URBAN II, Pope, Blessed. - Odo of Lagery, Benedictine, b. ca. 1040 at Châtillon-sur-Marne. His election took place at Terracina according to the prescriptions dear to the reformers of the Church: it was presided over by the cardinal-bishops, who gathered the consent of the clergy of Rome and of the laity, at least of those who were hostile to the antipope Clement III (12 March 1088).
U. had been a monk at Cluny, then cardinal of Ostia (ca. 1078), and had received from Gregory VII the office of legate in Germany (1084-85). Entry into Rome was impossible, because Clement III held it tenaciously and had taken the offensive against U. during a schismatic council. If the Pope did enter it in 1089, he did not feel at all safe there and betook himself to Melfi, where on 10 September he held a Council, in which decrees of reform were issued. Without in any way renouncing any of the principles of his program, U. II nevertheless showed himself, in practice, extremely conciliatory in order to win over to his cause the episcopate and the reigning princes. Thus he sent the pallium to Anselm, who had become bishop of Milan by the will of the emperor Henry IV, from whom he had received investiture. He himself consecrated as bishop of Chartres Ivo, who had likewise accepted investiture from the King of France; he also recognized, under certain conditions, the validity of ordinations conferred by schismatic bishops; he contented himself with very flimsy testimonies in order to consider the prelates innocent of the accusations brought against them; finally, he no longer appointed permanent legates, except in Germany, and delegated temporal powers to his representatives.
If the Pope displayed a flexibility that no one censured, he nevertheless sacrificed nothing of his preeminence; on the contrary, he affirmed it, willingly granting dispensations from the canonical prescriptions, which had the effect of gradually detaching from Clement III his partisans.
Toward the kings of the West U. II adopted an equally conciliatory tactic. If the king of England William Rufus shamelessly plunders the goods of the Church, he does not protest. Against the king of France, Philip I, who gives scandal by his adulterous union with Bertrada of Montfort, he delays in pronouncing excommunication. The Pope's skill showed itself in the way he knew how to undermine the antipope's intrigues with the Greek Church. In short, U. II won the sympathy of the princes, which allowed him to attack Henry IV. The struggle at first presented itself under an evil star. The offensive unleashed by the emperor against the possessions of the countess Matilda in northern Italy announced itself as victorious; masters of the castles, which fell one after another into their hands, the imperial forces seemed ready to invade Tuscany. U. II could not count on the help of the Normans against the invaders and had no other recourse than to take refuge in southern Italy. But the countess Matilda saved with her courage the situation that seemed desperate; the resistance offered by her in the castle of Canossa forced Henry IV to withdraw. Meanwhile Rome still remained occupied by the schismatics, and the Pope had no money with which to win over the captain who guarded the Lateran. What was necessary was supplied to him by the abbot of Vendôme (1094), and his surrender was facilitated.
Victorious, U. II completely changed tactics. He reestablished the permanent legates, gathered conciliar assemblies, restored ecclesiastical discipline. In autumn he excommunicated Henry IV, Clement III, and also the King of France (16 Oct. 1094). He himself traveled through France to watch over the application of the reforms proclaimed in the Council of Piacenza. Then, on 18 Nov. 1095, he opened at Clermont a great assembly of the bishops of Christendom. After the promulgation of a legislation consonant with Gregorian ideas, the Pope suddenly made a decision: since the lords did not cease from declaring fratricidal wars, he urged them to the conquest of the Holy Land. Thus was launched in the West the idea of the Crusade. It would not be commanded by a king, but by Adhemar of Monteil, bishop of Le Puy, a good connoisseur of Palestine, in the capacity of legate. U. II did even more; he himself organized the expedition, negotiated with the Genoese so that they would lend their ships for the crossing, and traveled through southern France and Italy, preaching and having the Crusade preached. He died on 29 July 1099, in the Palazzo di Pierleone, next to the church of S. Nicola in Carcere, without having been able to learn the news of the capture of Jerusalem (15 July). His cult was confirmed by Leo XIII on 14 July 1881.
Bibliography8 works
Guglielmo Mollat