Sources

The Italian priesthood, and among them most conspicuously the Roman pontiffs, are in the habit of defying all law and all authority; thus utterly confounding together things sacred and profane. During all this time the Italian priesthood, and none more conspicuously than the Roman pontiffs, set at naught all ecclesiastical law and authority. The people sold their suffrages for money to the highest bidder; the clergy, moved and seduced by avarice and ambition, bought and sold the sacred rights of ordination, and carried on a gigantic traffic with the gifts of the Holy Ghost. Few prelates remained untainted with the vile pollution of simony; few, very few, kept the commandments of God, or served him with upright hearts; following their chiefs to do evil, the great sacerdotal herd rushed headlong down the precipice into the quagmire of licentiousness and profligacy: priests and deacons, whose duty it was to serve God with clean hands, and with chaste bodies to administer the sacraments of the Lord, took to themselves wives after the manner of the laity; they left families behind them, and bequeathedtheir ill-gotten wealth to their children; yea, even bishops, in contempt of all shame and decency, dwelt with their wives under the same roof—a nefarious and execrable custom, prevailing, alas! most commonly in that city where the laws, thus shamefully set at naught, first issued from the sacred lips of the Prince of the Apostles and his holy successors.[423:1]

When Otto III., the last of the Saxon Emperors, died, the Papacy had become, apparently, merged in the state. The initiative of the Pope in all important matters seemed to flow from imperial rather than pontifical prerogative. The arbitrary erection of all sorts of ecclesiastical foundations, the unquestioned secular appointment to the highest offices in the Church, and the legislation by the state in ecclesiastical affairs, all point to a closer fusion of the two powers than since the year 476. But there was no deliberate intention to encroach upon ecclesiastical right. The alliance was reciprocally advantageous. There could be no Emperor without a Pope, and no Pope without an Emperor. The causes for this ascendancy of the temporal power were: (1) the decay of ecclesiastical organisation and discipline; (2) the disruption of society and the confusion of political matters in Italy and Europe generally; (3) the rise of the power and ambition of the German sovereigns; (4) the social demoralisation of the age—the wide-spread incontinence, perjury, venality, rapine, bribery, theft, and murder which infected the Church to its heart's core. Until these humiliating and devitalising forces were remedied, the Church could not hope to attain independence.[423:2]

Several distinct efforts at reform were made beforethe time of Hildebrand, first by the German Emperors and secondly by the German Popes. Henry the Fowler (918-936) declared that he would abolish simony but failed to do so. Otto the Great (936-973) deposed the criminal Pope John XII., elected Leo VIII. in his place, and honestly intended to improve the Papacy. Otto III. (983-1002), a great religious enthusiast, desired to reform the Church through good Popes. Hence he chose Bruno, a man of piety and morality, as the first German Pope, and then appointed Gerbert renowned for sanctity and learning. Henry II., called the Saint (1002-1024), was the first genuine imperial reformer. He opened a campaign in Germany against simony and the marriage of the clergy. He reformed the monasteries by destroying or uniting small monasteries, by abolishing abuses, and by confiscating lands. With the King of France he agreed to hold a great council at Pavia to cure the evils in the Church both north and south of the Alps (1023). Notwithstanding these efforts little real reform was accomplished. Henry III. (1039-1056), thoroughly imbued with Clugniac zeal for reformation, had Leo IX. hold a big synod at Mainz (1049) in which simony was denounced, marriage of the clergy condemned, and local prelates ordered to abolish both evils. Personally this ruler was wholly free from simony and waged an unrelenting war against the abuse both in Italy and in Germany.[424:1]He deposed three bishops for sins and crimes. He appointed a series of Clugniac puritans to the papal chair[424:2]and thus paved the way for Hildebrand.

The German Popes were very active in reformatory efforts. Gregory V. (996-999), who was Bruno[425:1]of the royal house of Germany, appointed by Otto II., renowned for piety and of unblemished character, assumed a lofty, dignified attitude as Pope and soon made his power felt in Europe. He purified the papal court as far as possible and suppressed the independence of the French clergy, but died too soon to realise his hopes of reformation.

Gerbert, or Sylvester II. (999-1003),[425:2]born of poor parents, was educated as a teacher first in the Clugniac cloister of Aurillac and then taken by Count Borrel of Barcelona to Spain, where he studied mathematics and the natural sciences in the Mohammedan schools. There Bishop Hatto took a fancy to him and invited him to go to Rome where Pope John XIII. noticed him and recommended him to Otto the Great (971). The Emperor sent him to Rheims to be instructed in logic (972). The Archbishop Adelbert of Rheims soon made him a teacher in the cathedral school. There he taught the writings of Aristotle, the Latin classics, and the sciences. Boethius was his favourite author and science his "darling study." He had many pupils from far and near and gained great fame for his scholarship.[425:3]

In those days nearly every great man was drawn into the Church, not alone because his services were needed, but also for the reason that in that field were the greatest opportunities for advancement. Otto III., therefore, made Gerbert Abbot of Gabbia, but he soon resigned the position (982). Nine years later he waschosen Archbishop of Rheims (991).[426:1]In this new office he was kept very busy. He had a council pass an edict which was practically a declaration of independence.[426:2]He formed a confession of faith which was not considered orthodox.[426:3]His severe code of morals offended the looser clergy and aroused the jealousy of others. Consequently a party was organised against him composed of the clergy, Emperor, and Pope; and the papal legate held a court in Germany which deprived him of his episcopal functions.[426:4]Thus driven from office, he joined the court of Otto III. to cast his spell over that young idealist. In 996 he went with him down to Italy where he was soon elevated to the Archbishopric of Ravenna and invested with the insignia of his office by Gregory V. (998). Upon the death of Gregory V., in 999 Otto III. elevated him to that important office[426:5]as Sylvester II. He surrendered his heretical ideas and became the great forerunner of Hildebrand in attacking simony, in denouncing clerical abuses, in subjecting the higher clergy to his will, and in compelling obedience from the secular powers. To Stephen of Hungary he gave a king's crown and made him primate (1000).[426:6]He suggested the crusades and laboured with Otto III. for the realisation of the world Empire. After his death in 1003 he soon became the subject of all sort of wild legends.

Benedict VIII. (1012-1024) was elevated to the Papacy as a reform Pope by Henry II. and the German party, though he was not a German. He belongedto the Clugniac reform party and was a brave, independent Pope who joined the Emperor in assailing simony and in sanctioning the celibacy of the clergy. Clement II. (1046-1047) was made Pope by Henry III. after deposing three rival Popes. He held a Roman synod which condemned simony for the future, forbade the practice by churchmen, made the penalty for disobedience excommunication, and endeavoured to eradicate the evil in Italy and Germany.[427:1]

The reform efforts of the Popes were supplemented by the reforming monastic orders. St. Nilus (910-1005), a Greek born in Calabria, after his wife's death in 940 entered the monastery of St. Mercurius, where he soon gained renown for his tortures, piety, and studies. Becoming disgusted with the monastic practices, he left the convent and wandered about as a hermit, taking St. Anthony as his model. His fame soon spread abroad so that when he made a pilgrimage to Rome he was greatly honoured there and even consulted by Gregory V. and Otto III. It was not long before he gained a large following of ascetics in Italy and with them founded several cloisters which were models of lofty zeal and piety.[427:2]

Another monk of this period imbued with the desire for reformation within the Church was St. Dunstan (924-988), the son of a West Saxon noble, educated in the monastic school of Glastonbury, and trained at court.[427:3]He early adopted the life of a monk, became a hermit, studied the Scriptures and made bells, andwas given to prayers and visions. Appointed Abbot of Glastonbury in 945, he began to reform the monastic life by restoring the early purity and simplicity. Becoming too much absorbed in the politics of his day and thereby coming under the displeasure of the king, he was banished to Flanders in 956 where he first learned of St. Benedict's rule. Two years later, however, he was recalled to England and soon appointed Archbishop of Canterbury. Then he went to Rome to receive the pallium and, returning to his native land, put himself at the head of the reform party. He sought to replace the seculars by monks, to introduce the Benedictine rule, to enforce celibacy, to prevent concubinage, to require all priests to learn trades, and to forbid the clergy to hunt, hawk, play dice, get drunk, and scold.

The monastery of Clugny grew out of the urgent need of monastic reform. It was founded in 910 by Duke William of Aquitaine to honour Peter and Paul and was put under the immediate control and direction of the Pope.[428:1]Bruno (d. 927) was made the first abbot. He was a Burgundian who had already gained renown as a monastic leader. A modified St. Benedict's rule was introduced into the new monastery which absolutely forbade the possession of private property, prohibited the eating of quadrupeds, enforced a silence which resulted in the development of a sign language, required psalm singing and Bible reading, and demanded unquestioned obedience. Before Bruno's death six cloisters had been founded. Odo (927-941), a pupil and follower of Bruno, succeeded him.[428:2]He was a man of great energy and unusual spirituality, andoutlined the literary work of the order. From Pope John XI. he obtained the permit to unite more cloisters under his rule and to accept monks from unreformed monasteries. Before his death he had restored the ancient cloister life in countless monasteries over France and in Italy. Under succeeding abbots, Aymar (941-948), Majola (948-994), Odilo (994-1048), and Hugh (1048-1109), reforms were extended to German cloisters and to English monasteries; social and economic reformatory results were produced; the Truce of God was promulgated; and the reform spirit was spread throughout the Church, particularly in reference to simony, celibacy, and concubinage, and uncanonical marriage of the laity. At its height Clugny ruled over two thousand monasteries and produced such Popes as Hildebrand, Urban II., and Pascal II. After the thirteenth century the order began to decline and finally the French Revolution swept it out of existence.[429:1]

The Camaldolites grew out of an Italian reform movement independent of Clugny though no doubt related to it.[429:2]It came into existence at the end of the tenth century when the Clugniac movement had already reformed many of the Italian monasteries. The fundamental idea of this order was to reform the monastic evils of Italy by reviving the strictest form of ascetic life. The hermit, Simeon, St. Dominicus of Foligno, and St. Nilus were worthy, inspiring examples. Traditions of the Greek monastic fathers still lingered in southern Italy and in the Apennines land may have had some influence. St. Romould, born atRavenna in 950 of a rich noble family, was the real founder. After leading a gay youth, at the age of twenty, he entered a Benedictine monastery to atone for his father's sin in murdering a relative, which crime he witnessed with his own eyes. He intended to remain only forty days but stayed three years, yet found no peace for his soul. Then he turned hermit, practised the severest tortures to defeat the devil, travelled from place to place, gained great fame, had a crowd of followers wherever he went, organised them and appointed a leader, and then moved on to a new field of labour. As his life drew near its close, he retired to Camaldoli in the Apennines, and hence the name of the place was given to his order (1018). To govern these little bands St. Benedict's rule, modified by eastern asceticism, was used. The monks lived in single cells, but had a common meeting place for worship and for eating. Wine and meat were forbidden, and all days except Thursday and Sunday were fast days. The monks were barefooted and went about in silence with hair and beard uncut, performing the duties of farmers and makers of nets and baskets. Some of the more ascetic lived for years without leaving their cells. They were the first to use assistants as servants. St. Romould had a great influence on his age and was called a prophet and a miracle worker. He induced men like the Doge of Venice to take up the monastic life and was visited by the young Otto III. (999). He sent missionaries to Russia and Poland, and went himself to Hungary with twenty-four monks, but was compelled by illness to return to Italy. He preached with great power against the immoral, simoniacal, and wicked clergy, the monastic abuses, simony, and the marriage of churchmen. After his death in 1027,his work was carried on by his disciples and the order has lived on through the varying vicissitudes of succeeding centuries.[431:1]

The Vallombrosians originated in Tuscany in 1040 as an outgrowth of the Camaldolian reform movement. St. John Gualbert, the scion of a noble Florentine family, was the founder. Sent by his father to kill the murderer of his brother, he spared his life, when he made the sign of the cross with his arms. On his return to Florence, entering the little Church of San Miniato to pray before an image of Jesus, the figure nodded its head in approval of his act of mercy. As a result in 1038 he became a monk and soon joined St. Romould. Two years later he determined to found an order of his own at Vallombrosa. Followers enough came to begin his organisation and they were put under St. Benedict's rule modified to meet his ideas. Candidates were put on a year's probation and members were divided into three classes,—the religious, the serving brethren, and the laity. When he died in 1073, seven cloisters had been established in Italy, and when the founder was made a saint in 1193 they numbered sixty.

The monastery of Hirshau was established in the Black Forest of Germany.[431:2]William of Bavaria began the reformation there in 1065 by freeing the monastery from secular control, drawing up a constitution for it on reform lines, patterning its policy after the Clugniac movement, and introducing lay brethren. From Hirshau reformation spread over a large part ofGermany, and these reform cloisters strongly supported the lofty programme of Gregory VII.[432:1]

Peter Damiani was born in Ravenna of poor parents in 1006 and early left an orphan. As a boy he had a hard life, but was educated by a brother at Ravenna, Faenza, and Parma. Then he became a teacher and gained wealth and fame as an instructor in grammar and rhetoric at Ravenna. Suddenly at the age of twenty-nine resolving to become a monk, he entered a monastery at Fonte Avellano where he excelled the old monks in intemperate tortures, studied the Scriptures and preached, and wrote a biography of St. Romould. At the age of thirty-seven he was chosen abbot and then introduced St. Romould's Benedictine rule, which made fasting and torture a regular system. Each psalm was to be recited accompanied by one hundred lashes on the bare back and the whole psalter with one thousand five hundred lashes. This practice soon became a regular craze and was taken up later by the Dominicans, the Franciscans, and the Flagellants. He permitted his monks to read the Scriptures and the Fathers, encouraged them in performing hand work, but cut them off wholly from the world. He soon became the recognised leader of the reform party in Europe. He denounced his age as worse than that of Sodom and Gomorrah; demanded a reformation of monasteries, of all the clergy, and of the Church in general; dedicated his life to a crusade against simony and marriage of the clergy; and condemned in the clergy the practice of bearing arms as Leo IX. did in driving back the Normans (1053). Damiani was too big a man to remain in obscurity, hence he becameBishop of Ostia and in 1058 was made Cardinal. In the papal court he was a very prominent personage, serving as legate on many an important mission, and in 1061 was almost chosen Pope. He was the spiritual counsellor and censor of seven Hildebrandine popes, and called himself the "Lord of the Pope" and Hildebrand's "Holy Satan." He won the confidence of Henry III. and exercised great control over Henry IV. He died in 1072 just a year before Hildebrand became Pope.[433:1]

Next to Peter Damiani both in time and importance comes Hildebrand. From the scanty sources concerning his youth it is known that he was born in Tuscany at Saona about 1020 of parents in humble circumstances. His father's name was Bonizo, but whether he was of Teutonic or Roman race, or whether his occupation was that of a carpenter, a farmer, or a goatherd, are unsettled questions. His mother is unknown, but she had a brother who was Abbot of St. Mary's on the Aventine in Rome and one of the twenty churchmen who helped the Pope celebrate mass. To that uncle's monastery in the Eternal City young Hildebrand was early sent and there studied Latin, rhetoric, mathematics, music, dialectics, and the Church Fathers. There too he became imbued with the venerableness of Holy Rome and the sacred authority of the Chair of St. Peter, so that in the stormy days of his old age he could write that St. Peter had nourished him from childhood. Under these surroundings it was but natural that he should decide to be a monk. Soon he was driven to ascetic severities, probably by the corruptions and abuses thrust upon him from all sides.In this monastery he met such men as Odilo, Abbot of Clugny, leader of the reform movement in France, who was accustomed to make St. Mary's his stopping place when in Rome; Archbishop Laurentius of Amalfi, who may have taught him the classics; and Archpresbyter John Gratian, a teacher in St. Mary's, who later purchased the papal crown and became Pope Gregory VI.

Abbot Odilo, favourably impressed with the young monk's ability and piety, took him to Clugny, where he completed his studies, practised the severe discipline of the Benedictines, and became grave and puritanical. The life of a monk probably affected Hildebrand as later it did Luther. He seems to have travelled some in Germany—perhaps even visited the court of Henry III. for his order. He may have completed his novitiate at Clugny. From this reform atmosphere Hildebrand returned to Rome when three Popes were claiming the apostolic seat and the Papacy was in its depths of humiliation. Gregory VI., one of the trio, Hildebrand's old teacher, who had bought the office for 1000 pounds in silver, made the young monk his chaplain. Soon he saw the German Emperor, Henry III., come to Rome, hold a council, depose the three Popes, exile his master to a German monastery, and in 1046 elect a new Pontiff. True to his unfortunate friend, Hildebrand followed him to Germany to see him die in 1048 of a broken heart and then, apparently, he returned to Clugny.[434:1]

Pope Clement II., raised to the papal chair by Henry III. (1046), died within a year and Damasus II. followed him in twenty-three days. The Roman people then prayed the Emperor to name a new papal sovereign and he chose his cousin Bruno Pope in the Diet of Wormsin 1048 and had him assume the pontifical insignia. This was a new method of election and certainly a dangerous precedent. Bruno was a German, born at Alsace in 1002, well educated and at twenty-four elected Bishop of Toul. He joined the Clugniac reform party and enforced reformation in his diocese. He served the German king on several delicate secular missions, particularly to Burgundy and France, and gained a reputation as a good, clever, honest, brave, devout man. When elected to this high office he was a matured man, handsome, tall and stately, with a strong frank face, and was a general favourite. As a pilgrim he had often gone to Rome and was familiar with the conditions there. His biographer said of the times: "The World lay in wickedness; holiness had disappeared; justice had perished; truth had been buried; Simon Magnus lorded it over the Church, whose bishops and priests were given to luxury and fornication."[435:1]In Rome the churches were neglected and in ruins, sheep and cattle went in and out of the broken doors, and the monks and clergy were steeped in immorality.[435:2]

Bruno asked Hildebrand, who appears to have been at the Diet of Worms, to go with him to Rome, but that austere monk replied, "I cannot accompany you because, without canonical institution, and by the royal and secular power alone, you are going to seize upon the Roman Church." If that statement is correct, it shows Hildebrand's ideas of the relation of Church and state twenty-five years before he became Pope. Bruno was persuaded, put off the papal robes, and declared that he would not accept the papal crownsave by the free election of the Roman clergy and people. Then the two started for Rome as barefooted pilgrims and many a legendary tale has grown up about that journey, which took two months. At length reaching Rome, these two pious churchmen were heartily welcomed by the Romans and Bruno was chosen Pope in a great gathering in 1049 and coronated as Leo IX.

With Leo IX. began that new policy of reformation and purification of which Hildebrand was the genius and Innocent III. executor. The spirit of the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals and of Clugny were to be united and to predominate. To reform the curia was the first step of the new Pope. He did this by surrounding himself with good men like Hildebrand, Peter Damiani, Cardinal Humbert, and Archbishop Halimand of Lyons. His next move was to abolish the flagrant evils in the Church such as simony, the violation of celibacy, unjust tithing of the laity, uncanonical marriages of the laity, and lay investiture. These various reforms were to be inaugurated through Church synods, such as the annual Easter synods in Rome, national synods, and local synods. Leo IX. presided over eleven of these synods in person and travelled incessantly through Italy, France, and Germany to enforce the reforms, to root out heresy, to settle disputes, to make appointments, and to manage Church affairs. To enforce his measures in southern Italy he led an army of Italians and Germans against the Normans in 1053, but was defeated and taken prisoner, whereupon he put all the Normans under the ban. They begged their sacred captive to remove the dreaded curse but he refused until they should kiss his feet and recognise the rights of the Church. When he died in 1054,beloved by all Christendom, he had accomplished more in the way of reformation than any Pope since Nicholas I. and he left behind him a new religious enthusiasm soon to be felt all over Europe.[437:1]

Leo IX. had entrusted papal affairs to Hildebrand until a new Pope should be elected, hence all eyes were on him and his friends wanted to make him Supreme Pontiff. But he saw the time was not ripe for his work and refused. Hildebrand then headed a delegation to ask the Emperor Henry III. to confirm the nomination of Gebhard, Bishop ofEichstädt, a friend and relative. After the imperial nomination at Mainz, Gebhard went to Rome, was there elected in due canonical form as Pope Victor II. (1055), and immediately took up Hildebrand's sweeping reform policy.[437:2]Formerly he had advocated a national Church and was a master of Clugniac politics. Now, however, he accepted the papal theory in its entirety. With the Emperor he held a council at Florence which forbade the alienation of Church property, enacted rules of discipline, and determined matters of doctrine.[437:3]To cure abuses of the French clergy he sent Hildebrand to France, who succeeded in humbling the bishops guilty of simony.[437:4]Victor II. himself held a council at Tours to discuss the imperial claims of Ferdinand the Great of Spain and Henry III. of Germany, thus assuming that it was his prerogative to act in the capacity of arbiter. He went to Germany in 1056 to see Henry III. die, to hold the centrifugal forces in check in behalf of Henry IV., and to thwart the ambition ofMamno of Cologne and Adelbert of Bremen to establish a northern patriarchate. The following year he returned to Italy and there soon died (1057), beloved throughout all Christendom.

Five days after the death of Victor II. the Romans, not waiting for the return of Hildebrand, who was still absent on papal business, chose Cardinal Frederick of Lorraine Pope and jubilantly inaugurated him (Aug. 2, 1057). The new Pontiff, who took the name of Stephen IX., was an old enemy of Henry III., had been made Cardinal and Chancellor by Leo IX., had been sent to Constantinople to heal the breach between the East and the West (1054), and had been appointed Abbot of Monte Casino (1057).[438:1]Since he was elected without the consent of the German imperial party, Hildebrand, elevated to the dignity of cardinal-archdeacon, was sent north to appease the Queen Regent. Stephen IX. manifested his sincere desire to carry forward the work of reformation. Allied with him to accomplish this work were Hildebrand, the greatest man in Rome, and Damiani, the leader of the reform party, whom he appointed Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia. This trio no doubt would have made great headway in the reform propagandism had not the Pope died so soon (Mar. 29, 1058). Before death stilled his tongue, however, he made his court promise not to elect a successor without the advice of Hildebrand, who was still absent in Germany.

The party of nobles in Rome, not heeding the wishes of Stephen IX., immediately elected as Pope Benedict X., and every friend of reform was driven from the city. Hildebrand upon returning to Rome securedthe elevation of Gerhard, Bishop of Florence, to the papal chair and inaugurated him without difficulty, whereupon Benedict X. surrendered and was pardoned, though degraded and confined for life within the precincts of St. Maria Maggiore.[439:1]The new Pope, Nicholas II., practically allowed Hildebrand to dictate his policy. First he sought to free the Church from imperial domination and to elevate it above the state. The death of Henry III. (1056) and the coronation of his son of six as Henry IV. removed a powerful barrier to that object. Germany was divided into an imperial and anti-imperial party. In this condition Italian influence could be used as the determining factor in German politics, hence the states of Italy were forced to recognise the over-sovereignty of the Pope.

In the next place Nicholas II. endeavoured to regulate the papal elections so as to prevent a repetition of the election of Benedict X. and at the same time to eliminate the influence of the Emperor. The Lateran Council held April 13, 1059, attended by the Pope and one hundred and thirteen bishops,[439:2]many abbots, and a vast concourse of priests and deacons, after condemning Benedict X., prohibiting simony, denouncing lay investiture, and decreeing celibacy to be the law of the Church, created the College of Cardinals.[439:3]The election of the Pope was now put into the hands of the Roman cardinal-bishops,[439:4]who were to submit their nominee to the lower clergy and the people for approval.This practically excluded both the Roman nobles and the Roman Emperor. This edict was the greatest revolution ever attempted in the hierarchy. It was an effort to give the Papacy a constitution which would make it independent. An election by any hands but the cardinals' could now be called unconstitutional or uncanonical. And any person who attempted to resist or impugn the regulation was to be smitten with an awful curse:

Let him be damned by anathema and excommunication, and be counted among the impious in the resurrection of condemnation; may the wrath of Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and the fury of the Apostles Peter and Paul, whose Church he shall dare to disturb, be poured out upon him in this life and in the life to come; may his habitation be made desolate, so that there may be none to inhabit his tents; may his children be made orphans, and his wife a widow; he and his sons; and may he beg his bread, and be driven out of his habitation; may the usurer consume his substance, and the stranger reap the fruit of his labours; may the world be at war with him, and all the elements array themselves against him; and may the merits of all the saints at rest confound him, and even in this life hold the sword of vengeance suspended over him.[440:1]

The history of the cardinals is very interesting. The word cardinal seems to come fromcardo, a hinge, and contains the idea of principal or important.[440:2]The term was early applied to the priests of the first dioceses in Rome and in 308 there were twenty-five in the Eternal City. Under Gregory I. (604) the word was plainly and commonly used. Stephen IV. in 771 extended the title to suburban dioceses. Anastasius' life of LeoIII. (died 816) seems to indicate the germs of a College of Cardinals. It was not, however, until the time of Nicholas II. that the institution was definitely created. The number of cardinals varied greatly—thirty in the twelfth century, seven in the thirteenth century, twenty-four by the act of the Council of Basle, thirteen in 1516, seventy-six in 1559, and finally Sixtus V. fixed the number once for all at seventy to correspond with the seventy elders of Israel.[441:1]The number, however, was seldom complete.

The paternal solicitude and indefatigable labours of Nicholas II. for the restoration and maintenance of the unity and authority of the Church met with unexpected success. All western Europe, even distant countries like Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Iceland, felt the firm hand of this strong Pope. In Milan Peter Damiani humbled the mighty archbishop and lesser ecclesiastics to repentance for simony and immorality. Robert Guiscard, King of the Normans, acknowledged papal suzerainty.[441:2]From many standpoints he must be accounted the greatest Pope between Gregory the Great and Gregory VII.

The death of Nicholas II. (1061) gave the College of Cardinals an opportunity to employ the new method of electing the Pope. Hildebrand first sent Cardinal Stephen as a messenger to the Empress Regent to secure her approval of the election, but she refused to receive him because she felt that the royal prerogatives had been encroached upon by the Lateran Council and besides she hoped to carry out her own plans of election. Hildebrand, after waiting some time, resolved to take the initiative and summoned the College of Cardinals.The right of the young king was tacitly waived and a new Pope called Alexander II. elected. The Empress called a counter-council at Basle in which the regulation creating the College of Cardinals was revoked, the election of Alexander II. was declared null, and in his place the Bishop of Parma was made Pope Honorius II. The German Pope attempted to take Rome by force (April, 1062), did gain an entry, but was soon defeated by Godfrey of Tuscany and forced to flee. A civil revolt in Germany soon led to the recognition of Alexander II. and the Empress Regent sought absolution from him and shortly afterwards entered a Roman convent. The continued quarrel between these two rival claimants of St. Peter's Seat gave a momentary check to reformation in the Church. But the battle over papal election had been won. The Church was no longer ruled by the state. Truly could it be said of Hildebrand "he found the Church a handmaid and left her free." The contest over simony, lay investiture, and celibacy, however, remained to be carried on by the great successor of Alexander II. It was this same Pope Alexander II. who gave William of Normandy the right to assume the crown of England, for which he exacted a yearly tribute. He also appointed the archbishops for England. Lanfranc of Canterbury ably seconded the reformatory exertions of the Pope and set himself firmly against the sale of benefices and the unchastity of the clergy. Nicholas II. likewise declared that papal bulls had the same force as acts of councils—the first expression of that kind. Peter Damiani was sent into France to correct the morals of the clergy and to enforce discipline in the Church. Later he made a similar trip to Germany. Had not death claimed Nicholas so soon (Apr. 21, 1073)he would probably have carried out his intentions to reform the wicked young German king, who was called to Rome to answer for his conduct, and to punish his councillors, whom he did excommunicate. He bequeathed that difficult work, however, to one more able than he for its accomplishment.

Charles the Great and Otto the Great both called councils in Rome to try Popes. But now the Pope has attained such a pre-eminence that he cites the Emperor to appear before him to justify his conduct. Verily the Papacy, with the aid of Damiani and Hildebrand, had got out of the quagmire which almost engulfed it in the tenth and the eleventh centuries. At the same time the imperial right to choose Popes, which had so long been exercised and which had been recognised again and again by the Popes themselves, was taken out of the Emperor's hands and entirely controlled by the Roman cardinals.

FOOTNOTES:

[418:1]SeeChapter XVI.

[418:2]The Pope's wife was still living at the time of his election. His daughter, a maiden of forty, was abducted by the son of Bishop Aresenius. When threatened with punishment, the abductor murdered the Pope's wife and daughter. See Schaff, iv., 277.

[419:1]Robinson,Readings, i., 245.

[419:2]Alzog, ii., § 187;Hefele, iv., 575; Gregorovius, iii., 282; Pertz, v., 297;Migne, vol. 136, 827, 852; Robinson,Readings, i., 251.

[419:3]SeeChapter XVII.

[420:1]SeeChapter XVII.

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