Pope Innocent VIII and the Secret Children

 

Pope Innocent VIII and the Secret Children

Title: The Pope with a Bloodline
Date: 1484–1492

Story:
While officially celibate, Pope Innocent VIII made no effort to hide his eight illegitimate children, openly hosting them at the Vatican. One of his sons married into powerful Roman nobility, and Innocent used Church funds to pay dowries for his daughters.

His blatant nepotism included appointing relatives to cardinal positions and granting vast land holdings to the Medici and other allied families. The papal treasury became a personal inheritance chest, used to secure political alliances for his bloodline.

But the scandal didn’t stop at offspring. When the pope grew ill in 1492, doctors attempted a disturbing experimental treatment: they bled three ten-year-old boys and transfused their blood into Innocent’s dying body in hopes of restoring his youth. All three boys reportedly died. The pope, unsurprisingly, also died soon after.

Innocent VIII’s papacy became a grotesque mix of dynastic ambition, pseudoscience, and unrepentant indulgence. His tomb, commissioned by his son, ironically labels him “father of peace”—a title few contemporaries believed.

Key Characters:

Pope Innocent VIII
His illegitimate children
Lorenzo de’ Medici
Roman physicians

Reference:

Blood and the Vatican by Michael Rynn
Papal treasury records, 1484–1492
The diaries of Stefano Infessura