Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/16

Rh 8 URBAN URBAN, St, first pope of that name, was bishop of Home from 222 to 230. He had been preceded by Calixtus anc was followed by Pontiauus. He is mentioned by Eusebius (H. JS. t vi. 23), and is named in an inscription in the cceme- terium Callisti, but of his life nothing is known. The Roman Breviary (25th May) speaks of his numerous con verts, among whom were Valerianus, husband of St Cecilia, and his brother Tiburtius, and states that he suffered martyrdom, and was buried in the coemeterium Prsetextati. URBAN II. (Eudes or Odo), pope from 1088 to 1099, was born of knightly rank, at Lagery (near Chatillon-sur- Marne), and was educated for the church. He had already become archdeacon of Rheims when, under the influence of St Bruno, his teacher, he resigned his preferment and entered the cloister at Cluny, where he rose to be prior. In 1078 Gregory VII. summoned him to Italy, and made him cardinal-bishop of Ostia. He was one of the most prominent and energetic supporters of Hildebrand- isrn, especially as legate in Germany in 1084, and was among the few whom Gregory nominated as possible suc cessors. Desiderius of Monte Casino (Victor III.) was chosen in the first instance to the difficult post, but at the next vacancy Odo was elected by acclamation (March 1088) at a small meeting of cardinals and other prelates held in Terracina. He frankly took up the policy of his great predecessor, but while pursuing it with equal determination showed greater flexibility and diplomatic finesse. At the outset he had to reckon with the presence of the powerful antipope Clement III. in Rome; but a series of well-attended synods held in Rome, Amalfi, Bene- vento, and Troia supported him in renewed declarations against simony, lay investiture, and clerical marriages, and a continued policy of opposition to Henry IV. In accordance with this last policy, the marriage of the countess Matilda with Guelph of Bavaria was promoted, Prince Conrad was helped in his rebellion against his father and crowned king of the Romans at Milan in 1093, and the empress (Adelaide or Praxedes) encouraged in her dis graceful charges against her husband. In a protracted struggle also with Philip I. of France, whom he had ex communicated, Urban II. finally proved victorious. But the most prominent feature in his pontificate, a feature indeed which marks an epoch in the history of Latin Christianity, is his connexion with the first crusade (see CRUSADES, vol. vi. pp. 623-624), which united Christendom under the headship of the pope into one vast warlike confederacy (comp. POPEDOM, vol. xix. p. 499). The crusading movement first took shape at Piacenza, where in March 1095 Urban received an embassy from the emperor Alexius I., asking help against the infidel, and where a great council met, attended by numerous Italian, Bur- gundian, and French bishops and by so vast a concourse of monks and laymen that the public meetings had to be held in the open air outside the city. The still more enthusiastic council of Clermont was held in November of the same year. Urban II. died on 29th July 1099 four teen days after the fall of Jerusalem, but before the tidings of that great event had reached Italy; his successor was Paschal II. URBAN III. (Uberto Crivelli), pope from 1185 to 1187 was by birth a Milanese, and was made cardinal and arch- bi.shop of Milan by Lucius III., whom he succeeded (25th Member 1 185). He vigorously took up his predecessor s with the emperor Frederick I., including the standing dispute about the succession to the territories of the countess Matilda. Even after his elevation to the popedom he continued to hold the archbishopric of Milan dm this capacity refused to crown as king of Italy Fredericks son Henry, who had married Constantia, the heiress of the kingdom of Sicily. While Henry in the south co-operated with the rebel senate of Rome, Fred erick in the north blocked the passes of the Alps and cut off all communication between the pope, then living in Verona, and his German adherents. Urban now resolved on excommunicating Frederick, but the Veronese protested against such a proceeding being resorted to within their walls ; he accordingly withdrew to Ferrara, but died ( 1 9th October) before he could give effect to his intention. His successor was Gregory VIII. URBAN IV. (Jacques Pantaleon), pope from 1261 to 1264, was the son of a cobbler in Troyes, studied theology and common law in Paris, became bishop of Verdun, was employed in various missions by Innocent IV., and was made patriarch of Jerusalem by Alexander IV. He was at Viterbo seeking help for the oppressed Christians in the East when the last-named pope died, and after a three months vacancy he was chosen to succeed him (29th August 1261). As pope he endeavoured, but without success, to stir up a new crusade on behalf of his former diocese of Jerusalem. In domestic matters the chief prob lems of his pontificate arose out of the competing claims for the crown of the Two Sicilies. Before the arrival of Charles of Anjou, the candidate whom he favoured, Urban died at Perugia on 2nd October 1264. His successor was Clement IV. The festival of Corpus Christi was instituted by Urban IV. in 1264. URBAN V. (Guillaume de Grimoald), pope from 1362 to 1370, was a native of Grisac in Languedoc. He became a Benedictine and a doctor in canon law, teaching at Montpellier and Avignon. He held the office of abbot of St Victor in Marseilles ; and at Avignon, on his way back from Naples, whither he had been sent as papal legate, he was elected pope (28th October 1362) in succession to Innocent VI. As pope he was a severe disciplinarian, discountenanced the pomp and luxury of the cardinals, introduced considerable reforms in the administration of justice, and liberally patronized learning. His pontificate witnessed one of the last flickers of crusading zeal in the expedition of Peter of Lusignan, king of Cyprus, who took Alexandria (llth October 1365), but soon afterwards abandoned it. The great feature of Urban V-. s reign was the effort to restore the papacy to Italy, and to suppress its powerful rivals for the temporal sovereignty there. In 1363 he excommunicated Bernabo Visconti, and ordered a crusade to be preached throughout Italy against him and his kindred, the robbers of the church s estate ; but in the following year he found it necessary to purchase peace by removing his ban and making other humiliating conces sions. Continued troubles in Italy caused him to set out for Rome, which he reached on 16th October 1367; but, though he was greeted by the clergy and people with joy, and had the satisfaction of being attended by the emperor in St Peter s and of placing the crown upon the head of the empress, it soon became clear that by changing the seat of his government he had not increased its power. Unable any longer to resist the urgency of the French cardinals, he took ship again at Corneto on 5th September 1370, and, arriving at Avignon on the 24th of the same month, died on 19th December. He was succeeded by Gregory XI. URBAN VI. (Bartolommeo Prignani), pope from 1378 to 1389, was a native of Naples, born in 1318. A devout monk and learned casuist, he became archbishop of Bari in 1377, and, on the death of Gregory XL, the Roman populace clamorously demanding an Italian pope, was mammously chosen (8th April 1378) by the French car dinals under this pressure to be his successor. The arro gant and imperious temper of the new pope, intoxicated by his unexpected fortune, showed itself in ways so in- f olerable that five months afterwards the majority of the