1.
Pope Gregory VI
–
Pope Gregory VI, born John Gratian in Rome, was Pope from 1 May 1045 until his abdication at the Council of Sutri on 20 December 1046. Gratian, the Archpriest of St. John by the Latin Gate, was a man of reputation for uprightness of character. He was also the godfather of Pope Benedict IX, who was foisted on the papacy by his powerful family, the Theophylacti, counts of Tusculum, at the age of twenty. Benedict IX, wishing to marry and vacate the position into which he had been thrust by his family, consulted his godfather as to whether he could resign the pontificate. When he was convinced that he might do so, he offered to give up the papacy into the hands of his if he would reimburse him for his election expenses. Desirous of ridding the See of Rome of such an unworthy pontiff, the accession of Gratian, who took the name Gregory VI, did not bring peace, though it was hailed with joy even by such a strict upholder of the right as St. Peter Damian. When Benedict IX left the city after selling the papacy, there was another aspirant to the See of Peter in the field. John, Bishop of Sabina, had been hailed as Pope Sylvester III by the faction of the nobility that had driven Benedict IX from Rome in 1044, and had then installed him in his place. With an empty exchequer and a clergy that had largely lost the savour of righteousness, nevertheless, with the aid of his capellanus or chaplain, Hildebrand, destined to be Pope Gregory VII, he tried to bring about civil and religious order. He strove to effect the latter by means of letters and councils, but the factions of his rivals were too strong to be put down, and the confusion only increased. Henry III responded to pleas by descending into Italy in the autumn of 1046. Strong in the conviction of his innocence, Gregory VI went north to meet him and he was received by Henry III with all the honour due to a Pope, and in accordance with the royal request, summoned a council to meet at Sutri. Of his rivals, Sylvester III alone presented himself at the synod, both his claim to the papacy and that of Benedict IX were soon disposed of. Deprived of all rank and considered a usurper from the beginning. Gregory VI was accused of purchasing the papacy and freely admitted it, however, he disputed that this act, given the circumstances, however, the bishops of the synod impressed upon Gratian that this act was indeed simoniacal, and called upon him to resign. Gregory VI, seeing that little choice was left to him, complied of his own accord, Gregory VI was succeeded in the papacy by the German bishop of Bamberg, Suidger, who took the name Pope Clement II. Gregory VI himself was taken by the Emperor to Germany in May 1047, Gregory VI was accompanied by Hildebrand, who remained with him until his death. After about a year in Cluny, Hildebrand returned to Rome in January 1049 with the new Pope Leo IX, successor of Popes Clement II and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Herbermann, Charles, ed. Pope Gregory VI
2.
Pope Benedict IX
–
Pope Benedict IX, born Theophylactus of Tusculum in Rome, was Pope on three occasions between October 1032 and July 1048. Aged approximately 20 at his first election, he is one of the youngest popes in history and he is the only man to have been Pope on more than one occasion and the only man ever to have sold the papacy. Benedict was the son of Alberic III, Count of Tusculum and he was also a grandnephew of Pope John XII. His father obtained the Papal chair for him by bribing the Romans, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia Benedict IX was about 20 when made pontiff in October 1032. Other sources state 11 or 12, based upon the testimony of Rupert Glaber. Benedict IX reportedly led a dissolute life and allegedly had few qualifications for the papacy other than connections with a socially powerful family. In terms of theology and the activities of the Church he was entirely orthodox. His life was scandalous, and factional strife continued. The Catholic Encyclopedia calls him a disgrace to the Chair of Peter and he was the first pope rumoured to have been primarily homosexual. Pope Victor III, in his book of Dialogues, referred to his rapes, murders and other unspeakable acts of violence. His life as a pope was so vile, so foul, so execrable, that I shudder to think of it. According to Reginald Lane Poole, In a time of political hostility accusations, as we know too well, are made and are believed. He further suggests the credibility of such accusations was determined by probability rather than proof, and he 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. Bishop Benno of Piacenza accused Benedict of many vile adulteries and murders, in September 1044, opposition to Benedict IXs sodomitic lifestyle forced him out of the city again and elected John, Bishop of Sabina, as Pope Sylvester III. Benedict IXs forces returned in April 1045 and expelled his rival, doubting his own ability to maintain his position, and wishing to marry, Benedict decided to abdicate, and consulted his godfather, the pious priest John Gratian, about the possibility of resigning. He offered to give up the papacy into the hands of his if he would reimburse him for his election expenses. Desirous of ridding the See of Rome of such an unworthy pontiff, 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 implored Emperor Henry III to cross the Alps and restore order
3.
Hornburg
–
Hornburg is a town and a former municipality in the Wolfenbüttel district, in the German state of Lower Saxony. Since 1 November 2013, it is part of the municipality Schladen-Werla and it is situated at the Ilse river, a tributary of the Oker. Hornburg is part of the Samtgemeinde Schladen and home to numerous historically valuable half-timber buildings and it is located on the German Timber-Frame Road. Hornburg Castle was first mentioned in a 994 deed as a property of the Bishopric of Halberstadt, in 1005 it was the birthplace of Pope Clement II. The fortress located on a limestone plateau served to control the border of the bishopric. It was devastated by Henry the Lion in 1179 during his conflicht with the bishop, an ally of Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, in 1528 the attached settlement was denoted as a town by the Halberstadt bishops, it received market rights in 1552. At the same time Hornburg, thriving from the cultivation of humulus for beer brewing, was surrounded by a wall including five gates. The ensemble of about 400 Renaissance timber framed houses arose after a blaze in 1512 had devastated nearly all of Hornburgs buildings, the reconstruction of the town with eaborately carved Fachwerk houses was modeled after the townscape of Halberstadt. With the bishopric Hornburg turned Protestant in 1540, the parish church Beatae Mariae Virginis is considered one of the first Lutheran hall churches in the region. During the Thirty Years War Hornburg was occupied by the Imperial field marshal Johann Tserclaes von Tilly in 1626, in 1645 the Swedish military Hans Christoff von Königsmarck finally had the castle slighted. The nowadays building is a reconstruction on an initiative in the 1920s. With the secularization of the Halberstadt bishopric in 1648, Hornburg fell to the electors of Brandenburg, Hornburg stayed a Prussian town until 1941, when it was attached to the Free State of Brunswick in the course of the establishment of the City of Salzgitter. Therefore, at the end of World War II Hornburg found itself in British occupation zone and later became a West German town
4.
Lower Saxony
–
Lower Saxony is a German state situated in northwestern Germany and is second in area, with 47,624 square kilometres, and fourth in population among the sixteen Länder of Germany. In rural areas Northern Low Saxon, a dialect of Low German, and Saterland Frisian, a variety of Frisian, are still spoken, but the number of speakers is declining. Lower Saxony borders on the North Sea, the states of Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia, and the Netherlands. Furthermore, the state of Bremen forms two enclaves within Lower Saxony, one being the city of Bremen, the other, its city of Bremerhaven. In fact, Lower Saxony borders more neighbours than any other single Bundesland, the states principal cities include the state capital Hanover, Braunschweig, Lüneburg, Osnabrück, Oldenburg, Hildesheim, Wolfenbüttel, Wolfsburg and Göttingen. The northwestern area of Lower Saxony, which lies on the coast of the North Sea, is called East Frisia, in the extreme west of Lower Saxony is the Emsland, a traditionally poor and sparsely populated area, once dominated by inaccessible swamps. The northern half of Lower Saxony, also known as the North German Plains, is almost invariably flat except for the hills around the Bremen geestland. Towards the south and southwest lie the northern parts of the German Central Uplands, the Weser Uplands, between these two lie the Lower Saxon Hills, a range of low ridges. Thus, Lower Saxony is the only Bundesland that encompasses both maritime and mountainous areas, Lower Saxonys major cities and economic centres are mainly situated in its central and southern parts, namely Hanover, Braunschweig, Osnabrück, Wolfsburg, Salzgitter, Hildesheim and Göttingen. Oldenburg, near the coastline, is another economic centre. To the north, the Elbe river separates Lower Saxony from Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the banks just south of the Elbe are known as Altes Land. Due to its local climate and fertile soil, it is the states largest area of fruit farming. Most of the territory was part of the historic Kingdom of Hanover. It was created by the merger of the State of Hanover with several states in 1946. Lower Saxony has a boundary in the north in the North Sea. The state and city of Bremen is an enclave surrounded by Lower Saxony. The Bremen/Oldenburg Metropolitan Region is a body for the enclave area. To the southeast the state border runs through the Harz, low mountains that are part of the German Central Uplands, in northeast Lower Saxony is Lüneburg Heath
5.
Holy Roman Empire
–
The Holy Roman Empire was a multi-ethnic complex of territories in central Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806. On 25 December 800, Pope Leo III crowned the Frankish king Charlemagne as Emperor, reviving the title in Western Europe, more than three centuries after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The title was revived in 962 when Otto I was crowned emperor, fashioning himself as the successor of Charlemagne, some historians refer to the coronation of Charlemagne as the origin of the empire, while others prefer the coronation of Otto I as its beginning. Scholars generally concur, however, in relating an evolution of the institutions and principles constituting the empire, the office of Holy Roman Emperor was traditionally elective, although frequently controlled by dynasties. Emperor Francis II dissolved the empire on 6 August 1806, after the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine by Napoleon, before 1157, the realm was merely referred to as the Roman Empire. In a decree following the 1512 Diet of Cologne, the name was changed to Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, by the end of the 18th century, the term Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation had fallen out of official use. As Roman power in Gaul declined during the 5th century, local Germanic tribes assumed control, by the middle of the 8th century, however, the Merovingians had been reduced to figureheads, and the Carolingians, led by Charles Martel, had become the de facto rulers. In 751, Martel’s son Pepin became King of the Franks, the Carolingians would maintain a close alliance with the Papacy. In 768 Pepin’s son Charlemagne became King of the Franks and began an expansion of the realm. He eventually incorporated the territories of present-day France, Germany, northern Italy, on Christmas Day of 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor, restoring the title in the west for the first time in over three centuries. After the death of Charles the Fat in 888, however, the Carolingian Empire broke apart, according to Regino of Prüm, the parts of the realm spewed forth kinglets, and each part elected a kinglet from its own bowels. After the death of Charles the Fat, those crowned emperor by the pope controlled only territories in Italy, the last such emperor was Berengar I of Italy, who died in 924. Around 900, autonomous stem duchies reemerged in East Francia, on his deathbed, Conrad yielded the crown to his main rival, Henry the Fowler of Saxony, who was elected king at the Diet of Fritzlar in 919. Henry reached a truce with the raiding Magyars, and in 933 he won a first victory against them in the Battle of Riade, Henry died in 936, but his descendants, the Liudolfing dynasty, would continue to rule the Eastern kingdom for roughly a century. Upon Henry the Fowlers death, Otto, his son and designated successor, was elected King in Aachen in 936 and he overcame a series of revolts from an elder brother and from several dukes. After that, the managed to control the appointment of dukes. In 951, Otto came to the aid of Adelaide, the queen of Italy, defeating her enemies, marrying her. In 955, Otto won a victory over the Magyars in the Battle of Lechfeld
6.
Pesaro
–
Pesaro is a town and comune in the Italian region of the Marche, capital of the Pesaro e Urbino province, on the Adriatic. According to the 2011 census, its population was 95,011, making it the second most populous city in the Marche, Pesaro is known as City of Bicycle, thanks to its big net of bicycle paths. The city received this award by Legambiente, the most important ecologist society in Italy, in 2015 and it is also known as City of Music thanks to the bond with Gioacchino Rossini, the famous composer born in Pesaro. For this reason, in 2015, the Italian Government officially candidate Pesaro as Creative City in the group of World Heritage Sites of UNESCO, fishery, furniture industry and tourism are the main strengths of the local economy. The city was founded as Pisaurum by the Romans in 184 BC as colony in the territory of the Picentes, a settlement of the Picentes tribe has been found at Novilara. The northern Picentes were invaded in the 4th century BC by the Gallic Senones, earlier by the Etruscans, within it the Gauls at least were still distinct, as the Romans separated them out and expelled them from the country. Under the Roman administration Pesaro, a hub across the Via Flaminia, became an important center of trading, after the fall of the Western Empire, Pesaro was occupied by the Ostrogoths, and destroyed by Vitigis in the course of the Gothic War. Hastily rebuilt five years later after the Byzantine reconquest, it formed the so-called Pentapolis, after the Lombard and Frankish conquests of that city, Pesaro became part of the Papal States. During the Renaissance it was ruled successively by the houses of Malatesta, Sforza, in 1475, a legendary wedding took place in Pesaro, when Costanzo Sforza and Camilla DAragona married. On 11 September 1860 Piedmontese troops entered the city, and Pesaro was subsequently annexed to the new Kingdom of Italy, rocca Costanza - Massive castle built by Costanzo I Sforza, it has a square plan with four cylindrical corner towers and a wide dry moat. Its sunken court is the precedent for the more famous one at the Roman Villa Giulia. Rooms are frescoed by prominent Mannerist painters Bronzino, Francesco Menzocchi, Girolamo Genga, mura Roveresche - Della Rovere Walls, demolished in the early 20th century), only two gates, Porta del Ponte and Porta Rimini, and a short section remain. Birthplace of Gioacchino Rossini- Now a museum dedicated to the composer and it has a museum with manifestoes, prints, portraits and his spinet. Among the masterpieces is the Pesaro Altarpiece by Giovanni Bellini, oliveriani Museum and Library- Archaeological Collection and Manuscript Library, founded in 1756 by Annibale degli Abati Olivieri. Cathedral of Pesaro Romanesque-Gothic Basilica built over remains of a late Roman edifice, the façade, in Romanesque-Gothic style, is unfinished, it has a simple ogival portal surmounted by a band of small arches. A recent restoration has brought to light floor mosaics, the Baroque Sanctuary of Beata Vergine del Carmelo. Rossini Opera Festival has taken place every summer since 1980 in Pesaro, Pesaro hosts the home games of Victoria Libertas basketball team, better known across Europe as Scavolini Pesaro. Adriatic Arena, third biggest Italian indoor arena behind Mediolanum Forum in Milan, among the town industries is the motocross and enduro brand of TM Racing, a small manufacturer of race-ready motorbikes based in the coastal town since 1978
7.
Papal States
–
The Papal States, officially the State of the Church, were territories in the Italian Peninsula under the sovereign direct rule of the pope, from the 8th century until 1870. They were among the states of Italy from roughly the 8th century until the Italian Peninsula was unified in 1861 by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. At their zenith, they covered most of the modern Italian regions of Lazio, Marche, Umbria and Romagna and these holdings were considered to be a manifestation of the temporal power of the pope, as opposed to his ecclesiastical primacy. By 1861, much of the Papal States territory had been conquered by the Kingdom of Italy, only Lazio, including Rome, remained under the Popes temporal control. In 1870, the pope lost Lazio and Rome and had no physical territory at all, Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini ended the crisis between unified Italy and the Vatican by signing the Lateran Treaty, granting the Vatican City State sovereignty. The Papal States were also known as the Papal State, the territories were also referred to variously as the State of the Church, the Pontifical States, the Ecclesiastical States, or the Roman States. For its first 300 years the Catholic Church was persecuted and unrecognized and this system began to change during the reign of the emperor Constantine I, who made Christianity legal within the Roman Empire, and restoring to it any properties that had been confiscated. The Lateran Palace was the first significant new donation to the Church, other donations followed, primarily in mainland Italy but also in the provinces of the Roman Empire. But the Church held all of these lands as a private landowner, the seeds of the Papal States as a sovereign political entity were planted in the 6th century. Beginning In 535, the Byzantine Empire, under emperor Justinian I, launched a reconquest of Italy that took decades and devastated Italys political, just as these wars wound down, the Lombards entered the peninsula from the north and conquered much of the countryside. While the popes remained Byzantine subjects, in practice the Duchy of Rome, nevertheless, the pope and the exarch still worked together to control the rising power of the Lombards in Italy. As Byzantine power weakened, though, the took a ever larger role in defending Rome from the Lombards. In practice, the papal efforts served to focus Lombard aggrandizement on the exarch, a climactic moment in the founding of the Papal States was the agreement over boundaries embodied in the Lombard king Liutprands Donation of Sutri to Pope Gregory II. When the Exarchate of Ravenna finally fell to the Lombards in 751, the popes renewed earlier attempts to secure the support of the Franks. In 751, Pope Zachary had Pepin the Younger crowned king in place of the powerless Merovingian figurehead king Childeric III, zacharys successor, Pope Stephen II, later granted Pepin the title Patrician of the Romans. Pepin led a Frankish army into Italy in 754 and 756, Pepin defeated the Lombards – taking control of northern Italy – and made a gift of the properties formerly constituting the Exarchate of Ravenna to the pope. The cooperation between the papacy and the Carolingian dynasty climaxed in 800, when Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Emperor, the precise nature of the relationship between the popes and emperors – and between the Papal States and the Empire – is disputed. Events in the 9th century postponed the conflict, the Holy Roman Empire in its Frankish form collapsed as it was subdivided among Charlemagnes grandchildren
8.
Pope
–
The pope is the Bishop of Rome and, therefore, the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church. The current pope is Francis, who was elected on 13 March 2013, the office of the pope is the papacy. The pope is considered one of the worlds most powerful people because of his diplomatic and he is also head of state of Vatican City, a sovereign city-state entirely enclaved within the Italian capital city of Rome. The papacy is one of the most enduring institutions in the world and has had a prominent part in world history, the popes in ancient times helped in the spread of Christianity and the resolution of various doctrinal disputes. In the Middle Ages, they played a role of importance in Western Europe. Currently, in addition to the expansion of the Christian faith and doctrine, the popes are involved in ecumenism and interfaith dialogue, charitable work, Popes, who originally had no temporal powers, in some periods of history accrued wide powers similar to those of temporal rulers. In recent centuries, popes were gradually forced to give up temporal power, the word pope derives from Greek πάππας meaning father. The earliest record of the use of title was in regard to the by then deceased Patriarch of Alexandria. Some historians have argued that the notion that Peter was the first bishop of Rome, the writings of the Church Father Irenaeus who wrote around AD180 reflect a belief that Peter founded and organised the Church at Rome. Moreover, Irenaeus was not the first to write of Peters presence in the early Roman Church, Clement of Rome wrote in a letter to the Corinthians, c. 96, about the persecution of Christians in Rome as the struggles in our time and presented to the Corinthians its heroes, first, the greatest and most just columns, the good apostles Peter and Paul. St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote shortly after Clement and in his letter from the city of Smyrna to the Romans he said he would not command them as Peter and Paul did. Given this and other evidence, many agree that Peter was martyred in Rome under Nero. Protestants contend that the New Testament offers no proof that Jesus established the papacy nor even that he established Peter as the first bishop of Rome, others, using Peters own words, argue that Christ intended himself as the foundation of the church and not Peter. First-century Christian communities would have had a group of presbyter-bishops functioning as leaders of their local churches, gradually, episcopacies were established in metropolitan areas. Antioch may have developed such a structure before Rome, some writers claim that the emergence of a single bishop in Rome probably did not occur until the middle of the 2nd century. In their view, Linus, Cletus and Clement were possibly prominent presbyter-bishops, documents of the 1st century and early 2nd century indicate that the Holy See had some kind of pre-eminence and prominence in the Church as a whole, though the detail of what this meant is unclear. It seems that at first the terms episcopos and presbyter were used interchangeably, the consensus among scholars has been that, at the turn of the 1st and 2nd centuries, local congregations were led by bishops and presbyters whose offices were overlapping or indistinguishable
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Pope Clement II". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton.
