Pope Clement II (Clemens II), by his baptismal name Suidger of Morsleben and Hornburg, is the 149th pope of the Catholic Church according to the official list of the Holy See.[1] Bishop of Bamberg before his election, he was elected on December 24, 1046 and consecrated on December 25, 1046, Christmas Day, at Saint Peter's Basilica.[2][3] His pontificate, one of the shortest in the Middle Ages, ended nine and a half months later, on October 9, 1047, near Pesaro.[4]
Clement II is not just a transitional pope. He is the first in a series of reforming German popes wanted by the emperor Henry III to put an end to a century of Roman dynastic papacy.[5] His election comes directly from the Synod of Sutri (December 20, 1046), which deposed or recognized the simultaneous fall of the three Roman claimants — Benedict IX, Sylvester III and Gregory VI — and which opens, according to modern historians, the practical path to Gregorian reform.[6][7]
His pontificate consists of three acts. First, the imperial coronation of Henry III and Empress Agnes of Poitou on the very day of his own consecration. Then, an anti-simony synod held at the Lateran in January 1047, which excommunicated sellers of spiritual offices and imposed a forty-day penance on those ordained in good faith by simoniac prelates.[8][9] Finally, the canonization of Saint Wiborada of Saint Gall, considered by several historians to be the first formal canonization of a woman by a pope.[10][11]
His premature death, in circumstances disputed between Roman malaria and lead poisoning — a hypothesis long considered folkloric but confirmed as plausible by a German medico-legal study of 1959 relating to the remains exhumed in Bamberg — makes Clement II one of the rare popes whose death has been directly examined by contemporary science.[12][13] His tomb, preserved in the western choir of Bamberg Cathedral, is the only preserved papal tomb north of the Alps.[14][15]
“Clement is the first of several ‘German’ popes who pushed the goals of ecclesiastical reform in the city of Rome.” — Uta-Renate Blumenthal, New Catholic Encyclopedia, 2003, English translation[16]
Why does Clement II matter?
A short pope, a long turning point
Nine and a half months of pontificate are not enough to leave a doctrinal work. Clement II published no encyclical, no founding decree. His preserved correspondence is slim. However, his election is one of the clearest tipping points in the history of the medieval papacy — just like that of Leo IX two years later or the death of Gregory VII in 1085.
The reason is simple: before Sutri, the papal election had become, for almost a century, the spoils of a few Roman families — the Crescentii then the Counts of Tusculum — who transmitted the see of Peter from father to son or from uncle to nephew.[17][18] After Sutri, the German emperor imposed a foreign pope on these networks. The principle of reform from above is established. The papacy will no longer rely, until the Investitures quarrel, on the power of the great Roman families.
The first in a series
Clement II is not an isolated case. He opens a series of four German popes desired by Henry III: himself (1046-1047), Damasus II (1048), saint Leo IX (1049-1054) and Victor II (1055-1057). All come from the German imperial clergy, all carry a program of fight against simony and clerical incontinence.[19][20] Leo IX is the one who will make this program spectacular; Clement II is the one who makes it possible.
A canonical question that haunts historiography
The election of Clement II also raises a real canonical question: can an emperor elect a pope? And can a bishop retain his local see when becoming pope? Clement II keeps Bamberg; he still signed certain acts as bishop of Bamberg during his Roman pontificate.[21][22] This practice — papa qui et episcopus, "pope who is also bishop" — will be one of the points abandoned by the later Gregorian reform.[23]
The Catholic editor must neither hide this difficulty nor make a retrospective condemnation of it. The Church, at the time, received Clement II as the legitimate pope. No lasting protest, no subsequent synod has called into question its inclusion in the official list. But the historian sees clearly that the form of his election belongs to a world that is dying out, and that the reform that he inaugurates will result in excluding this same type of election.
Suidger de Morsleben before Rome
A Saxon count family
Suidger was born around 1005 in Hornburg, Saxony, into a count family linked by blood to the great lines of the Holy Roman Empire.[24][25] His father was Count Konrad of Morsleben and Hornburg; his mother, Amulrad, is the sister of Archbishop Walthard of Magdeburg († 1012).
This origin is not a detail. It places Suidger in a Germanic clerical elite accustomed to serving both the Church and the Empire, without seeing between them the separation that the Gregorian reform would later pose. This continuity largely explains why Henry III could call him to Rome: Suidger is not a stranger to the imperial world, he is a fruit of it.
Training in Halberstadt
Suidger was educated at the cathedral school of Halberstadt, one of the great episcopal schools of the Reich.
The sources say nothing about his readings or his intellectual style. No theological works are attributed to him. This profile is typical of Salian bishops: ecclesiastical administrators more than theologians, trained to manage a diocese, advise an emperor and hold liturgy and finances together.
Imperial chaplain under Conrad II then Henry III
Around 1032, Suidger joined as chaplain of Archbishop Hermann II of Hamburg-Bremen.[26] Around 1035, he moved to the imperial chapel under Conrad II the Salicus, then under his son Henry III. The imperial chapel was, in the 11th century, the reservoir of ecclesiastical executives of the Empire: future bishops, archbishops and even popes were trained there. Suidger gained the trust of Henry III, a decisive element for the future.
Bishop of Bamberg in 1040
Henry III entrusted Suidger with the episcopal see of Bamberg, founded in 1007 by Emperor Henry II the Saint and his wife Cunigunde. Suidger was consecrated bishop on December 28, 1040 by Bardo, archbishop of Mainz.[27][28] Bamberg is not an ordinary see: it is a direct imperial bishopric, personal foundation of the Ottonian dynasty, linked to the memory of a holy emperor. Appointing your chaplain is a sign of trust.
As bishop, Suidger consolidated the cathedral, increased the assets of the diocese and participated in the imperial assemblies. His six years in Bamberg (1040-1046) gave him the profile that Henry III was looking for in 1046: a pious, loyal German bishop, without a Roman network, without links with the Crescentii or with the Tusculans.
“Suidger was born in Saxony, of a noble family; he was raised to the see of Bamberg in 1040 by King Henry III, whom he accompanied to Italy in 1046.” — James Loughlin, Catholic Encyclopedia, 1908, English translation[29]
Rome before Sutri: the papacy captured
The century of the Counts of Tusculum
To understand Sutri, one must understand what precedes it. Since the end of the Roman saeculum obscurum (the “dark century” of the 10th-11th centuries), the chair of Peter has become the quasi-hereditary property of a family: the Counts of Tusculum, descendants of the Roman senator Theophylact.[30] Three Tusculans succeed one another on the Roman seat:
- Benedict VIII (1012-1024), Theophylact II;
- John XIX (1024-1032), brother of the previous one, layman consecrated in a few days to receive the papacy;
- Benedict IX (elected in 1032), Theophylact III, nephew of the two previous ones, elected around the age of twenty years, perhaps less.[31][32]
This hereditary papacy is not a polemical fiction: it is the real structure of the Church of Rome at the beginning of the 11th century. The Tusculans redeem their enemies, pay their allies, and hold the city by arms. The pope is, simultaneously, the successor of Peter, the feudal lord of the Patrimonium Petri and the head of an armed family.
Benedict IX, three times pope
The case of Benedict IX is the most extreme. Elected around 1032 against any canonical minimum age rule, expelled for the first time in 1044 in favor of Sylvester III (John of Sabina, supported by the Crescentian faction), restored in 1045, he then sold the papacy to his godfather — the archpriest John Gratien — who took the name of Gregory VI.[33][34][35]
The portrait that Desiderius of Montecassino (future Pope Victor III) draws of Benedict IX in his Dialogues on the Miracles of Saint Benedict is without complacency:
“These are plunders, murders and other unspeakable acts.” — Desiderius of Monte Cassino, Dialogues on the Miracles of Saint Benedict, book III, c. 1080, English translation[36]
Catholic apologetics has no interest in minimizing this testimony. The real history of the Church goes through times when the See of Peter is seriously compromised in the person of its holders. The promise to Peter was never that men would be holy; it is that the doctrine would be kept. It is precisely by looking at Benedict IX that we measure the freedom with which the Catholic Church recognizes the indignity of certain popes — and the solidity of the structure which survives them.
The extraordinary gesture of Gregory VI
The case of Gregory VI deserves to be posed honestly. John Gratian, his baptismal name, is a pious man. Hildebrand's godfather — the future Saint Gregory VII — is no ordinary simoniac. According to several medieval and scholarly sources, he purchased the papacy from Benedict IX precisely to wrest it from him and restore the dignity of the Apostolic See.
This is what will make the Sutri Synod so tricky. Gregory VI is not a bandit; he is a reformer who used a forbidden means to serve a good. Henry III must decide, and the Church after him: can we keep a pope whose election is tainted by material simony, even if the intention was right? Sutri's answer will be no.
The synod of Sutri (December 20-24, 1046)
Henry III in Italy
In the fall of 1046, Henry III descended into Italy with his nobles and his army. He comes to be crowned emperor — what his predecessors had done in Rome — but he must first resolve the scandal of the three popes. None of the three contenders is canonically defensible: Benedict IX by his notorious unworthiness, Sylvester III by the troubled conditions of his election, Gregory VI by material simony.
On December 20, 1046, Henry III convened a synod at Sutri, about forty kilometers north of Rome. The bishops of Germany and Italy are gathered there. The goal is not only to resolve a local quarrel: it is to return the papacy to itself.[37][38][39]
Four decisions
The Sutri synod, extended by a second session in Rome on December 23-24, took four decisions:
- Sylvester III is deposed, degraded from priestly rank and locked up in a monastery.[40][41]
- Gregory VI deposes himself after publicly recognizing that his election was tainted by simoniaca pravitas. The sources are not entirely unanimous on the voluntary or forced nature of this gesture.[42][43]
- Benedict IX, who refuses to appear, is deposed in his absence during the second session, in Rome, December 23-24.[44]
- The Roman seat being declared vacant, Henry III proposed a candidate. His first choice, Adalbert, archbishop of Bremen, refuses. Henry then proposed Suidger of Bamberg, who — according to Loughlin — protested before accepting.[45][46]
The question of canonical validity
The Synod of Sutri is not an ecumenical council. The Catholic Church does not count it in the list of general councils.[47] It is a local synod convened by the emperor, in a situation of canonical emergency, with the authority of the Roman title of patricius which will be made official on the day of the coronation.
Should we conclude that Sutri is invalid? No. The subsequent reception of the Church — which fully recognized Clement II and the entire line of his reforming successors — amounts to effective regularization. No successor has ever called into question the deposition of the three claimants. The Gregorian reform, which would soon prohibit any imperial intervention in the papal election, did not, however, declare the pontificates of Clement II, Damasus II, Leo IX or Victor II void.
This point is important against a hasty sedevacantist reading. The irregularity of the procedure does not cancel the validity of the election ratified by ecclesial reception. The Clement II case is, with that of Leo VIII, the great medieval textbook case of this distinction.
“The Catholic Church does not class this council among the ecumenical councils.” — Encyclopedia Britannica, article "Council of Sutri", English translation[48]
Election and coronation (December 24-25, 1046)
A Roman election under imperial gaze
After the deposition of the three claimants, the Roman clergy and people held a new election on December 24, 1046. Suidger is elected pope.[49][50] The Roman form is respected — election by the clergy and acclamation of the people — but imperial pressure is evident. Henry III presented the candidate; the Romans accept.
Suidger takes the name Clement II. The choice is not neutral. It evokes saint Clement I (around 88-97), third successor of Peter and figure of the Roman clementia. It also evokes a pope of reform against schisms — Clemens meaning both clement and peaceful. The program is germinal in the name.
December 25, 1046: three acts in one day
On Christmas Day 1046, Clement II was consecrated bishop of Rome at Saint Peter's Basilica. The same day, he crowned Henry III and Empress Agnes as emperor. Henry III also received from the Roman people and the Pope the title of Patricius Romanorum, a dignity which, since the 10th century, conferred a moral right to intervene in the papal election.[51][52][53]
The simultaneity is striking. In a single day, Rome receives a German pope, the emperor receives the Roman crown, and the emperor also receives the Roman title which legalizes his oversight over future papal elections. It is, in miniature, the entire logic of the Germanic 11th century: mutual protection between the emperor and the pope, but protection which leans towards the imperial side.
Suidger remains bishop of Bamberg
Detail which will seem anecdotal to the modern reader and which is not for the historian of the reform: Clement II keeps his seat in Bamberg. Several acts of his pontificate mention him as bishop of Bamberg and as pope simultaneously.[54][55] Werner Goez devoted a founding article to this practice, Papa qui et episcopus (Archivum Historiae Pontificiae 8, 1970), which shows that the canonical awareness of the incompatibility between the papal office and a local bishopric will only gradually impose itself, in the second half of the 11th century.[56]
| Date | Act | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| December 20, 1046 | Synod of Sutri — deposition of Sylvester III, self-deposition of Gregory VI | Exit from the Tusculan papacy |
| December 23-24, 1046 | Second session in Rome — deposition of Benedict IX in his absence | Complete vacancy of seat |
| December 24, 1046 | Election of Suidger | First German pope of the reform series |
| December 25, 1046 | Consecration of Clement II | 149th pope according to the official list |
| December 25, 1046 | Coronation of Henry III and Agnes | Salian Imperial Renaissance |
| December 25, 1046 | Henry III receives the title of Patricius Romanorum | Future framework for papal elections |
| January 1047 | Lateran Synod against simony | Founding act of the reform |
The anti-simony synod of January 1047
Held under the dual presidency
The Roman synod of January 1047 was held at the Lateran under the presidency of Clement II, in the presence of Henry III.[57][58] The double presidency is not a concession; it is the normal expression, at the time, of solidarity between the pope and the emperor in the fight against internal abuses of the Church. The synod brings together the available bishops in Rome — including the hermit Peter Damian, who is not yet a bishop but already a spiritual voice listened to.[59]
The central decree
The central decree, reported by the Catholic Encyclopedia under the pen of James Loughlin (1908), consists of two propositions:
- Any sale or purchase of spiritual things is punishable by excommunication.
- Any cleric who has knowingly received ordination from the hands of a prelate guilty of simony must perform a canonical penance of forty days.[60]
“The buying and selling of spiritual things was punished by excommunication; anyone who knowingly accepts ordination from the hands of a prelate guilty of simony must do canonical penance for forty days.” — James Loughlin, Catholic Encyclopedia, 1908, English translation[61]
The scope is more subtle than it looks. The decree does not pronounce the invalidity of orders conferred by simoniac prelates. He only imposes a penance. This moderation will have an immediate effect: it allows a whole part of the European clergy, ordained under dubious conditions, to remain in place after penance, without having to re-ordain thousands of priests.
The defense by Peter Damian
The question will come back. In 1052, Peter Damian devoted an entire book to this point — Liber Gratissimus — to defend the validity of simoniac ordinations against the rigorists who wanted to declare them null.[62] The moderate pastoral position of Clement II in 1047 is thus theorized by one of the great spiritual doctors of the 11th century. The decree of 1047 is therefore not an isolated text; it is the first piece of a doctrinal file on the validity of the sacraments conferred by unworthy ministers.
The canonization of Saint Wiborada
During the same year 1047, Clement II canonized Saint Wiborada, a Benedictine recluse martyred by the Hungarians at Saint Gall in 926.[63][64] The act is usually presented as the first formal canonization of a woman by a pope in Church history, at a time when the very institution of formal papal canonization was still taking shape. The gesture deserves to be noted because it already reveals, under Clement II, the embryo of the Roman centralization of canonization, a process that would only be fully completed with Innocent III and his decree Audivimus (1199-1234).
The trip to Southern Italy and death (1047)
Benevento, Capua, Monte Cassino
In the spring and summer of 1047, Clement II accompanied Henry III on an expedition to southern Italy.[65] In Benevento, where the inhabitants refused to welcome the emperor, the pope issued a sentence of excommunication against the city.[66][67] The procession then passed through Capua, Salerno and Monte Cassino, the great abbey of medieval Italy.
These trips are not trivial. They show a pope who does not allow himself to be confined to Rome, who sanctions, who legislates, who crowns. Over a pontificate of nine and a half months, Clement II was in Rome less than half the time. His figure as a man from the North traveling through Central and Southern Italy with the emperor prefigures the mobility of Leo IX.
Death at San Tommaso in Foglia
On the way back, Clement II fell ill and died on October 9, 1047 at the monastery San Tommaso in Foglia (in Aposella), near Pesaro.[68][69] Medieval Latin sources speak of a valido corporis languore — a powerful weakening of the body — occurring shortly before the end.[70]
Two causes were put forward immediately, and a third was put forward by modern science:
- Roman malaria — endemic in the marshes of the Tyrrhenian coast, it killed several popes of the 11th century (notably Damasus II the following year). This is the most natural hypothesis.[71]
- Poisoning by supporters of Benedict IX — the medieval rumor is old. Loughlin, in the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1908, describes it as “unproven speculation”: unproven conjecture.[72]
- Subchronic lead poisoning — contemporary hypothesis, based on the forensic examination of his remains in 1959 (see next section).
Lead poisoning: medico-legal investigation
The exhumation of the 20th century
The remains of Clement II were examined during the 20th century as part of the work on Bamberg Cathedral. Sources differ slightly on the date of exhumation — the Neue Deutsche Biographie (Elze 1957) and several German encyclopedias mention 1942; others speak of examinations extended until the end of the 1950s.[73][74][75] What is certain is that the forensic study was published in 1959, in one of the leading criminalistic journals in the German-speaking world.
The Specht & Fischer study (1959)
The reference study is:
Walter Specht et Kurt Fischer, " Evidence of poisoning on the remains of a 900-year-old corpse (Pope Clement II) " — Archiv für Kriminologie, Vol. 124, H. 3-4 (1959), p. 61-84.[76]
The two toxicologists, attached to the University of Munich, examine the bones and organic fragments preserved in the tomb. The title is self-explanatory: Proof of poisoning on the remains of a 900-year-old corpse (Pope Clement II). The central diagnosis consists of two propositions:
- The bones of Clement II show abnormally high lead concentrations compared to the values expected for a man of his time.
- The profile corresponds to subchronic poisoning — that is to say repeated and prolonged over several weeks or months — rather than a single acute poisoning.
“The examinations provided clues in favor of subchronic lead poisoning.” — Hans Peter Laqua, Encyclopedia of the Popes, Treccani, 2000, English translation[77]
Lead sugar?
The substance suspected by the authors is lead acetate — Bleizucker, “sugar of lead” — used in the Middle Ages and well beyond to sweeten wine. The compound is mild tasting and soluble. Regular consumption of wine sweetened with lead produces exactly the picture observed by Specht and Fischer: progressive bone accumulation, languor, digestive disorders, terminal weakness.
Murder or medicinal use?
The 1959 study remains cautious on the qualification. Subchronic lead poisoning is compatible with three scenarios:
- Repeated intentional poisoning by an adversary of Clement II — the medieval rumor of the supporters of Benedict IX would then find a material basis.
- Inadvertent food poisoning — wine sweetened with lead consumed over months, which was commonplace among the ecclesiastical aristocracy of the time.
- Medicinal use of lead — lead acetate had medicinal applications in the Middle Ages as a poultice or ointment; Prolonged dermal or oral exposure is plausible.
The subsequent historiographical discussion — summarized by Steffen Berg in Anwalt der Opfer (2002) and by Markus Knipp in his review of Gresser (2008) — has moderated the thesis of intentional murder without completely refuting it.[78][79] We can therefore say: the medieval rumor of poisoning is not refuted by modern science, it is made plausible — without being demonstrated.
What this changes
The Specht & Fischer study makes Clement II one of the rare medieval popes whose death has been examined by contemporary toxicology methods. The result is interesting for apologetics: it does not prove the innocence of the Tusculan party, but it prohibits reducing the death of Clement II to a dark legend forged by the reformers. The history of the Church also includes these matters, and Catholic rigor does not require hiding them.
"A 1942 exhumation revealed an abnormally high level of lead in his bones, lending credence to the old rumor that he had been poisoned." — Uta-Renate Blumenthal, New Catholic Encyclopedia, 2003, English translation[80]
The tomb of Bamberg
Translation and burial
According to the wish of Clement II himself, his body was brought back to Germany and buried in the imperial cathedral of Bamberg, of which he was bishop.[81][82][83] The transfer in the middle of autumn 1047, from Pesaro to the heart of Bavaria, was a considerable operation.
This burial choice is unique in history: no other pope in history is buried north of the Alps.[84][85] All other pontiffs — including the other German popes of the reform series — are buried in Rome or in the diocese of Rome. Clement II is an exception because he never renounced Bamberg during his pontificate; he therefore returns there dead, as bishop, as well as as pope.
The hochgrab of the 13th century
The current tomb is not that of 1047. During the great reconstruction of Bamberg Cathedral under Bishop Eckbert (the "Dom Eckbertian", consecrated in 1237), a new hochgrab — high tomb — in Italian marble was executed.[86] It is placed in the western choir, the Westchor, liturgically opposite the eastern choir where the main altars are.
The sculpted iconography is rich and structured:
- Western side: the four cardinal virtues — Justice with scales and sword, Strength represented by a lion, Wisdom represented as a dominated dragon, and Temperance.[87]
- Small sides: the pope on his deathbed accompanied by the archangel Michael, psychopomp of the Christian tradition, and probably saint John the Baptist announcing the Kingdom.[88]
Achim Hubel devoted a detailed study to this iconographic program (Universität Bamberg) which shows how the 13th century tomb reinterprets the figure of Clement II in the sense of a bishop-prince model, integrating civil virtues and figures on the threshold of death.[89]
The liturgical treasure
When the tomb was opened over the centuries — notably in 1731 — an exceptional set of liturgical fabrics was found: Byzantine golden silks with medallions representing panthers and griffins, a chalice and a paten. These pieces are today kept at the Diözesanmuseum in Bamberg and constitute one of the rare sets of liturgical textiles from the 11th century that have come down to us.[90] Sigrid Müller-Christensen devoted a reference technical study to them (1960).
An imperial sanctuary
The tomb of Clement II cannot be understood in isolation. It is part of the imperial funeral program of Bamberg Cathedral, which also houses the tombs of Emperor Henry II the Holy († 1024) and his holy wife Cunigunde († 1033). Bamberg is thus the place where one can visit, in just a few steps, the tomb of a holy emperor, a holy empress and a pope – a unique fact in Europe.
"His grave is the only surviving papal grave north of the Alps." — Recurring phrase from German sources: “His tomb is the only papal burial preserved north of the Alps. "[91][92]
Canonical status: a Beatus, not a Roman saint
Clement II was never the subject of formal canonization.[93] He is not registered in the general Roman calendar. But he is revered locally in Bamberg, and the Ökumenisches Heiligenlexikon mentions him with a Gedenktag (memorial day) on October 9, the date of his death.[94]
Why this half-canonization? Several reasons add up:
- Brevity of the pontificate — nine months are not enough to constitute a record of holiness, which requires a duration of observable exemplarity.
- Suspicion attached to imperial origin — the later reforming party (Leo IX, Peter Damian, Hildebrand) cherished Clement II as a trigger, but without placing him among the untouchable models.
- German tradition — the local memory of Bamberg maintained a sober cult, without pushing for a Roman canonization, which corresponds to the customs of the medieval Reich.
The historical status is therefore clear: Clement II is a Beatus of local memory and a major landmark in the universal history of the Church, but he does not have the title of canonized saint. The article must say this honestly, without excessive hagiography or modernist demeaning.
Sources: what we know, what we can say, what we don’t know
The safe core
The main sources are divided into four families: official records (Vatican.va, Britannica), Catholic encyclopedias (Catholic Encyclopedia 1908, New Catholic Encyclopedia 2003), scholarly Italian encyclopedias (Treccani — Enciclopedia dei Papi 2000) and German monographs (Gresser 2007, Herrmann 1973, Goez 1970, Elze 1957).[95][96][97][98][99][100][101][102][103]
| Historical point | Degree of certainty | Main sources |
|---|---|---|
| Saxon birth (Hornburg, around 1005) | Strong | NDB Elze ; Treccani Laqua |
| Count family of Morsleben | Very strong | NDB Elze |
| Studies in Halberstadt, chaplain in Hamburg-Bremen | Very strong | NDB Elze; Laqua |
| Bishop of Bamberg consecrated on December 28, 1040 | Very strong | NDB Elze ; Treccani |
| Synod of Sutri of December 20, 1046 | Very strong | Loughlin ; Laqua ; Bonizo |
| Simultaneous deposition of three claimants | Strong | Loughlin ; Laqua ; Kelly-Walsh |
| Election on December 24, consecration on December 25, 1046 | Very strong | Vatican ; Loughlin ; Laqua |
| Coronation of Henry III and Agnes on December 25, 1046 | Very strong | Vatican ; Loughlin ; Britannica |
| Anti-simony Synod of the Lateran, January 1047 | Very strong | Loughlin ; Laqua |
| Canonization of Saint Wiborada in 1047 | Strong | Aleteia; Encyclopedia.com |
| Died October 9, 1047 near Pesaro | Very strong | Vatican ; Laqua |
| Burial in Bamberg | Very strong | Bamberg Cathedral; Dictionary of saints |
| Proven subchronic lead poisoning | Strong | Specht & Fischer 1959; Laqua |
| Intentional poisoning | Plausible not demonstrated | Loughlin 1908 ; Berg 2002 |
| Cumulative Bamberg + Rome during the pontificate | Very strong | Goez 1970; Elze |
Medieval primary sources
The main medieval primary sources for Clement II and the Synod of Sutri are:
- Hermann of Reichenau (Hermannus Contractus), Chronicon, circa 1048-1054 — the German chronicle closest in time to the events.[104]
- Bonizo of Sutri, Liber ad amicum, book V, circa 1085-1086 — Gregorian partisan chronicle to be used with caution, but essential.[105]
- Desiderius of Monte Cassino (future pope Victor III), Dialogues on the Miracles of Saint Benedict, book III, c. 1080 — portrait of Benedict IX.[106]
- Peter Damian, Liber Gratissimus, 1052, and Letters — ed. K. Reindel in the MGH Letters from the German Empire IV.[107][108]
- Annales Romani — ed. G. H. Pertz, MGH Scriptores V.
- Liber Pontificalis — ed. Louis Duchesne, Le Liber pontificalis, t. II, Paris, 1892, reprint 1955.[109]
- Philipp Jaffé, Regesta Pontificum Romanorum — chronological review of the pontifical acts, 2nd ed. by S. Loewenfeld, Leipzig, 1885-1888.[110]
Modern scholarly sources
| Author | Reference | Contribution |
|---|---|---|
| Reinhard Elze | Neue Deutsche Biographie 3, Berlin, 1957, p. 277 — art. " Clement II " | Reference German biography |
| Hans Peter Laqua | Encyclopedia of the Popes, Treccani, Rome, 2000, vol. II | Full Italian reference entry |
| Klaus-Jürgen Herrmann | Das Tuskulanerpapsttum (1012-1046), Stuttgart, 1973 | Tusculan context |
| Werner Goez | Papa qui et episcopus, Archivum Historiae Pontificiae 8 (1970), p. 27-59 | Bamberg-Rome plurality |
| Georg Gresser | Clemens II. The first German reform pope, Paderborn, 2007 | Reference monograph |
| Uta-Renate Blumenthal | New Catholic Encyclopedia, 2003, art. "Clement II, Pope" | Recent English summary |
| James Loughlin | The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1908, vol. 4, art. "Pope Clement II" | Classical Catholic reference |
| Reinhard Elze | NDB 1957 (cf. supra) | Prosopographic detail |
| Walter Specht & Kurt Fischer | Archiv für Kriminologie 124 (1959), p. 61-84 | Forensic study |
| Sigrid Müller-Christensen | Study on the textile treasure of the tomb, 1960 | Liturgical pieces exhumed |
| Achim Hubel | Reflections on the tomb of Pope Clement II, University of Bamberg | Iconography of the tomb |
| J. N. D. Kelly & M. J. Walsh | Oxford Dictionary of Popes, 2nd ed., 2010 | Synthetic English reference |
| Philippe Levillain | Historical Dictionary of the Papacy, Paris, Fayard, 1994 | French reference |
What we don't know
We do not have a spiritual portrait of Clement II. No direct testimony of his prayer, his readings or his pastoral choices is preserved. The acts signed in his name are limited in number (a few dozen, collected by Jaffé). Medieval sources are mainly interested in its political function. This is one of the reasons why Clement II remains, despite the objective importance of his pontificate, a pale figure compared to Leo IX or Gregory VII.
What this pontificate reveals
The distinction between form and reception
The Clement II case requires us to rigorously distinguish two orders in the theology of papal election:
- The canonical form of the election — that of Clement II is defective: imperial pressure, external candidate imposed, deposition of three contenders by a local synod, accumulation of two episcopal seats. Later canonists will judge all this contrary to full regularity.
- The ecclesial reception of the elected pope — that of Clement II is full: no successor pope contests his legitimacy, his name enters all the official lists, his tomb is venerated, his anti-simony decree is taken up by his successors.
It is this distinction that allows the Catholic Church to look at its history with honesty. A papal election can be politically violent, canonically irregular, and then be received by the Church in a regularized situation. This is not a weakness of the papacy; it is the mark of an institution capable of surviving its procedural crises because its sacramental and doctrinal structure does not depend on the purity of each human step.
This same logic applies to the sister cases of Leo VIII (963-965) and, in reverse order, against contemporary sedevacantist readings which would like to invalidate this or that pope because a particular stage of his election or his teaching seems irregular to them. The Catholic Church has always left it to lasting ecclesial reception, more than to occasional inspection of procedures, to stabilize pontifical memory.
An involuntary reform pope
Clement II apparently did not want to be a radical reformer. His moderation on simony (penance of forty days and non-invalidation of orders) shows this. His loyalty to Henry III too. He is not Gregory VII before his time; he is not Leo IX either.
But it is precisely this moderation that makes it a good starting point. Radical Gregorian reform would have been impossible directly after the Tusculans: it would have been perceived as an unacceptable break. The pontificate of Clement II prepares the transition by accustoming Rome to a pope foreign to local families, without yet breaking the imperial partnership.
The papacy is not measured only by its great figures
Clement II is an argument to be kept against an overly monumental vision of the papacy. Not all popes have the stature of Leo the Great or Innocent III. Most are ordinary men, sometimes weak, sometimes short, sometimes poorly chosen. The promise to Peter does not say that each successor will be great; it says that the doctrine will be kept and that communion will be maintained. Clement II is the typical example of a pope secondarily personal and historically decisive: his individual figure disappears behind the function, and it is through the function that he acts in history.
Timeline
| Date | Event | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| around 1005 | Birth of Suidger in Hornburg (Saxony) | Imperial count family |
| around 1032 | Chaplain of the Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen | Entry into the major clergy |
| around 1035 | Imperial chaplain under Conrad II then Henry III | Trust of the Salian dynasty |
| December 28, 1040 | Consecrated bishop of Bamberg | Direct imperial bishopric |
| Autumn 1046 | Descent of Henry III into Italy | Crisis of the three popes |
| December 20, 1046 | Synod of Sutri | Deposition of Sylvester III and self-deposition of Gregory VI |
| December 23-24, 1046 | Second session in Rome | Deposition of Benedict IX in his absence |
| December 24, 1046 | Election of Suidger | First German pope of the reform series |
| December 25, 1046 | Consecration of Clement II | Christmas Day, Saint Peter |
| December 25, 1046 | Coronation of Henry III and Agnes, title of Patricius Romanorum | Salian Imperial Renaissance |
| January 1047 | Anti-simony Lateran Synod | 40-day penance for those ordained as simoniacs |
| 1047 | Canonization of Saint Wiborada | First formal canonization of a woman |
| Spring-summer 1047 | Travel to Southern Italy with Henry III | Excommunication of Benevento |
| October 9, 1047 | Death in San Tommaso in Foglia (Pesaro) | Pontificate of 9 and a half months |
| Autumn 1047 | Body translation in Bamberg | Only papal tomb north of the Alps |
| 1048 | Election of Damasus II | Continuity of the German lineage |
| 1959 | Publication of the Specht & Fischer study | Proven lead poisoning |
| around 1237 | West choir high tomb in Bamberg Cathedral | Iconographic program of the four virtues |
To go further
- Pope Benedict IX — Theophylact of Tusculum, deposed at Sutri.
- Pope Sylvester III — elected by the Crescentian faction, deposed at Sutri.
- Pope Gregory VI — John Gratian, godfather of Hildebrand, deposed for simony.
- Pope Damasus II (1048) — immediate successor, second German pope in the series.
- Saint Leo IX (1049-1054) — third German pope, true inaugurator of militant reform.
- Saint Peter Damian — defender of the validity of simoniac ordinations after penance (Liber Gratissimus, 1052).
- The Gregorian reform — substantive program of which Clement II inaugurates the Roman dynamic.
- The Investiture Controversy — subsequent conflict indirectly prepared by the title of Patricius Romanorum of Henry III.
- The Synod of Sutri (1046) — canonical decision which opens the pontificate of Clement II.
- Pope Leo VIII (963-965) — a sister case of a pope elected under imperial pressure and received a posteriori.
Notes and References
Holy See, official file "Clemens II": 149th pope of the Catholic Church, birth in Saxony, election and consecration in December 1046, death on October 9, 1047. URL: https://www.vatican.va/content/vatican/en/holy-father/clemente-ii.html.
1 2 49 68 95James Loughlin, "Pope Clement II", The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 4, Robert Appleton Company, New York, 1908, reprinted by New Advent: Suidger of Saxony, bishop of Bamberg, synod of Sutri of December 20, 1046, depositions of the three claimants, election of December 24, 1046, consecration and imperial coronation on December 25, Lateran synod of January 1047, anti-simony decree, trip to Southern Italy, death on October 9, 1047 near Pesaro, rumor of poisoning qualified as “unproven speculation”. URL: https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04017a.htm.
3 8 29 39 40 44 45 50 51 57 60 61 67 72 96Treccani, "Clement II Pope", Online encyclopedia: Suidger born in Saxony, died in San Tommaso in Foglia near Pesaro on 9 October 1047. URL: https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/clemente-ii/.
4 25 98Encyclopedia.com according to the New Catholic Encyclopedia: continuity Clement II → Damasus II → Leo IX → Victor II as reform series desired by Henry III. URL: https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/clement-ii-pope.
5 11 53 64 75Georg Gresser, Clemens II. Der erste deutsche Reformpapst, Paderborn, Ferdinand Schöningh, 2007, 195 p., ISBN 978-3-506-76329-7: German reference monograph; listed by Markus Knipp, sehepunkte 8/5, 2008.
6 38 100Hans Peter Laqua, "Clement II", in Encyclopedia of the Popes, dir. Massimo Bray, Institute of the Italian Encyclopedia / Treccani, Rome, vol. II, 2000: reference biographical entry: Tusculan context, course of Sutri, Lateran synod of 1047, journey to southern Italy, death by "validi corporis languore", subchronic lead poisoning. URL: https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/clemente-ii_(Enciclopedia-dei-Papi)/.
7 28 35 37 41 43 46 52 58 65 66 69 70 71 77 99Uta-Renate Blumenthal, "Clement II, Pope", New Catholic Encyclopedia, 2nd ed., Detroit, Gale, 2003, vol. 3, p. 781-782, taken up by Encyclopedia.com: Clement II as the first in the series of reforming German popes, exhumation in 1942 having revealed an abnormally high level of lead in the bones. URL: https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/clement-ii-pope.
9 13 16 80 97On the canonization of Saint Wiborada by Clement II in 1047, as the first formal canonization of a woman by a pope: see the English Wikipedia article Wiborada and the Aleteia file, to be compared with the progressive establishment of formal papal canonization (Innocent III, decree Audivimus around 1199-1234).
10 63Walter Specht and Kurt Fischer, "Vergiftungsnachweis an den Resten einer 900 Jahre alten Leiche (Papst Clemens II.)", Archiv für Kriminologie, vol. 124, fascic. 3-4, 1959, p. 61-84: founding forensic study showing an abnormally high concentration of lead in bones, compatible with subchronic poisoning (lead sugar/lead acetate).
12 76Bamberg Cathedral, official site — Westchor, Papstgrab Clemens II.: only papal tomb preserved north of the Alps, hochgrab from the mid-13th century in Italian marble, iconographic program of the four cardinal virtues. URL: https://bamberger-dom.de/kirchenraum/westchor/Papstgrab/index.html.
14 74 81 84 91Ökumenisches Heiligenlexikon, "Clement II.", Catholic Memorial Day: October 9th: local veneration at Bamberg without formal canonization. URL: https://www.heiligenlexikon.de/BiographienC/Clemens_II.html.
15 82 85 92 93 94Klaus-Jürgen Herrmann, Das Tuskulanerpapsttum (1012-1046). Benedict VIII., Johannes XIX., Benedict IX., Päpste und Papsttum 4, Stuttgart, Anton Hiersemann, 1973: genealogy of the three Tusculan popes and family continuity of the Roman See.
17 30 31 101J. N. D. Kelly and Michael J. Walsh, The Oxford Dictionary of Popes, 2nd ed., Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2010, s. v. "Clement II" and "Benedict IX", "Sylvester III", "Gregory VI": synthetic reconstruction of the depositions and the election.
18 19 32 34 42 47Reinhard Elze, "Clemens II.", Neue Deutsche Biographie, vol. 3, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, 1957, p. 277: family of Morsleben and Hornburg, parents Konrad and Amulrad, brother Konrad patriarch of Aquileia, training in Halberstadt, chaplain in Hamburg-Bremen then at the imperial chapel, bishop of Bamberg consecrated on December 28, 1040, cumulative Bamberg-Rome during the pontificate. URL: https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz8438.html.
20 22 24 26 27 55 73 103Werner Goez, "Papa qui et episcopus. Zum Selbstverständnis des Reformpapsttums im 11. Jahrhundert", Archivum Historiae Pontificiae 8 (1970), p. 27-59: foundational study on the plurality of the Roman see and a local bishopric, of which Clement II offers the clearest case (Bamberg + Rome 1046-1047).
21 23 54 56 102Desiderius of Monte Cassino (future pope Victor III), Dialogi de miraculis sancti Benedicti, book III, written around 1080; ed. in the MGH Scriptores 30/2: black portrait of Benedict IX, mention of "rapines, murders and other heinous things".
33 36 106Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Council of Sutri": local synod convened by Henry III in December 1046, not listed by the Catholic Church among the ecumenical councils. URL: https://www.britannica.com/event/Council-of-Sutri.
48Peter Damian, Briefe, ed. Kurt Reindel, Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Die Briefe der deutschen Kaiserzeit, vol. IV, 4 volumes, Munich, 1983-1993: presence of Damian at the Lateran synod of January 1047.
59 108Peter Damian, Liber Gratissimus, 1052; ed. in the MGH Libelli de lite imperatorum et pontificum I, Hanover, 1891: defense of the validity of ordinations conferred by simoniac prelates after penance, in line with the decree of Clement II in January 1047.
62 107Steffen Berg, Anwalt der Opfer. Aus dem Tagebuch eines Pathologen, Hanover, Schlütersche, 2002, p. 142 sq. : contemporary discussion of the Clement II case, mitigating the thesis of intentional murder without totally refuting it.
78Markus Knipp, review by Georg Gresser, Clemens II. The first German reform pope, in seeing points. Review journal for the historical sciences 8/5, May 15, 2008. URL: https://www.sehepunkte.de/2008/05/13797.html.
79Achim Hubel, "Reflections on the tomb of Pope Clement II in Bamberg Cathedral", Research Information System, University of Bamberg: iconography of the hochgrab, cardinal virtues, threshold-of-death scenes, dating around 1237. URL: https://fis.uni-bamberg.de/bitstream/uniba/43342/1/Hubel_Ueberlegungen_A3a.pdf.
83 86 87 88 89Sigrid Müller-Christensen, study on the liturgical textiles exhumed from the tomb of Clement II, Bamberg, 1960: Byzantine golden silks with medallions (panthers, griffins), chalice and paten, today preserved at the Diözesanmuseum in Bamberg.
90Hermann of Reichenau (Hermannus Contractus), Chronicon, written around 1048-1054; ed. in the MGH Scriptores V: contemporary German chronicle covering 1046-1047.
104Bonizo of Sutri, Liber ad amicum, book V, written around 1085-1086; ed. Ernst Dümmler, MGH Libelli de lite imperatorum et pontificum I, Hannover, 1891: partisan Gregorian account of Sutri.
105Louis Duchesne (ed.), Le Liber pontificalis. Text, introduction and commentary, t. II, Paris, Ernest Thorin, 1892, reissued with C. Vogel, Paris, De Boccard, 1955-1957: notice from the Liber pontificalis on Clement II.
109Philipp Jaffé, Regesta Pontificum Romanorum, 2nd ed. revised by S. Loewenfeld, F. Kaltenbrunner and P. Ewald, Leipzig, Veit, 1885-1888: catalogue of pontifical acts preserved under the name of Clement II.
110