1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Gregory (Popes)/Gregory VI

by Louis Marie Olivier Duchesne

Gregory VI., pope from 1045 to 1046. As Johannes Gratianus he had earned a high reputation for learning and probity, and in 1045 he bought the Roman pontificate from his godson Benedict IX. At a council held by the emperor Henry III. at Sutri in 1046, he was accused of simony and deposed. He was banished into Germany, where he died in 1047. He was accompanied into exile by his young protégé Hildebrand (afterwards pope as Gregory VII.), and was succeeded by Clement II.  (L. D.*)