The houses of Tusculum and Spoleto are together the dominant secular powers in the central Italian peninsula, the one representative of the papal power and the other of the imperial.

Pope John XIX, born Romanus in Rome, succeeds his brother Pope Benedict VIII, both members of the house of Tusculum, on April 19.

Prior to being elected Pope, he had been an unordained layman and was therefore ordained a bishop in order to enable him to ascend the papal chair, having previously been a consul and senator.

John XIX plays a role in the process leading to the Schism of 1054 by rejecting a proposal by Patriarch Eustathius of Constantinople to recognize this Patriarchate's sphere of interest in the east.

Against the grain of ecclesiastical history, John XIX agrees, upon being paid a large bribe, to grant the title of ecumenical bishop to the Patriarch of Constantinople.

However, this proposal excites general indignation throughout the Church, compelling him almost immediately to withdraw from the agreement.

On the death of the Emperor Henry II on July 13, 1024, the new pope gives his support to Emperor Conrad II.

An embassy from Italy, sent by Ulric Manfred II of Turin, comes to France in 1024–1025 seeking a king of their own, the Emperor Henry II having died.

The Italians had asked for Robert's son Hugh Magnus, co-king of France, but Robert had refused to allow his son to go and the Italians turn to William, whose character and court impress many.

He sets out for Italy to consider the proposal, but the Italian political situation persuades him to renounce the crown for him and his heirs.

Most of his surviving six letters deal with the Italian proposal.

Pope John XIX had in 1024 confirmed the right of Otto Orseolo, Doge of Venice, to hold Grado and had confirmed the patriarchal rights of his see vis-à-vis Aquileia.

Otto has continued to use church appointments to his own personal and familial advantage. however, and the enemies of the Orseoli in Venice, with popular support, move to depose him in 1026.

They arrest him, shave his beard, and banish him to Constantinople.

There he is well received by Constantine VIII, the uncle of his sister-in-law, who repeals trade privileges previously granted to the Republic under Pietro II Orseolo.

Not for nothing has Otto built up a good rapport with the emperors of Europe: the Holy Roman Emperor Conrad II likewise revokes Venetian trade privileges in response to his deposition.

Although the people have Venice have spoken out against hereditary monarchy, Otto’s successor, Pietro Barbolano, will never fully able to win over the Venetians as he is not nearly as charismatic as the two previous Doges from the Orseolo family.

Aribert, Archbishop of Milan, had gone to Konstanz in June 1025, with other bishops of Northern Italy, to pay homage to Conrad II of Germany, the beleaguered founder of the Salian dynasty.

There, in exchange for privileges, he had agreed to crown Conrad with the Iron Crown of Lombardy, which the magnates had offered to Odo of Blois.

This he does, on March 31, 1026, at Milan, for the traditional seat of Lombard coronations, Pavia, remains in revolt against imperial authority.

Aribert journeys to Rome for the imperial coronation of Conrad by Pope John XIX on March 26, 1027 in an impressive ceremony, attended by, among other dignitaries, Cnut, King of England, Denmark and Norway, and overlord of Sweden.

Aribert negotiates a decision of the precedence of the archdiocese of Milan over that of Ravenna at a synod at the Lateran in 1028.

Guido of Arezzo, possibly born in France around 990, becomes a Benedictine monk and goes to Arezzo in Italy, where he lives for many years and where, in about 1025, he perfects the staff system of musical notation.

A renowned musical theorist and an innovative teacher, he formulates the concept of a scale pattern comprising six notes represented by the syllables ut (do), re, mi, fa, sol, la, and teaches that the interval between each syllable is a whole tone except for the one between mi and fa, which is a half step.

Because singers can now associate syllables with the fixed pitches of the notes, they are able to learn melodies much more quickly and accurately than previously.

Guido’s revolutionary inventions capture the attention of the papal court in Rome, where he successfully demonstrates his techniques.

He discusses contemporary polyphony in his writings, notable the “Micrologus.”

Grado had become seat of the Patriarchate of Aquileia after the invasion of Italy by the Lombards in 568.

After the Schism of the Three Chapters, two different Patriarchs had been elected: the Patriarch of Grado exerted its jurisdiction over the Latin-origin people living in the coast and in the Venetian Lagoon, while that of Old-Aquileia, later moved to Cividale, had its jurisdiction on the mainland.

A long lasting dispute over the authority of the two patriarchs had ensued.

Poppo of Treffen, Archbishop of Aquileia, had entered and sacked Grado in 1027; indeed, Poppo's reign appears to see the ultimate victory for Aquileia.

Pope John XIX had held a Lateran synod on April 6, 1028, in which he declared for Aquileia, giving its bishop the patriarchal dignity and putting the bishop of Grado under his jurisdiction.

The patriarch in fact takes precedence over all Italian bishops.

Pope John revokes his decision in 1029 and reaffirms all the dignities of Grado.

Pietro Barbalano has struggled to bring Venice back together for the six years of his reign as Doge, but he cannot.

Because the Orseoli had created so many links between their family and the hereditary ruling dynasties of Europe, various actions have been taken against Venice as a retaliation for deposing Otto Orseolo.

Barbalano has tried to obtain from the Holy Roman Emperor, Conrad II, a renewal of the Venetian commercial privileges that had been granted to them by Otto III, but he has been unable to do so.

In the meantime, King Stephen of Hungary, whose sister Grimelda of Hungary is the wife of Otto Orseolo, has attacked Dalmatia and annexed a number of cities that had been captured by Pietro II.

The Republic appears to be collapsing and many people go back to supporting Otto Orseolo, though not the Orseolo family as hereditary rulers.

In 1032, Pietro Barbolano abdicates under heavy pressure and Otto Orseolo is called back to rule from his exile in Constantinople.

However, when the messengers arrive, Otto is approaching his death, causing Domenico Orseolo, his relative in Venice, to attempt to seize power.

This bold action is extremely ill-received in Venice as the populous displays its animosity for the notion that an Orseolo is somehow entitled to the Dogeship.

To counter the notion of instituting a royal family in Venice, Barbolano's successor, chosen in 1032, is the wealthy merchant Domenico Flabanico, who has few noble ties.

Under Flabanico, new laws are instilled to limit the powers of the Doge against creating a hereditary monarchy and many new acts are passed.

Alberic III, Count of Tusculum, obtains the Papal chair for his son Theophylact III (or IV), who is a nephew of Pope Benedict VIII and Pope John XIX, at the death of the latter in October 1032.

He reportedly leads an extremely dissolute life and allegedly had few qualifications for the papacy other than connections with a socially powerful family.

Alberic uses the title of consul, dux et patricius Romanorum: "consul, duke, and patrician of the Romans."

This signifies his secular authority in Rome.

He also bears the titular comes sacri palatii Lateranensis ("Count of the Sacred Lateran Palace"), which signifies his ecclesiastical function in the papal curia.

During the pontificate of his brother John XIX, he had been made a senator, but he had had to abandon this title for the aforementioned consular dignity in order to avoid tensions with the Emperor Henry II.

Alberic does not appear in sources after 1033, when he leaves the comital powers to his son, the newly elected pope.