THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
in Italy of the political power of the German emperor. At Whitsuntide, 1055, he held a great reform synod at Florence, at which the emperor seems to have presided, and he reprimanded the monks of Monte Cassino for choosing on abbot without consulting Henry. The Romans were naturally opposed to a pope who thus favored the imperial aims, and in Sept., 1056, Victor returned to Germany. On Oct. 5 he was at the emperor’s deathbed, and at Aachen enthroned the new King Henry IV., besides settling the Lotharingian troubles at the diet of Cologne in December and the conditions in Bavaria at the diet of Regensburg in Jan., 1057. In the following month he returned to Italy; early in the summer he was engaged in adjusting ecclesiastical affairs in Tuscany, but on July 28, 1057, he died at Arezzo. (H. BOuMER.)
BrsrioGcrRaPHy: Liber Pontificalis, ed. L. Duchesne, vol. ii.,
Paris, 1892; Jaffé, Regesta, i. 549-553; the Vita by Boso
is in J. M. Watterich, Romanorum pontificum .. . vite,
i. 185-187, Leipsic, 1862; Mann, Popes, vi. 183-206; C.
A. C. von Héfler, Die deutschen Péapste, ii. 208-268, Re-
gensburg, 1839; R. Baxmann, Die Politik der Pdapste, ii.
252-262, Elberfeld, 1869; M. Lefflad, Regesten der Bischiéfe
von Hichstadt, part 1, Hichstidt, 1871; J. Sax, Die Bischéfe
und Reichsfirsten von Eichstidt, i. 39-43, Landshut, 1884;
J. Langen, Geschichte der rémischen Kirche, vol. iii., Bonn,
1892; F. Gregorovius, Hist. of the City of Rome, iv. 94—
99, London, 1896; 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, ili. 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 Cassino. On Nov. 30, 1057, Stephen IX. appointed 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, morally, 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 daughter-houses of San Liberatore in the Abruzzi and St. Benedict 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 8. Cecilia 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 Melfiin 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 new 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 ultra- Gregorians 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