Sergius III

Sergius III (Rome, 860 - Rome, April 14, 911) was the 119th Pope of the Catholic Church from January 29, 904 until his death in 911. He was pope during a period of feudal violence and disorder in central Italy, when warring aristocratic factions tried to use the military resources of the papacy.

Because Sergius III had ordered the assassination of his two immediate predecessors, Leo V and Christopher, and because he was the only pope to have an illegitimate son who would later become pope (John XI), his pontificate has been described as "sad and pitiful", and "deficient and ruthless".

Biography

Early career

Jean-Paul Laurens, "The Pope Formoso and Stephen VI" (1870).

He was the son of Benedict, and traditionally considered a descendant of a noble Roman family, although it has been speculated that he was in fact related to the family of Theophylact, Count of Tusculum.

He was ordained as a subdeacon by Marino I and later elevated to a deacon by Pope Stephen V.

During Formoso's pontificate (891-896), he was a member of the party of nobles who supported Emperor Lambert, who opposed Formoso and his imperial candidate, Arnulf of Carinthia.

Formoso consecrated Sergius as bishop of Caere (present-day Cerveteri) in 893, apparently in order to drive him out of Rome.

On Formoso's death in 896, he ceased to be bishop of Caere as all ordinations conferred by Formoso were declared null and void, though his ordination as bishop was later reconfirmed by Theodore II.

He actively participated in the so-called Cadaveric Council that condemned the pontificate of Formoso.

Pontificate

Background

On Theodore's death in 898, Sergius, along with a small group of followers of the Roman nobility led by his father Benedict, attempted to be elected pope against the wishes of Emperor Lambert.

Although Sergius was elected, a rival candidate, John IX (898-900), was also chosen. With Lambert's support, John was proclaimed pope, and one of his first acts was to call a council that excommunicated Sergius and his followers. Sergius was then forcibly exiled by Lambert, fleeing to his see at Caere, where he placed himself under the protection of Adalbert II, Margrave of Tuscany.

By the time the antipope Christopher (903-904) took the chair of Saint Peter by force, circumstances had changed in Rome with the rise of magister militum Theophylact, Count of Tusculum, who had been posted to Rome by Emperor Louis "the Blind" in 902. Placing himself at the head of a faction of the nobility, Theophylact rebelled against Christopher and asked Sergius to return to Rome to become pope. Sergius He accepted and, with the support of Adalberto II's army, he entered Rome when Cristóbal had already been captured by Theophylact. Sergius was then consecrated pope on January 29, 904.

The now Pope Sergius III owed his rise to political power to Theophylact, and rewarded him with the position of sacri palatii vestararius, chief official of papal patronage in controlling disbursements and therefore of sponsorship. All real power rested with Theophylact and Sergio essentially became his puppet. Perhaps the first clear sign of this shift in power was the fate of Sergius's two predecessors, Pope Leo V and Antipope Christopher. According to the priest and poet Eugenius Vulgarius, who supported Formoso, Sergius ordered Leo and Christopher to be strangled while they were in prison sometime in early 904. The fact that both men were killed during Sergius's pontificate seems likely, although other accounts say that at least Christopher was allowed to retire to a monastery. Given the true situation of power, it seems more likely that Theophylact gave the orders directly or that he guided Sergius to give them.. During the remainder of his pontificate, Sergius promoted his family and members of his aristocratic party to positions of authority and prominence within the church.

During his pontificate William I of Aquitaine, The Pious, Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Auvergne, founded Cluny Abbey, the mother residence of the new Cluny order in 909. William granted all rights to the abbey to the church from Rome.

Activity in Italy

He called a council that annulled all of Formoso's ordinations and required all bishops ordained by Formoso to be reordered. It has been alleged that Sergius managed to obtain the consent of the Roman clergy at the council through threats of exile, violence, or through the use of bribery. The decision to demand a reordering was highly unpopular, and those affected, being distant from Rome, not only ignored the council's instructions but also wrote letters condemning the revocation of the ordinations and justifying the validity of the original ordinations. The ruling was later reversed again after his death.

Confirming his continued support for the anti-Formoso faction, Sergio honored the assassinated Stephen VI (896-897), responsible for the "Cadavérico Council" that condemned and mutilated Formoso's corpse, and had a laudatory epitaph written on his tombstone. For centuries it was believed that Sergio once again exhumed Formoso's corpse to be tried, found guilty, and beheaded, therefore, he would have carried out a second "Cadaveric Council". However, the source of this information it was Liutprando de Cremona, who erroneously placed the "Cadaveric Council" in the pontificate of Sergius III, instead of that of Stephen VI.

Although both Sergius and Theophylact were not supportive of Emperor Louis, they were also unwilling to concede the imperial title to the only other contender, Berengar of Friuli. The only time Sergius agreed to crown Berengar was around 906, although Berengar was prevented from reaching Rome by the forces of Alberico I of Spoleto and Adalberto II of Toscana, supporters of Sergio but dissatisfied with his decision to support Berengar, although his unwillingness to control his vassals also contributed to the Pope's reluctance. When Albuinus, Margrave of Istria began to seize papal territory under the control of John, Archbishop of Ravenna in 907, Sergius wrote to Albuinus asking him to desist. When Sergius was ignored, the pope wrote to the Bishop of Pola in 910 the following:

I will never grant the [imperial] crown to Berengario until he commits himself to take the [Istria] mark of Albino, and gives it to a better man.

He rebuilt the Lateran Palace, which had been destroyed by an earthquake in 896 and then stripped of its treasures by Antipope Christopher. He reformed it with objects, images and crucifixes, and decorated its newly built walls with frescoes.

In 905 he provided funds for the church of Silva Candida, which had been devastated by a Saracen raid.

He also helped with the rebuilding of Nonantola Abbey, which had suffered attacks by the Magyars, and eventually granted privileges to some monasteries and churches in East and West France.

Relationship with Constantinople

Like his predecessors, he continued to defend the Filioque clause of the Nicene symbol, which was against the position of the Church of the East.

Papal legates attending the council of Trosle in June 909 attacked the Byzantine position, getting the synod to condemn it in the fourteenth canon:

As the Holy See has been aware that the blasphemous errors of a certain Spirit against the Holy Spirit are still vigorous in the East, errors that teach that the Holy Spirit does not come from the Son, but only from the Father, venerable brothers, we exhort them together with us, that according to the warning of the norms of the Roman headquarters and after a careful study of the works of the Fathers, to extract from the Sacred Writing a carcaj

Almost a century later, this decision led to the removal of Sergius's name from the diptychs by Sergius II, Patriarch of Constantinople.

However, the main problem with Constantinople that arose during Sergius's pontificate was the question of the fourth marriage of the Byzantine Emperor Leo VI. Both the emperor, who wanted to marry Zoe Karbonopsina, and Nicholas I, Patriarch of Constantinople, appealed to Sergius. The pope sent papal legates to Constantinople, who supported the emperor on the grounds that the fourth marriages had not been condemned by the Church as a whole. Nicholas's reluctance to accept this ruling, Leo VI deposed him, whereupon Nicholas did an appeal to the pope claiming that his deposition was unjustified.

Alleged relationship with Marozia

The relationship between Sergio and Theophylact's family became even closer thanks to, at least according to rumors, an alleged relationship with Theophylact's daughter, Marozia. This supposed relationship was promoted by Marozia's mother, Teodora, and as a result of this, a male child was born who, with the passing of time, became Pope John XI (931-935). The only source for this story is the chronicler Liutprando of Cremona, who narrated the events 50 years after Sergio's pontificate. Neither Auxilius of Naples nor Eugenio Vulgarius, both contemporaries and opponents of Sergio, made mention of the event.

The relationship, though not impossible, certainly would not have persisted beyond the marriage between Marozia and Alberico I of Spoleto in 909. The problem arises in the existence of Theophylact and Theodora's need to bind Sergius to them by such means, especially when Sergius was already deeply in their debt after his elevation to the papacy, adding to the fact that he lost the opportunity to link himself with another noble house through the marriage of Marozia. The birth of the future John XI in 910, after his marriage to Alberic, seems to indicate that Sergius was not the father. However, it is highly unusual for the eldest son of a noble house to be destined for a career in the church., instead of inheriting the title from his father. The fact that his younger sister Alberico took his father's place as Duke of Spoleto suggests the possibility that John was illegitimate, Sergius being the most likely candidate to be his father.

Death

He died on April 14, 911, and was succeeded by Anastasius III.

He was buried in the old St. Peter's Basilica, between the Silver Gate and the Ravenna Gate.

Posteriority

Much of Sergius' pontificate has been maligned throughout history, primarily through the reporting of his character and the state of Rome during his rule by Liutprando of Cremona. His account of the period was notable for the rise of what 19th century papal historians saw as a "pornography & # 34; or "rule of harlots", an inversion of the natural order, according to the Liber Pontificalis and a chronicler whose view was biased against Sergius III. This "pornocracy" it was a time when women held power in Rome: Theodora, whom Liutprand described as a "shameless whore... [who] wields power over Roman citizenship like a man" and her daughter Marozia, mother of John XI and Sergius III's reputation as a lover owes much to a remark of Liutprando's.

César Baronio, a historian of the XVI century, and drawing on Liutprando, was particularly scathing, describing Sergio as "a unfortunate, worthy of the rope and the fire [...] the flames could not cause this detestable monster the suffering for the punishments it deserves. It is impossible to believe that such a pope was someone legitimate."

However, the reality is that when Sergio was forcibly exiled by Lamberto, Duke of Spoleto, all official documents were destroyed; thus much of the surviving documentation on Sergius comes from his pro-Formoso opponents, who had fled to Naples. Regarding Pope Sergius III's alleged illicit relationship with Marozia, the Catholic Encyclopedia he says that the story "that he had his two predecessors killed, and that by his illicit relations with Marozia he had a son, who later became John XI, must be regarded as highly doubtful. These claims are made only by bitter or misinformed adversaries of him, and are inconsistent with what is said of him by his respectable contemporaries."

However, most modern views of Sergius's pontificate remain poor. According to Horace K. Mann, "Sergio was, unfortunately, a marked party man, and eager for his party supremacy."

The best that Ferdinand Gregorovius could say of him was: "That Sergius, who remained pope through the storms for seven years, was at least a man of energy as must be admitted, though the virtues are few." apostolic ideas to look for in a character like this".

James S. Packer described him as evil and ferocious, killing his enemies with a private army, while Walter Ullmann describes him as a typical representative of the House of Theophylact, preoccupied with power and sexual relations.