B E N 



214 



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dale, both in th Mnnaslierm and in his ffistory nf War- 

 trirMirf, vol. i. p. lie,. Ins given a representation of the 

 Benedictine tnonk in his habit. 



The habit of the Benedictine nuns consisted of a black 

 robe, with * scapular)' of the same, and under that robe a 

 tunic of white or undyed wool. When they went to the 

 choir, they had, over all,' a black cowl, like that of the monks. 

 Dugdnle. in th Afonatticun, has given an engraving of a 

 Benedictine nun with her cowl : and Stevens, Cnntin. vol. i. 

 p. ir.9, an engraving of another without her cowl. 



BKN EDICT I. succeeded John III. in the sec of Rome, 

 in the year 575. His name wag Bonosus, and he was a 

 native o'f 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 Lon go- 

 bards and by the Vandals, He died in 578, and was suc- 

 ceeded by Pelagius II. (Platina, Vita Pnntificum.) 



BENEDICT II. succeeded Loo II. in 684. He waited 

 nearly a year before his nomination, which took place in 

 683, was confirmed by the Emperor Constantino IV., with- 

 out which confirmation he could not be consecrated. Con- 

 stantine, however, exempted the Roman see from the cus- 

 tomary 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 con- 

 firmation. He also sent to Rome some locks of the hair of 

 his two sons, Justinian and Heraclius, as a token of homage 

 to the Roman see, which were received with great ceremony 

 by the clergy and the people. Benedict is reported to have 

 been pious and charitable, and well learned in the scrip- 

 tures. He restored and adorned several churches at Rome, 

 namely, those of St. Peter, Sta. Maria ad Martyres, &c. 

 Benedict died in 685, and was succeeded by John V. 



BENEDICT III. succeeded Leo IV. in 855. Between 

 these two pnpes 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 ima- 

 gined, but by one Martinus, a Pole, and a Cistercian monk, 

 who was penitentiary to Pope Innocent IV. in the thirteenth 

 century, and who wrote a Chronicon Summnrum Ponti- 

 ftcum, and another work on the antiquities of Rome, which 

 is full of absurdities. (See Panvinio's able discussion of 

 this much controverted point in a note to Platina's work.) 



The election of Benedict III. was violently opposed by a 

 party among the clergy of the Roman provinces, who nomi- 

 nated 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 

 partizans of Anastasius, decided in his favour, and Ana- 

 M IMUS making his solemn entrance into Rome, occupied 

 the Lateran Palace, stripped Benedict of his pontifical 

 garments, and put him in prison. The clergy of the city, 

 however, persisted in their election of Benedict, and the 

 people loudly supporting the same, the imperial deputies, 

 probably better informed of the merits of the question, drove 

 Anastasius away, and confirmed Benedict, who forgave his 

 adversaries, except the bishop of Porlo, who would not give 

 up Anastasius, and was consequently superseded. During 

 Benedict's pontificate, Rome suffered a great inundation 

 from the river Tiber, which was followed by a destructne 

 epidemic disease. The Saracens at the same time were 

 ravaging Apulia and Campania. Benedict died in 858, and 

 was succeeded by Nicholas I. Some particulars of this 

 pope's life are found in Garampi's dissertation De Nummo 

 i-nteo Renedicti III. 



BENEDICT IV. succeeded John IX. about the year 

 900. The crown of Italy, after the extinction of the Carlo- 

 vinnian dynasty, was disputed between Bercngarius Duke 

 of Friuli, and Louis, son of Boson King of Aries or Pro- 

 vence. Louis, having obtained the advantage, came to Rome 

 in 901, and was crowned Emperor and King of Italy by 

 Benedict. But in the following year Berengarius, who hail 

 taken refuge in Germany, returned and defeated Louis nt 

 Verona, and took him prisoner. After this event, 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 

 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 his see. 

 John, after putting to death or cruelly mutilating several of 



p-,nents, died suddenly, and the Romans, regardless 

 if their previous election of Ix;o VIII., nominated Benedict 

 Otho quickly appeared ' me with an army, and re- 



duced the city liy famine. A new assembly of the < i 

 was convoked, Benedict's election was declared null, and 

 Loo was reinstated in his see. Ben i l>y 



Otho to Germany, and he died soon after at Hamburgh in 

 965. By several writers he is considered only ns an in- 

 truder, but in the late Papal chronologies published in 

 Italy we find him placed among the regular popes. 



BENEDICT VI. succeeded John XIII. in 972. The 

 Emperor Otho I. soon after dying in Germany, the Romans, 

 released from the fear of that powerful sovereign, broke out 

 into their wonted tumults, imprisoned Bcnediet, and a car- 

 dinal of the name of Boniface, surnamed Francone (Platina 

 says a patrician of the name ofCincio or Cenci), c: 

 him to be strangled in the castle of St. Angclo in 974. Car- 

 dinal Boniface assumed the papal dignity, but was shortly 

 afterwards expelled, and lied to Constantinople. Dom 

 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. of the family of Conti, who was elected 

 in 975. He was bishop of Sutri at the time of his election. 

 On being chosen pope, he assembled a council, and excom- 

 municated 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 at 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 tenth century is rather 

 confused, and the dates are not exactly ascertained. 



BENEDICT VIII., of the family of Conti, who suc- 

 ceeded Sergius IV. in 1012, was a native of Tusculum. 

 A rival candidate of the name of Gregory, after losing the 

 election, raised a faction against Benedict, whom he drove 

 out of Rome. Benedict, however, being supported by the 

 Emperor Henry II., returned soon after, and in the following 

 year, 1013, Henry and his consort Kunegund came to Rome, 

 where they received the imperial crown from the hands ol 

 the pope. In 1016 the Saracens from Sardinia having 

 landed on the coast of Tuscany, took the town of Luni, 

 where they committed great ravages. Benedict assembled 

 a force by sea and by land, attacked the Saracens, and 

 defeated them : their chief Musat, or rather Musa, had 

 time to escape, but his wife, whom the chroniclers call the 

 queen, was killed, and the valuable jewels that adorned her 

 head were sent by the pope to the Emperor Henry. This 

 event led to the conquest of Sardinia by the Pisans, who 

 were urged to it by the pontiff. In 1020 Benedict under- 

 took a journey to Germany, for the purpose of inducing 

 Henry to send an army into Italy to oppose the Greeks, 

 who had become masters of Capua, Ascoli, and other 

 place?, and threatened to subjugate Rome itself. Henry 

 came in the following year : he obtained several surf 

 over the Greeks, and took Capua and Troja, and other 

 towns of Campania and Apulia. Benedict died in 1 ('_'!, 

 and was succeeded by his brother, who assumed the name 

 of John XIX. 



BENEDICT IX., a relative, some say a nephew, of the 

 two preceding popes, succeeded John XIX. in 1031. He 

 was a boy at the time of his election, some say ten years old, 

 but this is doubted by Muratori, who however, as well as 

 Baronius, acknowledges that his election was irregular, 

 owing to his youth, and that it was obtained through his 

 family interest and through money, which was profusely 

 lavished for the purpose by his father Alberico, a powerful 

 baron. Benedict was distinguished by his licentioi 

 and profligacy, and by the state of anarchy in which Koine 

 was plunged during his pontificate. The Romans at last 

 expelled him in 1044, and chose in his stead John Bishop 

 of Sabina, who tnk the- name of Silvester III.; but six 

 months afterward* Benedict returned at the head of a party, 

 drove a-.vay hi< competitor, ami excommunicated him. Per- 

 ceiving, however, that he was held in detestation by the 

 clergy and th people, he sold his dignity to John Gratianus, 

 .K-d the name of Gregory VI, The Hmperor 

 Henry III., in order to put an end to these scandals, as- 

 '1 a council at Sutri, which deposed all the three popes. 

 Barnnius says that Gregory VI. voluntarily renounced his 

 claims for the peace of the church, and he places him in 

 the series of legitimate popes. (See F. Hardouin's Hittory 

 f the Counali, concerning this of Sutri.) The original 



