pornocracy

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“
The pontificate of Sergius III was remarkable for the rise of what papal historians call a "pornocracy," or rule of the harlots, a reversal of the natural order as they saw it, according to Liber pontificalis and a later chronicler who was also biased against Sergius III.

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Definitions (2)

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  1. The rule of prostitutes; dominating influence of courtezans.
  2. The Pornocracy a party which controlled the government of Rome and the elections to the papacy throughout the first half of the tenth century; the rule or government of this party: so called from the paramount influence of three women of noble family but profligate lives, Theodora and her daughters Theodora and Marozia (Mary).

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Examples (4)

  • The pontificate of Sergius III was remarkable for the rise of what papal historians call a "pornocracy," or rule of the harlots, a reversal of the natural order as they saw it, according to Liber pontificalis and a later chronicler who was also biased against Sergius III. —  LT Saloon
  • "Suffering is necessary," answered the Moslem; "and I do not grieve at such an end to the pornocracy. —  Historical Miniatures
  • And, we ask, was it by the survival of the fittest that Julius Ceasar, [tr. note: sic] one of the grandest rulers of all ages, should succumb under the daggers of Brutus and Cassius: that Paul and Seneca should die by authority of their inferior, Nero; that Popery, rotten to the core and represented by men who would have brought on the ignominous [tr. note: sic] collapse or extinction of every other dynasty in the days of the Roman pornocracy, should survive, while the illustrious house of Henry I. sank away to ruin in the third and fourth generation; that John Hus should die at the stake and Jean Charlier de Gerson in timid monastic retirement, while —  Evolution An Investigation and a Critique
  • This "pornocracy" was an age with women in power: Theodora, whom Liutprand characterized as a "shameless whore … —  LT Saloon
 

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Etymologies (1)

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  1. from Greek πόρνη, a prostitute (prob. orig. ‘a bought female captive,’ from περνάναι (πέρνημι), send or export for sale, sell, especially of captives who were transported and sold: akin to L. pretium, price: see price), + -κρατία, from κρατεῖν, rule.
 

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