NICHOLAS II, Pope. - On the death of Stephen X (29 March 1058), the Roman nobility sought to elect a Benedict X who was not recognized by the better part of the clergy and the people: the latter, with the protection of Godfrey, duke of Lorraine and Tuscany, brother of Stephen, and the intervention of Hildebrand, who had returned from Germany, elected in Tuscany (Jan. 1059) Gerard of Burgundy, bishop of Florence, under the name of N.
At Sutri, in a solemn assembly attended by Duke Godfrey and Guibert, chancellor for Italy, Benedict was deposed and N. recognized as pontiff. The latter entered Rome at once and was installed in St. Peter's on 24 Jan.; he visited the Marches and appointed Desiderius abbot of Montecassino, created cardinal, vicar for the Benevento region and Campania.
In the solemn Council of reform held in the Lateran in Apr. he issued the decree concerning the election of the pontiff, in which, while recognizing the honor and respect due to the king of Germany, the leading role was assigned to the cardinal bishops; after deliberating, the other cardinals were to join them in the election, and then the rest of the clergy and the people; in the choice a member of the Roman clergy was to be preferred; in case of tumults the election could also be held outside Rome, and the one elected immediately held full pontifical powers. In the summer N. went to Montecassino and from there to Melfi, where he held a council: the Norman princes Richard of Aversa and Robert Guiscard swore fidelity to the Pope, took an oath to him as vassals and obtained investiture: the first as prince of Capua, the second as duke of Apulia and Calabria; Benevento remained under direct papal dominion. After holding a new council in that city, N., with a Norman army that helped him subjugate the lands and castles around Rome, returned to Rome. To support the struggle that the "Pataria" (v.) of Milan had engaged in against bishop Guido, a simoniac and concubinary, N. sent card. Peter Damian and the Milanese Anselm of Baggio, bishop of Lucca, thus succeeding in bringing the Milanese Church back into subjection to the Roman one. While the regency, allied with the German episcopate, took a position hostile to reform, N. died in Florence on 27 Aug. 1061.
Bibliography4 works
Romualdo Paolucci