On becoming Pope, Sergius celebrated by ordering the murder of two of his predecessors. Fathered an illegitimate son by his 15-year-old prostitute mistress, the daughter of Theodora, the beautiful wife of Roman consul Theophylactus. Theodora used sex to wield power and controlled the Pope completely, a pontificate described as "dismal and disgraceful it saw the rise of a "pornocracy," or rule of the harlots. (a government ruled by prostitutes or by corrupt officials who metaphorically "prostitute" themselves for power