Pope Boniface VI

Boniface VI was a Roman whose father Adrian is believed to have been a bishop. He had twice been stripped of clerical orders, first as a subdeacon and then as a priest, before rioters propelled him to the papacy on the heels of Formosus's death on April 4, 896. His pontificate lasted fifteen days. Sources split on whether gout killed him or whether he was ejected to clear the way for Stephen VI, the Spoletan candidate. Papal historian Caesar Baronius later called him a "disgusting monster" guilty of adultery and homicide. Two years after his death, a synod convened by John IX declared his elec…