CLEMENT II, POPE

Pontificate: Dec. 24, 1046 (election, Rome); Dec. 25, 1046 (consecration), to Oct. 9, 1047 (at the abbey of St. Thomas de Foglia, near Pesaro, buried at Bamberg cathedral, Bamberg, Germany); b. Suidger of noble Saxon descent; educated as a canon at the cathedral of Halberstadt, he became a chaplain of Archbishop Hermann of Hamburg-Bremen in 1032 and imperial court chaplain in 1035. At the nomination of Emperor Henry III, he was consecrated as bishop of Bamberg, Christmas, 1040. After the councils of Sutri and Rome in late 1046 and the deposition or abdication of Pope gregory vi because of simony, Henry III nominated him as successor. He was elected Pope Clement II December 24, but retained his office as bishop of Bamberg. Immediately upon his consecration on Christmas Day he crowned Henry emperor. Agnes, his consort and mother of Emperor Henry IV, was crowned empress. Clement II is the first of several "German" popes who pushed the aims of ecclesiastical reform in the city of Rome. He held a reforming synod in January 1047, issuing decrees against simony and accompanied Henry III to southern Italy. After a summer spent in Rome, he died on a journey north at the Abbey of St. Thomas near Pesaro. An exhumation in 1942 revealed an abnormally high lead content in his bones, thus lending credence to the ancient rumor that he was poisoned. Because of the brevity of his pontificate it cannot be fairly evaluated. His is the only papal tomb north of the Alps, and the treasury of the Cathedral of Bamberg preserves his pontifical vestments.

Bibliography: w. goez, "Papa qui et episcopus," Archivum Historiae Pontificiae 8 (1970) 27–59. l. gÖller, a. dechant, Clemens II, der Papst aus Bamberg (Bamberg 1997). e. v. guttenberg, ed., Das Bistum Bamberg (Berlin 1937). k. hauck, "zum Tode Papst Clemens' II," Jahrbuch für fränkische Landesforschung 19 (1959) 265–274. h-p. laqua, "Clemente II," Dizionario biografico degli Italiani 26 (1982) 178–181. j. laudage, "Clemens II," Lexikon der Päpste und des Papsttums (Freiburg-Basel-Vienna 2001), 50f. s. mÜller-christensen, Das Grab des Papstes Clemens II. im Dom zu Bamberg (Munich 1960). m. parisse, "Clément II," Dictionnaire Historique de la Papauté, ed. p. levillain (Paris 1994) 362. r. timmel and g. zimmermann, "Bischof Suidger von Bamberg—Papst Clemens II," Fränkische Lebensbilder 10 (1982) 1–19. g. zimmermann, "Bambergs Zeichenhaftigkeit für die Reichskirche des 11. Jahrhunderts," Historischer Verein Bamberg für die Pflege der Geschichte des ehemaligen Fürstbistums 133 (1997) 83–92. h. wolter, Die Synoden im Reichsgebiet und in Reichsitalien von 916–1056 (Paderborn 1988) 379–404.

[u.-r. blumenthal]