Pope Benedict VI

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Benedict VII
Personal details
Born
Benedictus

Rome, Papal States
DiedJune 974
Rome, Papal States, Holy Roman Empire
Previous post(s)Cardinal-Priest (964–974)
Other popes named Benedict

Pope Benedict VI (

Otto II, incorporating the struggle for power of Roman aristocratic families such as the Crescentii
.

Early life

cardinal deacon of San Teodoro, Rome
(18th century image)

The son of a Roman of German ancestry named Hildebrand,

cardinal deacon of the church of Saint Theodore.[2]

Pontificate

On the death of

Otto I.[3] Installed as pope under the protection of Otto I, Benedict was seen as a puppet of the emperor by the local Roman aristocracy who resented the emperor's dominance in Roman civil and ecclesiastical affairs.[4]

Record of Benedict VI's reign as pope is scant. There is a letter dated to Benedict's reign from

papal vicars in the former Roman provinces of Upper and Lower Pannonia and Noricum; however, the authenticity of this bull is also disputed.[6]

Overthrow

Otto I died soon after Benedict VI's election in 973, and with the accession of

Franco Ferrucci, who had been the preferred candidate of the anti-Ottonian faction,[7] Benedict was taken in June 974, and imprisoned in the Castel Sant'Angelo, at that time a stronghold of the Crescentii.[8]
Ferrucci was then proclaimed as the new pope, taking the name Boniface VII.

Hearing of the overthrow of Benedict VI, Otto II sent an imperial representative, Count Sicco, to demand his release. Unwilling to step down, Boniface ordered a priest named Stephen to murder Benedict whilst he was in prison, strangling him to death.

Benedict VII
as the legitimate successor of Benedict VI.

Notes

  1. ^ Gregorovius, pg. 377
  2. ^ Mann, pgs. 306-307
  3. ^ Mann, pg. 307; Gregorovius, pg. 377
  4. ^ Roger Collins, Keepers of the keys of heaven: a history of the papacy, (Basic Books, 2009), 187.
  5. ^ Mann, pgs. 308-309
  6. ^ Mann, pg. 309
  7. ^ Gregorovius, pg. 378
  8. ^ Norwich, pg. 83; Mann, pg. 310
  9. ^ Richard P. McBrien, Lives of the Popes: The Pontiffs from St. Peter to Benedict XVI, (HarperCollins, 2000), 161.
  10. ^ Mann, pgs. 310-311

References

  • Norwich, John Julius, The Popes: A History (2011)
  • Gregorovius, Ferdinand, The History of Rome in the Middle Ages, Vol. III (1895)
  • Mann, Horace K., The Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages, Vol. IV: The Popes in the Days of Feudal Anarchy, 891-999 (1910)

External links

Wikisource has the text of the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia article Pope Benedict VI.
Catholic Church titles
Preceded by Pope
973–974 		Succeeded by
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