Da pontefice legittimo a monstrum immane. Sulla damnatio in memoria di papa Benedetto IX (1032-1045/1047-1048)

FRANCESCO MASSETTI

On Friday, 13 December, at 5 p.m. in room F007, the third appointment of the annual cycle of the permanent seminar on the History of the Papacy will be held. On this occasion Francesco Massetti, from the bergische universität Wuppertal, will give a lecture entitled ‘Da pontefice legittimo a monstrum immane. On the damnatio in memoria of Pope Benedict IX (1032-1045/1047-1048)'. The researcher will focus on the representation of the figure of Pope Benedict IX (1032-1045, 1047-1048), the last exponent of the power system referred to in historical research as the ‘Tuscolan Papacy’. The figure of this pontiff represents an example of damnatio in memoria of particular interest, as it was carried out by polemicists of opposing orientation. On the one hand, Gregorian propaganda portrayed him as an unredeemable opponent of the moral reform of the clergy, thirsty for power and worldly pleasures. On the other, anti-Gregorian polemics painted him in the darkest hues in order to discredit the hated Ildebrando, who had received his training within the Roman clergy precisely under Benedict IX. Massetti will illustrate how the figure of the last Tuscolan pontiff ended up being transformed on a metahistorical level into a veritable monstrum, a receptacle of every vice and condemned without appeal to eternal damnation.