gory VII, culminated in the independent establishment of the
pontificate and papal power.)

FERDINAND GREGOROVIUS

Henry III, the son and successor of Conrad, was young, vigorous, and
God-fearing; a noble prince called, like Charles and Otto the Great, to
restore Rome, to deliver it from tyrants, and to reform the almost
annihilated Church. For the papacy had been still further dishonored by
Benedict IX. It seemed as if a demon from hell, in the disguise of a
priest, occupied the chair of Peter and profaned the sacred mysteries of
religion by his insolent courses.

Benedict IX, restored in 1038, protected by his brother Gregory, who
ruled the city as senator of the Romans, led unchecked the life of a
Turkish sultan in the palace of the Lateran. He and his family filled
Rome with robbery and murder; all lawful conditions had ceased. Toward
the end of 1044, or in the beginning of the following year, the populace
at length rose in furious revolt; the Pope fled, but his vassals
defended the Leonina against the attacks of the Romans. The
Trasteverines remained faithful to Benedict, and he summoned friends and
adherents; Count Gerard of Galeria advanced with a numerous body of
horse to the Saxon gate and repulsed the Romans. An earthquake added to
the horrors in the revolted city. The ancient chronicle which relates
these events does not tell us whether Trastevere was taken by assault
after a three-days' struggle, but merely relates that the Romans
unanimously renounced Benedict, and elected Bishop John of the Sabina to
the papacy as Sylvester III. John also owed his elevation to the gold
with which he bribed the rebels and their leader, Girardo de Saxo. This
powerful Roman had first promised his daughter in marriage to the Pope,
and afterward refused her; for the Pope had not hesitated, in all
seriousness, to sue for the hand of a Roman lady, a relative of his own.
Her father lured him on with the hope of winning her, but required that
Benedict should in the first place resign the tiara.

The Pope, burning with passion, consented and fulfilled his promise
during the revolt of the Romans. He was mastered by the demon of
sensuality; it was reported by the superstitious that he associated with
devils in the woods and attracted women by means of spells. It was
asserted that books of magic, with which he had conjured demons, had
been found in the Lateran. His banishment meanwhile aroused the haughty
spirit of his house, and