Editing Pope Gregory VI (section)

== Synod of Sutri ==
Only Sylvester III and Gregory VI presented themselves at the [[Synod of Sutri]], which was opened on 20 December 1046. The claims of Sylvester III and Benedict IX were quickly rejected, and the former was condemned to be confined in a monastery for the rest of his life.<ref name=Mann/> Gregory VI was accused of purchasing the papacy and freely admitted it; he nevertheless denied that this act, given the circumstances, constituted the crime of [[simony]]. The bishops of the synod assured Gratian that this act was indeed simoniacal, regardless of his virtuous motivations for it, and called upon him to resign. Seeing that little choice was left to him,<ref name=Mann/> he complied of his own accord and laid down his office.

Gregory VI was succeeded in the papacy by the German [[bishop of Bamberg]], Suidger, who took the name [[Pope Clement II]]. In May 1047 Gregory was taken by Henry to Germany; he died in 1048, probably at Cologne. To the end he was accompanied by Hildebrand, who (after about a year in [[Cluny]]) returned to Rome in January 1049 with the newly elected [[Pope Leo IX]]. And when Hildebrand himself was elected pope in 1073, he called himself Pope Gregory VII in order to proclaim his firm and loyal belief in the legitimacy of Gratian as Pope Gregory VI.