| |
| 983 |
| |
| Great Diet of Verona. Remarkable unity of the Italian and German magnates; resolve on a holy war against the Muslims; election of the future Otto III as successor to his father. Venice, already profiting by its Muslim trade, refused ships and defied the emperor. | 1 |
| |
| 996 |
| |
| Otto III, on his first expedition to Italy, deposed the patricius Crescentius II and (at the request of the Roman people) nominated as pope his cousin Bruno, Gregory V (996–99), the first German pope, an ardent Cluniac. As the successor of Pope Gregory, Otto named Gerbert of Aurillac. | 2 |
| |
| 999–1003 |
| |
| Sylvester II (Gerbert of Aurillac), the first French pope, a man of humble origin but one of the most learned men of his day (Arabic, mathematics, and science). An intriguer and diplomat who cooperated with Otto in his mystic renewal of the empire; he was a moderate reformer, asserting that simony was the worst evil of the Church. | 3 |
| |
| 1012–46 |
| |
| The Tusculan popes were either the relatives or the creatures of the counts of Tusculum. The emperors, preoccupied with German affairs, made only rare visits to Italy. Yet the period witnessed the beginnings of efforts, originating in France and Germany, for the reform of Church and society: | 4 |
| (1) Local synods decreed clerical celibacy (e.g., Augsburg, 952; Poitiers, 1000; Seligenstadt, 1023; Bourges, 1031), attacked simony. | 5 |
| (2) William the Pious, duke of Aquitaine, founded (909) the abbey of Cluny near Mâcon in Burgundy, completely free of feudal and secular control, directly subordinate to Sts. Peter and Paul, as represented by the pope. The strict observance of the Rule of St. Benedict, the emphasis placed on the execution of the liturgy, the pious reputations of the first abbots and the long lives of the 11th-century abbots who stressed sound economic management, and the monastery's strong position on clerical celibacy and the suppression of simony (the sale of Church offices) made Cluny a cynosure of good monastic living in a disorderly world. Thus, wealthy laypeople placed monasteries under Cluny's jurisdiction for reform, and hundreds of priories in France and Spain came under Cluny's centralizing influence. A second reforming monastic impulse, springing from Gorze (founded 933) in Lotharingia (modern Lorraine) exercised an influence in Germany and central Europe. | 6 |
| (3) Synods in Aquitaine and Burgundy (where monarchical opposition to feudal anarchy was weak) pronounced (c. 989) anathema on ravagers of the Church and despoilers of the poor, initiating a long series of clerical efforts throughout Europe to force feudal self-regulation, referred to as the Peace of God. These decrees, repeatedly renewed and extended, were supplemented (after c. 1040) by the Truce of God, an effort to limit fighting to certain days and seasons of the year. | 7 |
| (4) An effort to restore the central authority of the Church by reference to past decrees, of which the most notable were the so-called Isidorean (or Forged) Decretals, attributed to Isidorus Mercator and produced (c. 850) by a Frankish cleric. A combination of authentic and forged papal decrees, they aimed to establish the authority and power of the bishops and the position of the pope as supreme lawgiver and judge, and to make him supreme over councils. | 8 |
| (5) A burst of monastic piety was reflected in the foundation of new ascetic orders (e.g., Vallumbrosan Order, founded c. 1036 by St. John Gualbert in Tuscany; Carthusian Order, founded c. 1084 by St. Bruno at the Grande Chartreuse in the Dauphine Alps near Grenoble) and in outstanding individual reformers, such as Peter Damian (d. 1092), scholar, papal diplomat, preacher against the worldliness and simoniacal practices of the clergy; Lanfranc of Pavia (d. 1089), lawyer, monk-scholar, abbot of Bec in Normandy, archbishop of Canterbury, adviser to William the Conqueror; and Anselm of Aosta (d. 1109), monk of Bec, scholar, archbishop of Canterbury. | 9 |
| Italy at the opening of the 11th century. Sicily was in the hands of the Saracens; Apulia and Calabria under the feeble rule of Constantinople; Gaeta, Naples, Amalfi, were city-republics; Benevento, Capua, and Salerno the capitals of Lombard principalities. Norman pilgrims arriving (1016) at the shrine of St. Michael on Monte Gargano began the penetration of the south by Norman soldiers of fortune in the service of rival states: the first permanent Norman establishment was at Aversa (c. 1029); the sons of the Norman Tancred of Hauteville (including Robert Guiscard) appeared (after c. 1035), and their steady advance at the expense of the Greeks led Benevento to appeal for papal protection (1051). Anarchy prevailed in the north. | 10 |
| |
| 1027 |
| |
| Conrad II, in Italy for his coronation, restored order in the north, reducing the Lombard nobles. | 11 |
| |
| 1037 |
| |
| On a second expedition, Conrad disciplined Archbishop Aribert of Milan, restored order in the south; his constitutio de feudis made Italian fiefs hereditary. | 12 |
| |
| 1046 |
| |
| The synods of Sutri and of Rome, under pressure from the reforming emperor Henry III, deposed three rival popes and made Suitgar, bishop of Bamberg, pope as Clement II (1046–47). Henry pacified southern Italy, reaffirmed the imperial right of nomination to the papacy, and left Italy in sound order. | 13 |
| |
| 1047 |
| |
| The Synod of Rome issued stern decrees against simony and clerical marriage. | 14 |
| |
| 1049–85 |
| |
| Gradual resumption of papal leadership in the Church and of spiritual influence in the west. | 15 |
| |
| 1049–54 |
| |
| LEO IX (Bruno of Toul, a kinsman of Henry III) began the restoration of the spiritual primacy of the Holy See. He insisted on his own canonical election to the papal throne, reorganized the chancery on the imperial model, reformed the Church by personal or legatine visitation, giving reform reality in the west. | 16 |
| |
| 1052 |
| |
| Henry III granted the duchy of Benevento to the papacy. | 17 |
| |
| 1054 |
| |
| The long doctrinal controversy with the Greek Orthodox Church ended with the final schism between the eastern (Orthodox) and western (Roman) Church (See 1042–56). | 18 |
| |
| |
