Pope Agapetus II
head of the Catholic Church
890 CE to 955 CE
Pope Agapetus II (died 8 November 955) is the head of the Catholic Church from 10 May 946 to his death in 955.
A nominee of the Princeps of Rome, Alberic II, his pontificate occurs during the period known as the Saeculum obscurum.
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Pope Marinus II has extended the appointment of Frederick, Archbishop of Mainz as Papal Vicar and Missus dominicus throughout Germany and Francia.
Marinus later intervened when the Bishop of Capua seized without authorization a church which had been given to the local Benedictine monks.
In fact, throughout his pontificate, Marinus has favored various monasteries, issuing a number of Papal bulls in their favor.Marinus occupied the palace built by Pope John VII atop the Palatine Hill in the ruins of the Domus Gaiana.
He dies in May 946 and was succeeded by Agapetus II.
Agapetus, born into a Roman noble family, of a Roman father (descendant of consul Anicius Faustus Albinus Basilius) and a Greek mother, is elected pope on May 10, 946.
The existence of an independent republic of Rome, ruled by Alberic II, (932–954), son of Marozia and the self-styled "prince and senator of the Romans", means that Agapetus is prevented from exercising any temporal or secular power in Rome and the Papal States.
Alberic II, Patrician and self-styled prince of Rome, had in 936 married his stepsister Alda of Vienne, the daughter of King Hugh of Italy, and had had a son with her, Octavianus.
However, there is some doubt about this.
Benedict of Soracte recorded that Octavianus was the son of a concubine (Genuit (Alberic) ex his principem ex concubinam filium, imposuit eis nomen Octabianus), but his Latin is unclear.
If he were the son of Alda, he would have been eighteen when he became pope, and he would have been a seventh generation descendant of Charlemagne on his mother's side.
If he was the son of a concubine, he would have been somewhat older, possibly up to seven years older.
Born in the region of the Via Lata, the aristocratic quarter that was situated between the Quirinal Hill and the Campus Martius, he had been given the name of Octavianus, a clear indicator of how the family saw themselves and the future destiny of the son of Alberic.
Sometime before his death in 954, Alberic administers an oath to the Roman nobles in St. Peter's providing that the next vacancy for the papal chair would be filled by his son Octavianus, who by this stage had entered the Church.
With his father’s death, and without any opposition, he succeeds his father as Princeps of the Romans, somewhere between the ages of seventeen and twenty-four.
Following the death of Pope Agapetus II in November 955, Octavianus, who is the Cardinal deacon of the deaconry of Santa Maria in Domnica, is elected his successor on December 16, 955.
His adoption of the apostolic name of John XII is the third example of a pontiff taking a regnal name upon elevation to the papal chair, the first being John II (533–535) and the second John III (561–574).
Right from the start, in relation to secular issues, the new pope issues his directives under the name of Octavianus, while in all matters relating to the Church, he issues papal bulls and other material under his pontifical name of John.