Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/244

 URBAN

210

URBAN

grave of Pope Alexander was on the Via Nomentana, and the grave of Pope Urban on the Via Appia in the Catacomb of Prretextatus. Consequently 25 May is the day of the Isurial of Urban in this catacomb. As the same martyrology contains under date of 19 May {XIV kal. Jun.) a long list of martyrs headed by the two Roman martjTS Caloeerus and Partenius, who are buried in the Catacomb of St. CaUistus, and including an Urban, this Urban is apparently the foreign bishop of that name who lies buried in the same catacomb.

Liber pontificalis. ed. Duchesne, I, 63-64, xlvi-xlvii, xciii, sq.; Acta SS., VI, Mav, 5-14; Analecla Boll, VIII (1889), 164-65; Bibliotheca hagiographica lalina, II (Brussels, 1900- 1901), 1212-14; de Rossi, Roma soUerranea, II, 52-54; Ubbain, Ein Martyrologtum der christlichen Gemeinde zu Rom (Leipzig, 1901), 145 sq.. 148 sq.

J. P. KiRSCH.

Urban II (Otho, Otto or Odo of Lagery), Blessed, 1088-1099, b.of a knightly family, at Ch^til- lon-sur-Marne in the province of Champagne, about 1042; d. 29 July, 1099. Under St. Bruno (afterwards founder of the Carthusians) Otho studied at Reims, where he later became canon and archdeacon. About 1070 he retired to Cluny and was professed there un- der the great abbot St. Hugh. After holding the office of prior he was sent by St. Hugh to Rome as one of the monks asked for by Gregory VII, and he was of great assistance to Gregory in the difficult t.ask of re- forming the Church. In 1078 he became Cardinal Bishop of Ostia and Gregory's chief adviser and helper. During the years 1082 to 1085 he was legate in France and Germany. While returning to Rome in 1083 he was made [jrisoner by the Emperor Henry IV, but was soon hberated. Whilst in Saxony (1084-5) he filled many of the vacant sees with men faithful to Gregory and deposed those whom the pope had condemned. He held a great synod at Quedlin- burg in Saxony in which the antipope Guibert of Ravenna and his adherents were anathematized by name. Victor III had abeady been elected when Otho returned to Rome in 1085. Otho appears to have opposed Victor at first, not through any ani- mosity or want of good will, but because he judged it better, at so critical a time, that Victor should resign the honour he was unwilling to retain. After ^'ic- tor's death a summons was sent to as many bishops of the Gregorian party as possible to attend a meeting at Terracina. It was made known at this meeting that Otho had been suggested by Gregory and Victor as their successor. Accordingly, on 12 March, 10S8, he was unanimously elected, taking the title of ITr- ban II. His first act was to proclaim his election to the world, and to exhort the princes and bishops who had been loyal to Gregory to continue in their allegiance: he declared his intention of following the pohcy and example of his great predecessor — "all that he re- jected, I reject, what he condemned I condemn, what he loved I embrace, what he considered as Catholic, I confirm and approve".

It was a difficult task which confronted the new pope. To enter Rome was impossible. The Nor- mans, on whom together with Matilda he could .alone rely, were engaged in ci\il war. Roger and Bohe- mvind had to be reconciled before anjihing covild be done, .and to effect this the pope set out for icily. He met Roger at Troina, but hi.-;tory is silent .-is to what took place between them. The year following, however, saw peace between the two princ(-s, .and Urban 's first entry into Rome in November, lOSS, is said by some to have been made possible by Nor- man troops. His |)light in Rome was truly pitiable; the whole city practii-ally was in the hands of the antipope, .and ITrb.an had to take refuge on the Island of St. B.artholomew, the approach being guarded by Pierleone, who had turned the theatre of Marcellus on the left bank of the river into a fortress. Nor was the outlook in Germany calculated to hold out hopes of the triumph of the papal party; its stoutest adherents

in the episcopate had died, and Henry was steadily gaining ground. From amidst the poverty and want of his wTetched island. Urban launched sentence of excommunication against emperor and antipope ahke. Guibert retorted by holding a synod in St. Peter's before which he cited Urban to appear. The troops of pope and antipope met in a desperate encounter which lasted three days; Guibert was driven from the city, and Urban entered St. Peter's in triumph. He was now determined to unite his partisans in Italy and Germany. The Countess Matilda had lost her first husband, Godfrey of Lorraine. She was now well ad- vanced in years, but this did not prevent her marriage with Count Wolf of Bavaria, a youth of eighteen, whose father, Duke Welf IV of Bavaria, was in arms against Henry. Urban now turned his steps south- wards again. In the autumn of 1089 seventy bishops met him in synod at Melfi, where decrees against simony and clerical marriage were promulgated. In Decem- ber he turned back to Rome, hut not before he had effected a lasting iir;icc brtween Roger and Bohe- mund, and had rcmNr.I ihcir fuU allegiance. The fickle Romans had ;i^;uii rcmiunced him on the news of Henry's success against Matilda in north Italy, and had summoned Guibert back to the city. The latter celebrated Christmas in St. Peter's whilst Urban anathematized him Irom without the walls.

For three years Urban was compelled to wander an exile .about southern Italy. He spent the time holding councils and improving the character of ecclesiastical discipline. Meanwhile Henry at la.st suffered a check from Matilda's forces at Canossa, the .same fortress which had witnessed his humiliation before Gregory, His son Conrad, app<alled, it is said, at his father's de- pravity, and refusing to become his partner in sin, fled to the faction of Alatilda and Welf. The Lombard Le.ague — Milan, Lodi, Piacenza, and Cremona — wel- comed him and he was crowned king m Milan, the centre of the imperial power in Italy. The way was now clear for Urhan's entry into Rome, but still the partisans of Guibert held the strong places of the city. This time the pojie took u]) his residence in the fortress of the Frangipani, a family which had remained faith- ful to him and which was entrenched under the Pala- tine near the Church of Sta. Maria Nuova. His con- dition was piteous, for he had to depend on charity and was already deeply in debt. A French abbot, Gregory of Vendome, hearing of Urban's plight, hur- ried to Rome "that he might become a sharer of his sufferings and labour and relieve his w.ant". In re- turn for this he was created Cardinal Deacon of Sta. Prisca. Shortly before Easter, 1094, the governor of the Lateran palace offered to surrender it to Urban on payment of a large sum of money. This money Gregory of Vendome supplied by selling certain pos- sessions of his monastery; Urban entered the Lateran in time for the Paschal solemnity, and sat for the first time on the papal throne just six years after his elec- tion at Terracina.

But it was no time for tarrying long in Rome. Henry's cause was steadily growing weaker, and Urban hurried north to hold a council at Piacenza in the interests of peace and reform. The unfortunate Praxedis, Henry's second wife, had suffered wTongs which were now the common property of Christendom. Her cause was heard, Henry not even attempting to defend himself. She was publicly declared in- nocent and absolved from any censure. Then the case of Philip of Fr.ance, who h.ad repudiated his wife Bertha and espoused Bertrada, the wife of Fulk of .Anjou, was dealt with. Several bishops had rec- ognized the tmion, but Archbishop Hugh of Lj-ons had had the courage to excommunicate Philip for adultery. Both king and archbishop were summoned to the council, and both failed to apjiear. Philip was granted a further respite, but Hugh was suspended from his office. At this council Urban was able to