Pope John Paul I conspiracy theories John Paul I, he mysteriously dies. In "The Company: A Novel of the CIA" by Robert Littell, Pope John Paul I is murdered by a KGB hired killer. Pope John Paul I conspiracy theories Pope John Paul I died suddenly in September 1978, 33 days after his election. Following contradictory reports about the circumstances of his death and apparent anomalies about the issuing of the death certificate and other procedures, several conspiracy theories have gained currency. Many of these concern the serious corruption in the Vatican Bank (Istituto per le Opere Religiose), possibly linked to Freemasonry, which is forbidden by
Byzantine Papacy in 732/33 by confiscating all papal patrimonies in south Italy and Sicily, together constituting most papal income at the time. He further removed the bishoprics of Thessalonica, Corinth, Syracuse, Reggio, Nicopolis, Athens, and Patras from papal jurisdiction, instead subjecting them to the Patriarch of Constantinople. This was in effect an act of triage: it strengthened the imperial grip on the southern empire, but all but guaranteed the eventual destruction of the exarchate of Ravenna, which finally occurred at Lombard hands in 751. In effect, the papacy had been "cast out of the empire". Pope Zachary, in 741, was the last