Benedict VIII, Pope

BENEDETTO VIII, POPE. — The death of Sergius IV (12 May 1012) gave the two parties that held sway among the Roman nobility an opportunity to test their strength: the Crescenzi, who for twenty years had controlled the election of the pope and imposed or supported Gregory, and the counts of Tusculum, who were their antagonists and were by then increasingly relying on imperial support. The latter succeeded on the 18th in having one of their own elected, Theophylact, third-born son of Count Gregory, the naval prefect. The dispute was brought before the Emperor Henry II; he gave favorable assurances to the legates of the elected Gregory; but Theophylact, who with the aid of his supporters had succeeded in establishing his authority in Rome by assuming the name of Benedetto VIII, remained in fact the legitimate Pope. Henry II entered Italy toward the end of 1013, and together with his wife Cunegonda was crowned emperor by Benedetto VIII in Rome on 14 February 1014. On this occasion Henry issued to the Pope a document similar to that granted by the Emperor Otto, later confirmed in 1020; a synod was also held on the same occasion, but nothing is known about what was decided there. Henry returned to Germany; for his part, the Pope conducted 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 lay in the hands of his brother Romano, «senator omnium Romanorum», and of his other brother Alberico. B. appears as present at a Council held at Pavia on 1 April 1018 (Hefele-Leclercq, IV, p. 919), at which reform decrees were imposed concerning the celibacy of the clergy; these decrees were subsequently promulgated in Germany as well. At the invitation of Henry II, B. went to Germany and arrived at Bamberg on 14 April; on the 24th he consecrated the church of S. Stefano there. In compensation, he received lordship over that city and over its recently established bishopric. Toward the end of 1021 Henry II descended into Italy again, and B. accompanied him to Benevento on 3 March 1021 and followed him in the expedition undertaken in southern Italy, where he himself had for some time supported the national claims against Greek rule. But the expedition met with little success; Henry returned to Germany; the Pope died in Rome on 7 April 1024.