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Pope Benedict IX

Pope Benedict IX

1012 CE–1056 CE · Tusculum

Benedict IX, born Theophylactus of the Counts of Tusculum, was nephew of Benedict VIII and John XIX, made pope as a young man through family power. He is notorious as the only person to hold the papacy in three separate periods, and was bitterly condemned by reformers like Peter Damian for his dissolute conduct—though some of the lurid charges reflect later polemic. Driven from Rome by a revolt in 1044, he returned, then in 1045 sold or surrendered the papacy to his godfather Gregory VI, an act of simony that scandalized Christendom and helped ignite the reform movement that followed.

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Stop 0 of 21012–1032Birthplace, Family Seat

TusculumItaly

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In Tusculum at the same time

Pope Benedict IX (3rd reign), Pope Benedict IX (2nd reign), Pope John XIX, Pope Benedict VIII

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In the same place & time

Sages whose lives overlapped with Pope Benedict IX’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.

The world in their lifetime

Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Pope Benedict IX’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

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