BENEDICT X, ANTIPOPE. — Stephen IX, foreseeing his approaching end, had made the Roman clergy and people swear not to proceed to the election of a new pope before the return of Hildebrand from Germany (St. Peter Damian, *Epist.*, III, 1). But after his death (29 March 1058), the Roman aristocracy, led by Gregory of the counts of Tusculum, Gerard of Galeria, and the Crescentii—temporarily in agreement with their former adversaries—exploiting the minority of Henry IV, the weak government of the regent Agnes, and the absence of the leaders of the reform, broke their pledge and elected the Roman Giovanni Mincio, bishop of Velletri, who took the name BENEDICT (5 April 1058). He was not entirely unworthy, as St. Peter Damian (PL 124, 292) might suggest, since St. Leo IX had made him a cardinal and Frederick of Lorraine, later Stephen IX, had proposed him as pope before ascending to that dignity himself. However, he was weak, hence the nickname "Mincio" (*minchione*, "simpleton"), and was intended by his electors as a tool of the Roman aristocracy, hostile to reform and desirous of regaining control over papal elections. Nevertheless, the better part of the electors did not recognize him, including St. Peter Damian, cardinal bishop of Ostia. Hildebrand, returning from Germany, gathered the fugitive cardinals and representatives of the Roman clergy and people in a synod at Siena, where Gerard, bishop of Florence—previously designated by Hildebrand and accepted by them—was elected.
Enciclopedia Cattolica