VICTOR II, Pope. - Formerly bishop of Eichstätt, he was elected in 1055, a year after the death of Leo IX (Apr. 1054), during which the negotiations between the emperor Henry III and the representatives of the Roman clergy and people dragged on.

The enthronement took place at St. Peter's on 13 April. V. took care to proclaim at once, in the Council held at Florence in the following June, his firm intention of working for the reform of the morals of the clergy, combating simony and concubinage. His prescriptions did not remain without effect: many bishops, in fact, were deposed in the Synod of Lyon by Card. Hildebrand.

The Pope constantly served the interests of his sovereign; he threatened with excommunication Ferdinand, king of Castile and León, who refused to pay the tribute due to the Empire; he reconciled with the Emperor Godfrey, duke of Lorraine, and accepted for himself the title of vicar, in temporal matters, for central Italy. In Sept. 1056, V. set out for Germany, met with Henry III, received his last breath (5 Oct.) and agreed to watch over his son, who was barely 6 years old. Keeping his promise, he exerted a strong influence on the nobility and on the bishops to have entrusted his guardianship to Queen Agnes. In 1057 he gathered at the Lateran, under his presidency, a very important Synod (Apr. 18). He, however, did not stop at Rome, but went to Tuscany where a violent fever surprised him in the vicinity of Arezzo and brought him to the grave (July 28, 1057).

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: J. M. Watterich, Pontificum Romanorum, qui fuerunt inde ob exeunte saec. IX usque ad finem saec. XIII vitae ob acqua-libus conscriptae, I, Leipzig 1862, pp. 179-88; J. Gay, Les Papes du XIe siècle et la chrétienté, Paris 1926, pp. 168-72; Fliche-Martin-Fruta, VII, nn. 118-19.

Guglielmo Mollat

@incollection{ec12_vittore_ii_papa, author = {Mollat, Guglielmo}, title = {Vittore II, papa}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XII}, pages = {1542--1543}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1954}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/vittore-ii-papa} }

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Victor II, Pope

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