Benedict VIII, Pope

BENEDICT VIII, Pope. - The death of Sergius IV (May 12, 1012) gave the two parties that held the upper hand in the Roman nobility the opportunity to test their strength: the Crescenzi, who for twenty years had controlled the election of the pope and imposed or favored Gregory, and the counts of Tusculum, who were their antagonists and now availed themselves of imperial support; the latter succeeded on the 18th in having one of their own elected, Theophylact, third-born son of Count Gregory, naval prefect. The dispute was brought before Emperor Henry II; he gave fair words to the envoys of the elected Gregory; but Theophylact, who with the help of his family had managed to establish his authority in Rome by assuming the name Benedict VIII, remained in fact the legitimate Pope. Henry II entered Italy toward the end of 1013, and together with his wife Cunegunda was crowned emperor by Benedict VIII in Rome on Feb. 14, 1014; on this occasion Henry issued to the Pope a document analogous to the one granted by Emperor Otto, later confirmed in 1020; on the same occasion a synod was also held, but nothing is known about what was decided there. Henry returned to Germany; the Pope for his part led a successful naval and land expedition in 1016 against the Saracens who had seized Luni; as for the rest, however, it is known that the government of Rome was in the hands of his brother Romanus, "senator omnium Romanorum," and of his other brother Alberic. B. is found present at a Council held at Pavia on Apr. 1, 1018 (Hefele-Leclercq, IV, p. 919), in which reform decrees were imposed concerning the celibacy of the clergy; decrees that were later promulgated in Germany as well. At the invitation of Henry II, B. went to Germany and arrived at Bamberg on Apr. 14, and on the 24th consecrated there the church of St. Stephen; in return he received the lordship of that city and of that recently established bishopric. Toward the end of 1021 Henry II came down again into Italy, and B. accompanied him to Benevento on March 3, 1021, and followed him in the campaign conducted in southern Italy, where he himself had long favored national claims against Greek rule. But the campaign had little success; Henry returned to Germany; the Pope died in Rome on Apr. 7, 1024.

Ireneo Daniele