POPE STEPHEN VII (VIII)

The numbering of the Popes Stephen is a continuing problem, depending on whether you accept the anti-pope in this number. This particular Pope Stephen was named Stephanus de Gabrielli. His date of birth is not known, but assumed to be some time in the second half of...

POPE ANASTASIUS III

Anastasius was born around 865, son of a Roman noble named Lucian. The theory that he was really the son of Pope Sergius and Marozia, the daughter of Theophylact, one of the leading men of Rome, is not likely. Sergius was born about five years before him and Marozia...

POPE SERGIUS III, THE FIRST OF THE THEOPHYLACT POPES

Sergius was a young Roman, the son of Benedictus. And he had a taste for adventure. Ordained a subdeacon by Pope Marinus I (882-884) and a deacon by Pope Stephen V (885-891) he was consecrated bishop of Caere in 893 by the much-maligned Pope Formosus. He appeared to...