BENEDICT IX, THE THREE-TIMES POPE

Benedict IX was born in around 1012 into a family with plenty of political, military and papal muscle. Two of his uncles preceded him as Pope Benedict VIII and Pope John XIX, and his father, Alberic III, Count of Tusculum, was influential enough to secure the Throne of St Peter for him when he was around 20 years of age.

Needless to say, Benedict was one of the youngest popes ever, and he was highly placed in the dissolute stakes as well. Benedict was described as ‘feasting on immorality’ and ‘a demon from Hell in the disguise of a priest’. He was also accused of ‘many vile adulteries and murders’. A later pope, Victor III, charged him with ‘rapes, murders and other unspeakable acts’. Benedict’s life, Pope Victor continued, was ‘so vile, so foul, so execrable that I shudder to think of it’. For good measure, Benedict was also indicted for homosexuality and bestiality.

Benedict’s hold over his throne was tenuous. His enemies forced him out of Rome in 1036 and again in 1045, when he sold his office for 680 kilograms of gold to his godfather, John Gratian, the Archpriest of St John Lateran who afterwards became Pope Gregory VI. The payment drained the Vatican treasury so greatly that, for a time, there was not enough money to pay the papal bills.

Having secured his booty, Benedict set off for a life of leisure and pleasure at one of his castles in the country. He had plans to marry, but the lady in question, a second cousin, turned him down. Within a few months, Benedict was back in Rome, attempting to retrieve his throne. He failed and was driven out by infuriated nobles in 1046. Another attempt met the same resistance, and Benedict was finally thrown out in 1048.

In 1049, Benedict was accused of simony, but failed to appear in court to answer the charges. As punishment, he was excommunicated. After that, Benedict more or less disappeared from the records. The exact date of his death remains unknown. It may have taken place in 1056 while he was preparing to launch a renewed attempt at retrieving the papal throne. Another date for Benedict’s demise was 1065, when he had seemingly repented of his numerous sins, and died as a penitent at the Abbey of Grottaferrata in the Alban Hills, 20 kilometres (12 miles) southeast of Rome.

By Brenda Ralph Lewis in "Dark History of the Popes", Amber Books, UK, 2012, excerpts chapter 1. Adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.