By Cletus Nwabuzo
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Pope Benedict XVI
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The news of the Holy Father’s announcement that he will resign from the Petrine ministry he assumed in April 2005 is a historic surprise. A little over a decade ago while I was doing my doctoral studies in Medieval History at St. Louis University, in St. Louis, Missouri, the question in class was could any of the foibles of the medieval papacy be repeated in our own day? The answer was as diverse as we were in a relatively large graduate class.
We were about fifteen graduate students from the departments of History, Theology, Law, and Management Science (Economics). Our collective view however, was that in this era of micro-management of crisis and twenty-four hour television news a papal resignation was not going to be on the card. The Professor differed. He reasoned that history was both unique and dynamic, but human history was particularly difficult to predict with the certainty we were ascribing to it. Recent events of the announcement of the Pope’s resignation could not have supported the reasoning of my professor any clearer.
This announcement of a papal resignation is unique like every papal reign, but has so many historical coincidences in the history of the papacy itself, the political climate in Rome itself, and another German connection. As the news of the papal announcement broke and we were listening to the many television news reports and analysis, I noticed in one of the Nigerian newspapers adverts from the Italian Embassy in Nigeria calling Italians resident in Nigeria to take appropriate steps to vote in the Italian parliamentary elections on February 21 or thereabout.
On the Italian television, RAI, the leaders of the various political parties took time off their electoral campaign to comment on the papal announcement in Rome. This is one incident too vivid for any historian of the papacy to ignore or miss. In one breath one hears or reads about political development in Rome, not to talk of turmoil, and the resignation of a pope. This turmoil in the political life of the Italian Republic domiciled in Rome and the announcement of the impending resignation of a German pope has echoes in medieval papal history.
In the dying days of the tenth century and in the opening decades of the eleventh century the Ottonian dynasty, a German ruling house, of the ‘Holy Roman Empire’ led a reform movement to restore the papacy from its captivity from the Roman aristocracy. It was an effort that resulted according to the English historian Eamon Duffy in the dismissal (resignation) of no fewer than five popes from the 25 popes that reigned between 955 and 1057. The Ottonian emperors appointed 12 of the popes of this period. Their intervention in the life of the city of Rome to reform the papacy had far reaching consequences for the oligarchy in Rome too. The resignation of a pope at a time the political allegiances of the Italian Republic is up in the air is quite potent.
Another coincidence between the eleventh century papacy and Pope Benedict XVI’s announcement is the very name Benedict. Benedict VIII and Benedict IX who were popes from 1012-1024 and from 1032 to 1048 respectively, were both central characters of the post-ottonian reform papal rot. Pope Benedict VIII was the head of one of the Roman aristocratic families, the Tusculan family. He had succeeded his father Count Gregory as Count of Tusculum, and got himself elected pope.
He was a layman and duly ordained a priest, bishop, consecrated pope and enthroned. He is not generally regarded as a bad pope, but the papacy had become his family’s property. He was succeeded after a 12-year reign by his brother, who took the name John XIX (1024-1032). At the end of John’s reign, a nephew succeeded him and took the name Benedict IX. This second Tusculan Benedict was also a layman at the time of his election.
He was the son of Count Alberic III and became pope because his father bought the office. He was in his 20s at the time of his election, and was both violent and lecherous even for the eleventh century Romans. His was another 12 year marked by violence and amorous scandals until he was deposed in 1045. But was not going to go without a fight.
He was first driven out of Rome and replaced by pope Sylvester III (1045), but was restored to the papal throne with the help of his family’s private army in the same year, 1045. Then followed almost three years of a bitter and unrelenting struggle in which he apparently lost interest in the papacy and accepted bribe to abdicate in favour of an ally, the archpriest John Gratian who became pope Gregory VI (1045-1046).
And here lies the conundrum of an ex-pope or a retired pope. Here, there are three popes in contention. Benedict IX had retired, Sylvester III was defeated by the Tusculans but still alive and pope, and Gregory VI. All of them had been validly enthroned and entrusted with the key of the Fisherman. What was the Church going to do? Into that mixt came another German problem solver. Henry III, had succeeded his father, Comrade II (1024-1039) as king in 1039 and had made his way to Rome to be crowned Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
He arrived the Holy city in 1046 to meet a very troubled city and Church. He decided he was not going to be crowned by a pope, Gregory VI, who was widely accused of buying the papal throne, a simoniac. A synod to address such a weighty matter was immediately convoked at Sutri in December 1046. At this synod the three popes Gregory VI, Sylvester III, and the retired Benedict IX were all formally deposed, and another papal reform agenda foisted on the Church. Four German bishops would be elected popes in quick succession between 1046 and 1055.
Here, however, we are in the beginning decades of the 21st century and another papal resignation announcement. This announcement may have these echoes of the past and coincidence of names and places. But it is unique. The Holy Father, Benedict XIV’s announcement is a resignation announcement that defies parallels in the past. It certainly does not parallel the forced resignation of Gregory XII in 1415. He was forced to resign by the Council of Constance as part of the solution to the fifteenth century schism.
Pope Benedict XVI’s is a reasoned resignation that manages to deal with the two elements of management of public office holders that my classmates and I had thought would make it impossible for a pope to resign or abdicate. We were sure a pope who would want to resign would be hampered by curial official who would rather manage the papal crisis than allow the pope to retire. And we thought managing the information itself in this information age and leaks of all sorts of confidential matters would be impossible if it ever came to pass.
We have all been proven wrong by this pope. Not only did he announce why he was going to be resigning on February 28, he seemed to have allowed no one an opportunity to micro-manage the process and peddle rumour or “Vatican” leak a question that had to deal with something more than public trust, examination of conscience before God. He has defied the very fickle and flimsy odds that mark resignation of public office holders to teach us this enduring value of faith in God. There is no crisis in the Church of God; the boat of Peter is not sinking. Viva il Papa.
As for the other coincidence with political development in Italy, I wish the Italians the very best of God’s blessing. It will be a very hard time if there is no government of the Italian Republic at the very time they See of Rome is also vacant.
*Fr. Nwabuzo, O.P., Dominican Institute, Ibadan, Oyo State.
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