SYLVESTER III

born , Rome died March 3, 1046? original name John of Sabina, Italian Giovanni di Sabina pope, or antipope, from Jan. 20 to Feb. 10, 1045. He was bishop of Sabina when elected pope in January 1045 by a Roman faction that had driven Pope Benedict IX out of Rome. The following month, however, Benedict's supporters in turn expelled Sylvester, and Benedict then sold the papacy to the archpriest Giovanni Graziano, who became Pope Gregory VI in May 1045. Recognizing Gregory as the legitimate pope, Sylvester returned to his old bishopric. When Benedict afterward attempted to depose Gregory, the Holy Roman emperor Henry III intervened and had Gregory convoke the Synod of Sutri (December 1046), which deposed Benedict, Sylvester (who had supposedly reclaimed the papacy against Benedict's apparent unsuitability), and Gregory, replacing them with Pope Clement II. The sentence of Sylvester's deposition survives in the documents issued by him as bishop of Sabina during 1046. He is regarded by some as an antipope.