Pope Stephen IX
The failure of their negotiations with Patriarch Michael I Cerularius of Constantinople and Archbishop Leo of Ohrid led to the permanent East–West Schism.
As pope, Stephen retained the Montecassino abbacy, enforced the Gregorian Reform, and continued Leo IX's efforts to expel Normans from southern Italy.
Christened Frederick,[2] he was a younger brother of Duke Godfrey the Bearded of Lorraine,[3] and part of the Ardennes-Verdun dynasty that played a prominent role in the politics of the period.
He was also appointed "bibliothecarius et cancellarius", in succession to Odo, the primicerius of Toul, who was named a bishop, and whose latest signature as chancellor is on 16 January 1051.
[10] As chancellor, Frederick's duties in preparing and issuing papal documents, especially bulls, required his constant attendance on the pope.
Pope Leo, who had negotiated an agreement with the Byzantine catepan of Italy, Argyros, was planning a war against the Normans, which was launched in April 1053.
[14] In January 1054, the chancellor Frederick was appointed, along with Cardinal Humbert of Silva Candida and Archbishop Pietro of Amalfi, to a legation from Pope Leo IX to the Emperor Constantine Monomachos.
[18] Frederick apparently brought back a substantial amount of additional money (pecunia) with him from Constantinople, sufficient to bring suspicion upon him on the part of Emperor Henry III.
[20] To escape the imperial and papal agents, with the abbot's permission, he withdrew to the Island of Termiti in the Adriatic, off the port of Termoli.
In August 1056, Pope Victor, harassed by political problems on all sides, travelled to Germany to consult with and gain help from Emperor Henry.
[22] In May 1057, shortly after Pentecost, Cardinal Humbert of Silva Candida, sent as papal legate, began a series of investigations at the monastery.
He reached Rome, where he took possession of S. Crisogono, his titular church, and took up residence at the Benedictine house, the Pallaria, on the Palatine Hill.
None of these seemed quite satisfactory, and they compelled Cardinal Frederick to leave his refuge at S. Maria in Pallaria and attend their assembly at the Basilica of S. Peter in vinculis.
There he immediately began a program of reform, by every means at his disposal, persuading, exhorting and haranguing the monks to rid themselves of the lax practices that had crept in over the years.
[33] In regional politics, Stephen ordered the bishops of England not to seek consecration from Archbishop Stigand of Canterbury, who was excommunicated and usurping the archbishopric.
[35] At some point in 1057 or 1058, he held a synod in which the citizens of Capua, the capital of the Norman principality, and a cleric named Lando were excommunicated.
[31] In order to advance his aims in the south, he decided, at the beginning of 1058, to send a delegation to the new Byzantine Emperor Isaac I Komnenos (1057–1059).
In mid-March, he ordered the provost of Montecassino to collect all of the gold and silver of his church and secretly send it immediately to Rome; the pope promised that he would soon return it, with interest.
[39] For this purpose, and, if the Roman annals are to be believed, out of anger at being plundered, he set out on a journey to Tuscany, planning to crown and lead his brother back to Rome, and from there march against the Normans.
[41] As he was travelling from Rome to Florence by way of Arezzo, Pope Stephen conceived of the idea of visiting Abbot John Gualbert at Vallombrosa Abbey.
[45] Members of his chapel, which he had brought along from Montecassino, were afraid to return through Rome, and were therefore escorted back to their monastery by Florentine soldiers.
Those who rejected the papacy of Benedict X reported a vacancy of the papal throne of nine months and eight days after the death of Stephen IX.
