The Council of Sutri (or Synod of Sutri) was called by Pope Gregory VI at the behest of Henry III. King of the Germans and opened on December 20, 1046, in the hilltown of Sutri, at the edge of the Duchy of Rome. Henry III ( 29 October 1017 &ndash 5 October 1056) called the Black or the Pious, was a member of the Salian Dynasty Events 69 - Vespasian, formerly a general under Nero, enters Rome to claim the title of Emperor. Sutri is a town in the Province of Viterbo, about 50 km from Rome. The Duchy of Rome (Ducatus Romanus was a Byzantine district in the Exarchate of Ravenna. This is not listed by the Catholic Church as an ecumenical council.
The council was called to resolve the disorder over the papacy. A faction in the church encouraged Henry III to intervene, both to resolve the conflict and to receive his crown from the pope in an official ceremony. In the autumn of 1046 Henry III, already King of the Germans, crossed the Alps at the head of a large army and accompanied by a brilliant retinue of the secular and ecclesiastical princes of the empire, all of whom were his sworn vassals. A vassal (also called feodary or fedary) in the terminology that both preceded and accompanied the feudalism of Medieval Europe, Henry had two intentions, to be crowned Holy Roman emperor by the pope at Rome and, in order that the pontiff concerned have an unassailable title—one that would not cast doubts upon his conferred imperial title— to establish order in the Duchy of Rome.
Rome was in a state of warfare between noble factions, each of whom had a candidate they regarded as pope. A pope presided at St. Peter's, another at the Lateran and a third at Sta Maria Maggiore. The Basilica of Saint Peter (Basilica Sancti Petri officially known in Italian as the Basilica di San Pietro in Vaticano and commonly known as St The Basilica of St John Lateran ( Italian: Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano) is the Cathedral of the church of Rome and the official The Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore (its Italian name known in English also as St Mary Major, is an ancient Catholic Basilica of Rome Two of them, Benedict IX, a scion of the counts of Tusculum, and Sylvester III of the Crescenzi clan, represented rival factions of the Roman nobility. Pope Benedict IX (c 1012 &ndash 1055 1065 or 1085 born Theophylactus, was Pope from 1032 to 1044 again in 1045 and finally from 1047 to 1048 the only The counts of Tusculum were the most powerful secular noblemen in Latium, near Rome, during the 10th century through 12th centuries Sylvester III, né Giovanni dei Crescenzi &ndash Ottaviani family (born in Rome; died before 1063 was Pope in 1045 The Crescentii clan (in modern Italian Crescenzi) — if in fact they were an extended family — essentially ruled Rome and controlled the Papacy from the middle The position of the third, Gregory VI, was peculiar in that he had purchased the title in good faith from Benedict IX two years previously. [1] Each claimant had a number of supporters in the Roman church and held a portion of the city.
Henry was met by Gregory at Piacenza and was received with honor. Piacenza ( Placentia in Latin and old-fashioned English, Piasëinsa in the local dialect of Emiliano-Romagnolo) is a It was decided that a synod should meet at Sutri, some 40 km north of Rome, well beyond the city's factional violence. Sutri is a town in the Province of Viterbo, about 50 km from Rome. Before the assembly Gregory testified that he had, "in all good faith and simplicity", purchased the papacy from Pope Benedict IX in 1044. Simony is the Ecclesiastical crime of paying for Holy offices or positions in the hierarchy of a church named after Simon Magus, who appears in the Pope Benedict IX (c 1012 &ndash 1055 1065 or 1085 born Theophylactus, was Pope from 1032 to 1044 again in 1045 and finally from 1047 to 1048 the only After the departure of Benedict, the Bishop of Sabina had also declared himself pope, as Sylvester III. Sylvester III, né Giovanni dei Crescenzi &ndash Ottaviani family (born in Rome; died before 1063 was Pope in 1045 In 1045 Benedict, not having received his pay-off, returned to Rome and renewed his claim to the papacy.
The council summoned the three pontiffs, and both Sylvester and Gregory attended. The claims of all three popes were quickly dismissed. Sylvester was stripped of his sacerdotal rank and exiled to a monastery. Gregory resigned (apparently his words were:"I, Gregory, bishop, servant of the servants of God, do hereby adjudge myself to be removed from the pontificate of the Holy Roman Church, because of the enormous error which by simoniacal impurity has crept into and vitiated my election. "), and the council ended on December 23. A form of the council was repeated in Rome the following day to oversee the dismissal of Benedict. The papacy was declared sede vacante. Sede vacante is the vacancy of the Episcopal see of a Particular church in the Canon law of the Roman Catholic Church.
On December 24-25 Henry turned first to the powerful Adalbert, Archbishop of Bremen, who refused the dangerous honor. Adalbert of Hamburg-Bremen (also Albert; c 1000 &ndash March 16, 1072) was a German prelate who was Archbishop of Bremen -Hamburg from 1043 The Archdiocese of Bremen is a historical Roman Catholic diocese and a former eccesiastical state in the Holy Roman Empire. Henry's next choice was his personal confessor, Suidger, Bishop of his recently created see of Bamberg. Bamberg is a town in Bavaria, Germany. It is located in Upper Franconia on the river Regnitz, close to its confluence with the river Main Suidger became the new pope, taking the title Clement II but insisting on retaining his Bamberg see, a source of financial support beyond the reach of Roman factions. Clement II, né Suidger of Morsleben and Hornburg ( German Suidger von Morsleben und Hornburg) (1005 &ndash October 9, 1047) He was immediately enthroned, on Christmas Day. His first pontifical act was to place the imperial crown upon his benefactor and the queen consort, Agnes, daughter of Wiliiam V, duke of Aquitaine. William V (969 &ndash 31 January 1030) called the Great ( le Grand) was Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Poitou (as William The new emperor received from the Romans and the pope the title and diadem of a Roman Patricius, a dignity with antecedents in the Late Empire, which since the tenth century had been assumed to confer the right to nominate the pontiff. Within a few decades the Gregorian Reforms would call this custom into question. The Gregorian Reform was a series of reforms initiated by Pope Gregory VII and the circle he formed in the papal curia, circa 1050&ndash1080 which dealt with the
Benedict would again renew his claim to the papacy in 1047, when Clement II died.
Footnotes
- ^ The Catholic Encyclopedia asserts, "That this heroic measure for delivering the Holy See from destruction was simoniacal, has been doubted by many; but that it bore the outward aspect of simony and would be considered a flaw in Gregory's title, consequently in the imperial title Henry was seeking, was the opinion of that age. " (Catholic Encyclopedia, "Pope Clement II")
References
- Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church: vol. iv
- Catholic Encyclopedia
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