The
counts of Tusculum were the most powerful secular noblemen in
Latium, near
Rome, in the present-day
Italy between the 10th and 12th centuries. Several
popes and an
antipope during the 11th century came from their ranks. They created and perfected the political formula of noble-papacy, wherein the Pope was arranged to be elected only from the ranks of the Roman nobles.
Pornocracy, the period of influence by powerful female members of the family also influenced papal history.