ALEXANDER II, POPE

Pontificate: Sept. 30 to April 21, 1073; b. Anselm, son of Arderico of Baggio, in Baggio, near Milan, date unknown. Educated and ordained a priest in Milan (1055), and onetime disciple of lanfranc at bec (1045), he cooperated with the reform aims of the patarines. He was made bishop of Lucca in 1057, retaining the see as pope, and served nicholas ii as legate to Milan, with Cardinals Hildebrand (gregory vii) in 1057 and peter damian in 1060, in support of the reform and papal authority there. Disorders after the death of Nicholas II (July 27, 1061) delayed election of a successor. Upheld by Hildebrand and protected by Norman arms, Anselm was elected in Rome and enthroned without participation of the German king, whose role had been canonically recognized, if not clearly defined, in the papal election decree of 1059. Certain Roman civilians and dissident bishops, seconded by the German court, elected Cadalus of Parma (antipope Honorius II), who was proclaimed by the future emperor, henry iv, at a Basel synod, October 28, and was abandoned only after condemnation by the Council of Mantua in 1064. Despite this harassment, the reform objectives and vigorous exercise of papal authority were pressed throughout Latin Christendom, under the steadily increasing influence of Hildebrand, through a growing volume of papal correspondence and the unprecedented activity of legates: in Lombardy, France, Spain (hugh of remiremont), England (where william i's conquest was approved), Germany, Bohemia, Croatia-Dalmatia, and Scandinavia. Relations with the Church of constantinople in 1061 and 1062 were the first since Patriarch michael cerularius was excommunicated in 1054 (cf. V. Grumel, Les Regestes des actes du patriarcat de Constantinople ). peter of anagni was sent to Emperor Michael VII Ducas after his accession in 1071, but unhappily, ecclesiastical concord was not achieved. The Latinization of Greek sees proceeded with the Norman conquest of Byzantine territories in south Italy, in some instances in the name of reform (cf. W. Holtzmann, Papsturkunden in England ). The reconquest of Muslim dominions, begun at this time with full papal sanction, was an important prelude to the crusades (see spain). In 1063 the pope intervened in defense of the Jews in southern France and Spain, who suffered grievously in these campaigns, and renewed the prohibition of Pope gregory i against their maltreatment (P. Jaffé, Regesta pontificum romanorum ab condita ecclesia ad annum post Christum natum 1198 4528, 4532, 4533). The claim that the territories conquered by French knights in Spain and by normans in Sicily respectively were to be held of the pope in feudal tenure (ex parte s. Petri ) rested in part on the spurious donation of constantine, in wider use from that time on. After a confident appeal to Henry IV for military aid in a conflict with the pope's Norman supporters (settled at the synod of Melfi, 1067), relations with the German court deteriorated. A dispute over the See of Milan (see atto of milan) was among the causes of growing tension inherited by his successor, Gregory VII, that culminated in the investiture struggle.

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[j. j. ryan]