GIOVANNI XIX, POPE. — Elected on 6 May 1024, died in 1032. A Roman of the counts of Tusculum and brother of Benedetto VIII, during the pontificate of the latter he had been « consul, duke, and senator of all the Romans ». He was elected through simony, while still a layman, to succeed him, and thus gathered religious and civil power into his hands. Under him the abuses that Benedetto VIII had attempted to combat reappeared. When Basil II, emperor of Constantinople, sought to have the patriarch of Constantinople recognized as ecumenical, G. XIX at first seemed willing to yield; but opposition, especially from the Cluniacs, induced him to resist. He crowned Corrado the Salian emperor (26 March 1027) in the presence of Rodolfo III of Burgundy and Canute, king of Denmark and England; from this point he became an instrument in the Emperor’s hands.
Thus, in the long-standing controversy between the patriarchs of Aquileia and Grado, after initially assigning to Popone, patriarch of Aquileia, rights over Grado, but subsequently recognizing the independence of the patriarchate of Grado, he confirmed in a bull of September 1027 the decisions of a Council held on 6 April in the Lateran in the presence of the Emperor, in favor of Popone’s claims. Indeed, he declared the see of Aquileia second only to that of Rome and its vicariate, metropolitan of all the sees of Italy. He granted many privileges to the Cluniacs and wished their abbot Odilone to accept the archbishopric of Lyon. The favor shown to Guido d'Arezzo, the inventor of the new musical notes, would seem to indicate in G. XIX some interest in art.