“I am horrified to state how shame− “ful was the life which Benedict led, how dissolute, how “detestable. Therefore I shall commence my rela− “tion at the period when God took pity on his holy “church. After Benedict IX. had wearied the Romans “with his thefts, his murders, his abominations, the “excess of his villainy became insupportable; he “was expelled by the people: and to replace him “they elected for a stipulated price, in contempt of “the holy canons, John, Bishop of Sabine, who filled “the Holy See for three months only, under the “name of Sylvester in. Benedict IX. who was de− “scended from the Consuls of Rome, and whom a “powerful party recalled, wasted the environs of the “city, and by the aid of his soldiers, compelled “Sylvester to retire ignominiously to his bishoprick “of Sabine. Benedict in resuming the tiara, did not “leave behind him his manners, always hateful to the “clergy, and to the people, whom his irregularities “continued to disgust; terrified with the outcry “raised against his crimes, given up besides to volup− “tuous pleasures, and more disposed to live as an “Epicurean than as a pontiff, he adopted the re− “solution of selling the pontificate to the arch− “priest John, who paid him a considerable sum “for it. This John nevertheless passed in the city “for one of the best of the ecclesiastics; and while “Benedict took up his abode in houses of pleasure, “John under the name of Gregory VI. governed the “church two years and three months, till the arrival “of Henry III., king of Germany.” Such is the picture drawn for us by a pope, of the condition of the Holy See, under three popes, his predecessors, from 1033 to 1046. It may be proper to observe, that Benedict the VIII. his brother John XIX. and their nephew, Benedict IX. were of the house of the Alberics counts of Tusculum. This is one of the first examples of pontifical nepotism, or of the efforts of a family to perpetuate itself in the Holy See. We have seen by the statement of Victor III. that in 1045, there existed at the same moment three popes; to wit, Benedict IX. who had retired to his castle; Sylvester III. exiled to his original bishopric; and Gregory VI. seated at Rome, since 1044. This last pontiff, who had purchased his place, wished to reap its fruits, and could not behold them without grief considerably lessened from the loss of many domains, usurped by seculars from the Holy See. He took up arms to reconquer them, without neglecting, however, the excommunication of their possessors. These were the principal acts of his pontifical court. He is represented to us, as a very ignorant man, even for the age in which he fired; it is doubtful whether he could read;¹⁴⁰ and history relates, that a coadjutor was given him to perform the pastoral functions, while he was signalizing himself by warlike exploits.