TUSCOLO, CONTI di. – A great family of the eleventh century, descended from Teofilatto (v.).
In their eagerness Crescenzi (v.), whose fortunes were associated with the defense of Roman independence, the Tuscolani adhered to the imperial party, and the head of the family, GREGORIO, had received from Otto III the title and functions of praefectus nassalis. Gregorio had three sons: Alberico, Romano, and Teofilatto. TEOFILATTO had embraced an ecclesiastical career and was already a cardinal in 1012, when, with the support of Henry II and the imperial faction, he succeeded in obtaining the papal see, prevailing over a certain Gregorio, the candidate of the Crescenzi party, and took the name of Benedict VIII (v.), VIZI (v.), who apparently had come from the same family. His brother ROMANO assumed, with the title and office of Senator, the temporal government of the city. Unlike what had occurred in the time of Alberico, a staunch defender, like the Crescenzi after him, of Roman independence, the Tuscolani were closely bound to the Emperor, whose supreme sovereignty they acknowledged and whose coronation they solemnly celebrated in 1014, receiving in return the title of patrician for Romano. The family of the counts of T. thus dominated the city both spiritually and temporally, and took full advantage of this position to disperse the last remnants of the Crescenzi party. In 1024, at the death of Benedict VIII, he was succeeded by his brother ROMANO, under the name of John XIX (v.), who, always faithful to the imperial party, crowned Conrad II in 1027. At his death, which occurred in 1032, as though the papal dignity had by then become a family property, ALBERICO, the last survivor of the three brothers, placed on the chair of St. Peter his younger son, Teofilatto, who was barely twelve years old, under the name of Benedict IX (v.), and secured for his eldest son GREGORIO the civil government of Rome with the title of consul. The unworthiness of Benedict IX provoked a revolt in 1044 that drove him from the Leonina City, together with his brother Gregorio, and replaced him with Sylvester III. The military support of the count of Galeria, belonging to another branch of the Tuscolani family, enabled Benedict IX momentarily to regain the upper hand; but, recognizing that he could maintain himself neither on the papal throne nor in the city, Benedict IX ceded the papacy for money—a thing that had never before occurred—to Giovanni Graziano, who was his godfather and took the name of Gregory VI (v.).
The scandalous situation that had thus arisen provoked the intervention of Henry III (v.), who in 1046, at the Council of Sutri, deposed the three popes and, with the election of Clement II, initiated the series of German popes appointed by the Emperor, who began the reform movement that recent events had rendered still more necessary. In 1047, however, with the support of the marquis of Tuscany, Benedict IX returned to Rome and remained there for a year, but eventually withdrew; and an early death, brought about by his life of excess, prevented him from attempting further adventures, while the new moral and political climate taking shape in Rome limited the possibilities of primacy for the family. From that time onward, the power of the counts of T. declined, although their line continued without interruption, and from having been the arbiters of Rome and the Papacy, they were reduced to the rank of feudal lords within the confines of their ancestral castle, until that too was destroyed in 1191 by the Roman army.