Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/469

 VICTOR

411

VICTOR

10S4 when Romo was in Henrj^'s Lands and the pope besiegedinSant' Angelo, Desiderius announced the ap- proach of Guiscard's army to both emjieror and pope.

Though certainly a strong partisan of the Hilde- brandine reform the gentler Desiderius belonged to the moderate party and could not always see eye to eye n-ith Oregon,- in his most intransigeant proceedings. Vet when the latter lay dying at Salerno (25 May, 10S5) the Abbot of Monte Cassino was one of those ivhom lie named as fittest to succeed him. Desiderius nas by no means willing to assume the mantle of Gregory VII, experience had taught him that his power and utility la}' in being a middleman, yet at a time when the Church was surrounded by powerful enemies his influence with the Normans made him the most obvious candidate. The Romans had expelled [he antipope from the city, and hither Desiderius lastened to consult with the cardinals on the ap- proaching election; finding, however, that they were Pent on forcing the papal flignitj- ujion him he fled to Monte Cassino, where he busied himself in exhorting the Xonnans and Lombards to rally to the support of the Holy See. When autumn came Desiderius ac- companied the Norman army in its march towards Rome, but becoming aware of the plot which was on foot between the cardinals and the Norman princes to force the tiara upon him, he would not enter Rome jnle.ss they swore to abandon their design; this they refused to do, and the election was postponed. At ibout Easter (Chron. Cass., Ill, 66) the bishops and cardinals assembled at Rome summoned Desiderius iud the cardinals who were with him at Monte Cas- sino to come to Rome to treat concerning the elec- tion. On 23 May a great meeting was held in the leaconr>' of St. Lucy, and Desiderius was again im- Dortuned to accept the papacy but persisted in his refusal, threatening to return to his mon;ister\' in case ")f violence. Next day, the feast of Pentecost, very ?arly in the morning the same scene was repeated, riie con.sul Cencius now suggested the election of Odo, 3ar<linal-Bishop of Ostia (afterwards Urban II), but this w;is rejected by some of the cardinals on the ground that the translation of a bishop was con- trary to the canons. The assembly now lost all Datience; Desiderius was seized and dnagged to the [Church of St. L\icy where he w.os forcibly vested in the •ed ope and given the name of Victor (24 May, 1086). rhe Church had been without a head for twelve Tionths all but a day. Four days later pope and carflinals had to flee from Rome before the imperial Drefect of the city, and at Terracina, in spite of all t)rotests, Victor laid aside the papal insignia and once Tiore retired to Monte Cassinf) where he remained learly a whole year. In the middle of Lent, 1087, a jouncil of cardinals and bisliops was held at Capua at ivhich the pope-elert as.-iisted as " Papal vicar of those t)arts" (letter of Hugh of Lyons) together with the ^fo^m.an princes. Cencius the Consul, and the Roman lobles; here Victor finally yielded and "by the a-s- 'umption of the cross and pun'le confirmed the past Mrction" (Chron. Cass., Ill, 68). How much his ilintinacy had irritated some of the prelates is evi- lenced in the letter of Hugh of Lyons preserved by Hugh of Flaviony (Mon. Germ. Hist.: Script. VIII, t66-8).

.\fter celebrating Easter in his monastery Victor [proceeded to Rome, and when the Normans had Iriven the soldiers of the Antipope Clement III IGuibert of Ravenna) out of St. Peter's, was there consecrated and enthroned (9 May, 1087). He only remained eight d.ays in Rome and then returned to Monte Cassino. Before May was out he was once more in Rome in answer to a summons from the O'ountess Matilda, whose troops held the Leonine 3ity and Trastevere, but when at the end of June the .antipope once more gained pos.seRsion of St. Peter's, Victor again retired to his abbey. In Au-

gust a council was held at Benevento, at which he re- newed the excommunication of the antipope and the condemnation of lay-investiture, and anathematised Hugh of Lyons and Richard, Abbot of Marseilles. \\lien the council had lasted three days Victor became seriously ill and retired to Monte Cassino to die. He had himself carried into the chapter-house, issued various decrees for the benefit of the abbey, appointed with the consent of the monks the prior. Cardinal Oderisius, to succeed him in the Abbacy, just as he himself had been appointed by Stephen IX (X), and proposed Odo of Ostia to the assembled cardinals and bishops as the next pope. He died 16 Sept., 10S7, and was buried in the tomb he had prepared for him- self in the chapter-house. In the sixteenth century his bodj- was removed to the church, and again trans- lated in 1890. The cultus of Blessed Victor seems to have begim not later than the pontificate of Ana-s- tasius IV, about 60 years after his death (Acta SS. loc. cit.). In 1727 the Abbot of Monte Cassino obtained from Benedict III permission to keep his feast (Tosti, I, 393).

Pope Victor III is a far less impressive figure in history than Desiderius the great Abbot of Monte Cassino, but there is abundant evidence that it was largely his failing health that made him so reluctant to accept the great position which w:us thrust upon him, indeed Ordericus tells us that he was taken ill when saying the first Mass after his consecration, so that during his papacy "he hardly got through one single Mass", vix una lanium missa perfunclus (P. L., CLXXXVIII, p. 578). On 5 Aug., 1087, when Victor was holding the Coimcil at Bene\'ento, an army consisting of Roman, Genoese, Pisan, and Amalfitan troops sent by him to Africa under the Banticr of St. Peter captured the town of El Mahadia, and forced the Mohammedan ruler of Tunis to promise tribute to the Holy See and to free all Christian slaves. This event may perhaps be considered as the begm- ning of the Crusades. The only literary work of Victor which we possess is his "Dialogues" on the miracles wrought by St. Benedict and other saints at Monte Cassino. There is also a letter to the bishops of Sardinia to which country he had sent monks while still .\bbot of Monte Cassino. In his "De Viris illustribus Casinensibus, " Peter the Deacon ascribes to him the composition of a " Cantus ad B. Maurum" and letters to Philip of France and Hugh of Cluny which no longer exist.

The chief source is tlie Chrnnicon Casxinenae, in Afori, Germ. His/.: Script., VII. reprintecl in P. L., 173; some iiutobioKraphical details are to be met with in his own Dmlopurs, P. L., 149. See also M.\BILLO.S, Aria SS. O.S.B., VI, 2; .■^rl„ SS.. Sept., V. 373 .sqtl.; W.^TTKnirn, Pontifirnm R.-.m,in.-.r„m Ti'-T. I (Leipzig,

1862), in which (362)18 to be f'i ■'■',,< lyons

mentioned above; Liber Ponl' ' M (I'.iris,

1892), 292; Jaff*, Kcpeste P../ r,:,.-,-6.

The best English account is J.I v > 1 1 i Lon-

don, 1910), 218-244. ForDesi.u riu» M ,.,:,,,.„., >MM, ilie Nor- mans see Ch.\LAXDON, Hi.H. dc Ul Di/nnnaluin Nijrnianilc en Italic tl en Sieile (Paris, 1907); B6HMF.R, Victor Illia Rcalcncyklopadie fur jirnleslanlische ThcolnQic, XX (Leipzig, 1908); Greoohovius, ffi.^t. of Rome in the Middle .4ffc«, tr. Hamilton, IV (London, 1894-1900); Milman. I^tin Chrislixmity, IV (London, 1872); Tosti, Storia deUa Badia di Monte Cassino (Naplr's. 1842); Crowe and Cavalcaselle, Hist, of Painting in Italy (New York, 1909).

Raymund Webster.

Victor IV, two antipopes of this name. — I. Car- dinal Gregory Conti, elected in opposition to Inno- cent II in the middle of March, 1138, by the partisans of the Pierleoni family, as successor to .\naclctus II. At the end of two mont hs, however, Gregory submit ted on 29 May to Innocent and renounced his office.

II. Octavius, Cardinal of St. Cecilia, d. at Lucca, 20 April, 1164. He was elected 7 Sept., ll.W, by a small minority of the cardinals (four or five), the clergy of St. Peter's, and the Roman populace, while at the same time the majority of the college of car- dinals elected the chancellor Rolando who assumed the title of Alexander III. Octavian belonged to one