Benedict X.

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Benedict X. , actually Johannes (Mincius) , also called Giovanni Mincio of Tusculum after his place of origin or Johannes Mincius of Velletri after his diocese. This (* unknown; † between 1073 and 1085 in Rome ) was a retrospectively classified as such an antipope from April 5, 1058 to April 1060. He was nevertheless included in the count of the popes named Benedict.

His Latin name means the blessed , his nickname before the pontificate means the stupid .

origin

Benedict belonged to the family of the Counts of Tusculum , who played a decisive role in urban Roman politics in the 11th century. Count Guido von Tusculum is regarded as his father, and the multiple Pope Benedict IX as his brother . , who on December 23, 1046 at a synod of bishops in Rome under the leading direction of King Henry III. had been deposed; the family relationships are, however, controversial. John was bishop of Velletri , the diocese closest to his place of origin , and was appointed by Pope Leo IX in 1050 . elevated to cardinal .

Pope election and pontificate

A few days after the death of Pope Stephen IX. On March 29, 1058 Johannes von Velletri was elevated to pope by opponents of church reform from the Roman nobility, with his family in the person of Gregory of Tusculum, Gerhard von Galeria and Ottaviano Crescenzi providing decisive assistance and the Roman people of the election because it approved should have been induced to do so by financial donations. He chose his papal name in memory of his older brother (or relative) Benedict IX.

The now very strong reform movement under Archdeacon Hildebrand, who was initially absent and later Pope Gregory VII , had withdrawn from Rome; their spiritual leader was the Cardinal Bishop of Ostia , Petrus Damiani , from whose hand a description of the election has been handed down, in which a massive accusation of simony is raised. The general political circumstances after the death of Emperor Heinrich III. in October 1056 had contributed to the uncertain situation of the papacy at the time, because the government of young Henry IV was completely unsound. Since Hildebrand was still on a legation trip in Germany in the spring of 1058, Pope Stefan IX. have ordered that there should be no election of the Pope after his death without his presence. Therefore it was also an accusation of the opponents of Benedict X to have violated this order. After all, in the course of a meeting with Heinrich IV. And his mother Agnes at Pentecost in Augsburg , the reform party seems to have received their approval for a new papal election.

The reform-minded cardinals elected the Bishop of Florence , Gérard of Burgundy , as the new Pope Nicholas II in Siena on December 6, 1058. Benedict was deposed and excommunicated from this party in January 1059 at a synod in Sutri , although he was personally a man of integrity should be. He fled Rome after its conquest on January 24th and first sought refuge in Passerano Castle south of Tivoli and then in Galeria, north of Rome, south of Lago di Bracciano , where one of his relatives owned a castle.

Because Nicholas has the support of the Margrave of Tuscany , Gottfried III. of the bearded man , Duke of Lower Lorraine, and of the Norman prince of Capua , Richard of Aversa , Benedict was finally captured. He was finally deposed at the Lateran Synod of April 1060 and all of his decrees, mostly confirmations of ownership for various applicants, were declared void. On the occasion, he is also said to have been stripped of his papal robes in a formal act and declared to have lost his priestly office. Benedict died after 1073 and before 1085 in the monastery of Sant'Agnese fuori le mura in Rome. He was buried there with papal honors during the pontificate of Gregory VII.

On April 13, 1059, at a synod in the Lateran, Nicholas II issued an important decree on the revision of the papal election procedure, which is known as the papal election decree . This was intended to put a stop to excessive interference by secular groups in the course of the election.

Afterlife

Although Benedict X was subsequently classified as an antipope, his person was still counted as the tenth Benedict in the official list of popes. His late medieval successor, who held the papacy again for the first time from 1303 to 1304 under the papal name Benedict , then called himself Benedict XI. ; and the later bearers of this papal name continued this count up to Benedict XVI. away.

The figures of the Tusculan popes Benedict X and his predecessor Benedict IX. were so negatively connoted in medieval papal historiography that no pope dared to call himself Benedict for a long time (the same applies to the pope's name Johannes , which also stood for the Tusculans and remained unused for a long time).

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personal data
SURNAME Benedict X.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Johannes Mincius (real name); Giovanni Mincio of Tusculum; Johannes Mincius of Velletri
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Antipope (April 5, 1058 - April 1060)
DATE OF BIRTH 10th century or 11th century
DATE OF DEATH between 1073 and 1085
Place of death Rome