Victor II, Pope

VITTORE II, PAPA. – Formerly bishop of Eichstätt, he was elected in 1055, a year after the death of Leone IX (Apr. 1054), during which negotiations continued between the Emperor Enrico III and the representatives of the Roman clergy and people.

His enthronement took place at St Peter’s on 13 April. V. took care to proclaim immediately, at the Council held at Florence the following June, his firm intention to work for the reform of the clergy’s morals, combating simony and concubinage. His prescriptions did not remain without effect: many bishops, in fact, were deposed at the Synod of Lyons by Cardinal Ildebrando.

The Pope consistently served the interests of his sovereign; he threatened with excommunication Ferdinando, king of Castile and León, who refused to pay the tribute owed to the Empire; he reconciled Goffredo, duke of Lorraine, with the Emperor, and accepted for himself the title of vicar, in temporal matters, for central Italy. In September 1056, V. Germany, met with Enrico III, received his final breath (5 October), and agreed to watch over his six-year-old son. Keeping his promise, he exerted strong influence over the nobility and the bishops in order to have entrusted

(from C. Scherer, Die Codices Bonificiani in der Landesbibliotärze zu Fulda, Fulda 1905, plate 1)
VITTORE DI CAPUA — Part of a page of the Codex Fuldensis, written in uncial script (545) and revised by V. di C. (546–47); letter of St. Giacomo (I, 18–23) with glosses in Irish script (2nd half of the 7th century) — Fulda, Regional Library.

his guardianship to Queen Agnese. In 1057 he convened at the Lateran, under his presidency, a very important Synod (18 April). He did not, however, remain in Rome, but went to Tuscany, where a violent fever overtook him near Arezzo and carried him to the grave (28 July 1057).