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. 242-243.
The Lives of the Popes,
BY
B. Platina
Volume I.
CHRISTOPHER.
A.D. 903.
CHRISTOPHER, whose country and family is, because of the meanness of his extraction, not known, having got the Popedom by ill means, lost it as ill; for after seven months he was justly deposed, and forced to take on him a monastic life, the only refuge of men in trouble, for at that time clergymen that deserved ill were, as it were, banished into monasteries by way of punishment. There are those that 243 say Christopher was deposed in the reign of Louis III., while others ascribe him to the times of Berengarius, who, we told you, was from Duke of Friuli created Emperor, as descending from the Longobardian kings of Italy, and as being the only man in whom, for his valour and nobility, they could place any hopes of seeing the honour of the Empire retrieved. And that I should suppose Berengarius to have reigned at this time, I am persuaded by considering the short lives of the Popes before-going (who, as monsters, were soon snatched away by a Divine power), and the length of the reign of that Emperor, who having vanquished Guido, Duke of Spoleto, and slain Ambrose, Count of Bergamo, who were his first adversaries, was crowned Emperor by Formosus, and lived nine years after. What became of Christopher, after his being deposed shall be spoken in the life of Sergius.
Previous Pope: 121. Leo V. 122. Christopher. Next Pope: 123. Sergius III.