Alexander II, Pope

ALEXANDER II, Pope. - When Pope Nicholas II died in Florence on 27 July 1061, the election of his successor could not take place until the following 1 October. It took place outside the walls of Rome according to the rules laid down by Nicholas II; and the one elected was the bishop of Lucca, Anselmo da Baggio, near Milan, who took the name A. II. He had been a fervent supporter of the Pataria movement and a great friend of the house of Tuscany, and it is understandable that his election did not please the imperial party, which was opposed to any reform. The Roman nobility, excluded from participation in the election, hastened to send its envoys to Germany to offer the young Henry IV the insignia of the patriciate, by which, according to custom, he acquired the right to intervene in the election of the Pope in the name of the Roman people. A similar move was made by a group of bishops of northern Italy, instigated by the chancellor Guibert, so that at the end of October, in a diet at Basel, Henry IV believed himself entitled to regard the election of A. as null and to designate as the new Pope Cadalus, bishop of Parma, who assumed the name Honorius II. Cadalus's money was not unconnected with this election. A. had meanwhile entered Rome with the help of the Normans and of Beatrice of Tuscany; but Cadalus hastened to send to Rome Benzo, bishop of Alba, a fanatical partisan of the German court and therefore hostile to the reform movement. With money he managed to install himself on the Capitoline and to win over part of the Romans, opening the way for Cadalus, who in March 1062 succeeded in seizing by force the Vatican Basilica and the Leonine City. A., however, managed to hold his ground in Rome, and the situation in the city became quite critical. Godfrey of Lorraine, husband of Beatrice, intervened and persuaded the two rivals to return to their bishoprics, until a council should decide on their rights and the king should make known his decision. In Germany too opinions were divided; but St. Peter Damian with a pamphlet took up the defense of what had been decided under Nicholas II and of what had happened in the election of A. The latter, in April 1063, having returned to Rome, excommunicated Cadalus in a council and confirmed the reform decrees promulgated in the previous councils. Cadalus in turn, from Parma, excommunicated A., accusing him of not being the elect of the Romans but of the Normans, then with an army marched against Rome and installed himself at Castel Sant'Angelo, remaining there all that year. This time it was St. Peter

Damian, in agreement with Anno, archbishop of Cologne and regent of the kingdom, who proposed a council, which was held at Mantua at Pentecost in 1064. A. attended and protested that in his election there had been neither simony nor imposition by the Normans, as the followers of Cadalus claimed. A. was recognized as legitimate pope and Cadalus deposed. An armed assault by the latter was of no avail, repelled by the troops of Beatrice of Tuscany, lady of the city. The most ardent supporters of Cadalus, and particularly Guibert, who had become archbishop of Ravenna, yielded and, for the sake of peace, were confirmed in their offices. Having returned to Rome in that year, A. had to defend himself against the Normans, and lacking effective defense against them, he had to enter into peace negotiations in 1067 and resume friendly relations with them. These struggles did not prevent A. from carrying forward the work of reform, supported in this by the energy of Hildebrand, whom Nicholas II had created archdeacon of the Roman Church. An activity of legates throughout the whole of Latin Christendom made the pontifical authority present even in the most distant countries. In northern Italy it made itself felt particularly at Milan, where he refused to recognize the new archbishop Godfrey; in Germany he intervened to settle the discord that broke out on every side among the high prelates; he favored the enterprise of William, duke of Normandy, in conquering England (1066). The need to enforce the ancient canons in order to restore ecclesiastical discipline favored the development of canonical collections and the epistolary intervention of the Pontiff. At his death, which occurred in Rome on 21 April 1073, A. left the Roman pontificate well prepared for the new struggles that awaited it for ecclesiastical liberty.

Pio Paschini