Pope Benedict IX Reigned Three Times
Under the listing for Emperor Henry III, Pope Benedict IX was set aside in favor of Pope Clement II, but again returned upon Clement II's death. He then finally disappeared and the Emperor Henry III appointed Pope Damasus II.
We shall attempt to unravel this puzzle.
De Montor's Lives of the Popes, volume 1: He was elected pope in 1033, on the 9th of December, at the age of ten year, according to Bury, but probably at a more mature age. Novaes thinks that Benedict was then eighteen or twenty years of age, and that ignorant copyists wrote decennis instead of vicennis. Although he was an intruder in the papacy, his family lavished so much gold among the Roman populace that he was received as legitimate.
Catholic Encyclopedia: The nephew of his two immediate predecessors, Benedict IX was a man of very different character to either of them. He was a disgrace to the Chair of Peter. Regarding it as a sort of heirloom, his father Alberic placed him upon it when a mere youth, not, however, apparently of only twelve years of age (according to Raoul Glaber, Hist., IV, 5, n. 17. Cf. V, 5, n. 26), but of about twenty (October, 1032).
He then sold the Papacy to Pope Gregory VI.
Pope Gregory II resigned in favor of Pope Clement II
Benedict IX reasserts his claim, but is again set aside and Henry III appoints Pope Damasus II
He appears after Pope Damasus II's death and then finally disappears and Pope Saint Leo IX is appointed by the Emperor Henry III
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