Since as I noted above, power, family pride and money were involved, there were poisonings, bribes, plots, intrigue, since the papacy was a source of all of those combined! The modern papacy is very much more morally clean and free of that intrigue, and wealth, but human nature is always in every man, including the Pope so they will have faults and failings like everyone else!

See above, yes, it is part of Church history and no one denies it!

data for 10th to beginning of the 11th centuries. Popes: John X11 (955-964) rumored to have been killed by an outraged husband, was elected at age 18, died at 27... and was not exactly a model Christian!... the next Leo V111 ('63-'65) was rejected by the people, who at that time did the electing, and chose Benedict V, but L was imposed by Otto 1 after J X11 was deposed....Benedict V was okay, John X111 was also imposed by Otto, was rejected by the people of Rome....Benedict V1 (973-974) was strangled by those opposed to the German imperial faction, whose candidate he was under Otto 11 (a new one!), the next one Benedict XV1 (974-983)... John X1V (983-984) was probably poisoned after being locked-up in the Castel San'Angelo after an anti-Pope, Franco took over. ....Nn anti-Pope John XV1 was named to replace Gregory V, still all tied with the same in-fighting, and that anti-Pope was mutilated and locked in a monastery... Silvester 11 (999-1003), the first French Pope, former Benedictine monk, also named by his former student, Otto 111 (another one!) and was probably assassinated. As I noted in the preliminary response yesteerday, the intertwining of political-ethnic rivalries and the worldly power of the papacy caused a lot of 'bad stuff' ... Sergius 1V ( 1009-1012) succeeded John XV111 ('04-'09) who was caught up in the anti-German sentiments of the people of Pavia, Italy, where J. crowned the Bavarian Henry 11 as King of Italy... that Pope retired to a monastery. Hope that gives you a sense of which your friend spoke. Even the 'bad' acting men who helpd the office made contributions to the arts and political stability or tried to reconcile factions; some were fierce defenders of the Church as institution. The whole picture needs to be examined but so often some folks are not educated about the Big Picture and pass on false information or half-truths about whole periods of history and even of the entire Church itself. BarJacob