CLEMENT II, Pope. - After the forced abdication of Gregory VI, on Dec. 24, 1046 Suitger, bishop of Bamberg, was named pontiff by the will of Henry III. The validity of his election therefore remains doubtful (v. ANTIPOPE). He took the name C. II. Consecrated the following day, the new Pope solemnly crowned the emperor Henry III and his wife Agnes in St. Peter's. Henry III also held the title of patrician of the Romans. In this way he resumed the policy of Otto I and intended henceforth to withdraw the election of the Pope from the arrogance of the lay aristocracy and from the tumults of the factions, reserving the designation of the person to the Emperor. Such a measure appeared at that moment fruitful of good, and therefore St. Peter Damian and all the friends of reform exalted Henry III as a second David and a new Joshua, and expressed the hope that better days were being prepared for the Church.
The pontificate of C. was too brief for him to carry out a wide-ranging activity. Concerned with reforming the Church, in Jan. 1047 he assembled in Rome, in the presence of the Emperor, a council aimed at removing various abuses, and especially simony. In it he punished with excommunication anyone who had received money to consecrate a church, confer sacred Orders and benefices. Whoever instead had received sacred Orders from a bishop convicted of simony, but not simoniacally, was punished with a penance of forty days. To put an end to the disputes over precedence among the archbishops of Ravenna, Milan and Aquileia, C. decided that the first place at the Pope's right, in the absence of the Emperor, belonged to the archbishop of Ravenna. After accompanying the Emperor to southern Italy and to Germany, he died at Pesaro on Oct. 9, 1047. His body was brought to Bamberg and buried here in the choir of the Cathedral. The sepulchral monument is from 1237.
Bibliography4 works
Pietro Goggi