ENRICO II, IMPERATORE, saint. - B. 6 May 973, d. 13 July 1024. Husband of St. Cunegonda, with whom he lived in chastity, he was duke of Bavaria from 28 Aug. 995, and after the death of Ottone III was proclaimed king of Germany (8 Sept. 1002).
Against the dissensions 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 Feb. 1014, after crushing the schism by supporting Pope Benedetto VIII against the antipope Gregorio, he was crowned emperor. On this occasion he renewed the grant of Ottone I concerning the temporal dominions of the Church, which came to be called the Henricianum. In 1007 he founded the episcopal see of Bamberga, in whose cathedral he was buried. He descended into Italy a third time in 1022-24 to subdue the rebel princes of southern Italy. He was canonized in