Antipope Gregory VI

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This article is about the Antipope Gregory VI. For the article on Pope Gregory VI or John Gratian, also sometimes reckoned an antipope, see Pope Gregory VI.

On the death of Pope Sergius IV in June, 1012, "a certain Gregory", opposed the party of the Theophylae (which elected Pope Benedict VIII against him), and got himself made pope, seemingly by a small faction.

It is to be noted that Gregory VI was the first to claim to be Pope as successor to Pope Sergius, and that Benedict VIII's claim was subsequent.

Promptly expelled from Rome, Gregory made his way to Germany, and craved the support of the Emperor St. Henry II (25 Dec., 1012). That monarch, however, after promising him that his case should be carefully examined in accordance with canon law and Roman custom, took away from him the papal insignia which he was wearing, and bade him cease to act as pope in the meanwhile. After this, history knows the "certain Gregory" no more.

Catholicism recognizes that a Catholic can become lawful pope even by unlawful means, working on the principle of possession, and there have been several men who did so before Gregory and who are recognized by the Church as legitimate Popes.

Even John Gratian, who was some decades later to take the same title of Pope Gregory VI, attained to the papacy by simony, because he felt compelled to purchase the papacy away from Benedict IX who was too obviously unfit for a clerical state and for the Papal office; despite being deposed for his simony, he is nevertheless recognized as a legitimate Pope.

Again, it is an admitted fact that the man who supplanted him, Pope Benedict VIII, was himself an intruder, and therefore just as legitimate or illegitimate as Gregory VI himself!

Thus, we read in the Catholic Encyclopedia:

"...he was, though a layman, imposed on the chair of Peter by force, on May 18, 1012. Nevertheless, dislodging a rival, he became a good and strong ruler...."

The case of this Gregory VI then presents an anomaly. It is probable that it was his inability to maintain himself and his claim and his fall into obscurity that militates against a recognition of his legitimacy.

According to Catholic rules, he would be considered legitimate Pope until he factually lost control of the Papacy when effectively suppressed by Emperor St. Henry II.

While a Catholic can attain to the papacy by fraud and wrongdoing, and yet become legitimate Pope, a Catholic who has fallen into public and manifest heresy, or any other non-Catholic, cannot. This is the ancient law of the Church, and was reiterated and codified by Pope Paul IV in his constitution Cum ex apostolatus officio.

Lastly, while Catholicism recognizes that Catholics can become lawful Popes although they seized the Papacy unlawfully, it nevertheless teaches that they commit a grave sin by doing so and will be held accountable for it.