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]; p. 271.
The Lives of the Popes,
BY
B. Platina
Volume I.
SYLVESTER III.
A.D. 1044.
SLVESTER the Third, a Roman, son of one Lawrence, was substituted into the room of Benedict when he was expelled, but held it not long, for after nine and forty days Benedict was restored by his own faction. The Popedom was now brought to that pass that he who was most ambitious and would give most for it, not he who was most religious and learned, surely obtained this high office, to the great oppression and discouragement of all good men; a naughty custom which I wish were laid by, even in our own times; and yet this mischief is not so great, but that I fear (except God avert) we shall see much worse. I return to Sylvester, who, being Cardinal of Sabina, was made Pope, not by the College of Cardinals, for that had been tolerable, but merely by simony, as some write, and soon after justly deposed, having entered like a thief and a robber, not by the gate, but by the back-door. Benedict, indeed, was restored, but the city continued in a hubbub, sometimes desiring this man and then another to be put up; which used to be the case of a Mobile who, wanting a governor to steer their giddy humours, generally prefer the worse to the better man.
Previous Pope: 152. Benedict IX. 153. Sylvester III. Next Pope: 154. Gregory VI.