Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/518

Rh 498 itself to another member of the Tusculan house, John, the arch-presbyter, who took the name of GKEGORY VI. (1045- 46). His brief pontificate was chiefly occupied with endea vours to protect the pilgrims to Koine on their way to the capital from the lawless freebooters (who plundered them of their costly votive offerings as well as of their personal property), and with attempts to recover by main force the alienated possessions of the Roman Church. Prior, how ever, to his purchase of the pontifical office, the citizens of Rome, weary of the tyranny and extortions of Benedict, had assembled of their own accord and elected another pope, John, bishop of Sabina, who took the name of SILVESTER III. (rival pope, 1044-46). In the meantime Benedict had been brought back to Rome by his powerful kinsmen, and now reclaimed the sacred office. For a brief period, there fore, there were to be seen three rival popes, each denounc ing the others pretensions and combating them by armed force. But even in Rome the sense of decency and shame liad not become altogether extinguished ; and at length a party in the Roman Church deputed Peter, their arch deacon, to carry a petition to the emperor, Henry III., soliciting his intervention. The emperor, a man of deep religious feeling and lofty character, responded to the appeal. He had long noted, in common with other thoughtful observers, the widespread degeneracy which, taking example by the curia, was spreading throughout the church at large, and especially visible in concubinage and simony, alike regarded as mortal sins in the clergy. He forthwith crossed the Alps and assembled a council at Sutri. The claims of the three rival popes were each in turn examined and pronounced invalid, and a German, Suidger (or Suger), bishop of Bamberg, was elected to the office as CLEMENT II. (1046-47). The degeneracy of the church at this period would seem to have been in some degree compensated by the reform of the monasteries, and from the great abbey of Cluny in The Ger- Burgundy there now proceeded a line of German popes, who in a great measure restored the dignity and repu tation of their office. But, whether from the climate, always ill-adapted to the German constitution, or from poison, as the contemporary chronicles not unfrequently suggest, it is certain that their tenure of office was singu larly brief. Clement II. died before the close of the year of his election. DAM ASUS II., his successor, held the office Leo IX. only twenty-three days. LEO IX., who succeeded, held it for the exceptionally lengthened period of more than five years (1049-54). This pontiff, although a kinsman and nominee of the emperor, refused to ascend the throne until his election had been ratified by the voice of the clergy and the people, and his administration of the office pre sented the greatest possible contrast to that of a Benedict IX. or a Sergius III. In more than one respect it con stitutes a crisis in the history of the popedom. In con junction with his faithful friend and adviser, the great Hildebrand, he projected schemes of fundamental church reform, in which the suppression of simony and of married life (or concubinage, as it was styled by its denouncers) on the part of the clergy formed the leading features. In the year 1049, at three great synods successively convened at Rome, Rheims, and Mainz, new canons condemnatory of the prevailing abuses were enacted, and the principles of monasticism more distinctly asserted in contravention of those traditional among the secular clergy. Leo s pontificate closed, however, ingloriously. In an evil hour he ventured to oppose the occupation by the Normans, whose encroachments on Italy were just commencing. His ill-disciplined forces were no match for the Norman bands, composed of the best warriors of the age. He was himself made prisoner, detained for nearly a twelvemonth in captivity, and eventually released only to die, a few days after, of grief and humiliation. But, although his own career terminated thus ignominiously, the services rendered by Leo to the cause of Roman Catholicism were great and permanent ; and of his different measures none contributed more effectually to the stability of his see than the formation of the College of Cardinals. The title of The C &quot; cardinal &quot; was not originally restricted to dignitaries con- Icge of nected with the Church of Rome, but it had hitherto been Vardin a canonical requirement that all who attained to this dignity should have passed through the successive lower ecclesiastical grades in connexion with one and the same foundation ; the cardinals attached to the Roman Church had consequently been all Italians, educated for the most part in the capital, having but little experience of the world beyond its walls, and incapable of estimating church questions in the light of the necessities and feelings of Christendom at large. By the change which he intro duced Leo summoned the leaders of the party of reform within the newly-constituted college of cardinals, and thus attached to his office a body of able advisers with wider views and less narrow sympathies. By their aid the administration of the pontifical duties was rendered at once more easy and more effective. The pontiff himself was liberated from his bondage to the capital, and, even when driven from Rome, could still watch over the inter ests of both his see and the entire church in all their extended relations ; and the popedom must now be looked upon as entering upon another stage in its history that of almost uninterrupted progress to the pinnacle of power. According to Anselm of Lucca, it was during the pontifi cate of Leo, at the synod of Rheims above referred to, that the title of &quot; apostolic bishop &quot; (Ajiostolicus) was first declared to belong to the pope of Rome exclusively. The short pontificate of NICHOLAS II. (1059-61) is memorable Chan; chiefly for the fundamental change then introduced in the in the method of electing to the papal office. By a decree of the I1 i et J 1. second Lateran council (1059), the nomination to the office was vested solely in the cardinal bishops the lower clergy, the citizens, and the emperor retaining simply the right of intimating or withholding their assent. It was likewise O O enacted that the nominee should always be one of the Roman clergy, unless indeed no eligible person could be found among their number. At the same time the direst anathemas were decreed against all who should venture to infringe this enactment either in the letter or the spirit. The preponderance thus secured to the ultramontane party and to Italian interests must be regarded as materially affecting the whole subsequent history of the popedom. The manner in which it struck at the imperial influence was soon made apparent in the choice of Nicholas s successor, the line of German popes being broken through by the election of Anselm, bishop of Lucca (the uncle of the historian), who ascended the pontifical throne as ALEXANDER II. (1061- 73) without having received the sanction of the emperor. His election was forthwith challenged by the latter, and for the space of two years the Roman state was distracted by a civil war, Honorius II. being supported as a rival candidate by the imperial arms, while Alexander main tained his position only with the support of the Norman levies. The respective merits of their claims were con sidered at a council convened at Mantua, and the decision was given in favour of Alexander. Cadalous, such was the name of his rival, did not acknowledge the justice of the sentence, but he retired into obscurity ; and the remainder of Alexander s pontificate, though troubled by the disputes -respecting a married clergy, was free from actual warfare. In these much vexed questions of church discipline Alexander, who had been mainly indebted for his election to Hildebrand, the archdeacon of the Roman Church, was guided entirely by that able churchman s electi