41 



BENEDICT, ANTIPOPE. 



BENEDICT IX. 



612 



of the fifth day he renewed the chase and fight, but was wounded hy 

 a chain-shot, which broke his right leg to pieces. He waa carried 

 below, but very soon ordered his cradle to be brought upon the 

 quarter-deck, so as to command a view of the action as he lay there. 

 The engagement lasted till it was dark ; but so far from receiving any 

 assistance from his officers, they addressed a written remonstrance to 

 him, in which they declared the inability of the English force to 

 contend with that under Du Casse. Thus counteracted, he sailed 

 back to Jamaica, had the officers immediately put under an arrest, 

 and tried by court-martiaL They were condemned on the clearest 

 evidence; two of the captains were shot, and the rest were visited 

 with various degrees of punishment. Benbow survived just long 

 enough to hear bis own conduct vindicated and applauded. He died 

 of the wound in his leg, on the 4th of November 1702. 



BENEDICT, ANTIPOPE (Pedro de Lima), a native of Aragon, 

 was made a cardinal by Gregory XI. After the death of that pope, 

 when the great schism broke out between Urban VI. and Clement VII., 

 De Luna attached himself to the latter. After Clement's death in 

 Avignon in 1394, the cardinals of his party elected De Luna as his 

 successor, in opposition to Boniface IX., who had succeeded Urban at 

 Rome, and he assumed the name of Benedict XIII. France and 

 several other states which had acknowledged Clement now acknow- 

 ledged Benedict, with the understanding that he should renounce his 

 dignity whenever required for the peace of the church. But De Luna 

 had no intention of fulfilling his part of the engagement. Meantime 

 both Boniface and hU successor Innocent VII. died at Rome, and the 

 king of France and other sovereigns were anxious to put an end to 

 the schism. The cardinals at Rome however elected Gregory XII., 

 and he and Benedict excommunicated each other. A council, held at 

 Pisa in 1409, deposed both popes and elected Alexander V., who dying 

 soon after, the conclave assembled at Bologna and elected John XX [II. 

 John was in his turn deposed for irregularities by the council of Con- 

 stance, who elected as his successor Martin V. Benedict was still 

 acknowledged in Spain, and he continued to assert his right to the 

 pontificate, and excommunicated his rivals. He resided at Peniscola 

 with a few cardinals of his own appointment. At last, in 1424, Bene- 

 dict died at the age of ninety. Some of his cardinals elected as his 

 successor an obscure individual, whom they styled Benedict XIV., of 

 whom nothing is known ; while others appointed another successor, 

 who called himself Clement VIII., but soon after made his submission 

 to Martin V., who was at length acknowledged by the whole western 

 church. 



BENEDICT I. succeeded John IIL in the see of Rome in the year 

 575. His name was Bonosia, and he was a native of Rome. Little 

 is known of him, except that he was on friendly terms with the emperor 

 Tiberius II., and that Rome in his time was threatened both by the 

 Longobards and by the Vandals. He died in 578, and was succeeded 

 by Pelaimis II. 



BENEDICT II. succeeded Leo II. in 684. He waited nearly a year 

 before bin nomination, which took place in 683, was confirmed by the 

 emperor Constantino IV., without which confirmation he could not be 

 consecrated. Constantine however exempted the Roman see from the 

 customary tribute which was paid at the election of every new bishop, 

 and he is said also to have ordered that in future the new bishops elected 

 by the Roman clergy and people should be ordained without waiting 

 for the imperial confirmation. Benedict is reported to have been pious 

 and charitable, and well learned in the Scriptures. He restored and 

 adorned several churches at Rome, namely those of St. Peter, Santa 

 Maria ad Mai tyres, &c. Benedict died in 683, and was succeeded by 

 John V. 



BENEDICT III. succeeded Leo IV. in 855. Between these two 

 popes some writers, and Platina among the rest, have placed the 

 famous female Pope Joan, whose story is now acknowledged by all 

 parties to have been a fable first promulgated, not by Protestant 

 writers, as is often imagined, but by one Martinus, a Pole, and a 

 Cistercian monk, who was penitentiary to Pope Innocent IV. in the 

 13th century, and who wrote a ' Chrouicou Summorum Pontificum,' 

 and another work on the antiquities of Rome, which is full of 

 absurdities. 



The election of Benedict III. was violently opposed by a party 

 among the clergy of the Roman provinces, who nominated Anastasius, 

 a Roman priest. The emperor Louis II. being appealed to, sent his 

 missi, or deputies, to inquire into the matter; but the deputies meeting 

 first with the partisans of Anastasius decided in his favour, and 

 Anastasius, making his solemn entrance into Rome, occupied the 

 Latcrau Palace, stripped Benedict of his pontifical garments, and put 

 him in prison. The clergy and the people however were united in 

 favour of Benedict, and the imperial deputies, probably better 

 informed than at first of the merits of the question, drove Anastasius 

 away, and confirmed the election of Benedict. During Benedict's 

 pontificate, Rome Buffered a great inundation from the river Tiber, 

 which was followed by a destructive epidemic disease. The Saracens 

 at the Mme time were ravaging Apulia and Campania. Benedict died 

 in 858, and was succeeded by Nicholas I. 



IJKNEJJICT IV. succeeded John IX. about the year 900. The 

 crown of Italy, after the extinction of the Carloviugian dynasty, was 

 disputed between Berengarius, duke of Friuli, and Louis, son of Boson, 

 king of Aries or Provence, Louis, having obtained the advantage, 



BIOO. D1V. VOL. I. 



came to Rome in 901, and was crowned Emperor and King of Italy by 

 Benedict; but in the following year Berengarius, who had taken refuge 

 in Germany, returned and defeated Louis at Verona, and took him 

 prisoner, Benedict died in 903, and was succeeded by Leo V. 



BENEDICT V. was elected in 964 by the Romans, in opposition to 

 Leo VIII., while the latter was gone to the north of Italy to ask the 

 emperor Otho's support against his predecessor John XII., who, after 

 being deposed by an assembly of the Roman clergy for his irregular 

 conduct, had returned to Rome and driven Leo from bis see. John, 

 after putting to death or cruelly mutilating several of his opponents, 

 died suddenly, and the Romans, regardless of their previous election 

 of Leo VIII., nominated Benedict. Otho quickly appeared before 

 Rome with an army, and reduced the city by famine. A new assembly 

 of the clergy was convoked, Benedict's election was declared null, and 

 Leo was reinstated in his see. Benedict was exiled by Otho to 

 Germany, and he died soon after at Hamburg in 965. By several 

 writers he is considered only as an intruder, but in papal chronologies 

 recently published in Italy he is placed among the regular popes. 



BENEDICT VI. succeeded John XIII. in 972. The emperor 

 Otho I. soon after died in Germany, and the Romans, released from 

 the fear of that powerful sovereign, broke out into their wonted 

 tumults, and imprisoned Benedict. He was strangled in the castle of 

 St. Angelo in 974. Cardinal Boniface, who is said by some authorities 

 to have caused the death of Benedict, assumed the papal dignity, but 

 was shortly afterwards expelled, and fled to Constantinople. Donus II. 

 is mentioned by some writers as the next pope, but nothing is known 

 of him, except that he died after a few months, and was succeeded by 

 Benedict VII. 



BENEDICT VII., of the family of Couti, was elected in 975. On 

 being chosen pope he assembled a council and excommunicated the 

 anti-pope Boniface. During his pontificate the emperor Otho II. came 

 repeatedly to Rome, while he was engaged in the war against the 

 Greeks of Apulia and the Saracens of Calabria. Otho died tit Rome 

 in 983, and was buried in the vestibule of St. Peter's church. Benedict 

 died about the same time, and was succeeded by John XIV. The 

 chronology of the popes in the 10th century is rather confuted, and 

 the dates are not exactly ascertained. 



BENEDICT VIII., of the family of Conti, was a native of Tusculum. 

 He was elected pope in 1012, but was driven from Rome by the 

 adherents of Gregory, a rival candidate. Being supported by the 

 emperor Henry II., Benedict soon returned, and in the following year 

 (1013) Henry and his consort Kunegund came to Rome, where they 

 received the imperial crown from the hands of the pope. In 1016 

 Benedict was engaged iu a war with the Saracens from Sardinia, who 

 had committed ravages iu Tuscany. They were defeated, and the 

 Saracen chief Musa escaped with difficulty, but his wife, whom the 

 chroniclers call the queen, was killed, ami the valuable jewels that 

 adorned her head were sent by the pope to the emperor Henry. This 

 event led to the couquest of Sardinia by the Pisans, who were urged 

 to it by the pontiff. Benedict went to Germany to urge the emperor 

 Henry to send an army to Italy in 1021 to oppose the Greeks. Henry 

 did so, and obtained several successes, retaking from them Capua and 

 Troja, and other towns of Campania and Apulia. Benedict died iu 

 1024, and was succeeded by lii.s brother, who assumed the name of 

 John XIX. 



BENEDICT IX succeeded John XIX. in 1031. He was a boy at 

 the time of his election, which was obtained through his family 

 interest, and through a lavish expenditure of money on the part of 

 his father Alberico, a powerful baron. Benedict was distinguished by 

 his licentiousness and profligacy, and by the state of anarchy in which 

 Rome was plunged during his pontificate. The Romans at last expelled 

 him iu 1044, and chose in his stead John bishop of Sabiua, who took 

 the name of Silvester III. ; but six months afterwards Benedict 

 returned at the head of a party, drove away his competitor, and 

 excommunicated him. Perceiviug however that he was held in 

 detestation by the clergy and the people, he sold his dignity to John 

 Gratianus, who assumed the name of Gregory VI. The emperor 

 Henry III., iu order to put an end to these scandals, assembled a 

 council at Sutri, which deposed all the three popes. Baroniua says 

 that Gregory VI. voluntarily renounced his claims for the peace of 

 the church, and he places him iu the series of legitimate popes. 

 (F. Hardouiu, ' History of the Councils.') Henry III. having entered 

 Rome, accompanied by the fathers of the council of Sutri, the latter, 

 in conjunction with the clergy of Rome, elected Suidger, bishop of 

 Bamberg, who took the nam of Clement II., and was consecrated at 

 Christmas 1046. But in October 1047 Clement fell suddenly ill and 

 died, and, as some suspected, of poison administered to him by the 

 deposed Benedict, who immediately after forced himself again into 

 the papal see, where he remained till July 1048, when the emperor 

 Henry, at the request of the Romans, sent them Poppo, bishop of 

 Brixen, who, on arriving at Rome, was consecrated, and assumed the 

 name of Damasus II. ; but twenty-three days after his consecration he 

 died at Palestriua, upon whicli the see of Home remained vacant for 

 more than half a year, until Bruno, bishop of Toul in Lorraine, was 

 elected in 1049, and assumed the name of Leo IX. What became of 

 Benedict afterwards is not clearly ascertained, nor the epoch of his 

 death, but it is generally believed that he died in eorne convent. 

 Gregory, after being deposed, went into exile to Germany, where ho 



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