RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Benedict
act of simony by selling the papacy (May 1, 1045) to the archpriest John Gratian (who called himself Gregory VI, q. v.) for the sum of a thousand pounds of silver and the continued enjoyment of the Peter's pence from England. Henry III came to Italy in the autumn of 1046, and decided to remove Gregory. He convened a synod at Sutri, which deposed Sylvester even from the priesthood and induced Gregory to resign his claims (Dec. 20, 1046); a few days later, another synod in Rome deposed Benedict also, and Suidger of Bamberg succeeded to an undisputed papacy as Clement II. When he died, however, nine months later, Benedict made an attempt to recover his see. He was soon put down by the imperial authority, and retired to Tusculum. When and where he died is not known.
(A. Hauck.)
Bibliography: Jafte, Regesta, i, 519; J. M. Watterich, Romanorum pontificum . . vita, i, 71, 711, Leipsic, 1862; A. von Reumont, Geschichte der Stadt Rom, ii, 338, Berlin, 1868; O. Lorenz, Papstwahl und Kaisertum, p. 69, Berlin, 1874; F. Gregorovius, Geschichte der Stadt Rom, iv, 39, Stuttgart, 1877; Bower, Popes, ii, 340-343; Neander, Christian Church, iii, 375-377, 409, 445, 448; Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, iv, 706-707, 714; Hauck, KD, iii, 559, 569-571.
Benedict X (Johannes Mincius): Pope 1058-59. He was bishop of Velletri before, unwillingly, he was elected and enthroned in the night between Apr. 3 and 4, 1058, by the noble factions which had so long dominated the papacy and were soon to lose their power. Peter Damian and the other reforming cardinals fled; but before they left Rome they pronounced an anathema upon the new pope. Meantime Hildebrand was on his way back from Germany. At Florence he heard the news, and after conferring with the empress Agnes, regent for her son Henry IV, arranged for the election of a pope acceptable to the strict churchmen. At Sienna in December Gerard, bishop of Florence, was chosen and took the title of Nicholas II. In January he held a synod at Sutri which pronounced the deposition and excommunication of Benedict X. The latter was driven from Rome by the forces set in motion by Hildebrand, and finally found it expedient to abdicate, which he did formally at a synod in the Lateran, Apr., 1060. He is said to have lived twenty years longer as a prisoner in the monastery of St. Agnes. Gregory VII, in whose reign he died, permitted him to be buried with the obsequies of a rightful pope, as which, indeed, he was reckoned until the fourteenth century. (A. Hauck.)
Bibliography: Liber pontificalis, ed. Duchesne, ii, 279, Paris, 1892; JafK, Regesta, i, 556; J. M. Watterich, Romanorum pontificum . vital, i, 203, 738, Leipsic, 1862; W. von Giesebrecht, Geschichte der deutschen Kaiserzeit, iii, 24, Brunswick, 1875; F. Gregorovius, Geschichte der Stadt Rom, iv, 107, Stuttgart, 1877; J. Langen, Geschichte der romischen Kirche von Nikolaus I bis Gregor VII, p. 500, Bonn, 1892; Bower, Popes, ii, 340-343; Neander, Christian Church, iii, 387; Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, iv, 798, 828; Hauck, KD, iii, 679-681.
Benedict XI (Niccolo Bocasini): Pope 1303- 1304. He was born in 1240 at Treviso, entered the Dominican order in 1254, and spent fourteen years in diligent study, which enabled him to write several Biblical commentaries. He became prior of his
house, provincial of Lombardy, and in 1296 general of the order. Boniface VIII made him a cardinal priest in 1298, and soon after cardinal bishop of Ostia and Velletri. In 1302 he went to Hungary as papal legate. He remained true to Boniface VIII, and on his death was elected (Oct. 22, 1303) to succeed him. He found himself at once in difficulties as the heir to the policy and the enemies of Boniface (see Boniface VIII), but by a conciliatory prudence he found his way out of them. First he won back the powerful Colonna family, restoring to them their dignities and possessions under certain limitations which marked his sense of their misconduct. Frederick of Sicily was brought to a sense of his feudal obligations toward the papacy, which he had thought to escape. To Tuscany, Benedict sent Nicholas of Prato, his successor as cardinal bishop of Ostia, to make peace between the Bianchi and Neri factions in Florence. This mission was not very successful, but Benedict had better fortune with the most difficult task left to him by his predecessor, the effecting of a reconciliation with France. Philip the Fair was ready for peace, but apparently made the condition that a general council should be called to pass a post-mortem condemnation on Boniface. Benedict met him half way, and on Mar. 25, 1304, released him from his excommunication; then he annulled a number of other measures of his predecessor which had been specially felt as grievances in France, and on May 13 withdrew the sentences passed against Philip and his counselors, even those who had taken part in the outrage of Anagni, with the exception of the ringleader William of Nogaret. He, together with all the Italians who had taken part in the violence offered to Boniface, was excommunicated on June 7, and summoned to appear before Benedict to receive sentence. A few weeks later, however (July 7), Benedict died in Perugia, whither he had retired on account of turbulence in Rome. The rumor immediately spread that he had been poisoned, at the instigation, it was variously asserted, of Philip the Fair, of the Colonna, of the Franciscans (who were jealous of the favor shown to the Dominicans), of the opposition cardinals, or of William of Nogaret, who had most to gain by a change, and who, in fact, received his absolution from Benedict's successor. (A. Hauck.)
Bibliography: Ptolemaeus of Lucca, Vital pontificum Romanorum, in Muratori, Scriptores, xi, 1224; B. Guidonis, Vita pontificum Romanorum, ib. iii, 672; W. Drumann, Geschichte Bonifacius VIII, ii, 147, Kcinigsberg, 1852; L. Gautier, Benoit XI, etude sur la papaute au commencement du xiv. siecle, Paris, 1863; C. Grandjean, Benoit XI, Paris, 1863; idem, Le Registre de Benott XI, recueilde bulles, Paris, 1884-85; P. Funke, Papst Benedikt XI, Munster, 1891; Bower, Popes, iii, 56-58; Neander, Christian Church, v, 19; Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, vi, 375-390.
Benedict XII (Jacques Fournier): Pope 1334- 1342. He was a native of Languedoc, of humble origin, and as a boy entered the Cistercian monastery of Bolbonne in the diocese of Mirepoix, migrating later to that of Fontfroide in the diocese of Narbonne, of which his uncle was abbot. The latter sent him to the University of Paris. Pope John XXII gave him the bishopric of Pamiers and later of Mirepoix, and made him cardinal in 1327.
Benedict