ANACLETUS II, ANTIPOPE. — Belonging to one of the most illustrious families of Rome, Peter Pierleoni, nephew of a Jew converted at the time of LEO-
NE IX, went to Paris for study at the end of the 11th century and then to Cluny, where he became a monk. He became a cardinal under Paschal II and greatly assisted this Pontiff and his successors in very grave moments for the Church; he was also legate in France and in England. During the pontificate of Honorius II he remained in the background because his rivals, the Frangipani, were triumphant, but at the death of that pope the long-prepared schism broke out violently. On 14 Feb. 1130, Honorius having been provisionally buried, a group of cardinals suddenly elected Gregory of St. Angelo in the church of St. Gregory on the Caelian Hill. Intro
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ucted in the Lateran, where he took the name of Innocent II, the Pope shut himself up in the fortress of the Frangipani. But Peter and his friends, considering the election illegal, proceeded in St. Mark’s to a new choice and took the name Anacletus II. The dispute was settled; in fact an attempt to renew the schism with the election of Victor IV failed. The question of legitimacy, at first obscure even to contemporaries, was clarified by the universal recognition of the Church in favour of Innocent.