The Conclave: A Sometimes Secret and Occasionally Bloody History of Papal Elections by Michael Walsh Page B
Authors: Michael Walsh
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chief protagonist: the Gregorian Reform.
Essentially, the program of the Gregorian Reform was to free all clerics, but especially bishops, from interference by the laity. No great magnates, not even kings or emperors, were to have any say in the choice of bishops. No bishops, or any other clerics for that matter, were to be beholden to any among the laity. The pope was leading the attack on the practice of “investiture,” the handing over of the symbols of ecclesiastical authority – the bishop’s crosier and ring – by the secular authority, especially to bishops and abbots. The conflict around this action was known as the “investiture controversy,” and it lasted until it was settled by a compromise at the Concordat of Worms of 1122 – though some rulers, including the king of England, had reached an accommodation with the papacy much earlier.
68 The Conclave
Gregory had an exalted vision of the papal o ffi ce – he was the ponti ff who restricted the title of “pope” to the Bishop of Rome – and his antipathy to the role of magnates led inevitably to conflict with the king, Henry IV. So exasperated did Gregory become with the German king that he not only excommunicated him but also declared him deposed. Henry, equally exasperated with the pope, called a council of bishops of the Empire. It met at Brixen and, urged on by Henry, on 25 June 1080 chose an antipope to replace Gregory. Their choice was one Guibert, who was himself a reformer, at least as far as simony and clerical concubinage were concerned. At one time he had been close to Gregory VII, but he was wholly unsympathetic to the pope’s opposition to the German court, which Guibert had served for a number of years as chancellor for Italy.
But Guibert had also been in the entourage of Cadalus, Bishop of Parma, and had seen his master’s rise and fall. He therefore regarded himself only as a kind of pope-in-waiting until he could be elected by the Roman people. When Henry seized Rome in March 1084 Guibert had his election and called himself Clement
III. He then crowned Henry IV as emperor. All this happened while Gregory was still in the city, having taken refuge in Castel Sant’Angelo before he was rescued by his Norman allies and taken, eventually, to Salerno, where he died in exile on 25 May 1085.
The cardinals were in disarray. They, too, were in Salerno, but they did not get around to electing another pope until exactly a year after Gregory’s death. Perhaps the delay was compounded by the death of the man – Anselm of Lucca – whom Gregory had wanted to succeed him. Their eventual choice, on 24 May 1086, was Desiderius, the cardinal abbot of Monte Cassino. He was a pious man, but possibly rather more concerned about the good health, spiritual and material, of his monks than he was about the Church at large. He went to Rome but could not establish his authority there and returned to his monastery, more or less aban- doning his claim to the papacy. It was not until March of the next
Attempting Reform 69
year that he could be persuaded to lay claim once more to the bish- opric of Rome. The Normans seized the city on his behalf, dislodg- ing the antipope, and Desiderius was consecrated as Pope Victor III on 9 May 1087. At the end of June Pope Victor was finally able to celebrate mass in St. Peter’s – but almost immediately returned to Monte Cassino. As he lay dying that September he recommend- ed Odo (or Eudes), the Cardinal of Ostia, as his successor.
Victor III had created no cardinals; the antipope Clement III, his rival, on the other hand, had created a good many. And despite the irregularity of his “election” while Gregory VII was still alive, Clement had also established himself as a respected ponti ff – if not exactly one in the Gregorian mode, at least determined to purify the Church. Odo of Ostia, who took the name of Urban II, there- fore faced an uphill struggle when he was elected by a minority of the cardinals on
Essentially, the program of the Gregorian Reform was to free all clerics, but especially bishops, from interference by the laity. No great magnates, not even kings or emperors, were to have any say in the choice of bishops. No bishops, or any other clerics for that matter, were to be beholden to any among the laity. The pope was leading the attack on the practice of “investiture,” the handing over of the symbols of ecclesiastical authority – the bishop’s crosier and ring – by the secular authority, especially to bishops and abbots. The conflict around this action was known as the “investiture controversy,” and it lasted until it was settled by a compromise at the Concordat of Worms of 1122 – though some rulers, including the king of England, had reached an accommodation with the papacy much earlier.
68 The Conclave
Gregory had an exalted vision of the papal o ffi ce – he was the ponti ff who restricted the title of “pope” to the Bishop of Rome – and his antipathy to the role of magnates led inevitably to conflict with the king, Henry IV. So exasperated did Gregory become with the German king that he not only excommunicated him but also declared him deposed. Henry, equally exasperated with the pope, called a council of bishops of the Empire. It met at Brixen and, urged on by Henry, on 25 June 1080 chose an antipope to replace Gregory. Their choice was one Guibert, who was himself a reformer, at least as far as simony and clerical concubinage were concerned. At one time he had been close to Gregory VII, but he was wholly unsympathetic to the pope’s opposition to the German court, which Guibert had served for a number of years as chancellor for Italy.
But Guibert had also been in the entourage of Cadalus, Bishop of Parma, and had seen his master’s rise and fall. He therefore regarded himself only as a kind of pope-in-waiting until he could be elected by the Roman people. When Henry seized Rome in March 1084 Guibert had his election and called himself Clement
III. He then crowned Henry IV as emperor. All this happened while Gregory was still in the city, having taken refuge in Castel Sant’Angelo before he was rescued by his Norman allies and taken, eventually, to Salerno, where he died in exile on 25 May 1085.
The cardinals were in disarray. They, too, were in Salerno, but they did not get around to electing another pope until exactly a year after Gregory’s death. Perhaps the delay was compounded by the death of the man – Anselm of Lucca – whom Gregory had wanted to succeed him. Their eventual choice, on 24 May 1086, was Desiderius, the cardinal abbot of Monte Cassino. He was a pious man, but possibly rather more concerned about the good health, spiritual and material, of his monks than he was about the Church at large. He went to Rome but could not establish his authority there and returned to his monastery, more or less aban- doning his claim to the papacy. It was not until March of the next
Attempting Reform 69
year that he could be persuaded to lay claim once more to the bish- opric of Rome. The Normans seized the city on his behalf, dislodg- ing the antipope, and Desiderius was consecrated as Pope Victor III on 9 May 1087. At the end of June Pope Victor was finally able to celebrate mass in St. Peter’s – but almost immediately returned to Monte Cassino. As he lay dying that September he recommend- ed Odo (or Eudes), the Cardinal of Ostia, as his successor.
Victor III had created no cardinals; the antipope Clement III, his rival, on the other hand, had created a good many. And despite the irregularity of his “election” while Gregory VII was still alive, Clement had also established himself as a respected ponti ff – if not exactly one in the Gregorian mode, at least determined to purify the Church. Odo of Ostia, who took the name of Urban II, there- fore faced an uphill struggle when he was elected by a minority of the cardinals on
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