Popes John XII and Leo VIII
This is an interesting story of intrigue and even some claim Pope Leo VIII was an Antipope, but he is not listed in teh Annuario Pontifcio as a Pope
De Montor, Lives of the Popes, volume 1, page 252: Repeat what was sad of John XII in the Notizio of Rome for the year 1844: “John XII, Conti, a Roman was created pope in the year 956, and governed the church about eight years. During that time, and in the year 963, Leo was intruded into the pontificate. Being subsequently deposed, he again usurped the supreme dignity on the 26th of June, 1964, and he continued to retain his illegal possession o it until April, 965. Nevertheless, Leo is reckoned in the list of popes under the name of Leo VIII.”
After this preliminary official information, we proceed to details. His name was Octavian, and he was the first pontiff who changed his name. John of the Conti family, grand nephew of Sergius III and of John XI, was elected, or rather, at the instigation of some Romans, intruded into the papacy about the 20th of August, 956. He was then only some sixteen or eighteen years old. Such were the calamities of the times, says Baronius, that it was deemed better to tolerate that invasion than to wound the Church by a schism which would be a worse evil still. Therefore the Church accepted and endured him as pontiff, considering that there would be less evil in tolerating one head, though a monstrous one, that in afflicting the one body with two heads.
Page 253: The reader must go back to those days of grief and horror. A young man scarcely twenty-five years old was invested with the papal attire; he owed such an unheard-of honor to factious and evil men, to a host of wretches who trembled in defeat, and then abused their victory. He who owed his elevation to such circumstances had neither the moderation nor the uprightness so admirable in many preceding popes.
Leo VIII (963-64) Not listed by De Montor, but see above
Catholic Encyclopedia: Date of birth unknown; d. between 20 February and 13 April, 965. When the Emperor Otho I illegally brought about the deposition of the unworthy Pope John XII (Nov., 963), he equally illegally caused to be elected, to fill his place, a layman, "Leo, the venerable protonotary". Leo was a Roman and the son of one John. His family was well known in the Clivus Argentarii (now Via di Marforio, between the Corso and the Forum Romanum), and he himself gave his name to various streets in the neighbourhood of his home. Chosen pope on 4 December, he was consecrated Bishop of Rome on 6 December, all the lesser orders having, in violation of the canon law, been bestowed upon him in the meantime by Sico, Bishop of Ostia. A few weeks after Leo's consecration, the Romans made a vain effort to overthrow the authority of the emperor. They were severely punished for their attempt; but, through the intercession of Leo, Otho restored to them the hostages he had received from them. No sooner, however, did the emperor leave Rome, than the people rose and expelled his nominee (Feb., 964). John XII at once returned to the city, summoned a council, condemned Leo "one of the employees of our curia, who has broken his faith with us", and degraded those clerics who had been ordained by him. Soon after this John died (14 May, 964), and the Romans unwisely elected to succeed him the Cardinal-Deacon Benedict. Indignant at the expulsion of Leo, and the election of Benedict, Otho hurried to Rome, and was soon in possession of both it and the new pope. Leo returned with the emperor, and at once brought Benedict to trial. With the consent of all his would-be judges, Benedict was degraded to the rank of a deacon, Leo himself tearing the pallium from his shoulders (July, 964). If it be the fact, as is asserted by a contemporary, that Benedict acquiesced in his deposition, and if, as seems certain, no further protest was made against Leo's position, he may well be regarded as a true pope from July, 964, to his death in 965, about the month of March.
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