Pope Leo IX

So many medieval popes were Italian (and maybe French) that it is unusual to find one with a German name, but France and Germany were essentially once West Francia and East Francia, and Bruno von Egisheim-Dagsburg (1002 - 1054) was actually born in what is modern Alsace, France. A child of privilege, his father was Count Hugh IV of Nordgau (a cousin of the future Holy Roman Emperor, Conrad II). Bruno was the fourth of eight children, and the third son, so was not expected to succeed his father.

He was therefore handed off at the age of five to Berthold, bishop of Toul, who established a school for the sons of nobility. At the age of 15, Bruno became a canon at St. Stephen's Cathedral in Toul. In 1024, his father's cousin Conrad became Emperor, and Bruno was chosen to serve in the imperial chapel. Two years later, the then-bishop of Toul died and Bruno took over the diocese, managing it for the next two decades.

During that time he exerted his influence to reform and raise the moral standards of monasteries and the regular clergy in his diocese. He favored spreading Cluniac rules. When Pope Damasus II died in 1048, the emperor and Roman delegates at an assembly in Worms agreed that he should become pope. Bruno anted instead to travel to Rome and have a proper election. He arrived in Rome wearing pilgrim garb in early 1049, where he was duly elected and took the name Leo IX.

He immediately called a synod for that Easter. At the synod, he demanded celibacy for all clergy down to the rank of subdeacon, and said simony, the practice of selling church positions, had to stop. He traveled to Mainz to meet with Italian, French, and German clergy to declare his positions. At another Easter synod in 1051 he discussed the potential re-ordination of those priests who had been defrocked because their positions had originally been purchased through simony. These decisions all seemed to be sensible.

Leo's real challenge was with the Eastern Church. The Patriarch of Constantinople, Michael I Cerularius, criticized some of the positions of the Roman/Latin Church, particularly fasting the day before Sunday Mass and the use of unleavened bread. Michael's letter was addressed to Leo as "brother" instead of "father."

Leo's response was to remind that Michael that the pope "owned" the entire Byzantine Church. Leo did not make this idea up on his own; he had documentation to "prove" it! Why he thought that will be explained tomorrow.

Other Popes Who Quit

Pope Celestine V might have needed Cardinal Benedetto Gaetani to find a justification for him to resign, but papal resignations had taken place previously. The 11th century saw two papal resignations that might have saved a little time in the 13th century, had they been remembered.

The Chair of Peter

One of them was largely a political pawn—albeit probably a willing one. Phasanius became pope in January 1004, taking the name John XVIII.* Like several decades of popes prior to him, he owed familial allegiance to the head of the Crescentii clan, a patrician Roman family who wielded great power in Rome, controlling much of the City as well as the popes. Unlike Celestine V, John XVIII was an administrator, and the records of his papacy show that he worked at various initiatives: he established a base, the See of Bamberg, from which to begin christianizing the Slavs to please King Henry II of Germany. He confirmed archbishops, including Elphege of Canterbury. He arbitrated disputes between religious figures. Even in Constantinople he gained Eastern Orthodox recognition as the Bishop of Rome; it is assumed he somehow reached out to the Eastern Church and established (however briefly) some kind of détente.

Details of his departure from the Throne of Peter are missing. A catalog of popes lists him as having been a monk at St. Paul's near Rome at his death in June 1009. At some point he must have stepped down; perhaps he wasn't doing enough for John Crescentius III, the had of the Crescentii clan. He was replaced by Pietro Martino Buccaporci (Peter Martin Pigsnout), who was no doubt glad to take the name Pope Sergius IV. Sergius and John Crescentius both died in the spring of 1012, and the Crescentii influnce over the papacy faded away.

About the same time that Sergius and John Crescentii were dying, Theophylactus of Tusculum (c.1012-c.1056) was born in Rome. Son of the Count of Tusculum, he achieved the papacy as a young man in 1032 through the efforts of his father, taking the name Benedict VIII. He clearly had no qualifications for being pope; it was said of him that he "feasted on immorality" (St. Peter Damian) and that "a demon from hell in the disguise of a priest... occupied the chair of Peter and profaned the sacred mysteries of religion by his insolent courses." (Ferdinand Gregorovius)

It can be said that he left the papacy several times, some of them of his own volition. He was driven from Rome in 1036, but returned with the help of Emperor Conrad II. He was driven out again in 1044 and Pope Sylvester III was elected, but Benedict returned again in April 1045 and drove out Sylvester (who never stopped calling himself pope). In May 1045, Benedict resigned in order to get married; he sold the papacy to his godfather, Fr. John Gratian, who took the papal name Gregory VI.

Papal coat of arms

He changed his mind, however, and returned to Rome months later, taking back the throne by force until July 1046. For most residents of Rome, however, Gregory VI was the true pope now. It did not help when Sylvester III pushed his own previous claim forward. King Henry III of Germany intervened, and at the Council of Sutri in December 1046, it as decided that all three popes were to be replaced. A bishop from Germany named Suidger became Pope Clement II. Clement died less than a year later, however, and Benedict tried to seize power again but was driven away by German troops. Poppo of Brixen was elected Pope Damasus II, and things finally started to settle down.

*Note: although he was the 18th pope to take the name John, he is officially considered the 17th John, because John XVI (pope from 997-998) has been declared an antipope and does not count in the true reckoning of popes. The historical numbers taken by the popes has never been "corrected."