Benedict X (died 1073/1080), born Giovanni, was elected to succeed Pope Stephen IX on 5 April 1058, but was opposed by a rival faction that elected Nicholas II. He fled Rome on 24 January 1059 and is today generally regarded as an antipope. He was a son of Guido, Lord of Poli who was the youngest son of Alberic III, Count of Tusculum, a member of the dominant political dynasty in the region at that time. Giovanni was a nephew of the notorious Pope Benedict IX, who was deposed in 1048. Benedict X reportedly later was given the nickname of Mincius (thin) due to his ignorance. His mother was present at his trial in April 1060. Biography Giovanni, Bishop of Velletri, was created a cardinal by Pope Leo IX in 1050. He was highly esteemed, however, by those who wanted to reform the Church, and was one of five men proposed by Cardinal Frederick of Lorraine when consulted during the summer of 1057 concerning a possible successor to Pope Victor II, whom Frederick himself succeeded as Pope Stephen IX. Pope Victor had died at Arezzo on 28 July 1057, where he had just held a synod, but his successor was elected in Rome, in the Basilica of S. Pietro in vincoli, on 2 August 1057 and consecrated the next day. In less than a year, Stephen IX (Frederick of Lorraine) created thirteen new cardinals. Peter Damian was a native of Ravenna and had been educated in northern Italy. Ubderto Poggi was from Poggio (now Poggio Lucenzio), in the duchy of Lucca. Bruno, cardinal priest of S. Sabina, was from Germany. Ugobaldo degli Obizi came from Lucca. The Benedictine Alberic came from the neighborhood of Benevento. Of the more senior cardinals, Boniface of Albano was from Apulia, Hugo of Silva Candida was a Burgundian, and Stephen of S. Crisogono was a monk of Cluny. In 1058, Pope Stephen was relieved, by force on the part of the Romans, of the treasure which he had brought to Rome from Constantinople, in the wake of his participation in the embassy which excommunicated the Patriarch Michael Cerularius and began the Great Schism. He transferred the remaining treasure to Montecassino, and then hastened into Tuscany, in order to consult with his elder brother Godfrey, whom he had enfeoffed as Duke of Spoleto in January 1058. It was even suggested that Stephen intended to make his