Guibert of Ravenna, Antipope

GUIBERT OF RAVENNA, Antipope. - He was imperial chancellor for Italy and adhered to the antipope Cadalus in the election of October 1061; but he ended by recognizing Alexander II in 1064 and was named archbishop of Ravenna. When Gregory VII began the struggle over investitures, G. immediately supported the cause of Henry IV in Italy, and together with the Roman Cencius and with Card. Hugh Candidus he was the most stubborn opponent of the great Pontiff, succeeding more than anyone else in making precarious for him that earthly base which was necessary for his reforming work. At Pavia he took the initiative for his deposition; after Canossa he urged Henry IV against the Pontiff. And when, on 7 March 1080, Gregory deposed the Emperor and excommunicated him, on 25 June the Assembly of Bressanone set up G. against him, under the name of Clement III. Protected by German arms and by an Italian imperialist movement, he was permitted to establish his residence in Rome, at least intermittently, after seizing St. Peter's and Castel Sant'Angelo. The resentment of the Romans over the sack by the Normans, attributed to a summons on the part of Gregory VII, and a strong party among the nobility and even among the Roman clergy facilitated for him a long resistance to the successors, Victor III and Urban II, and his residence in Rome, from which only in 1098 were the Pierleoni able to drive him out. G. still saw the election of a fourth pontiff, Paschal II, before ending, in his last refuge of Civita Castellana, the life tenaciously spent in a struggle that was not one for the good of the Church, in the autumn of 1100.

Pier Fausto Palumbo