Who were the 3 most repulsive popes?

Question

I'm thinking of the guy who exhumed his predecessor and put him on trial.

Answer 1

"Chrstnwrtr" has the good answer. I have to comment that Lucretia Borgia may not have been as bad as she is depicted in history. Her daddy Pope (Poppa) Rodrigo Borgia used her as a pawn for political marriages from a very young age - 13 as I recall. Her brother Cesare Borgia was a truly evil man who may have been instrumental in killing one of her husbands. There are reports that she was sexually used / abused by her father the Pope, but the Borgias had many enemies and history sometimes is written like tabloid journalism with little truth behind the stories. Lucretia settled down after her father and brother both died in the early 1500s. She was said to be a good wife to her last husband.
She died young at age 39 in 1519. I tend to give her the benefit of the doubt. A truly excellent book for your question is "The Bad Popes" by ER Chamberlain 1969 and Barbara Tuchman's excellent book "The March of Folly" 1984 which lists and discusses Sixtus IV (1471-1484) for his nepotism, Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia 1492-1503) for his depravity, and Leo X (1518-1521) for his love of money and luxury. There are more than three very bad Popes. It's a matter of which sins you find the most outrageously repulsive in the leader of the Christian Church. Remember there were only two types of Christians before 1517 - Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic. Rodrigo Borgia should be at the top of the bad guy list.

Answer 2

According to Wikipedia, this was known as the Cadaver Synod where Pope Stephen VI exhumed his predecessor, Pope Formosus and forced him to answer to all the "bad" stuff he did.

Formosus was found guilty, stripped of his papal vestments, and three of his fingers were severed (much easier to do when the guy is dead). His body was thrown in a river and was recovered later by a monk.

Stephen's successor (Pope Theodore II) nullified the Cadaver Synod and had the poor dead guy reburied in his papal vestments. Theodore's successor, however, was probably just as insane as Stephen was since he had Theodore's actions nullified, thus convicting Formosus a SECOND time.

EDIT: A few others pop into my mind. One of them is Pope Leo X who had to deal with reformer Martin Luther. He received his papal office when he was very, very young. Another one was Pope Alexander VI, a member of the notorious Borgia family. He was known for leading a very un-papal life; sex, power, etc. His daughter, Lucretia, was the Paris Hilton of her day.