October 985 A.D. Benedict VII Dies—Rome’s 135th; Opposed by Boniface VII (Another “Anti-Pope” & More Roman Unity); Simony on Rise; Calls Carthage “That Wretched Province”)
October
985 A.D. Benedict
VII Dies—Rome’s 135th;
Opposed by Boniface VII (Another “Anti-Pope” & More Roman
Unity); Simony on Rise; Calls Carthage “That Wretched Province”)
Pope Benedict VII
Sources
Mann,
Horace. "Pope Benedict
VII." The
Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton
Company, 1907.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02428d.htm. Accessed 28 Aug 2014.
Pope Benedict VII
Date of
birth unknown; d. c. October, 983. Acting under the influence of Sicco (see BENEDICT VI), the Romanclergy and people elected to succeed Benedict VI another Benedict, Bishop of Sutri, a Roman and the son of David
(October, 974). His authority was opposed by Boniface VII, and, though the antipope himself was forced to
fly, his party followed fiercely in his footsteps and compelled Benedict to call upon Otho II for help. Firmly
established on his throne by the emperor, he showed
himself both desirous of checking the tide of simony which was rising high in the Church, and of advancing the cause of monasticism, which then meant that
of civilization. In response to a request of the people of Carthage "to help the
wretched province of Africa", he consecrated the priest James, who had been sent
to him for the purpose (see the letter of the papal legate, the Abbot Leo, to the Kings Hugh Capet and Robert). Though he
did not die till about October, 983, our knowledge of his undertakings is
not in proportion to the length of his pontificate.
The
most important source for the history of the first nine popes who bore the name
of Benedict is the biographies in the Liber Pontificalis, of which the most
useful edition is that of Duchesne, Le Liber Pontificalis (Paris, 1886-92), and
the latest that of Mommsen, Gesta Pontif. Roman. (to the end of the reign of
Constantine only, Berlin, 1898). Jaffé, Regesta Pont. Rom. (2d ed., Leipzig,
1885), gives a summary of the letters of each pope and tells where they may be
read at length. Modern accounts of these popes will be found in any large
Church history, or history of the City of Rome. The fullest account in English
of most of them is to be read in Mann, Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle
Ages (London, 1902, passim).
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