Page 6 - Benedict Ix News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Sign, the cardinals decide to elect him pope. >> in the 13th century you had a great succession of reforming popes, politicians. but this is not how a pope should be. so what they did was elect a pope who was as unworldly as you could possibly hope for, a hermit. they called him celestine, the heavenly one. >> he does not want to be pope. he'd rather be off praying alone by elf.ms he goes to this papy reluctantly. he didn't exactly know what was going on. it's not clear how sharp mentally he was. >> celestine v was hopeless. >> he announces his retirement

Spiritual foundation becomes -- >> in july of 1048 benedict ix is officially ousted once and for all. the cardinals decide the fairest way to consolidate papal power is to ignore sylvester and gregory's claims to the throne, clear the decks, and elect a new pope. >> one of the problems in the 11th century was there was no clear way of choosing a pope. >> it was an answer of frequently murder. bribery. and also relationship, the sons of popes sometimes became popes, choosing pope. it's very confused, and it's never a pretty sight. >> it's very clear that the office of the papacy can belong to w...

Family decide they want the throne back. >> and the awkward thing now is that there were two popes, and both of them were claiming to be the heir of st. peter. >> benedict, however, had a wealthier family than sylvester, his family rallied behind him, gave him an army, he marched back into rome and he drove sylvester iii out. >> you find yourself bewildered by this. and it's so far from the apostles or how any christian leader should be. but that was the way the church was. it's about spiritual power, uncomfortably mixed with worldly power. >> six months after accepting the cardinal's bribe to...

Celestine v, and a year and a half later he resigned. >> but despite the peaceful -- when he resigned, because of the violence and instability surrounding the resignation of benedict ix 250 years earlier, the new pope must make sure that celestine is never heard from again. >> after celest ne retired and boniface became pope, he felt it was dangerous to have two living popes. >> you can't have another pope knocking about and threatening the pope. immediately after celestine leaves, boniface has him attacked and locked up.

Former pope benedict ix and his family decide they want the throne back. >> and the awkward thing now is that there were two popes, and both of them were claiming to be the heir of st. peter. >> benedict, however, had a wealthier family than sylvester, his family rallied behind him, gave him an army, he marched back into rome and he drove sylvester iii out. >> you find yourself bewildered by this. and it's so far from the apostles or how any christian leader should be. but that was the way the church was. it's about spiritual power, uncomfortably mixed with worldly power. >> six months after a...