10 February 1045 A.D. Sylvester III Dies—Rome’s 146th; “Another” Anti-Pope; Deposed with Dualing Factions
10
February 1045 A.D. Sylvester
III Dies—Rome’s 146th;
“Another” Anti-Pope; Deposed with Dualing Factions
Editors.
“Sylvester III.” Encyclopedia Britannica. N.d.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/577638/Sylvester-III. Accessed 1 Sept 2014.
Sylvester
III, also spelled Silvester, original
name John of Sabina, Italian Giovanni di Sabina (born , Rome, Papal States [Italy]—died c. 1063), pope from January 20 to February 10, 1045.
He was bishop of
Sabina when elected pope in January 1045 by a faction that had driven Pope Benedict
IX out of Rome. The following month, however, Benedict’s supporters
in turn expelled Sylvester. Mired in scandal, Benedict felt so uncertain about
his position in Rome that he resigned the papacy in favour of his godfather, the archpriest John Gratian, a figure of high
moral standing. The new pope, Gregory
VI, was consecrated in May 1045. After receiving a payment from
either Gregory or his supporters, Sylvester recognized Gregory and returned to
his old bishopric.
When Benedict
afterward attempted to reclaim the papacy and depose Gregory, the Holy Roman
emperor Henry III directed Gregory to convoke the Synod of Sutri (December 1046), which
deposed both Sylvester—who had attempted to reclaim the papacy against
Benedict’s apparent unsuitability—and Gregory. At a Roman synod three days
later, Benedict was declared deposed, and Pope Clement II (1046–47) was elected and consecrated. The sentence of Sylvester’s
deposition survives in the documents issued by him as bishop of Sabina during
1046. The legitimacy of his election is disputed, and he is regarded by some as
an antipope.
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