BENEDETTO IX, POPE. — Teofilatto was the son of Alberico III of the counts of Tusculum and nephew of the two preceding pontiffs, Benedetto VIII and Giovanni XIX. Upon the latter’s death, his father, the arbiter of the Roman State, proposed him—or, if he did not actually impose him—to the electors, availing himself of the authority he wielded over the city and also of generous gifts. Rodolfo Glaber, a monk at S. Germano d’Auxerre (cf. M. Manitius, Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters, II, Monaco 1923, pp. 347-53), says that the newly elected pope was a boy barely more than ten years old («puer ferme decennis... puer annorum circiter duodecim»), and his assertion passed into history. Now Rodolfo’s authority must be treated with caution, because Desiderio of Montecassino, while calling B. such in name but not in fact and judging his life severely, makes no mention of his childish age; nor do Ermanno Contratto and Leone Ostiense. S. Pier Damiani writes that the conduct of the new Pope began immediately after his election to be exceedingly blameworthy, but this could not be said of a twelve-year-old boy. All the more so since he immediately exercised papal functions and governed competently. Nor could one believe that venerable men such as the chancellor Pietro, Ugo abbot of Farfa, Bartolomeo abbot of Grottaferrata, Lorenzo archbishop of Amalfi, and others could have collaborated with a child. Thus, in agreement with the more recent criticism, one may conclude that at the time of his election B. was between twenty-five and thirty years old: still far too young for the exalted office to which he was called, and one of which B. was moreover entirely unworthy. It is true that many accusations are the outpourings of hostile pamphleteers or accounts by chroniclers generally distant from the places and period of which they speak; nevertheless, it is impossible to deny everything, for otherwise one could not understand the general agreement of the sources in condemning his conduct. One may say of B. that he resembled so many secular princes and nobles of the period, who rose to ecclesiastical offices for profane interests, and that he behaved more like a secular lord than a pope. B.’s election was welcomed by the emperor Corrado II, since the counts of Tusculum were the leaders of the imperial party in Rome. He was consecrated either on Sunday, 27 August, or on 3 September 1032. He governed undisturbed until September 1044. Unreliable statements by the chroniclers might lead one to believe that B. was driven from Rome as early as 1037 and brought back by force by the emperor. This is a legend. It is certain, however, that in 1037 B. met Corrado II at Cremona and allowed himself to be drawn into the struggle against Ariberto of Milan, whom he excommunicated and deposed at the Synod of Spello (Easter 1038). With the exception of this journey, B. remained in Rome throughout. In 1032 he consecrated Andrea bishop of Perugia there; on 2 November 1036 he held a synod of thirty-four bishops and numerous abbots; he held another in 1039, at which he absolved from excommunication Vratislao the Warrior of Bohemia, guilty of having invaded Poland and carried off the body of S. Adalberto of Prague. At the Roman Synod of 1041 he canonized the Syracusan monk Simone, who had died at Treviri in 1035. Shortly afterward he excommunicated Samuele, who, having seized Hungary and dethroned Pietro, had gone to war against Enrico III. Indeed, B. also attempted to remain on friendly terms with the new emperor, who had succeeded Corrado II in 1039. He granted him permission to contract a second marriage with Agnese of Poitou, his relative, and did not obstruct his interference in religious affairs. The accord, however, did not last long. In April 1044 a synod assembled in Rome before which the Venetian ambassadors vigorously protested against the attacks on the patriarchal see of Grado by Eberardo, patriarch of Aquileia; B. condemned them. Whether because of the people’s weariness with the domination of the counts of Tusculum, the jealousy of opposing families, or resentment against the Pontiff himself, an uprising took place in Rome in September 1044. B. took refuge in his fortress on Monte Cavo, while his supporters were besieged in Trastevere. The insurgents elected as pope Giovanni, bishop of Sabina, a protégé of the Crescenzi, who took the name Silvestro III. He did not, however, last more than fifty days, for the counteroffensive of the Tusculans drove him back to his refuge (March 1045). But B., aware of the people’s hostility, allowed himself to be persuaded by his closest friends to renounce the pontificate on 1 May 1045. The new elect was Giovanni Graziano, archpriest of
S. Giovanni a Porta Latina. B. withdrew to his castles. Bonizione of Surti and the Annales Altahenses would have it that B.’s resignation was motivated by his desire to marry a cousin, the daughter of Gerardo del Sasso, who is said to have made resignation from the pontificate a condition; but this report had no consequences. Secure in his fortresses, B. rejected Enrico III’s invitation to appear at the Synod of Surti (20 December 1046), at which Silvestro III and Gregorio VI, as Giovanni Graziano had called himself, were deposed. B., instead, was deposed at the Synod held in Rome on 24 December, perhaps because at Surti it had been judged that his earlier resignation sufficed. When the pope elected on that occasion, Clemente II, died (19 October 1047), B. reappeared in Rome and maintained himself there from 8 November 1047 to 16 July 1048, when the imperial forces compelled him to surrender the see to Damaso II, who pontificated for barely twenty days (d. 9 August 1048). Groundless reports led people to believe that the premature death of Damaso II, like that of Clemente II, had been caused by poisoning at B.’s hands. Some sources, however, state that, persuaded by Bartolomeo abbot of Grottaferrata, he ended his life in that monastery, repentant of his sins. S. Pier Damiani, on the other hand, says that he died unrepentant; and indeed, supported by his brothers, he continued to oppose the imperial Popes, to such an extent that Leone IX, on his deathbed, prayed God to convert Teofilatto, promoter of discord and schism. In the last document of his that survives, a donation dated 18 September 1055, he still calls himself «papa». Another document, dated 9 February 1056, presupposes that he was dead. His death, therefore, occurred between 18 September 1055 and 9 February 1056.