Editing Pope Damasus II (section)

== Imperial intervention ==

In 1046, the city of Rome was in chaos. It had three popes, [[Benedict IX]], [[Sylvester III]], and [[Pope Gregory VI|Gregory VI]], one at St. Peter's, one at the Lateran, and a third at S. Maria Maggiore. There was street fighting between inhabitants of the city proper and the inhabitants of the Trastevere region. [[Pope Gregory VI]]'s archdeacon, Peter, took matters into his own hands, summoned a Roman synod, and sent representatives to the Emperor Henry III, begging for aid to restore order.<ref>{{cite book|author=Thomas Greenwood|title=Cathedra Petri: A Political History of the Great Latin Patriarchate|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w5ErAAAAYAAJ|volume=4|year=1861|publisher=Thickbroom Brothers|location=London|pages=65, 70–71}}</ref> Henry, who was looking forward to his imperial coronation in Rome, needed one, clear, universally acknowledged pope to perform the ceremony.<ref>Gregorovius, p. 53.</ref> He left Augsburg, therefore, and was in Verona in the second week of September 1046.<ref>Gregorovius, p. 54.</ref> There he held a military review. He then moved to Pavia, where he was in residence by 25 October 1046, and where he held both a ''synodale concilium'' and a ''populare iudicium''.<ref>{{cite book|author=Ernst Steindorff|title=Jahrbücher des deutschen Reichs unter Heinrich III|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WtVWAAAAMAAJ|volume=I|year=1874|publisher=Duncker & Humblot|location=Leipzig|language=German|pages=305, 307 with note 2}}</ref> One of the bishops present at the synod was Poppo of Brixen.<ref>Steindorff, p. 308. {{cite book|title=Constitutiones et acta publica imperatorum et regum. Legum sectio IV|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w140AQAAMAAJ|series=Monumenta Germaniae historica i|volume=Tomus I|year=1893|publisher=Hahn|location=Hannover|language=German, Latin|pages=94–95}}</ref> On 25 November, the King was in Lucca, and on 1 December at San Genesio, near San Miniato.<ref>Steindorff, p. 313.</ref> Finally he reached Sutri, only 56&nbsp;km (35&nbsp;mi) from Rome. There he summoned a synod on 20 December 1046,<ref>Jaffé, p. 525.</ref> which came to be attended by 1046 bishops and by the Roman clergy. The three papal claimants were ordered to appear, and Gregory VI and Sylvester III did so.<ref>Henry had already met with Gregory VI, when he moved from Pavia to Piacenza. Steindorff, p. 311, with note 6. Greenwood, pp. 74–75.</ref> Gregory was compelled to recite the circumstances of his election, which seemed to many of the bishops to be simoniacal; realizing the depth of his difficulties, Gregory resigned his papal office and claims. Sylvester was deposed, and ordered to a monastery. Benedict had already fled to his relatives in Tusculum.<ref>Gregorovius, pp. 54–55. {{cite book|author=Cesare Baronio|editor=Augustino Theiner|title=Annales ecclesiastici denuo excusi et ad nostra usque tempora perducti ab Augustino Theiner...|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0RjnAAAAMAAJ&pg=PP12|volume=Tomus septimusdecimus (17)|year=1869|location=Bar-le-Duc|language=Latin|pages=1–3}}</ref> The imperial party then moved on to Rome, where another synod was held on 23 and 24 December. The once deposed, and anathematized, Benedict IX, was again deposed, as were the other two already deposed claimants, and the throne of Peter declared vacant. Henry acknowledged the right of the Romans to elect their own bishop, absent an emperor. but the Roman senators begged the emperor to give them a suitable candidate. Henry first named Bishop Adalbert of Hamburg and Bremen, but he declined. Then the King named Bishop Suidger of Bamberg in Bavaria, who was elected on Christmas Eve as Clement II. Both pope and emperor were crowned next day. Clement died less than ten months later, on 9 October 1047, at the abbey of S. Tommaso near Pesaro.<ref>Gregorovius, pp. 56–63. J.N.D. Kelly and M. J. Walsh, ''Oxford Dictionary of Popes'' second ed. (Oxford 2010), p. 145. Paul Fridolin Kehr (1909), [https://archive.org/stream/italiapontificia04cath#page/n233/mode/1up ''Italia pontificia''] Vol. IV (Berlin: Weidmann 1909), pp.&nbsp;182–183 {{in lang|la}}.</ref>