Editing Pope Benedict IX (section)

==Third pontificate (1047–1048)==
[[File:Benedetto-ix-Teofilatto.jpg|thumb|19th-century religious card depicting Benedict IX]]{{More citations needed section|date=April 2025}}
Benedict IX soon regretted his resignation and returned to Rome, taking the city and remaining on the throne until July 1046, although Gregory VI continued to be recognized as the true pope. At the time, Sylvester III also reasserted his claim. A number of influential clergy and laity besought [[Emperor Henry III]] to cross the Alps and restore order.<ref name=":1" /> Henry intervened, and at the [[Council of Sutri]] in December 1046, Benedict IX and Sylvester III were declared deposed while Gregory VI was encouraged to resign because the arrangement he had entered into with Benedict was considered simoniacal; that is, to have been paid for. A German, [[Clement II]], was chosen to succeed Gregory VI. Benedict IX had not attended the council and did not accept his deposition. 
[[File:Synod-Sutri-1046.jpg|thumb|19th-century illustration of the Council of Sutri]]
When Clement II died in October 1047, Benedict seized the [[Lateran Palace]] in November, again becoming pope, but was driven away by German troops in July 1048. To fill the power vacuum, the German-born [[Damasus II]] was elected pope and universally recognized as such. Benedict IX refused to appear on charges of [[simony]] in 1049 and was [[excommunicated]].

Benedict IX's eventual fate is obscure, but he seems to have given up his claims to the papal throne.  [[Leo IX]] may have lifted the ban on him. Benedict IX was buried in the [[Territorial Abbacy of Saint Mary of Grottaferrata|Abbey of Grottaferrata]] c. 1056. According to the [[abbot]], Saint [[Bartholomew of Grottaferrata]], he was penitent and turned away from the sins he committed as [[pontiff]].