Sentence:  Under the <WSD>pornocracy</WSD> ("government of harlots") in the first half of the 10th century, the Papacy was degraded and all Italy torn by factions. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  The period of the papacy known as the "(saeculum obscurum)" (Latin for “dark age”), and also as the “Rule of the Harlots”, which began with the installation of (Pope Sergius III) in 904 and lasted for sixty years until the death of (Pope John XII) in 964, during which time the popes were strongly influenced by the Theophylacti, a powerful and corrupt aristocratic family. (from mid-19th c.)