocated under a pillow
Stephen VII (VIII) (928-931): Possibly murdered
Stephen VIII (IX) (939-942): Mutilated and died from injuries
John XII (955-964): Suffered a stroke while with a mistress
or murdered by an outraged husband
Benedict VI (973-974): Strangled by a priest
John XIV (983-984): Starved to death or poisoned
Gregory V (996-999): Rumored poisoned, probably malaria
Sergius IV (1009-1012): Possibly murdered
Clement II (1046-1047): Rumored poisoned
Damasus II (1048): Rumored murdered
Boniface VIII (1294-1303): Died from abuse received while a
captive of the French in Anagni
N.B. This list does not include the antipopes, who routinely
died by Violence or execution such as Boniface VII (974,
984-985), who was murdered by a mob and left under a statue
of Marcus Aurelius to be stabbeb by passersby.
Sumber: http://media.isnet.org/kristen/Ensiklopedia/AssassinatedPontiffs.html
