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Antipope Sylvester IV
Sylvester IV, born Maginulf, was a claimant to the Papacy from 1105 to 1111 in opposition to Paschal II. A priest before his election, he was probably a native of Rome. He had the backing of the Roman militia and initially of the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry IV, who later forced him to abdicate. Today he is regarded as an antipope. __TOC__ Election Before his election as pope, Maginulf was the archpriest of Sant'Angelo in Pescheria, which suggests that he was a native of Rome. He cannot be linked to the line of antipopes—Clement III, Theodoric and Adalbert—who opposed the Reformist papacy from 1080 to 1101. While the elections of Theodoric and Adalbert were relatively minor affairs, the election of Maginulf signalled a crisis in the pontificate of Pope Paschal II and was widely noted in contemporary chronicles: ''Annales Ceccanenses'', '' Annales Leodienses'', the Annalista Saxo, Ekkehard of Aura, Sigebert of Gembloux. Members of the Roman aristocracy gathered in the Pantheon, t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antipope Adalbert
Adalbert (or Albert) was elected pope of the Catholic Church in February 1101 and served for 105 days. He was a candidate of the Rome, Roman party opposed to Pope Pope Paschal II, Paschal II and is regarded today as an antipope. Prior to his election he was created a Cardinal (Catholicism), cardinal by the antipope Antipope Clement III, Clement III. He was captured by partisans of Paschal II and forced to live out his days as a monk. Cardinal The date of Adalbert's birth is unknown, but he was from the town of Atella, Basilicata, Atella in southern Italy.* He was an early supporter of Clement III, who rewarded him with the Roman Catholic Suburbicarian Diocese of Porto-Santa Rufina, suburbicarian diocese of Silva Candida. He was among the twelve cardinals of Clement III who gathered in the Lateran Palace to underwrite a papal letter on 4 November 1084.Andrea Piazza"Alberto, antipapa" ''Enciclopedia dei Papi'' (Rome: 2000). Adalbert can be traced at Rome throughout Clement's pontifi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Santa Maria Rotunda
The Pantheon (, ; la, Pantheum,Although the spelling ''Pantheon'' is standard in English, only ''Pantheum'' is found in classical Latin; see, for example, Pliny, '' Natural History'36.38 "Agrippas Pantheum decoravit Diogenes Atheniensis". See also ''Oxford Latin Dictionary'', s.v. "Pantheum"; ''Oxford English Dictionary'', s.v"Pantheon" "post-classical Latin ''pantheon'' a temple consecrated to all the gods (6th cent.; compare classical Latin ''pantheum'')". from Greek ''Pantheion'', " empleof all the gods") is a former Roman temple and, since 609 AD, a Catholic church (Basilica di Santa Maria ad Martyres or Basilica of St. Mary and the Martyrs) in Rome, Italy, on the site of an earlier temple commissioned by Marcus Agrippa during the reign of Augustus (27 BC – 14 AD). It was rebuilt by the emperor Hadrian and probably dedicated 126 AD. Its date of construction is uncertain, because Hadrian chose not to inscribe the new temple but rather to retain the i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tiber Island
The Tiber Island ( it, Isola Tiberina, Latin: ''Insula Tiberina'') is the only river island in the part of the Tiber which runs through Rome. Tiber Island is located in the southern bend of the Tiber. The island is boat-shaped, approximately long and wide, and has been connected with bridges to both sides of the river since antiquity. Being a seat of the ancient temple of Asclepius and later a hospital, the island is associated with medicine and healing. The Fatebenefratelli Hospital founded in the 16th century, and the church of San Bartolomeo all'Isola dating from the 10th century, are located on the island. History The island has been linked to the rest of Rome by two bridges since antiquity, and was once called ''Insula Inter-Duos-Pontes'' which means "the island between the two bridges". The Ponte Fabricio, the only original bridge in Rome, connects the island from the northeast to the Field of Mars in the rione Sant'Angelo (left bank). The Ponte Cestio, of which o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lateran
250px, Basilica and Palace - side view Lateran and Laterano are the shared names of several buildings in Rome. The properties were once owned by the Lateranus family of the Roman Empire. The Laterani lost their properties to Emperor Constantine who gave them to the Catholic Church in 311. The most famous Lateran buildings are the Lateran Palace, once called the Palace of the Popes, and the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran, the cathedral of Rome, which although part of Italy is a property of the Holy See, which has extraterritorial privileges as a result of the 1929 Lateran Treaty. As the official ecclesiastical seat of the pope, Saint John Lateran is the papal ''cathedra''. The Lateran is Christendom's earliest basilica. Attached to the basilica is the Lateran Baptistery, one of the oldest in Christendom. Other constituent parts of the Lateran complex are the building of the Scala Sancta with the Sancta Sanctorum and the Triclinium of Pope Leo III. The Pontifical Lateran Uni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emperor Otto III
Otto III (June/July 980 – 23 January 1002) was Holy Roman Emperor from 996 until his death in 1002. A member of the Ottonian dynasty, Otto III was the only son of the Emperor Otto II and his wife Theophanu. Otto III was crowned as King of Germany in 983 at the age of three, shortly after his father's death in Southern Italy while campaigning against the Byzantine Empire and the Emirate of Sicily. Though the nominal ruler of Germany, Otto III's minor status ensured his various regents held power over the Empire. His cousin Henry II, Duke of Bavaria, initially claimed regency over the young king and attempted to seize the throne for himself in 984. When his rebellion failed to gain the support of Germany's aristocracy, Henry II was forced to abandon his claims to the throne and to allow Otto III's mother Theophanu to serve as regent until her death in 991. Otto III was then still a child, so his grandmother, Adelaide of Italy, served as regent until 994. In 996, Otto III marc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pope Sylvester II
Pope Sylvester II ( – 12 May 1003), originally known as Gerbert of Aurillac, was a French-born scholar and teacher who served as the bishop of Rome and ruled the Papal States from 999 to his death. He endorsed and promoted study of Arab and Greco-Roman arithmetic, mathematics and astronomy, reintroducing to Europe the abacus and armillary sphere, which had been lost to Latin Europe since the end of the Greco-Roman era. He is said to be the first in Europe to introduce the decimal numeral system using the Hindu-Arabic numeral system. He is credited with the invention of the first mechanical clock in 996. Early life Gerbert was born about 946 in the town of Belliac, near the present-day commune of Saint-Simon, Cantal, France. Around 963, he entered the Monastery of St. Gerald of Aurillac. In 967, Count Borrell II of Barcelona (947–992) visited the monastery, and the abbot asked the count to take Gerbert with him so that the lad could study mathematics in Catalonia and acquir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liber Pontificalis
The ''Liber Pontificalis'' (Latin for 'pontifical book' or ''Book of the Popes'') is a book of biographies of popes from Saint Peter until the 15th century. The original publication of the ''Liber Pontificalis'' stopped with Pope Adrian II (867–872) or Pope Stephen V (885–891), but it was later supplemented in a different style until Pope Eugene IV (1431–1447) and then Pope Pius II (1458–1464). Although quoted virtually uncritically from the 8th to 18th centuries, the ''Liber Pontificalis'' has undergone intense modern scholarly scrutiny. The work of the French priest Louis Duchesne (who compiled the major scholarly edition), and of others has highlighted some of the underlying redactional motivations of different sections, though such interests are so disparate and varied as to render improbable one popularizer's claim that it is an "unofficial instrument of pontifical propaganda." The title ''Liber Pontificalis'' goes back to the 12th century, although it only became c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pierleoni
The family of the Pierleoni, meaning "sons of Peter Leo", was a great Roman patrician clan of the Middle Ages, headquartered in a tower house in the quarter of Trastevere that was home to a larger number of Roman Jews. The heads of the family often bore the title ''consul Romanorum'', or "Consul of the Romans," in the early days. The family descended from the eleventh-century Jewish convert Leo de Benedicto, whose baptismal name comes from the fact that he was baptised by Pope Leo IX himself.The original convert, according to th''Jewish Encyclopedia'', "Pierleoni,"would have been his father, taking the name ''Benedictus Christianus'' ("Blessed Christian"), hence, in the usual way, his son Leo de Benedicto. They also were bankers and financially backed the reform papacy. While the Pierleoni during their greatness spuriously claimed to be descended from the ancient Roman noble family of the Anicii, their enemies in Rome made much of their Jewish extraction and levelled the usual char ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colonna
The House of Colonna, also known as ''Sciarrillo'' or ''Sciarra'', is an Italian noble family, forming part of the papal nobility. It was powerful in medieval and Renaissance Rome, supplying one pope (Martin V) and many other church and political leaders. The family is notable for its bitter feud with the Orsini family over influence in Rome, until it was stopped by papal bull in 1511. In 1571, the heads of both families married nieces of Pope Sixtus V. Thereafter, historians recorded that "no peace had been concluded between the princes of Christendom, in which they had not been included by name". History Origins According to tradition, the Colonna family is a branch of the Counts of Tusculum — by Peter (1099–1151) son of Gregory III, called Peter "de Columna" from his property the Columna Castle in Colonna, in the Alban Hills. Further back, they trace their lineage past the Counts of Tusculum via Lombard and Italo-Roman nobles, merchants, and clergy through the Early Mid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Simoniac
Simony () is the act of selling church offices and roles or sacred things. It is named after Simon Magus, who is described in the Acts of the Apostles as having offered two disciples of Jesus payment in exchange for their empowering him to impart the power of the Holy Spirit to anyone on whom he would place his hands. The term extends to other forms of trafficking for money in "spiritual things". Origin The purchase or sale of ecclesiastical office was condemned from the fifth century, but it was only in the sixth century that it was associated with the figure of Simon Magus in the Book of Acts. Key in making this association was Pope Gregory I, who labelled such exchanges as the "simoniac heresy". Simony in the Middle Ages Although considered a serious offense against canon law, simony is thought to have become widespread in the Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 bi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emperor Henry IV
Henry IV (german: Heinrich IV; 11 November 1050 – 7 August 1106) was Holy Roman Emperor from 1084 to 1105, King of Germany from 1054 to 1105, King of Italy and Burgundy from 1056 to 1105, and Duke of Bavaria from 1052 to 1054. He was the son of Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor—the second monarch of the Salian dynasty—and Agnes of Poitou. After his father's death on 5 October 1056, Henry was placed under his mother's guardianship. She made grants to German aristocrats to secure their support. Unlike her late husband, she could not control the election of the popes, thus the idea of the "liberty of the Church" strengthened during her rule. Taking advantage of her weakness, Archbishop Anno II of Cologne kidnapped Henry in April 1062. He administered Germany until Henry came of age in 1065. Henry endeavoured to recover the royal estates that had been lost during his minority. He employed low-ranking officials to carry out his new policies, causing discontent in Saxony and Thuri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Werner II Of Spoleto
Werner II was the margrave of Ancona and Duke of Spoleto from 1093 to 1119. He was the founder of the family of the Guarnieri of Urslingen. Werner was originally a Swabian count who was sent as captain of the German contingent of 700 infantry and cavalry by the Emperor Henry III to assist Pope Leo IX at the Battle of Civitate. Subsequent to that great defeat, during which his Swabians were routed by Richard I of Capua, Werner conquered a swathe of Adriatic territory centred on the Pentapolis. The region was called after him the "March of Werner". He became an ally of the Emperor Henry IV, son of Henry III, in the war against the marchioness of Tuscany, Matilda. Henry appointed him duke of Spoleto in 1093. In 1105, he affirmed him as margrave in the three marches of Ancona, Fermo, and Camerino, which was thereafter called the "March of Ancona", or ''Marca Anconitana''. This forms the basis for the existing Italian region of Marche. He henceforth appears in chronicles and charters a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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