{{Short description|Head of the Catholic Church from 1009 to 1012}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2025}} {{redirect|Sergius IV|the Duke of Naples from 1002 to 1036|Sergius IV of Naples}} {{Infobox Christian leader | type = Pope | honorific-prefix = Pope | name = Sergius IV | title = Bishop of Rome | church = Catholic Church | birth_name = Pietro Martino Buccaporci | term_start = 31 July 1009 | term_end = 12 May 1012 | predecessor = John XVIII | successor = Benedict VIII | consecration = 1004 | cardinal = 1004 | created_cardinal_by = John XVIII | birth_date = | birth_place = Rome, Papal States, {{awrap|Holy Roman Empire}} | death_date = 12 May 1012 | death_place = Rome, Papal States, {{awrap|Holy Roman Empire}} | previous_post = {{unbulleted list|Cardinal-Bishop of Albano (1004–1009)}} | other = Sergius | image = <!-- Please do not add non-notable anachronistic 19th c. depictions--particularly those from "The Lives and Times of the Popes" or "Saint Paul Outside the Walls"--per Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Catholicism/Archive 2020#RfC on non-contemporary images of popes --> }}

'''Pope Sergius IV''' (died 12 May 1012) was the bishop of Rome and nominal ruler of the Papal States from 31 July 1009 to his death. His temporal power was eclipsed by the patrician John Crescentius. Sergius IV may have called for the expulsion of Muslims from the Holy Land, but this is disputed. Since his time, the practice that the person who has been elected to the office of pope takes on a new name became a tradition.<ref name="Goez">{{cite journal |last1=Goez |first1=Werner |title=PAPA QUI ET EPISCOPUS: ZUM SELBSTVERSTÄNDNIS DES REFORMPAPSTTUMS IM 11. JAHRHUNDERT |journal=Archivum Historiae Pontificiae |date=1970 |volume=8 |pages=27–59 |jstor=23563726 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23563726}}</ref>

==Early life== Pietro Martino Buccaporci was born in Rome in the "Pina" district, at an unknown date, the son of Peter the Shoemaker and Stephania.<ref>Duchesne, p. 267.</ref> ''Buccaporci'' ("Pig's snout") was neither his birth name nor the name of his family, but apparently a nickname given to him because of his personal habits.<ref>{{cite book|author=Alphonsus Ciaconius (Alfonso Chacón)|editor=Agostinus Olduinus|title=Vitae et res gestae pontificum romanorum: et S.R.E. cardinalium|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0RdFAAAAcAAJ|volume=Tomus primus|year=1677|publisher=P. et A. De Rubeis|location=Roma|language=Latin|page=765}}</ref>

In 1004, he became the bishop of Albano.<ref>His epitaph, quoted by Duchesne, p. 264, states, ''Albanum regimen lustro venerabilis uno rexit''. A ''lustrum'' is a five-year period.</ref><ref name=Mann>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13729b.htm Mann, Horace. "Pope Sergius IV." The Catholic Encyclopedia] Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 8 November 2017</ref> He was elected pope after the abdication of John XVIII in 1009, and adopted the name Sergius IV.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://w2.vatican.va/content/vatican/en/holy-father/sergio-iv.html| title = "Sergius IV", The Holy See}}</ref>

==Pontificate== The power held by Sergius IV was small and often overshadowed by the patrician, John Crescentius, the ruler of the city of Rome at the time. With the help of Crescentius, Sergius resisted the attempts of Emperor Henry II to establish control over Rome. Sergius IV acted to relieve famine in the city, and he exempted several monasteries from episcopal rule.<ref name=Mann/>

A papal bull calling for Muslims to be driven from the Holy Land after the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was destroyed in 1009 by the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah has been attributed to Sergius IV, although its authenticity has long been a matter of debate.<ref name="Lair1899">{{cite book|author=Jules Auguste Lair|title=Bulle du pape Sergius IV.: Lettres de Gerbert|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FFVGAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA47|year=1899|publisher=A. Picard et fils|location=Paris|language=French, Latin|pages=1–88}}</ref> Carl Erdmann considered it genuine,<ref name="Erdmann1965">{{cite book|author=Carl Erdmann|title=Die Entstehung des Kreuzzugsgedankens|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n52NxgEACAAJ|year=1965|publisher=W. Kohlhammer|location=Stuttgart|language=German}}</ref> but it was rejected at length by Aleksander Gieysztor, who suggested that it was actually invented around the time of the First Crusade in order to help justify that expedition to Jerusalem.<ref>{{cite book|author=Aleksander Gieysztor|title=The Genesis of the Crusades: The Encyclical of Sergius IV (1009–1012)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P98ISQAACAAJ|year=1950}}</ref> Subsequently, Hans Martin Schaller has argued for the document's authenticity.<ref>Hans Martin Schaller (1991), 'Zur Kreuzzugensyklika Papst Sergius' IV.', in: ''Papsttum, Kirche und Recht im Mittelalter. Festschrift für Horst Fuhrmann zum 65. Geburtstag'', ed. Hubert Mordek (Tubingen 1991), 135–153 (in German).</ref>

==Death and legacy== [[File:San giovanni in laterano, interno, navata interna dx, sepolcro settecentesco di sergio IV, m. 1012.jpg|thumb|Tomb of Sergius IV in St John Lateran (18th&nbsp;century)]] Sergius died on 12 May 1012 and was buried in the Basilica of St. John Lateran.<ref name=Mann/> Although not canonized, Sergius is sometimes venerated as a saint by the Benedictines of which he was a member.<ref>Richard P. McBrien, ''Lives of the Popes: The Pontiffs from St. Peter to Benedict XVI'', (HarperCollins Publishers, 2000), 168.</ref> There was some suspicion that he was murdered, as he died within a week of Crescentius, considered by many to have been his patron.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=904| title = Catholic Online}}</ref> Sergius was followed in the papacy by Benedict VIII.<ref name=Mann2>{{Catholic |last=Mann |first=Horace |wstitle=Pope Benedict VIII |volume=2 |inline=1 |prescript=}}</ref>

==References== {{Portal|Biography|Christianity|History}} {{reflist}}

==Sources== *{{cite book|editor=Duchesne Louis|title=Le Liber Pontificalis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MfXRQpBhQc0C&pg=PA636|year=1892|publisher=E. De Boccard|location=Paris|language=Latin, French|page=267}}

*{{catholic|wstitle=Pope Sergius IV}}

{{s-start}} {{s-rel|ca}} {{s-bef|before=John XVIII}} {{s-ttl|title=Pope|years=1009–12}} {{s-aft|after=Benedict VIII}} {{s-end}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sergius 4}} Category:Popes Category:Italian popes Category:Cardinal-bishops of Albano Category:11th-century archbishops Category:1012 deaths Category:Year of birth unknown Category:11th-century popes Category:Burials at the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran