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From The Lives of the Popes from the Time of our Saviour Jesus Christ to the Accession of Gregory VII. Written Originally in Latin by B. Platina, Native of Cremona, and translated into English (from an anonymous translation, first printed in 1685 by Sir Paul Rycaut), Edited by William Benham, Volume I, London: Griffith, Farran, Okeden & Welsh, [1888, undated in text]; pp. 272-273.

The Lives of the Popes,
BY
B. Platina

Volume I.


[272]

CLEMENT  II.

A.D. 1046-1048.

CLEMENT the Second, before called Syndegerus, Bishop of Bamberg, was made Pope in the council, by the consent, or rather authority and command of Henry III., who having received at this Pope’s hands the imperial crown, 272 caused the Romans to take an oath after a form he prescribed, not to meddle in the election of any Pope, except by a command from him; for the Emperor saw things to be come to such a height of licentiousness, that any factious and potent fellow, however ignoble, could arrive at that dignity by purchasing the suffrages of the electors, which ought not to be conferred but by the spirit of God upon those that excelled in learning and a holy life. From hence he went to Capua, where he settled all things, and having listed those soldiers who had so stoutly resisted the Saracens, he returned by Rome for Germany. He was no sooner gone (as some write), but the Romans contrived to poison the Pope, because made so without their assent, in the ninth month of his Popedom; nay, some authors say, the venomous potion was prepared for him by that Stephen, who, by the name of Damasus II., succeeded him, at the time when Odo, abbot of Clugny, a man of extraordinary holiness, dying, Hugo was made abbot after him, a man of noble personage, pious, devout, affable, and learned, Henry II. at this time reigning in France, Alphonso in Spain, and Michael with his son, Constantine, being emperors of Constantinople, which Empire was now in great weakness and distress.

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Previous Pope: 154. Gregory VI. 155. Clement II. Next Pope: 156. Damasus II.

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