Lentorama 2025: Perfunctory Popes

Day 28: Clement II

The papacy was split three ways in 1046, with two claimants (Sylvester III and Benedict IX) holding parts of Rome, and a third (Gregory VI) claiming that he had purchased the papacy from Benedict. This state of affairs made it impossible to determine who had the right to govern the church, and more importantly who had the power to crown heads of state.

The latter was a huge issue for Henry III, who wanted to be the undisputed Holy Roman Emperor, but couldn't comfortably hold the title if the pope who crowned him was illegitimate. He solved this problem by leading his army and a large group of clerics and nobles, into Italy. He called the Council of Sutri (named for a town just outside of Rome), which was tasked with ending the schism.

The council was able to get all three popes to resign, either due to irregularities in their election (Sylvester) or due to the commission of simony in the selling of the office (Gregory and Benedict, who actually never got paid). This left the throne open.

Henry quickly filled the void, nominating his personal confessor, Suidger von Morsleben, after the archbishop of Bremen declined. Suidger accepted, and took the papal throne as Clement II. Among his first acts was to crown Henry as Holy Roman Emperor.

Clement spent a lot of his time as pope in the company of Henry as he traveled through Italy and back into Germany. He did manage to push some reforms through, mostly around simony (not surprising given how he became pope). Clement died on his way back to Rome in October 1047, and was interred in Bamberg Cathedral (where he was bishop while also serving as pope, one of the few times a pope also had a second see).

There were rumors at his death the Clement was poisoned. Toxicology tests performed in the 20th century found high levels of lead sugar in his body, though it's unclear if he was actually poisoned or if he was using it as medicine. 

Lentorama 2025: Perfunctory Popes

Day 27: Benedict V

Benedict was pope for about a month in 964, between the death of John XII and the reinstallation of Leo VIII. The Roman nobles were no more interested in Leo as pope the second time as they were the first time, and they elected Benedict, who also enjoyed the support of the local militia.

Envoys sent to Holy Roman Emperor Otto I to tell him of the election were warned that Benedict should not be made pope. They returned to Rome with the message, but the locals decided to proceed, and Benedict's coronation went off as planned.

Otto, still wanting to get Leo on the throne, laid siege to Rome. While Benedict did what he could to boost morale among the defending troops, the city could not hold out in the face of ongoing famine. Benedict was brought in front of a synod (led by Leo) accusing him of breaking his oath to not elect a pope without the emperor's consent. Benedict acknowledged his guilt in return for his life.

Stripped down to the rank of deacon, Benedict wound up in Hamburg, under the care of the local archbishop. He died a little over a year later. 

 Lentorama 2025: Perfunctory Popes

Day 26: Leo VIII

This Leo hold a distinction from all the other Leos we've discussed here, in that he served as both an antipope and a pope. And in both instances, his reign was short enough to qualify for inclusion here.

Leo first took the throne in 963, being installed by Holy Roman Emperor Otto I after the emperor deposed the sitting pope, John XII (who had sent Leo as part of delegation to Otto in an attempt to appease him, which clearly didn't go as planned). John still had a strong base of support in Rome, which rebelled and tried to overthrow Leo, only to be put down by Otto's troops. Leo did arrange for those nobles taken prisoner to be released, but when Otto eventually left Rome John's supporters rebelled again, driving Leo out of Rome.

John retook the papacy, and excommunicated Leo, who remained in Otto's court. John would die a few months later, prompting Otto to return to Rome, dethrone John's replacement (Benedict V, who we'll chat about tomorrow), and reinstall Leo as pope. 

This time around, Leo was able to hold the throne for nearly a year before he died. His rule was relatively peaceful, though it's believed that a number of bulls attributed to him that gave the Holy Roman Emperor investiture power over popes, bishops, and archbishops were at least tampered with, if not forged outright. This would contribute to what is known as the Investiture Controversy, which took a couple of centuries to straighten out.

The question of how to classify Leo's time in office did linger, with the general consensus being that Leo was an antipope during his first run as pope as John XII did not willingly give up the papacy. Where Benedict did give up the papacy (albeit under some sort of duress), and no one else tried to restore him (or claim the throne for themselves), Leo can be considered pope during his second run.

 Lentorama 2025: Perfunctory Popes

Day 25: David I

The rise of David I to the papal throne was an accident. When the conclave that "elected" him was in its 25th day of stalemate, Cardinal Rocco was finally able to convince the electors to support Cardinal Albini, the favored candidate of the organized crime figures that were the power behind Rocco. 

The problem is that the name of the elected candidate is listed as Albinizi, who turned out not to be a cardinal but a parish priest named David Albinizi.  Upon taking office, David became friends with the head of his security detail and the nun who saw after his household, but he made little headway with the Curia and the cardinals who wanted a Mafia-friendly pope. 

David survived an assassination attempt, and after mulling abdication decided to stay in office. He doubled down on addressing the corruption inside the Vatican Bank, removing Cardinal Rocco from office due to his involvement. Rocco then tried to blackmail the pope with news of a son, whom the pope fathered before becoming a priest. But it turned out the son, now a rock star, was dating the daughter of Corelli, one of the important Mafia figures trying to take over the Vatican. Corelli planted a bomb to kill the son, but accidentally killed his daughter as well.

David stayed in office long enough to dissolve the Vatican Bank, but was forced to abdicate when the news that he had an affair that resulted in a son went public. This led to the quick election of Cardinal Albini, who it turned out was actually Corelli in disguise. David went to the Sistine Chapel to try to prevent Albini's coronation, but was too late. Now Vittorio I, Albini/Corelli celebrated by firing gunshots into the ceiling - and was killed by falling plaster. 

Thoroughly shaken by the turn of events, the College of Cardinals made the nun who ran David's household the new pope. 

 Lentorama 2025: Perfunctory Popes

Day 24: Leo VI

As with Leo V, this Leo was elected during a period of time where the papacy was under the control of local nobles. Or their wives.

In this case, it was Marozia, wife of the Margrave of Tuscany, who got Leo onto the throne. Marioza was powerful in her own right, and used her relationships with powerful men to build her own power base. She was reputed to be the lover of Pope Sergius III, and that their son was Pope John XI.  Marioza is thought to have been directly related to six popes - one son, two grandsons, two great grandsons, and one great great grandson. The description of this period as the "pornocracy" is related to how Marioza and her sister Theodora used sex to gain power and influence in Rome.

All of that is much more interesting than the actual reign of Leo VI. He spent a fair amount of time trying to get the church in Dalmatia under papal control, and he banned castrati from marrying. He died after about seven months in office

 Lentorama 2025: Perfunctory Popes

Day 23: Leo II

Leo was born in Sicily, but left for Rome (along with many other clergy) in the face of raids on that island by forces loyal to Caliph Uthman. Not much is known of his pre-pope life in Rome, other than that he had an interest in music and showed great charity towards the poor.

Leo was elected pope early in 681, but wasn't consecrated until August of the following year. His predecessor, Pope St. Agatho, had entered into negotiations with the Byzantine emperor to change the ways in which the empire was involved in papal elections. Rather than make him pope and potentially throw these discussions off, Leo had to wait until the negotiations ran their course.

So for waiting nearly a year and a half to officially become pope, Leo served in the role for just under a year. His main accomplishment was supporting and publicizing the church's stance against monothelitism, which we talked about earlier. He died in June 673, and became a saint sometime afterwards (there's no information that I could find about how and when he became a saint).

Lentorama 2025: Perfunctory Popes

Day 22: Leo V

Yes, I am starting a run of Leos (which I should have started with Leo XI, so much for planning ahead). Leo isn't quite as fraught a name as Celestine, but there are a pretty good number of Leos who didn't see out a year in office.

In the case of Leo V, he was elected in 903 and served during the second half of the year. It says something about the power of the papacy at the time that the historical record can only pin down Leo's time in office in general terms. He was the last pope to serve before a period known in the church as the saeculum obscurum, known more colorfully as the Pornocracy or Rule of the Harlots. Covering most of the 10th century, this was a period where the papacy fell under the influence of the Theophylacti, a local noble family that used the power of its members, friends, and hangers-on to get who they wanted made pope.

Leo didn't have much time in office - about the only thing we know that he did was enact a bull that exempted the canons of Bologna from paying taxes - before being deposed by Christopher, a Roman cardinal-priest. Leo was likely imprisoned while Christopher proclaimed himself pope. He didn't last much longer than Leo did, being imprisoned by the Theophylacti, who then got Sergius III onto the throne.

We don't know much about what happened to Leo after all this happened, other than that he died the following year. We know even less about what happened to Christopher. It's likely both died in captivity, possibly in a monastery rather than prison. It's also possible that one (or both) were killed in prison to remove any threat to Sergius. 

 Lentorama 2025: Perfunctory Popes

Day 21: Celestine V

We end out run of Celestines today with the most recent of the group (recent being a relative term, as he served in 1294). So out of five popes named Celestine, three served for less than a year. Which explains why no one has decided to become Celestine VI.

In any case, Pietro Angelerio lost his father at a young age, and his mother encouraged him into spiritual pursuits. He took to study, and became a Benedictine monk as a teenager. He became a hermit and moved to a cave on a local mountain, where his ascetic lifestyle and rumored miracle working gave him a following among the locals.

Pietro then founded a new monastic order in 1244 that merged his spiritual practice with the Benedictine rule and some of the beliefs of a reformist group of Franciscans. He had to come off his mountain and travel to Lyon in order to make sure Pope Gregory X would approve of the order, which he did. At its height, the new order (eventually named the Celestines) would have over 600 monks in 36 monasteries.

Fast forward to 1294. For two years, the cardinals had been trying to elect a success to Nicholas IV, but to no avail. The cardinals then get a letter from Pietro, warning them of divine displeasure if they don't come up with a pope soon. The dead of the college of cardinals called for Pietro's election, which was quickly ratified. 

Not that he wanted the job. Pietro steadfastly refused it, and it took a delegation of cardinals, the king of Naples, and the pretender to the throne of Hungary to talk him into the job. He was crowned August 29, 1294, taking the name Celestine V.

Celestine probably should have stuck to his initial instincts, as he was not a great pope. He ruled from the Kingdom of Naples, which both weakened his influence over the Curia and made him prone to appointing the king's favorites to various positions. He also kept trying to go back to his austere lifestyle, which was largely incompatible with running the church.

Aware of the problems he faced (and largely created), Celestine passed one final degree that gave the pope the right to resign. He exercised that right on December 13, 1294, after a little more than five months in office. For his trouble he did not get to go back to his mountain, but was held in captivity by his successor, Boniface VIII, who feared Celestine could be made an antipope. Celestine died in captivity 10 months later, and was made a saint in 1313 (both for his piety and as a snub to Boniface).

For his short term in office and mostly ineffectual papacy, Celestine did manage a couple of important things. He reaffirmed the stricter rules for conclaves that Gregory X first promoted, and which are largely followed today. He also formalized papal abdication, which became noteworthy when Benedict XVI resigned in 2013.