Sources
- Gregorovius, Ferdinand. Rome in the Middle Ages Vol. IV Part 1. 1905.
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Leo de Benedicto Christiano, or just Benedictus Christianus, was a Jew of Trastevere in the late eleventh century. He converted to Christianity and was baptised by Pope Leo IX, whence he took his Christian name. He related himself to the ancient patrician families of Rome by the marrying of his daughters to powerful suitors. He himself was extremely rich (probably from usury).
In January 1058, as a partisan of the newly elected Pope Nicholas II, Leo had the gates of the Leonine City thrown open for Godfrey, former duke of Lower Lorraine, and his wife, Beatrice, marchioness of Tuscany. Godfrey immediately possessed the Tiber Island and attacked the Lateran, forcing Benedict X to flee on 24 January. Leo allied himself with the reformers, including Hildebrand and Pope Alexander II, but he was unable to dispel, through negotiations, the attack of 14 April 1062 which gave Rome to Antipope Honorius II.
His son was Pier Leoni and through him he is the father of the great Pierleoni family which dominated Roman politics for much of the Middle Ages. So far as one can tell, he lived in peace with the Roman people and the pontiff, but his grandson, who was elevated to the papacy as Antipope Anacletus II, was lambasted for his Hebrew ancestry; as was another grandson, Jordan, who was elected patrician of the Commune of Rome and became also an enemy of the legitimate popes.
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An antipope is a person who makes a significant and substantial attempt to occupy the position of Bishop of Rome and leader of the Catholic Church in opposition to the legitimately elected pope. At times between the 3rd and mid-15th centuries, antipopes were supported by important factions within the Church itself and by secular rulers.
Pope Benedict V was the pope and ruler of the Papal States from 22 May to 23 June 964, in opposition to Leo VIII. He was overthrown by Emperor Otto I. His brief pontificate occurred at the end of a period known as the Saeculum obscurum.
Antipope Boniface VII, otherwise known as Franco Ferrucci, was a Catholic prelate who claimed the Holy See in 974 and from 984 until 985. A popular tumult compelled him to flee to Constantinople in 974; he carried off a vast treasure, and returned in 984 and removed Pope John XIV (983–984) from office. He is supposed to have put Pope Benedict VI to death. After a brief second rule, he died under suspicious circumstances. He is today considered an antipope.
Pope Gregory V, born Bruno of Carinthia, was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 3 May 996 to his death. A member of the Salian dynasty, he was made pope by his cousin, Emperor Otto III.
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Pope Stephen IX was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 3 August 1057 to his death in 29 March 1058. He was a member of the Ardenne-Verdun family, who ruled the Duchy of Lorraine, and started his ecclesiastical career as a canon in Liège. He was invited to Rome by Pope Leo IX, who made him chancellor in 1051 and one of three legates to Constantinople in 1054. The failure of their negotiations with Patriarch Michael I Cerularius of Constantinople and Archbishop Leo of Ohrid led to the permanent East–West Schism. He continued as chancellor to the next pope, Victor II, and was elected abbot of the Benedictine monastery of Montecassino.
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Pier Leoni was the son of the Jewish convert Leo de Benedicto and founder of the great and important medieval Roman family of the Pierleoni. He was called the Jewish Crassus by Gregorovius.
The family of the Pierleoni, meaning "sons of Peter Leo", was a great Roman patrician clan of the Middle Ages, headquartered in a tower house in the quarter of Trastevere that was home to a larger number of Roman Jews. The heads of the family often bore the title consul Romanorum, or "Consul of the Romans," in the early days.
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