Benedict X, Antipope

BENEDETTO X, ANTIPAPA. – Stefano IX, foreseeing that his end was near, had made the Roman clergy and people swear not to proceed with the election of a new pope before Ildebrando’s return from Germany (s. Pier Damiani, Epist., III, 1). But after his death (29 March 1058), the Roman aristocracy, headed by Gregorio of the counts of Tusculum, Gerardo of Galeria, and the Crescenzi, having for the moment reached an agreement with their former adversaries, took advantage of the minority of Enrico IV, the weak government of the regent Agnese, and the absence of the leaders of the reform, broke its pledge and elected the Roman Giovanni Mincio, bishop of Velletri, who took the name B. (5 April 1058). He cannot have been entirely unworthy, as s. Pier Damiani would have us suppose (PL 124, 202), if s. Leone IX had made him a cardinal and Federico of Lorraine, later Stefano IX, had proposed him for the papacy before he himself was called to that dignity. He was, however, weak, whence the appellation Mincio, that is, “simpleton”; and in the intention of the electors he was to be the instrument of the Roman aristocracy, hostile to reform and desirous of once again becoming the arbiter of the election of the Popes. Nevertheless, the better part of the electors did not recognize him, including s. Pier Damiani, cardinal of Ostia. On his return from Germany, Ildebrando gathered the cardinals who had fled Rome and the representatives of the Roman people and clergy in a synod at Siena, from which Gerardo, bishop of Florence, was elected; he had previously been designated by Ildebrando and had already been accepted by the emperor (18 December 1058). He took the name Niccolò II. Shortly afterward, the Council of Sutri declared B., who had managed to maintain himself in Rome for a full eight months, guilty of simony, perjury, and intrusion, and confirmed Niccolò II. After a fierce battle through the streets of the city, B. was driven from Rome (January 1059). He took refuge at Passarano, a possession of the Crescenzi, from where he soon moved to Galeria, near Count Gerardo. Niccolò II besieged the town, which surrendered only after a year. B., forced to return to Rome, was stripped of his papal vestments, suspended from his functions as bishop and priest, and excommunicated. He spent his final years in obscurity in the hospice of the church of S. Agnese. He died during the pontificate of Gregorio VII, who ordered that his funeral rites correspond to his former dignity. Long regarded as the legitimate pope, he was included in the catalogues of the popes, and for this reason Niccolò Boccasini in 1303 called himself Benedetto XI.