SERGIUS IV

born , Luna, Tuscany died May 12, 1012, Rome original name Pietro Buccaporci, byname Bucca Porci (Pig's Snout) pope from 1009 to 1012. He became bishop of Albano, Papal States, about 1004. Elected to succeed Pope John XVIII, he was consecrated on July 31, 1009. He was powerless in the hands of the Roman nobles and the patrician Crescentius II, head of the Crescentii, an infamously powerful Roman family that manipulated the papacy from the mid-10th to the early 11th century. While temporally weak, Sergius was particularly noted for his aid to the poor and for granting privileges to several monasteries. He was buried in the St. John Lateran Basilica, Rome.