The earliest record of Theodoric is his signature on a document of the antipope Clement III (Wibert) dated 4 November 1084, where he signs as cardinal deacon of S. Maria in Via Lata.[1] In a letter of 29 July 1099, Clement III refers to Theoderic as one of those cardinals who anathematized Gregory VII (who died on 25 May 1085) as a heretic and simoniac.[2]
In 1098, Cardinal Theodoric became involved in German affairs, as papal legate of Clement III.[3]ArchbishopRothardus of Mainz had not only refused to accept the legitimacy of antipope Clement III, but was working against the Emperor Henry and his antipope by rallying the bishops of Germany to meet in a synod in Mainz on 1 December 1097.[4] Clement had tried several times to bring the archbishop under control. First, he had Rothardus summoned to the papal court to answer charges of simony; when he refused to appear, Theodoric and another bishop summoned him; finally the Deacon Hugo also summoned him. Having failed to appear, on 29 July 1099 the people of Mainz were released from their obedience to Rothardus and warned of the interdict that would be inflicted on any who associated with him. Theodoric wrote and witnessed the papal letter.[5] On 18 October 1099, he was in Tivoli, where he witnessed a document of antipope Clement III in favor of Cardinal Romanus of S. Ciriaco.[6]
According to the "Annales Romani", the followers of Clement met secretly in Rome, at night, in St. Peter's Basilica, where they elected and enthroned Cardinal Theodoric, the Bishop of Albano, who may have assumed the name Sylvester III.[9] But he did not dare to remain in the city. Forced to abandon Rome to seek protection of the emperor, Theodoric was seized by partisans of Pope Paschal II, and sent to Rome. He was convicted by judgment of the fathers, [10] and immediately sent to the monastery of Santissima Trinità di Cava, near Salerno, where he was compelled to become a monk,[11] or, according to the "Life of Pope Paschal II," a hermit.[12]
He died at Cava in 1102, according to the epitaph in the crypt of the monastery.[13] A later memorial plaque in La Cava commemorates him under the pontifical name of "Sylvester III", because the earlier Pope Sylvester III (Giovanni dei Crescenzi), at that time was considered an antipope. Theodoric's successor was Antipope Albert, elected in 1101,[14] or in February or March 1102.[15]
^Piazza and Anzoise (2019), "Teodorico, antipapa", Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani. Hüls, pp. 92–93. (in German)
^Philipp Jaffé; Wilhelm Wattenbach; Ernst Dümmler (1866). Bibliotheca rerum germanicarum: Monumenta moguntina (in Latin). Vol. III. Berlin: Weidmann. p. 377.: "Principio, de symoniaca heresi infamatus, a viris religiosis et quos ad vocationem auctoritas admittit multifarie super hoc impetitus, per Romanae aeclesiae cardinales Warinum, Anastasium et Adalmarium est vocatus. Et postea, cum venire nollet, ab episcopis Romanis Tiedrico Albanense et Ruopperhto Faventino, postremo etiam per Hugonem sacri palacii diaconum vocatus est.
^Jaffé; Wattenbach; Dümmler (1866). Bibliotheca rerum germanicarum: Monumenta moguntina. pp. 374–376.: "De cetero precamur et obsecramus, ut de collegio vestro,
quos nostis idoneos, in Kalendis Decembris dirigere velitis, qui possint interesse conventui ecclesie, qui se in villa nostra ad honorem Dei colligere decrevit." His letter to the clergy and people of Halberstadt suggests that the bishop may have been supporting Henry and Clement: "Nulla vobis erit confusio immo gloria et honor, redire ad viam iustitie, a qua vos deduxit tortuosa semita sinistre." ('There will be no confusion for you, but actually glory and honor, to return to the way of justice, from which a tortuous path has led you astray.')
^Jaffé; Wattenbach; Dümmler (1866). Bibliotheca rerum germanicarum: Monumenta moguntina. p. 377.: "Principio, de symoniaca heresi infamatus, a viris religiosis et quos ad vocationem auctoritas admittit multifarie super hoc impetitus, per Romanae aeclesiae cardinales Warinum, Anastasium et Adalmarium est vocatus. Et postea, cum venire nollet, ab episcopis Romanis Tiedrico Albanense et Ruopperhto Faventino, postremo etiam per Hugonem sacri palacii diaconum vocatus est.
^Hüls, p. 93 with note 3. P. Kehr, Italia pontificia I (Berlin: Weidmann 1906), p. 61, no. 2.
^Pandulphus Pisanus, "Life of Paschal II," in: Watterich II, p. 4: "Miser GUibertus, iam non-papa, qui nunquam papa, dimissa Urbe, nec adhuc securus, in Castellum se proripuit, et hic terminus."
^The successor of his successor, Maginulf, also assumed the name Sylvester (IV).
^The statement that he was pope for three or four months is derived from a misreading of Pandulph Pisanus' "Life of Paschal II", where a reign of 105 days is actually assigned to Antipope Adalbert, Theodoric's successor. Watterich II, p. 4: "Alter post alterum duo statim eliguntur pape. Et unus quidem eodem, alter post centesimum quintum electionis suae diem a fidelibus captus, qui Albertus vocabatur, apud sanctum Laurentium Aversae retrudi, et qui Theodericus, apud sanctam Trinitatem in Cava heremiticam vitam addiscere, patrum iudicio adjudicati sunt."
^Imma Penn, 233. Michaele Morcaldi; Mauro Schiani; Sylvano De Stephano, eds. (1873). Codex diplomaticus cavensis (in Latin). Vol. Tomus primus. Naples: Petrus Piazzi. p. lxviii.
^J.N.D. Kelly and M.J. Walsh (2010), Oxford Dictionary of Popes, second edition (Oxford: OUP), p. 162.
^Jaffé, Regesta pontificum, p. 773, whose editors point out that Albertus would not have been elected by the Wibertines until after the death of their Pope Theoderic.
Kehr, Paul Fridolin (1900). "Due documenti pontifici illustranti la storia di Roma negli ultimi anni del secolo IX," in: Archivio della reale Società romana di storia patria XXIII (1900), pp. 277–283, at pp. 280–283. (in Italian)
Piazza, Andrea; Anzoise, Stefania (2019). "Teodorico, antipapa", Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Volume 95 (Treccani: 2019) (in Italian)
