HENRY II, EMPEROR, saint. – Born 6 May 973, died 13 July 1024. Husband of St Cunegonde, with whom he lived in chastity, from 28 August 995 he was Duke of Bavaria, and after the death of Otto III he was proclaimed King of Germany (8 September 1002).
Against the discord of the feudal lords, he pursued an ecclesiastical policy, favouring the higher clergy. On 14 May 1004 he was crowned King of Italy at Pavia, and at Rome, on 14 February 1014, after crushing the schism by favouring Pope Benedict VIII against the antipope Gregory, he was crowned Emperor. On that occasion he renewed the grant of Otto I concerning the temporal dominions of the Church, which was henceforth called the Henricianum. In 1007 he founded the episcopal see of Bamberg, in whose cathedral he was buried. He descended into Italy a third time in 1022–24 to subjugate the rebellious princes of southern Italy. He was canonised in