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Edmund de la Marck was the Duke of Saxe-Jessen from 1533 until his deposition in 1539, and served as the Archbishop of Jessen from 1547, as a Cardinal of the Northern Catholic Church, until his election by the same church as Pope in 1560. A younger son of Edmund Alwin, the Duke of Saxony, Edmund received Saxe-Jessen as an apanage following the partition of the Duchy of Saxony between Edmund Alwin's sons and heirs. Edmund was notably Catholic, whereas his entire family and the rest of Saxony were Jungist and rather anti-Catholic. Edmund would raise two daughters, as well as his great-nephew, the infamous, monstrous Nathan, Duke of Saxe-Lochau. Edmund's brother, Wolfgang the Elector of Saxony, tolerated his younger brother's Catholicism for several years. However, following the Wittenberg Massacre, Edmund was forcibly deposed by his brothers and replaced by his daughter Agnes Edmundina, who was married off to Issichar von Jenagotha, the heir to the Duchy of Thuringia. By the 1540s, the brothers had reconciled, and Edmund became Archbishop of Jessen and was appointed a Cardinal by the Pope Zephyrius II. By the Pope's death, Edmund had become a serious contender for the Papacy.
Promoted by his Jungist brother, Wolfgang I, the Duke of Saxony, Edmund believed in a peaceful co-operation between Catholics and Jungists, having come from a Jungist family himself. "We are all God's creatures," he said later in life. He was elected Pope, breaking with tradition and not taking a Papal name, and denounced extremists on both sides. However, immediately he faced controversy by initially remaining in Jessen, in the middle of the UJRR, but was eventually persuaded to return to the seat of his predecessor in Bremen. When the Roman Pope Benedict XII died shortly afterwards, Edmund attempted to relocate to Rome to prevent division in the Catholic Church. However, he was prevented from doing so by those in his Church who wanted him to remain in Bremen. Edmund decided to appoint an Antistitor who would live in Rome and govern it on his behalf. This immediately caused problems and further discord between the various factions of the Catholic Church. Later, the Archbishop of Saxony, Lael Jung, developed a scheme to have the Grand Synod, a member of the College of Cardinals, installed collectively as Pope to succeed Edmund. Edmund opposed this however, leading to further complications. Although Edmund was keenly interested in unity and co-operation, his papacy was fraught with conflicting interests and unscrupulous individuals who took advantage of him. His desire and his attempt to unify the Northern and the Roman Catholic Churches was short-lived, and immediately following his death they schismed again.
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