VICTOR: The name of three popes and two anti popea. Victor L: Pope 189-199. According to Jerome, he was a Latin by birth. The outward condition of the church in Rome, when Victor became its head, was most prosperous; internal affairs, how ever, were less peaceful. The presbyter Florinus was rousing excitement with writings that smacked of Valentinianism, and Victor was obliged to expel him from the Church. At about the same time the presbyter Blastus declared that Easter (q.v., I., 3, II., § 3) was to be celebrated on the fourteenth of Nisan, and since he could cite the precedent of sev eral churches in Asia Minor, he caused a schism in Rome. The Italian bishops, convened at Rome by Victor for the first Roman synod of which anything is known, decided in favor of the Roman usage; but Victor could not check the schism until he had won over the churches in Asia Minor, which, accordingly he threatened with excommunication, and also ad dressed a circular letter to all Catholic churches asking their opinions in the matter. These sup ported Victor's position, but the churches of Asia Minor refused to submit and were excommunicated. Many of the bishops, however, disapproved this course, and Irenaus of Lyons sought, probably unsuccessfully, to induce the bishops of Gaul to take joint action against the pope, and thus to compel him to revoke his anathema. But the hegemony of the pope was now, for the first time, publicly demonstrated, and by this victory the movement headed by Blastus was also crushed.
Additional problems soon arose. Theodotus of Byzantium sought to gain adherents to his Christology, and although Victor excommunicated him for denying the divinity of Christ, his followers formed a sort of community and even attempted to make a bishop of their own. It is debated whether Victor was the pope who, according to Tertullian (Adv. Praxeam, i.), was ready to accept Montanistic doctrines and was dissuaded only by Praxeas of Asia Minor, who persuaded him to adopt his own Christological ideas. It is equally problematical whether Victor is to be identified with the Victorious who, according to the pseudo-Tertullian (Hær., viii.), sought to propagate the heresy of Praxeas at Rome. The only fact certain is that modalism was not officially taught at Rome during Victor's pontificate.
According to Jerome, Victor wrote several works, including one on the date of Easter, but he may not be credited with the pseudo-Cyprian Adv. aleatores. It is possible that he was the author of the Mura torian fragment.Bibliography: Eusebius. Hist. eccl.. V., xaii.-wiii.; Cat-
alogue Liberianus, in Harnack, LitteraEur, i. 146; Liber pontificalis, ed. Mommsea in MGR, Gest. pont. Rom., i (1898), 18, and ed. L. Duchesne, vol. i., Paris, 1588; ASB, July, vi. 534-542; J. Langen, Geschichte der rtim%schen Rirche, i. 179, 182 sqq., Bonn, 1881; A. Harnack, in TU, v. 1 (1889), 110 sqq.; idem, Litteratur, i. 595-598, ii. 2, pp. 370-381; idem, Dogma, vols. ii.-iii. passim;. K. J. Neumann, Der römische Stoat und die allgemeine Kirche, i. 295, Leipsic, 1890; F. Gregorovius, Hist. of the City of Rome, i. 398, 424, 487. London, 1894; A.. Schone, Die WelEchronik des Euaeb%us in ihrer BearbeiEung durch H%eronymus, pp. 181-201, Berlin, 1900; Schaff, Christian
Church, ii. 218-218; Neander, Christian Church, vol. i. passim; Ceillier, Auteurs sacrés , i. 531-544, vi. 83-84; Bower, Popes, i. 17-19; Platina, Popes, i. 358; Mil man, Latin Christianity, i. 84, 70.
Victor II. (Gebhard): Pope 1055-57. He was according to tradition a scion of the ancient line of the counts of Dollenstein and Hirschberg. In 1042 he was consecrated. bishop of Eichstadt, and for ten years his influence was dominant at the German court. In 1053. he administered the duchy of Bavaria for the minor Henry IV., and defended the rights of the Empire against the deposed Duke Conrad, Bishop Gebhard of Regensburg, and the rebellious counts of Scheyern. In Sept., 1054, Henry III. designated him pope at the diet of Mainz, but Gebhard accepted, at the diet of Regensburg, in Mar., 1055, only on condition that he retain his German bishopric and his position as a prince of the Empire, and that the emperor restore to the Curia certain dioceses and castles to replete the papal finances, which the Norman expeditions of Leo IX. had seriously impaired.
On Apr. 13, 1055, Gebhard was enthroned. His pontificate was marked by withdrawal from the policy of secular expansion, and by a strengthening
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Bibliography: Liber Pontificalis, ed. L. Duchesne, vol: ii., Paris, 1892; Jaffé, Regesta, i. 549-553; the Vita by Boso is in J. M. Watterich, Romanorum pontifecum . . vital, i. 185-187, Leipsic, 1862; Mann, Popes, vi. 183-206; C. A. C. von HSfier, Die deutschen Pilpste, ii. 208-268, Re gensburg, 1839; R. Baxmann. Die Politik der Päpste, ii. 252-262, Elberfeld, 1869; M. Lef$ad. Regeaten der BischSJe von Eichsladt, part 1, Eiehstadt, 1871; J. Sax, Die Bischofe and Reichsfiirsten von Eiehstltdt, i. 39-43, Landshut, 1884; J. Langen, Geschichte der römischen Kirche, vol. iii., Bonn, 1892; F. Gregorovius, Hist. of the City of Rome, iv. 94 99, London, 1898; ADB, xxxix. 670-674; Hauck, KD, vol. iii. passim; Ceillier, Auteurs sacrés, xiii. 239-241, 298; Bower, Popes, ii. 361-363; Platina, Popes, i. 276; Milman, Latin Christianity, iii. 275-290; Schaff, Chris tian_Church, v. 1, p. 15. Victor III. (DauFari, Desiderius): Pope May 9 Dec. 16, 1087. A descendant of the ancient ducal house of Benevento, he was born in 1026 or 1027, and even as a boy showed a determined inclination for monastic life. In 1047 he was forced to marry, but on his wedding day fled to the hermitage of Santari, whence he was brought back by compulsion. In the following year he again fled, and was finally allowed to take the cowl at St. Sofia near Benevento under the name of Desiderius. But St. Sofia was too lax for him, and in 1051-52 he went to Tremite San Nicolo in the Adriatic, whence, early in 1053, he retired to the hermits of Majella in the Abruzzi. In May of the same year, however, Leo IX. recalled him to the south, and for nearly eight months he was a companion of the captive pope at Benevento, where Desiderius became a sympathizer with the ideals of the reform party. In Apr.-May, 1055, he was in Florence to advise with Victor II. concerning the fate of Benevento. He accompanied the pope to the Roman marches, but in December he seized the opportunity once more to retire. Late in 1056 or early in 1057, he was provost of the Benedictine abbey at Capua, a daughter-house of Monte Cas sino. On Nov. 30, 1057, Stephen IX, appoint ed him abbot of Monte Cassino. At Stephen's death, Apr. 10, 1058, he hastened to Campania, where, on Apr. 19, he took possession of his abbey, Monte Cassino. This he speedily restored, mor ally, strategically, as well as architecturally, while through his zeal for learning a little school grew up in the monastery. His activity extended to other monasteries as well, so that he reformed the daugh ter-houses of San Liberatore in the Abruzzi and St. Benediet in Capua, established two new houses in Capua and near Fondi, as papal vicar for monas-
teries in southern Italy reformed the abbeys of Subiaco, Tremite, and others, and made an attempt to reestablish monasticism in Sardinia.
The success of Desiderius was due in no small measure to his ecclesiastical and political activity in behalf of the Curia. As early as Mar. 6, 1059, Nicolas II. had created him cardinal of S. Ca;cilia in Trastevere, and in this capacity he attended the Lateran synod of the same year. In June he entertained the pope at Monte Cassino, and accompanied him to Melfi in July. There he induced the Normans Richard of Capua and Robert of Guiscard to accept their territories as fiefs from the pope, so that henceforth he was considered indispensable to the Curia. Desiderius worked for peace among the Norman princes, and associated with those who had been placed under the ban, nor was it until 1078 that he effected an alliance between the Curia and Robert Guiscard. He renewed his policy, however, with Henry IV. in 1082, and even went to Rome to endeavor to negotiate peace for him with the pope; but when he failed, he sided with Gregory, whom, after Henry's victory, he sheltered in Monte Cassino, being one of the faithful few at the pope's death-bed at Salerno (May 25, 1085).
At the preliminary conferences concerning a ne'1v pope the name of Desiderius was prominent, but he sought no such dignity and succeeded in deferring the election until the end of May, 1086. He was then finally elected, but four days later, together with the cardinals, was driven from Rome by the imperial prefect of the city. In his flight he laid aside his pontifical robes and returned as abbot to Monte Cassino. In Mar., 1087, as apostolic vicar he convened the Gregorian cardinals to a new election at Capua. Here again the majority declared for him, although a small minority, headed by Hugo, archbishop of Lyons, demanded that he justify his association with Henry IV. In disgust Desiderius left the assembly, but on the following day (Mar. 21, 1087) he appeared in pontifical regalia, dreading to give the papacy to the ultraGregorians even more than to become Gregory's successor. To avoid the schism which threatened his pontificate, he sought to win over the Gregorians, confirming the ban on Henry and strictly renewing the prohibition of lay investiture at a synod at Benevento in Aug., 1087. At the same time, he renounced Gregory's dreams of temporal power and sought only to retain Rome. But Rome was in the hands of the antipope, and it was only after Gisulf of Salerno and Jordan of Capua had stormed the city that he could be enthroned as Victor III. (May 9). Almost immediately the antipope renewed his attacks, and on June 20 was again in possession of St. Peter's. Had not Victor retained the abbey of Monte Cassino, he, like Gregory, would have died in exile, for on Sept. 16, 1087, he passed away.
Brief as was the pontificate of Victor III., it was epoch-making in two respects: as inaugurating the break with the temporal policy of Gregory VII.; and as showing the power of the pope to rouse the Christians to war against Islam by his simple word; for shortly before his death he urged a crusade against the Moors of northern Africa which was successfully carried out within the year. Victor
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Bibliography: The early Vita from the Chronicon Casi raenae, book iii., with commentary, is in ASB, Sept., v. 373-435, and in MPL, calia. 918-982, cf. ASM, vi. 2, pp. 583-625. Other sources are Aim6 de Mont-Cassin, L'Yatoire de li Normaut, iii. 49, ed. O. Delarc, Rouen, 1892; Peter the Deacon, ed. Muratori, in Scriptores, ,vi. 32 sqq. Consult further: Jaffé, Regesta, i. 65558; Mann, Popes, vii. 218-244; L. Toati, Storia delta Badia di Monte Cassino, vol. i., Naples, 1841; J. M. Watterich, Romanorum pontif,cum . . vita., i. 310 sqq., Leipsic, 1862; F. Hirsch, in Forschurigen zur deutschen Geschichte, vii. 1-103, Göttingen, 1867; A. Caravita, I codici a le arti a Monte Cassino, parts i.-iii., Monte Cassino, 1889-71; J. Langen, Geschichte der römischen Kirche, iii. 182 sqq., Bonn, 1892; L. von Heinemann, Geschichte der Norman. nen in Uuteritalien, i. 172 sqq. Leipsic, 1894; F. Gre gorovius, Hist. of the City of Rome, iv. 564-572, London, 1898; Ceillier, Auteurs sacrés, is. 241, 300-301, 317 318, siii. 41518; Bower, Popes, ii. 410-413; Platina, Popes, ii. 12-13; Milman, Christian Church, iii. 501-508; Hauck, KD, vol, iii. passim; Schaff, Christian Church, v. 1, pp. 65, 70. Victor IV.: Two antipopes: Gregory Conti (1138) and Octavian (1159-64). The former of these was elected in the middle of Mar., 1138, by the Roman Pierleoni to succeed Anacletus II., but on May 29 of the same year, at the instance of Ber nard of Clairvaux, he submitted to Innocent II. and resigned his claims. Octavian, the scion of one of the most powerful Roman families and cardinal of St. CFecilia, was elected to the papal throne Sept. 9, 1159, by four or five cardinals, the clergy of St. Peter's, and the Roman people. Although he re lied largely on the support of Emperor Frederick L, the latter remained neutral until the Council of Pavia in Feb., 1160, when he declared for Victor. But all imperial efforts to gain recognition of Vic tor in England, France, and even in Germany were fruitless; and after the summer of 1163 Alexander III. sought to gain Germany for himself. During the negotiations Victor died at Lucca Apr. 20, 1164.
Bibliography: : Jaffé, Regesta, i . 919, ii. 41828; Moritz Meyer, Die Wahl Alexander 111. and Victor IV.. 1169, Göttingen, 1871; J. Langen, Geschichte der römischen Kirche, iii. 439 sqq., Bonn, 1892; Bower, Popes, ii. 470, 503-511; Platina, Popes, ii. 39-42, 50 sqq.; Milman, Latin Christianity, iv. 289; Schaff, Christian Church, v. 1, p. 111; Hauck, KD, vol. iv, passim; and the literature under Innocent II. and Alexander III.
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