Pope Benedict III

Benedict III. († April 17 858 in Rome) was Pope from 855 to 858 His name means the blessed one (latin ).

Life

During the papal election caused a riot between supporters of the candidates. He was initially supported by the of the imperial party antipope Anastasius III. deposed and imprisoned. However, when Anastasius waned support, Benedict was freed and dedicated on 29 September 855. As Pope, he succeeded to increase the influence of the papacy in the Church. Benedict stood up for the sanctity of marriage and fought the moral decline of the nobility and the high clergy. He also protested against the dismissal of bishops by the laity in England. During his pontificate, tensions between the Roman Church and the Orthodox Church in Byzantium intensified. On April 17, 858, he died in Rome.

Benedict III. and the Pope Joan

The pontificate of Benedict III. is often mentioned in connection with the legend of a Pope Joan. According to some very controversial theories this Pope officiated allegedly between the pontificates of Leo IV and Benedict III. Although Benedict III. according to all current Pope lists the official successor of Pope Leo IV There are however still only relatively little documented information about him. Supporters of Päpstinnenlegende therefore also suggest that Benedict III. was invented by the Roman Catholic Church in the 17th century in order to repay Pope Joan from history. Today, most historians believe that the Johanna history is one of the very popular in the Middle Ages ( fictional ) legends about the church. One indication of this is that the Pope Joan was only entered in the 13th century in the Liber Pontificalis, after the publication of the chronicle of Martin of Opava, the Pope mentioned the first time in 1277, 400 years after its alleged pontificate. However, there are no other earlier sources, which would substantiate this claim ( cf. Pope Joan ).