A closer look

Holy infallibility apparently has a few historical loopholes. Pope John XII took the papacy in the 10th century and immediately turned the Lateran Palace into an absolute den of iniquity. Contemporary chroniclers accused him of gambling with church offerings, invoking pagan gods while rolling dice, and running a literal brothel inside the holy walls. He was eventually deposed, proving that even medieval tolerance for papal partying had a very specific limit.