Page "Pope Sergius III" Paragraph 3

By the time the Antipope Christopher ( 903 – 904 ) seized the chair of Saint Peter by force, circumstances had changed at Rome, with the rise of the magister militum Theophylact, Count of Tusculum, who had been stationed at Rome by the retreating emperor Louis the Blind in 902.

Putting himself at the head of a faction of the nobility, he revolted against Christopher, and asked Sergius to return to Rome to become pope.

Sergius accepted, and with the armed backing of Adalbert II, he entered Rome, by which stage Christopher had already been cast into prison by Theophylact.

Sergius was then consecrated Pope on 29 January 904.