27. A Greatly Disliked Pope
Pope Benedict IX’s behavior eventually became too much, and led to an uprising. The young Holy Father was forced to flee Rome within a year of his election as pope. He was brought back and reinstated by the armies of Holy Roman Emperor Conrad II. In 1044, he was again forced out of the city, and a new Pope, Sylvester III, was elected in his place. Benedict returned with another army, captured Rome, forced Sylvester to abdicate, and had himself elected pope for the third time.
Benedict finally tired of the cycles of ouster, followed by having to fight his way back to the papal throne. So in 1045, not long after his third election as pope, he decided to retire. To fund his retirement, he hit upon a slimy expedient: he sold the papacy to a priest, who became Pope Gregory VI. Benedict was charged by the church for that and other misdeeds and excommunicated. Saint Peter Damian described him as “a demon from hell in the disguise of a priest“. Pope Victor III referred to Benedict IX having a “life as a pope so vile, so foul, so execrable, that I shudder to think of it“.
