Editing Pope Benedict IX (section)

==First pontificate (1032–1044)==
Benedict IX's reign was allegedly "scandalous", and factional strife continued.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Hauck |first=Albert |date=1908 |title=Benedict IX |url=https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/encyc02/encyc02/Page_40.html |journal=[[Schaff–Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge|The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopædia of Religious Knowledge]] |volume=2 |pages=40–41 |via=[[Christian Classics Ethereal Library]]}}</ref> [[Ferdinand Gregorovius]], wrote that in Benedict, "It seemed as if a demon from hell, in the disguise of a priest, occupied the chair of Peter and profaned the sacred mysteries of religion by his insolent courses."<ref>{{cite book |author=Ferdinand Gregorovius |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8z2ZEOE-azoC&pg=PA47 |title=History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages |date=10 June 2010 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=9781108015035 |access-date=}}</ref> Horace K. Mann called him "a disgrace to the Chair of Peter".<ref name=":1" /> [[Pope Victor III]], in his third book of ''Dialogues'', referred to "his rapes, murders and other unspeakable acts of violence and sodomy. His life as a pope was so vile, so foul, so execrable, that I shudder to think of it."<ref>{{Citation|quote=Cuius vita quam turpis, quam freda, quamque execranda extiterit, horresco referre |last=Victor III |first=Pope |author-link=Pope Victor III |title=Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Libelli de lite |language=la |publisher=Deutsches Institut für Erforschung des Mittelalters |year=1934 |location=Hannover |page=141 |edition=Dialogi de miraculis Sancti Benedicti Liber Tertius auctore Desiderio abbate Casinensis |url=http://www.uan.it/alim/letteratura.nsf/(volumiID)/D8115E7BB6446DC9C1256D660075CE62/$FILE/AlimDesiderioDialogi.doc?openelement |access-date=3 January 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070715072854/http://www.uan.it/alim/letteratura.nsf/(volumiID)/D8115E7BB6446DC9C1256D660075CE62/$FILE/AlimDesiderioDialogi.doc?openelement |archive-date=15 July 2007 }}</ref>

According to [[Reginald Lane Poole]], "In a time of acute political hostility,  accusations, as we know too well, are made and are believed, which in a calmer time would never have been suggested."<ref name="Poole">{{Cite journal |last=Poole |first=Reginald L. |date=1917 |title=Benedict IX and Gregory VI |url=https://archive.org/stream/benedictixgregor00pooluoft#page/14/mode/2up |journal=[[Proceedings of the British Academy]] |volume=8 |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref> He further suggests the credibility of such accusations was determined by probability rather than proof, and a reaction to the [[Tusculan Papacy|Tusculan hegemony]]. Poole observes that "we have to wait until he had discredited himself by his sale of the Papacy before we hear anything definite about his misdeeds; and the further we go in time and place, the worse his character becomes". Poole considers Benedict "a negligent Pope, very likely a profligate man",{{sfn|Poole|1917|p=20}} but notes that the picture presented of Benedict is drawn at a time when the party opposed to him was in the ascendant, and he had neither friends nor supporters.{{sfn|Poole|1917|pp=20–21}}

Pope Benedict IX was briefly forced out of Rome in 1036, but returned with the help of [[Emperor Conrad II]], who had expelled the bishops of Piacenza and Cremona from their sees.<ref name=":2" /> Bishop Benno of Piacenza accused Benedict of "many vile adulteries and murders".<ref>“Post multa turpia adulteria et homicidia manibus suis perpetrata, postremo, etc.”{{Citation
 |last        = Dümmler
 |first       = Ernst Ludwig
 |author-link  = Ernst Dümmler
 |title       = Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Libelli de lite
 |language    = la
 |publisher   = Deutsches Institut für Erforschung des Mittelalters
 |year        = 1891
 |location    = Hannover
 |page        = 584
 |volume      = I
 |edition     = Bonizonis episcopi Sutriensis: Liber ad amicum
 |url         = http://www.uan.it/alim/letteratura.nsf/(volumiID)/A9E60829767DA2D2C1256D6B0074177B/$FILE/AlimBonizoAdamicum.doc?openelement
 |access-date  = 3 January 2008
 |url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20070713211642/http://www.uan.it/alim/letteratura.nsf/%28volumiID%29/A9E60829767DA2D2C1256D6B0074177B/%24FILE/AlimBonizoAdamicum.doc?openelement
 |archive-date = 13 July 2007
}}</ref> He was accused by [[Peter Damian]] in his ''[[Liber Gomorrhianus]]'' of routine sodomy and bestiality and sponsoring orgies.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Damian |first=Saint Peter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DTDZAAAAMAAJ |title=Liber Gomorrhianus: omosessualità ecclesiastica e riforma della Chiesa |date=2001 |publisher=Edizioni dell'Orso |isbn=978-88-7694-517-5 |language=it}}</ref> In September 1044, opposition to Benedict IX's dissolute lifestyle forced him out of the city again and elected [[Sylvester III]] to replace him.<ref name=":2" />