As of 2022, according to scholarly consensus, how old was the youngest pope of the Roman Catholic Church?

Pope Benedict IX, (Theophylactus of Tusculum), is the youngest pope in the history of the Roman Catholic Church. Undoubtedly, in the 21st century because of current church procedures, no one will ever again become pope while still a pre-adolescent (10—19). Pope Benedict IX was not only the youngest pope in the history of the position; he is still the only man to have the title and position more than just once. Additionally, he’s the only individual to have sold the papacy.

It is believed that he became pope under questionable and corrupt conditions. At the time, his father was able to win his election through the age-old tradition of bribery. Pope Benedict IX was the 145th, 147th, and 150th pope.

A close source to Pope Benedict IX, Rodolfus Glaber, a monk and historian who lived from 985 to 1047, was a persistent critic of Benedict IX and claimed in his document accounts of history that the pope was actually 12 in 1032. In Benedict’s case, once he got a taste of power during his first reign at such a very young age, it was too hard for him to let it go! He had to return to power again and again.