Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/467

 VICTOR

409

VICTOR

heodotus the Leather-seller, came from Constanti- most German sources designate Swabia as his birth-

)ple to Rome and taught false doctrines concerning place. His parents were Count Hartwig and Coun-

lirist,Whomhe declared to be merelyaman endowed tess Baliza; the Emperor Henry III recognized him

• the Holy Ghost, at baptism, with supernatural as a collateral kinsman, and he was a nephew of Bishop

)wer. The pope condemned this heresy and excluded Gebhard HI of Ratisbon, who at the court Diet of

iieodotus from the Church. The latter, how- Goslar presented him (Christmas Day, 1042) to

er, would not submit, but, together with his adher- Henry HI as a candidate for the episcopal see of

ts, formed a schismatic party, which maintained Eichstatt. The emperor hesitated at first because

ielf for a time at Rome. Victor may also have come to contact with the Montanists. TertuUian reports Ad Praxeam", I) that a Roman bishop, whose ime he docs not give, had declared his acceptance

the pi'ophecies of INIontanus, but had been per- aded by Praxea-s to withdraw. Duchesne ("His- ii-e ancienne de I'egUse", I, 278) and others think

rtuUian means Pope Eleutherius, but many investi-

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 ret- iime when the latter was crowned at Rome in 1046; he took p;urt in the synod presided over by Leo IX at Mainz in October, 1049, and in the consultations be-

tors con.sider it more probable that he meant Pope tween the pope and the emperor at Ratisbon and

ctor, because the latter had had much to do with Bamberg in 1052. By this time he had become the

e inhabitants of Asia Minor, and because, between most influential councillor of Henry III. It was upon

and 200, Praxcas had gone from Rome to Car- his advice that in 1053 a German army, which was

age, where he was rposed by TertuUian. le riviestion cannot be cidcd positively. Jerome calls Pope ctor the first Latin •iter in the Church Ihronicon, ad an. Abr. 09); he mentions lall treatises (medio- la de religione volu- Ina, loc. cit.; cf. "De ris i 1 1 u s t r ib u s", XXIV: "Victor, thir- enth bishop of the jman city, the wTiter certain opuscida on e paschal question d others, ruled the lurch ten years under verus"). Besides e letters touching e Easter controversy none

Victor II with Bishops Gezmann and Gundekab of Eichstatt

From Gundekar's Pontifical, the Cathedral Treasury', Eichstatt

on its way to join Leo IX in his war against the Normans, was re- called, an advice which he is said to have re- gretted when he was pope (Leo Marsicanus in his "Chronicon 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 oc- casion to prove his loy- alty towards the em- peror by defending the rights of the empire against the deposed Duke Conrad, the counts of Scheyern,

)rks is known. Harnack tried to prove that was the author of the treatise against the pe-throwers ("De aleatoribus''), erroneously as- ibed to St. Cjiprian (see "Texte und LTntersuch- igen," V, Leipzig, 1899), though the opinion is now liver.sally rejected (cf. Harnack, "Geschichte der tchristl. Litcratur", II, pt. II, 370). It was during ctor's administration, perhaps, that the canon of ripturc used at Rome, and which has been partially e.served in the Muratorian Fragment, was drawn

of St. Victor's and his own uncle, Bishop Gebhard of Rati-sbon.

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. M the Diet of Mainz, in September, 1054, the emperor granted this re- quest, 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 aU the possessions that had been taken from it.

In the note concerning him in the "Liber Pon- The emperor consented to this condition and Geb-

icalis" (ed. Duchesne, I, 137) the Easter contro- hard accompanied Hildebrand to Rome, where he was

Tsy is also mentioned; in addition, the introduction formally elected and solemnly enthroned on Maundy

seguenles among the clergy is also attributed to Thursday, 13 April, 1055, taking the name of Victor

It is not certain what this means, whether it II. Even as pope he retained the Diocese of Eich-

iplics to the acolytes, or to the assistants who ap- ared later at Rome for such clcrg>' as were much cupied with the administration of their cures. In ly c;i,sc the note is one of tho.se which the author hitrarily inserted into the biographies of the various pes, and has, accordingly, no historical value. The

statt. Victor II was a worthy succe.s.sor of Leo IX. With imtiring 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 Penteco.st Sunday, 4 June, 1055, he held a large synod at Florence, in presence of

me is true of the ordinance respecting the adminis- the emperor and 120 bishops, where former decrees at ion of baptism in cases of necessity ascribed to again.st simony and incontinence were confirmed and

several offending bishops depo.sed. To King Ferdi- nand of Spain he sent mcs.sengers 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

)pe Victor by the .same author. EfsEniira. Hill. rrrl.. V, M-xn-iii; Liber PonlificGlin. ed. ^CHESXE. I. 137-1.38; Ada SS.. July, VI, .534-542: Lanoen, xrhirhtc dcT Tdminchen KiTche, I (Bonn, 1881). 176 sqq., 179 sq., 2 .sqq.; DucHE-SNE, HisUnTe ancienne de V^glise, I (Paris, 1906), 1 sq.. 277 sq.. 289 sqq.

J. P. KiRSCH.

Victor II (Gebhard, Count of Calw, Tollen- ■EIN, AND HiR.scHBERo), PoPB, b. about 1018; d.

■\rezzo, 28 July, 10.57. The papal catalogues concubinage, which he had begim under Leo IX. ake him a native of the Bavarian Nordgau, while He appointed the archbishops Uaimbaud of Arleg