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Saeculum Obscurum
(, "the dark age/century"), also known as the Rule of the Harlots or the Pornocracy, was a period in the history of the papacy during the first two thirds of the 10th century, following the chaos after the death of Pope Formosus in 896, which saw seven or eight papal elections in as many years. It began with the installation of Pope Sergius III in 904 and lasted for 60 years until the death of Pope John XII in 964. During this period, the popes were influenced strongly by a powerful and allegedly corrupt aristocratic family, the Theophylacti, and their relatives and allies. The era is seen as one of the lowest points of the history of the papal office. Periodisation The was first named and identified as a period of papal immorality by the Italian cardinal and historian Caesar Baronius in his ''Annales Ecclesiastici'' in the 16th century. Baronius's primary source for his history of this period was the contemporaneous writer Bishop Liutprand of Cremona. Baronius himse ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theology
Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the supernatural, but also deals with religious epistemology, asks and seeks to answer the question of revelation. Revelation pertains to the acceptance of God, gods, or deity, deities, as not only transcendent or above the natural world, but also willing and able to interact with the natural world and to reveal themselves to humankind. Theologians use various forms of analysis and argument (Spirituality, experiential, philosophy, philosophical, ethnography, ethnographic, history, historical, and others) to help understanding, understand, explanation, explain, test, critique, defend or promote any myriad of List of religious topics, religious topics. As in philosophy of ethics and case law, arguments ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Concubine
Concubinage is an interpersonal relationship, interpersonal and Intimate relationship, sexual relationship between two people in which the couple does not want to, or cannot, enter into a full marriage. Concubinage and marriage are often regarded as similar, but mutually exclusive. During the early stages of European colonialism, administrators often encouraged European men to practice concubinage to discourage them from paying prostitutes for sex (which could spread venereal disease) and from homosexuality. Colonial administrators also believed that having an intimate relationship with a native woman would enhance white men's understanding of native culture and would provide them with essential domestic labor. The latter was critical, as it meant white men did not require wives from the metropole, hence did not require a family wage. Colonial administrators eventually discouraged the practice when these liaisons resulted in offspring who threatened colonial rule by producing a m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pietro Fedele
Pietro Fedele (15 April 1873 –9 January 1943) was an Italian historian and Fascist politician who served as Ministry of Public Education (Italy), Minister of Public Education of the Kingdom of Italy from 1925 to 1928. Biography He was born in Traetto, present-day Minturno, on 15 April 1873, to Ferdinando Fedele, a factory worker, and Angela Conte, a farmer. His elder brother, Salvatore, was a clergyman and sent him to study at the seminary of Gaeta; Pietro, however, left it to finish his studies at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome. In 1890, he moved to the Sapienza University of Rome, University of Rome, where he attended courses in Christian archeology, Romance philology, paleography, diplomatics, ancient history and medieval history. He finally graduated in Literature in 1894. He began his career as a teacher in the middle schools of Rome, Arpino, Sezze and Velletri, and then moved on to the high schools of Potenza, Benevento and Naples. In 1905, he obt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marozia
Marozia, born Maria and also known as Mariuccia or Mariozza ( 890 – 937), was a Roman noblewoman who was the alleged mistress of Pope Sergius III and was given the unprecedented titles ''senatrix'' ("senatoress") and ''patricia'' of Rome by Pope John X.Edward Gibbon wrote of her that the "influence of two sister prostitutes, Marozia and TheodoraHere Gibbon (the author of the famous ''The History of the Decline of the Roman Empire'') confused Theodora (senatrix), Theodora (the mother of Marozia) with Theodora (the sister of Marozia) was founded on their wealth and beauty, their political and amorous intrigues: the most strenuous of their lovers were rewarded with the Roman Papal tiara, tiara, and their reign may have suggested to darker ages the fable of a Pope Joan, female pope. The Illegitimacy, bastard son, two grandsons, two great grandsons, and one great great grandson of Marozia—a rare genealogy—were seated in the Papacy, Chair of St. Peter." Pope John XIII was her neph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theodora (senatrix)
Theodora (also Teodora) (c. 870 – 916) was a senatrix and ''serenissima vestaratrix'' of Rome. Theodora, a Byzantine princess, was married to Theophylact I, Count of Tusculum, of the incredibly powerful Theophylact family. Theophylact I was appointed both commander of the Roman militia and head of the papal chapel. The couple shared effective rulership of Rome between 905 and her death in 916. As heads of the most powerful family in Rome, Theodora and her husband held great sway over the papacy. Theodora was rumoured to have been a lover of Pope John X, and she supported his papal candidacy. With her husband Theophylact I, Theodora had at least three children: Marozia, Theodora II, and Sergia. Her daughter, Marozia, was the alleged lover of Pope Sergius III, and mother of Pope John XI. The latter, according to Liutprand of Cremona and the ''Liber Pontificalis'', was fathered by Sergius. However, the annalist Flodoard (c. 894–966), a direct contemporary of Theodora ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magister Militum
(Latin for "master of soldiers"; : ) was a top-level military command used in the late Roman Empire, dating from the reign of Constantine the Great. The term referred to the senior military officer (equivalent to a war theatre commander, the emperor remaining the supreme commander) of the empire. The office continued to exist end evolve during the early Byzantine Empire. In Greek language, Greek sources, the term is translated either as ''strategos#Byzantine use, strategos'' or as ''stratelates'' (although these terms were also used non-technically to refer to commanders of different ranks). Establishment and development of the command The office of ''magister militum'' was created in the early 4th century, most likely when the Western Roman emperor Constantine the Great defeated all other contemporary Roman emperors, which gave him control over their respective armies. Because the Praetorian Guards and their leaders, the praetorian prefect, Praetorian Prefects, had suppor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Senator
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the elder" or "old man") and therefore considered wiser and more experienced members of the society or ruling class. However the Roman Senate was not the ancestor or predecessor of modern parliamentarism in any sense, because the Roman senate was not a de jure legislative body. Many countries have an assembly named a ''senate'', composed of ''senators'' who may be election, elected, appointed, have inheritance, inherited the title, or gained membership by other methods, depending on the country. Modern senates typically serve to provide a chamber of "sober second thought" to consider legislation passed by a lower house, whose members are usually elected. Most senates have asymmetrical duties and powers compared w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Consul
Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states through antiquity and the Middle Ages, in particular in the Republics of Genoa and Pisa, then revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic. The related adjective is consular, from the Latin '' consularis''. This usage contrasts with modern terminology, where a consul is a type of diplomat. Roman consul A consul held the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic (509 to 27 BC), and ancient Romans considered the consulship the highest level of the '' cursus honorum'' (an ascending sequence of public offices to which politicians aspired). Consuls were elected to office and held power for one year. There were always two consuls in power at any time. Other uses in antiquity Private sphere It was not uncommon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vestararius
The ''vestararius'' was the manager of the medieval Roman Curia office of the ''vestiarium'' (cf. the Byzantine imperial wardrobe and treasury, the ''vestiarion''), responsible for the management of papal finances as well as the papal wardrobe.Lunt, 1950, p. 3. The ''vestiarium'' is mentioned as the papal treasury as early as the seventh century, during the period of Byzantine cultural hegemony in the West called the " Byzantine Papacy", but the ''vestararius'' itself is attested to only from the eighth century. Along with the highest financial officers '' arcarius'' and the '' sacellarius'', the ''vestararius'' was one of the three most important staff officials of the Lateran Palace (the '' palatini'').Lunt, 1950, p. 4. By the ninth century, the ''vestararius'' was a member of the papal household second only to the seven judges, while the other two offices figured among the "seven judges of the palace" who constituted the core of the papal court. While the other offices were resp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theophylact I, Count Of Tusculum
Theophylact I (before 864 – 924/925) was a medieval count of Tusculum who was the effective ruler of Rome from around 905 through to his death in 924. His descendants controlled the papacy for the next 100 years. Biography Theophylact was the hereditary count of Tusculum, a small hill town near the vicinity of Rome. He is mentioned for the first time in a document of 901 as '' palatine iudex'' (''palace judge'', or leader of the militia) of Emperor Louis the Blind. He remained in Rome, commanding a group of soldiers after the emperor's return to Provence in 902, and was prominent in the overthrow of Antipope Christopher in January 904, whom he very likely ordered to be killed whilst in prison later that year. Theophylact formed an alliance with Duke Alberic I of Spoleto, and with their combined backing, Pope Sergius III was elected in Christopher's place. During his pontificate, Theophylact became Sergius’ '' sacri palatii vestararius'' and ''magister militum'', effectivel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theophylacti
The counts of Tusculum or Tuscolo, 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 antipopes during the 11th century came from their ranks. They created and perfected the political formula of noble-papacy, wherein the pope was arranged to be elected only from the ranks of the Roman nobles. The Pornocracy, the period of influence by powerful female courtesans of the family, also influenced papal history. The counts of Tusculum remained arbiters of Roman politics and religion for more than a century. In addition to the papal influence, they held lay power through consulships and senatorial membership. Traditionally they were pro-Byzantine and anti-Germanic in their political affiliation. After 1049, the Tusculan Papacy came to an end with the election of Pope Leo IX. In fact, the Tusculan papacy was largely responsible for the reaction known as the Greg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
