Pope from
18 May 1012
Pope until
9 April 1024
Died
9 April 1024
Who he was
A son of Count Gregory of Tusculum and brother of the later John XIX, he was the first of the popes from the Tusculan family. He was still a layman when he was put on the papal throne by force in 1012, but he drove out a rival and proved a strong and capable ruler.
What he is remembered for
He crowned Henry II emperor in 1014 and worked closely with him, holding a synod at Pavia in 1022 against simony and clerical incontinence and consecrating Bamberg cathedral in 1020. He curbed the Crescentii, defeated the Saracens, allied himself with the newly arrived Normans in the south, and supported the Truce of God and the reform spreading from Cluny. He was a friend of St Odilo of Cluny.
Sources
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