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The Crescentii (in modern Italian Crescenzi) were a baronial family, attested in
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
from the beginning of the 10th century and which in fact ruled the city and the election of the popes until the beginning of the 11th century.


History

Several individuals named ''Crescentius'' who appear in the very scanty documentation of the period have been grouped together by historians as the "Crescentii." Some do seem to bear family relationships, falling into two main branches, the Ottaviani and the Stefaniani, and their policies were consistent enough, especially as regards confronting the rival gang of aristocratic thugs, the
Tusculani The counts of Tusculum, also known as the Theophylacti, were a family of secular noblemen from Latium that maintained a powerful position in Rome between the 10th and 12th centuries. Several popes and an antipope during the 11th century came from ...
, who were descended from the influential curial official Theophylact, Count of Tusculum, ruler of Rome at the beginning of the 10th century. Their territorial strongholds were situated mainly in the
Sabine Hills Sabina ( Latin: ''Sabinum''), also called the Sabine Hills, is a region in central Italy. It is named after Sabina, the territory of the ancient Sabines, which was once bordered by Latium to the south, Picenum to the east, ancient Umbria ...
. The Crescentii had another formidable enemy, whose power did not always extend to Rome, in the German kings and emperors of the Ottonian Saxon dynasty, notably
Otto the Great Otto I (23 November 912 – 7 May 973), traditionally known as Otto the Great (german: Otto der Große, it, Ottone il Grande), was East Frankish king from 936 and Holy Roman Emperor from 962 until his death in 973. He was the oldest son of Hen ...
and Henry II. Emperor Otto's intervention in Italian affairs in 961 was not in Crescentii interests. In February 962, the pope and the emperor ratified the ''
Diploma Ottonianum The ''Diploma Ottonianum'' (also called the ''Pactum Ottonianum'', ''Privilegium Ottonianum'' or simply ''Ottonianum'') was an agreement between Pope John XII and Otto I, King of Germany and Italy. It confirmed the earlier Donation of Pepin, gra ...
'', in which the emperor became the guarantor of the independence of the papal states. It was the Crescentii who most threatened papal independence. The clan's triumph was in the later 10th century. They produced one pope from among their number — John XIII — and controlled most of the others, whom the leaders of the Crescentii installed as puppet popes. They held the secular offices such as ''praefectus'' by which Rome was technically still governed, and exacted large contributions and donations from the Papal treasury, in a thinly disguised extortion. From this power base within the city, they were able to influence even those popes who had not been their direct candidates. In the countryside, Crescentii castles concentrated a cluster of population that depended on them for their defense and were dependable armed members of the Crescentii clientage. After Sergius IV's death (1012), the Crescentii simply installed their candidate, Gregory, in the
Lateran 250px, Basilica and Palace - side view Lateran and Laterano are the shared names of several buildings in Rome. The properties were once owned by the Lateranus family of the Roman Empire. The Laterani lost their properties to Emperor Constantin ...
, without the assent of the cardinals. A struggle flared between the Crescentii and the rival Tusculani. The failure of their bold attempt and the pontificate of the Tusculan
pope Benedict VIII Pope Benedict VIII ( la, Benedictus VIII; c. 980 – 9 April 1024) was bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 18 May 1012 until his death. He was born Theophylact to the noble family of the counts of Tusculum. Unusually for a medieva ...
, whose powerful protector was the King of the Germans, Henry II, whom he crowned Emperor in Rome in 1014, forced the Crescentii out of Rome, retreating to the fortified strongholds. In the 1020s, the abbot Hugh of Farfa was able to play one branch of Crescentii against another, and Crescentii support of two unsuccessful antipopes in mid-century, Sylvester III (Pope in 1045) and
Benedict X Benedict X (died 1073/1080), born Giovanni, was elected to succeed Pope Stephen IX on 5 April 1058, but was opposed by a rival faction that elected Nicholas II. He fled Rome on 24 January 1059 and is today generally regarded as an antipope.Mary S ...
in 1058 were symptoms of the clan's loss of unity and political prestige. As landowners, they settled into more local forms of patronage, as the ''Crescenzi.'' The last known member of the family was Cardinal Marcello Crescenzi who died in 1768.


Notable members

* Crescentius the Elder (d.984) * Crescentius the Younger (d.998) * John Crescentius (d.1012)


Notes


References

*Luscombe, David and Riley-Smith, Jonathan. 2004. ''New Cambridge Medieval History: C.1024-c.1198, Volume 4''. *


External links


The Waiting Game: The Twenty-First and Eleventh Centuries Compared
- by John C. Rao
Famiglia Crescenzi
{{Periods of papal history 10th-century Christianity 11th-century Catholicism History of the papacy Medieval Rome Papal families Families of post-ancient Rome