Pope
Clement II
His History and Tomb in the Bamberg
Cathedral in Germany
The Bamberg Cathedral
The Canonization of Henry II and Kunigunde
The Bamberg Cathedral School
in the Early Middle Ages
Bishop Suidiger was a member of the imperial episcopate with the typical career behind him: he came from a Saxon noble family, had held the canonries and then was an imperial chaplain before becoming bishop of Bamberg in 1040. He was enthroned as Pope Clement II on Christmas day 1046, and immediately afterwards crowned Henry III and Agnes as Emperor and Empress. At the same time Henry received the rank of patricius as a hereditary title. The name, which originally came from Byzantium, appears from the end of the 10th century in Roman sources as the title of the defender of the Roman Church. Otto III received the title in 996 at his imperial coronation. The rights associated with the title are by no means clear, but it is certain that its holder was entitled to cast the first vote in a papal election. The fact that the German king in Emperor was now the patricius meant essentially that the influence of the Roman nobility would be excluded in future papal elections.
Pope Clement II's Possible Death by Poisoning
In the next twelve years there were no fewer than five German popes with remarkably short pontificates. Some thought that it was the burden of the papal office that shortened the men's lifespan. Quite early on however there were rumors that the deaths of these foreign popes were not due to natural causes, and when in 1942 the sarcophagus of Clement II was opened in Bamberg (even after becoming pope he had not given up his old bishopric, and was buried there) and a high lead content was discovered in his skeleton, the rumors appear to be confirmed: Karl Hauck has described the poisoning of Clement II as "a tenable supposition". It is unlikely, however, that his successors were poisoned.
Pope Clement II's
tomb today without the effigy, columns, or baldachin
A tomb for Pope Clement II was sculpted roughly around 1240. The original form of the monument is open to question, because it has been broken up and the pieces separated since its creation. Today we have two components -- an uprght statue, presently mounted on a pier in the east choir and remarkable for the breastplate of Aaron (see side panel), and a tomb chest of gray marble. This upright statue, in fact, originally served as an effigy - it lay atop the Pope's tomb in a horizontal position. We have evidence of four, and perhaps six, columns that were placed around the tomb and which probably supported a canopy or baldachin, we still can see their bases on each corner, andone each in the middle of the long sides. And figures probably stood in relief on these columns. There is a fragment of one column held in the Frankfurt Liebighaus which is said to come from Pope Clement II's grave, and it appears to show a portion of an standing angel.
The four bands of water flowing between the jars in the middle may represent the rivers of paradise.
The grey marble tomb chest of Pope Clement II has a rare iconography, with St. John the Baptist and the death of the Pope on the short sides of the chest and the cardinal virtues on the long sides, as well as a representation of the rivers of paradise in one figure.
A tomb for Pope Clement II was sculpted roughly around 1240. The original form of the monument is open to question, because it has been broken up and the pieces separated since its creation. Today we have two components -- an uprght statue, presently mounted on a pier in the east choir and remarkable for the breastplate of Aaron (see side panel), and a tomb chest of gray marble. This upright statue, in fact, originally served as an effigy - it lay atop the Pope's tomb in a horizontal position. We have evidence of four, and perhaps six, columns that were placed around the tomb and which probably supported a canopy or baldachin, we still can see their bases on each corner, andone each in the middle of the long sides. And figures probably stood in relief on these columns. There is a fragment of one column held in the Frankfurt Liebighaus which is said to come from Pope Clement II's grave, and it appears to show a portion of an standing angel.
The four bands of water flowing between the jars in the middle may represent the rivers of paradise.
The grey marble tomb chest of Pope Clement II has a rare iconography, with St. John the Baptist and the death of the Pope on the short sides of the chest and the cardinal virtues on the long sides, as well as a representation of the rivers of paradise in one figure.
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Viewing the statue of Pope Clement II (1046 -- 1047), one notes the presence of the breastplate of Aaron, the ornament of the high priest that the Pope was wearing as a pectoral. The 12 gemstones were originally colored, and must've been very prominent. The jeweled breastplate is worn on top of a pallium itself, a clear statement that his pope he is the new era in, the new high priest. The statue is dated to the 13th century, about 1240, but such dating is not precise.