TEOFILATTO (Theofilacias, Theophilactus). - Greek by origin, it seems, improperly numbered among the antipopes.
Archdeacon of the Roman Church from the pontificate of Pope Zaccaria onwards, two letters written by him to St Boniface, the apostle of Germany, are extant (S. Bonifatii et Lulli ep., 84, 85; ed. E. Dümmer, in MGH, Epist. Merovingici et Karolini aevi, I [1892], pp. 366-67). From October 753 to July 755 he accompanied Stefano II to Pavia and to France. At Stefano’s death (26 Apr. 757), the pro-Byzantine party set T. up against Paolo I, the deceased’s brother and a mere deacon; but as the latter’s electors were more numerous, they prevailed, and T.’s supporters, barricaded in the archdeacon’s house, were dispersed. Nothing further was heard of T., and Paolo wrote to Pipino that he had been elected «a cuncta populorum ceterna» (Liber Carolinus, ep. 12; ed. W. Gundlach, ibid., p. 508).
TEOFILATTO. - A Roman figure who first appears in 901 in a placitum of Emperor Louis III in Rome.
He was vesterarius, that is, head of the pontifical administration, but the titles subsequently bestowed upon him attest to the progressive increase of his authority. T. was the most prominent figure of the anti-Formosan party, and his political position, significantly strengthened by the accession Sergio III (v.), an old ally of his and his family, brought to Rome by Alberico of Spoleto, an adventurer who had seized the Duchy by killing the last duke, was further consolidated by the marriage of his daughter Marozia to Alberico and by the elevation Giovanni X (v.), which had occurred through his intervention. T., supported by Alberico of Spoleto, effectively assisted Giovanni X in the military expedition against the Saracens of the Garigliano and in the negotiations that led to Berengario I (v.), from whom strong support was hoped against internal and external enemies (915). Alberico and T. died within a short time of each other, shortly before 926, and their political Marozia (v.).