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Pope Victor II

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Pope
Victor II
Bishop of Rome
Gebhard depicted in the Pontifical of Gundekar
Gebhard depicted in the Pontifical of Gundekar
Church Catholic Church
Papacy began 13 April 1055
Papacy ended 28 July 1057
Predecessor Leo IX
Successor Stephen IX
Personal details
Born Gebhard von Dollnstein-Hirschberg
Germany, Holy Roman Empire
Died 28 July 1057 (aged 38–39)
Arezzo, Holy Roman Empire
Other popes named Victor

Pope Victor II (c. 1018 – 28 July 1057), born Gebhard von Dollnstein-Hirschberg, was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 13 April 1055 until his death in 1057.[1] Victor II was one of a series of German-born popes who led the Gregorian Reform.

Early life

Gebhard was a native of the Kingdom of Germany in the Holy Roman Empire.[2] His place of birth is unknown.[3] He was a son of the Swabian Count Hartwig of Calw and a kinsman of Emperor Henry III. Hartweg's brother, Gotebald, had been a canon of Eichstatt, then Provost of Speyer, Imperial Chancellor for Italy, and, from 1049 to 1063, Patriarch of Aquileia.[4] At the suggestion of the emperor's uncle, Gebhard, Bishop of Ratisbon, the 24-year-old Gebhard was appointed Bishop of Eichstätt. In this position, he supported the emperor's interests and eventually became one of his closest advisors.[5]

Papacy

After the death of Pope Leo IX, a delegation of Roman clergy and people, headed by Hildebrand, later Pope Gregory VII, travelled to Mainz and asked the emperor to nominate Gebhard as successor. At a court Diet held at Ratisbon in March, 1055, Gebhard accepted the papacy, provided that the emperor restore to the Apostolic See all the possessions that had been taken from it. When the emperor agreed, Gebhard, taking the name Victor II, moved to Rome, where, in St. Peter's Basilica on 13 April 1055, he was officially chosen pope by the clergy and hailed by the people; he was immediately enthroned by the cardinals.[6]

By 27 May 1055, Pope Victor was back in Florence, where he was present at the imperial court. On 4 June 1055, the feast of Pentecost, Victor met the emperor at Florence and held a council, attended by some 120 bishops, which reinforced Pope Leo IX's condemnation of clerical marriage, simony, and the loss of the church's properties. He remained in Florence until November 1055.[7] When Henry III returned to Germany, he assigned Pope Victor the powers of Imperial Vicar for Italy, and the task of containing the ambitions of Duke Godfrey of Lorraine, the husband of Beatrice of Tuscany.[8] The pope held the title of dux et marchio.[9]

Victor excommunicated both Count Ramon Berenguer I of Barcelona and Almodis de la Marche for adultery at the behest of Ermesinde of Carcassonne in 1055.[10][11]

In south Italy, one Teuto and his sons had attacked and were in possession of castles and property which belonged to the bishop of Teramo, who had been dispossessed. Pope Victor sent his count Gerardus to rectify the outrage, and then himself visited Teramo early in July 1056. He held a judicial assize at the castle of La Vitice in the diocese of Teramo, and oversaw the restoration of the bishop and the return of his property. Pope Victor, according to the notary who recorded the proceedings, was acting as Sedis Apostolicae praesul Urbis Romae gratia Dei, Italiae egregius universali p. p. regimine successus, Marcam Firmanam et Ducatum Spoletinum.[12] Later in the summer 1056, the pope travelled to the imperial court again, pro causis papatus, and intending to complain to the emperor because he was being badly treated by the Romans, per Romanos male tractatus.[13] He was with Henry III when he died at Bodfeld in the Harz on 5 October 1056. As guardian of Henry III's infant son Henry IV and adviser of Empress Agnes, Henry IV's mother, Victor wielded enormous power, which he used to maintain peace throughout the empire and to strengthen the papacy against the aggressions of the barons. During the rivalry between Archbishop Anno II of Cologne and other senior clergymen and the empress, Victor backed Agnes and her supporters. Many of her close followers would be promoted, men like Bishop Henry II of Augsburg, who would later become Emperor Henry's nominal regent; several German princes were given high court and church offices.

At the beginning of Lent 1057, Victor and his court began their journey to Rome.[14]

On 18 April 1057, Pope Victor held a general council in the Lateran Basilica. The diocese of the Marsi, which had been divided in two by Pope Benedict IX (Theophylact), was reunited into a single diocese. In the same council, the dispute concerning jurisdiction over a parish between the diocese of Siena and the diocese of Arezzo was heard for the first time.[15]

In May the pope began a trip to Tuscany. He spent eight days in Florence, in conference with Duke Godfrey. Godfrey's position had been greatly strengthened by the death of his enemy the Emperor Henry III the previous autumn, and the pope saw the advantages in a close relationship with the brother of his chancellor, Frederick of Lorraine.[16] The suit between the bishops of Siena and Arezzo resumed during the papal visit, and the pope took the trouble to visit the area of dispute, and talk to parishioners and local aristocracy. He then held a synod at the palace of S. Donato near Arezzo,[17] and issued a bull, assigning the disputed parish to the diocese of Arezzo.[18]

On 14 June 1057, Pope Victor appointed his chancellor, Frederick of Lorraine, to the position of cardinal-presbyter of San Crisogono.[19] Cardinal Frederick took part in a synod at Arezzo on 23 July, and then was consecrated the thirty-sixth abbot of Montecassino by Pope Victor on 24 June 1057.[20]

Death

Victor died at Arezzo, on 28 July 1057. He had ruled for two years, three months, and 27 (or 28, or 13) days.[21] His death marked an end to the close relationship shared between the Salian dynasty and the papacy. Victor's retinue wished to bring his remains to the cathedral at Eichstätt for burial. Before they reached the city, however, the remains were seized by some citizens of Ravenna and buried there in the Church of Santa Maria Rotonda, the burial place of Theodoric the Great.[22]

He was the last pope of German origin[23] until Pope Benedict XVI was elected 948 years later.

See also

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Pope Victor II — (GEBHARD, COUNT OF CALW, TOLLENSTEIN, AND HIRSCHBERG.)

Born about 1018; died at Arezzo, 28 July, 1057. The papal catalogues make him a native of the Bavarian Nordgau, while most German sources designate Swabia as his birthplace. His parents were Count Hartwig and Countess Baliza; the Emperor Henry III recognized him as a collateral kinsman, and he was a nephew of Bishop Gebhard III of Ratisbon, who at the court Diet of Goslar presented him (Christmas Day, 1042) to Henry III as a candidate for the episcopal see of Eichstätt. The emperor hesitated at first because Gebhard was only twenty-four years old, but, on the advice of the aged Archbishop Bardo of Mainz, he finally consented to invest him with this important see. Gebhard proved to be a good bishop and a prudent statesman. He was in the emperor's retinue when the latter was crowned at Rome in 1046; he took part in the synod presided over by Leo IX at Mainz in October, 1049, and in the consultations between the pope and the emperor at Ratisbon and Bamberg in 1052. By this time he had become the most influential councillor of Henry III. It was upon his advice that in 1053 a German army, which was on its way to join Leo IX in his war against the Normans, was recalled, an advice which he is said to have regretted when he was pope (Leo Marsicanus in his "Chronaicon Casinense", II, 89, in P.L., CLXXIII, 692). Early in the same year he became regent of Bavaria for the three-year old Henry IV. In this capacity he had occasion to prove his loyalty towards the emperor by defind the rights of the empire against the deposed Duke Conrad, the counts of Scheyern, and his own uncle, Bishop Gebhard of Ratisbon.

After the death of Leo IX (19 April, 1054) Cardinal-subdeacon Hildebrand came to the emperor at the head of a Roman legation with the urgent request to designate Gebhard as pope. At the Diet of Mainz, in September, 1054, the emperor granted this request, but Gebhard refused to accept the papal dignity. At a court Diet held at Ratisbon in March, 1055, he finally accepted the papacy, but only on condition that the emperor restored to the Apostolic See all the possessions that had been taken from it. The emperor consented to this condition and Gebhard accompanied Hildebrand to Rome, where he was formally elected and solemnly enthroned on Maundy Thursday, 13 April, 1055, taking the name of Victor II. Even as pope he retained the Diocese of Eichstätt. Victor II was a worthy successor of Leo IX. With untiring zeal he combated, like his predecessor, against simony and clerical concubinage. Being well supported by the emperor, he often succeeded where Leo IX had failed. On Pentecost Sunday, 4 June, 1055, he held a large synod at Florence, in presence of the emperor and 120 bishops, where former decrees against simony and incontinence were confirmed and several offending bishops deposed. To King Ferdinand of Spain he sent messengers with threats of excommunication if he should continue in his refusal to acknowledge Henry III as Roman Emperor. Ferdinand submitted to the papal demands. Before the emperor returned to Germany he transferred to the pope the duchies of Spoleto and Camerino. Early in 1056 Victor II sent Hildebrand back to France to resume his labours against simony and concubinage, which he had begun under Leo IX. He appointed the archbishops Raimbaud of Arles and Pontius of Aix papal legates to battle against the same vices in Southern France. Late in the summer of the same year he accepted the urgent invitation of the emperor to come to Germany, arriving at Goslar on 8 September. He accompanied Henry III to Botfeld in the Hartz Mountains where on 5 October he witnessed the untimely death of the emperor. Before his death, the emperor entrusted his six-year-old successor, Henry IV, and the regency of the kingdom to the pope. On 28 October, after burying the emperor in the cathedral at Speyer, he secured the imperial succession of Henry IV by having him solemnly enthroned at Aachen. He still further strengthened the position of the boy-king by recommending him to the loyalty of the princes at the imperial Diet which he convened at Cologne early in December, and at the court Diet of Ratisbon on Christmas Day.

Leaving the regency of Germany in the hands of Agnes mother of Henry IV, Victor returned to Rome in February, 1057, where he presided over a council at the Lateran on 18 April. On 14 June he created Frederick, whom he had a month previously helped to the abbacy of Monte Cassino, Cardinal-priest of San Crisogono thus gaining the friendship of the powerful Duke Godfrey of Lorraine, a brother of the new cardinal. He then went to Tuscany, where he settled (23 July) a jurisdictional dispute between the Bishops of Arezzo and Siena at a synod held in the palace of St. Donatus near Arezzo; five days later he died. His attendants wished to bring his remains to the cathedral at Eichstätt for burial. On their way thither, the remains were forcibly taken from them by some citizens fo Ravena and buried there in the Church of Santa Maria Rotonda, the burial place of Theodoric the Great.

The chief sources for the life of Victor II are the narrations of an anonymous writer of Herrieden, ANONYMUS HASERENSIS, a contemporary of Henry IV; they are printed in Mon. Germ. Hist.: Script., VII, 263 sq.; MANN, The Lives of the Popes in the Middle Ages, VI (London, 1910), 183-206; JORIS, Victor II, pape et regent de l'empire in Revue du monde catholique (1862-3), IV 560-72; V, 46-61; HÖFLER, Die deutsch. Papste, II (Ratisbon, 1839), 217-68; STEINDORFF in Allgemeine deutsch. Biographie, XXXIX (Leipzig, 1895), 670-3; IDEM, Jahrbucher des deutsch. Reiches unter Heinrich III, I, II (Leipzig, 1874-81); MEYER VON KNONAU, Jahrb. des deutsch. Reiches unter Heinrich IV. u. Heinrich V, I (Leipzig, 1890); LEFFLAD, Regesten der Bischofe von Eichstädt, I (Eichstadt, 1871); SAX, Die Bischofe u. Reichsfursten von Eichstädt, I (Landshut, 1884), 39, 43; WILL, Victor II als Papst und Reichverweser in Tubinger Theol. Quartalschrift (1862), 185-243; JAFFE, Regesta Pontif. Rom. (Leipzig, 1885-8), I, 549-553; II, 710-1, 750; WATTERICH, Pontif. rom. vitae, I (Leipzig, 1862), 177-88; Liber pontif., ed. DUCHESNE, II, 277.

References

  1. Back to citation Charles A. Coulombe, Vicars of Christ: A History of the Popes, (Citadel Press, 2003), p. 208.
  2. Back to citation He is described as "natione Alemannus ex Bavaria" by Bartolomeo Platina (1540). Historia de Vitis Pontificum (in Latin). Cologne: F.C. Agrippinas. p. 145.
  3. Back to citation It is suggested, without documentation or proof, that he was born in Innsbruck, by Gaetano Moroni (1861). *Dizionario di erudizione storico-ecclesiastica (in Italian). Vol. CII. Venezia: dalla Tipografia Emiliana. p. 426.
  4. Back to citation P. Kehr, ed. (1927). Die Urkunden der deutschen Könige und Kaiser (in German and Latin). Vol. V. Berlin: Weidmannsche Verlagsbuchhandlung. p. xxxiv.
  5. Back to citation Michael Ott, "Pope Victor II." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton Company (1912); Retrieved 9 November 2017.
  6. Back to citation Jaffé, p. 549, quoting Bonitho, "Liber ad amicum".
  7. Back to citation Jaffé, p. 549.
  8. Back to citation Gregorovius, p. 96.
  9. Back to citation Monaldo Leopardi (1824). Series Rectorum Anconitanae Marchiae Quam Collexit Monaldus Leopardus Recanatensis (in Latin). Recaneti: J. Morici. pp. 7–8. Giovanni Benedetto Mittarelli; Anselmo Costadoni (1756). Annales camaldulenses ordinis Sancti Benedicti (in Latin). Vol. Tomus secundus. Venice: aere monasterii sancti Michaelis de Muriano. pp. 166, and Appendix p. 162.
  10. Back to citation Bernard F. Reilly, The Contest of Christian and Muslim Spain, 1031-1157, (Blackwell Publishing, 1995), 67.
  11. Back to citation Patricia Humphrey, "Ermessenda of Barcelona. The status of her authority," Queens, Regents and Potentates, ed. Theresa M. Vann, (Academia Press, 1993), p. 34.
  12. Back to citation Jaffé, p. 551, no. 4348. Ferdinando Ughelli (1717). Niccolò Coleti (ed.). Italia sacra sive De Episcopis Italiae, et insularum adjacentium (in Latin). Vol. Tomus primus. Venice: apud Sebastianum Coleti. pp. 352–353.
  13. Back to citation Gregorovius, p. 96, with note 1, quoting Radulphus' "Life of S. Lietbertus": Martin Bouquet (1767). Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France (in French and Latin). Vol. Tome onzieme (11). Paris: I.F. Delatour. p. 481. Gregorovius dates the trip in July 1056.
  14. Back to citation Jaffé, p. 552,
  15. Back to citation Jaffé, p. 552.
  16. Back to citation Gregorovius, pp. 95-99.
  17. Back to citation Jaffé, p. 553.
  18. Back to citation Jaffé, p. 552. Giuseppe Cappelletti (1862). Le chiese d'Italia: dalla loro origine sino ai nostri giorni (in Italian and Latin). Vol. decimosettimo (17). G. Antonelli. pp. 428–431.
  19. Back to citation Gregorovius IV. 1, pp. 98-99.
  20. Back to citation Klaus Ganzer (1963), Die Entwicklung des auswärtigen Kardinalats im hohen Mittelalter (in German) (Tübingen: Niemeyer), p. 16.
  21. Back to citation Louis Duchesne (1892). Le liber pontificalis (in Latin). Vol. II. Paris: E. Thorin. p. 277. The count of 13 days is approximately correct, if the beginning point is the date of Pope Victor's enthronement. The other numbers would imply his official choice by the Emperor Henry III on 31 March or 1 April 1055.
  22. Back to citation Richard P. McBrien (2006). The Pocket Guide to the Popes: The Pontiffs from St. Peter to John Paul. New York: Harper. p. 166. ISBN 978-0-06-113773-0.
  23. Back to citation Walsh, Sister Mary Ann, ed. (2005). ""Habemus Papam"". From Pope John Paul II to Benedict XVI An Inside Look at the End of an Era, the Beginning of a New One, and the Future of the Church. Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 9781580512022.

Bibliography

  • Huschner, Wolfgang (2000). "VITTORE II." Enciclopedia dei Papi (Treccani 2000) (in Italian)
  • Huschner, Wolfgang and Andrea Verardi (2020). "VITTORE II, papa." Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Volume 99 (Treccani: 2020). (in Italian)
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