Marinus II

Marinus was a Roman, cardinal priest of San Ciriaco, and the third pope Alberic II installed, consecrated on 30 October 942. The Liber Pontificalis says he did nothing without the prince's authority, and the record bears it out. He confirmed the privileges of Cluny and of Odo's Roman foundations, took Monte Cassino, refounded after the Saracen sack, under papal protection, and appointed Frederick of Mainz his vicar for Germany, as Leo VII had. He rebuked the bishop of Capua for neglecting his church and its poor and reminded him that he held it by the pope's grace. He repaired churches. Flodoard, who recorded the deaths of popes in his annals, gives him a line: a man devoted to reform, who wished the clergy well and the poor better.

He died in May 946 and was buried in Saint Peter's. His three and a half years are the quietest of the century, and their quiet is Alberic's achievement more than his: a prince who kept the Roman factions down, the king of Italy out, and the pope at prayer. Marinus II is the model of the pope Alberic wanted, and the last of the three he chose for harmlessness before he chose Agapetus II, who had some steel in him, and then, on his deathbed, his own son.