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| 1055–57 |
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| VICTOR II. Elected at the urging of Hildebrand (later Gregory VII), who dominated this pontificate and the following one and who made the papacy the leader in reform. Beatrice, mother of Matilda, and widow of Count Boniface of Tuscany, married (1054) Godfrey the Bearded, duke of Upper Lorraine, Henry's most dangerous foe in Germany, as Boniface had been in Italy. Henry arrested Beatrice and her daughter Matilda, Boniface's heiress; Godfrey fled; Matilda remained all her life a powerful ally of the papacy and kept middle Italy loyal to the popes. | 1 |
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| 1057–58 |
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| STEPHEN IX (brother of Godfrey the Bearded), a zealous Cluniac. The Pataria (c. 1056), a popular movement, gained wide currency in the Milan region for its demands for clerical celibacy, the end of simony, and apostolic simplicity among the clergy. It came into sharp conflict with the bishop and clergy. Peter Damian, sent by the pope, maintained the papal position (1059) and brought the archbishop to terms; there was a later outbreak of the Pataria. | 2 |
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| 1058–61 |
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| Nicholas II. | 3 |
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| 1059 |
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| At the Synod of the Lateran, Pope Nicholas II promulgated a decree that fixed the right of electing the pope in a college of cardinals, composed of bishops of dioceses in the vicinity of Rome (who were to have the initiative in the election), and certain priests and deacons of Rome; all held the title of cardinal, which implied superior rank and association with the pope in the government of the Church. Cardinals served as the pope's chief advisers and administrative assistants (legates, arbitrators, judges). The cardinals met as a group, in consistory, to express their opinions on a wide variety of theological and political matters. Popes rarely acted on important matters without seeking the cardinals' advice, and from this practice of consultation developed the cardinals' claim to share in the governance of the Church. The papal decree of 1059 also marked the increasing expansion of the papal curia (court or administrative bureaucracy) as it began to handle legal appeals from all over Europe. | 4 |
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| 1059 |
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| Under Hildebrand's influence, an alliance was made with the Norman Richard of Aversa, and Nicholas, after exacting an oath, later invested Robert Guiscard with the duchy of Apulia and Calabria and promised him Sicily if he could conquer it, thereby establishing papal suzerainty over southern Italy, the first great expansion of temporal suzerainty by the popes. The Synod of Melfi condemned (1059) the marriage of clergy. | 5 |
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| 1061–73 |
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| ALEXANDER II. His election without consultation of Henry IV created serious tension; the Synod of Basel declared the election invalid, and chose an antipope. Alexander, on friendly terms with William the Conqueror, blessed the Norman conquest of England. | 6 |
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| 1071 |
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| Robert Guiscard (d. 1085) captured Bari, ending the Greek power in Italy. | 7 |
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| 1072–91 |
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| Guiscard's capture of Palermo (1072) began the Norman conquest of Sicily. Roger I (d. 1101) succeeded Guiscard as lord of southern Italy (except Capua, Amalfi, and papal Benevento). | 8 |
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| 1073–85 |
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| GREGORY VII (Hildebrand). Short, corpulent, with glittering eyes, the son of an Italian peasant educated at Rome, possibly under Cluniac influence. Inspired by Gregory the Great, Gregory VI, and the study of the Decretals, he was neither an original thinker nor a scholar, but was intensely practical and of lofty moral stature. After a brilliant career in the curia he was acclaimed pope by the Romans before his election. German bishops protested the election, and Gregory postponed his consecration, awaiting Henry's decision in a sincere effort to live up to his ideal of perfect cooperation between pope and emperor in the interest of peace, reform, and the universal monarchy of the papacy. His program was summed up by his Dictatus, an informal memorandum that asserted: (1) the Roman Church has never erred, can never err; (2) the pope is supreme judge and may be judged by none, and there is no appeal from him; (3) no synod may be called a general one without his order; (4) he may depose, transfer, reinstate bishops; (5) he alone is entitled to the homage of all princes; (6) he alone may depose an emperor. | 9 |
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| 1075–1122 |
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| The investiture struggle. | 10 |
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| 1075, Feb |
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| At the Synod of Rome, Gregory published decrees against simony (the sale of Church offices), clerical marriage, and (for the first time) lay investiture—the investment by laymen of bishops and abbots with the religious symbols of their office (the crozier or staff, representing pastoral authority; the ring, indicating permanent union with the diocese), the penalty being deposition for the cleric and excommunication for the layman. Since public opinion generally favored his moral reforms, Gregory believed the people would support his political reform, the abolition of lay investiture. Henry IV in Germany, William I in England, and Philip I in France at once protested. | 11 |
| The 11th-century rulers depended on the literacy and administrative ability of churchmen for a variety of diplomatic, financial, political, and clerical tasks; royal government, given the lack of educated laymen, could not function without clerics. Kings, therefore, selected them, invested them, and usually required that they perform feudal homage before investiture. Gregory's decrees raised a revolutionary question: did kings have ultimate or final jurisdiction over all subjects, including the clergy? Tradition strongly favored the ruler. Gregory's assertion undermined royal and imperial power and sought to make papal authority supreme. A bitter exchange of letters followed. | 12 |
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| 1076, Jan |
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| Synod of Worms. The German bishops, appointed and invested by the emperor, accused Gregory of immorality, misuse of his powers, and usurping his office, and withdrew their allegiance from him. Gregory responded by excommunicating them and deposing the emperor. The lay nobility, delighted with the bind in which the emperor had been put, because it advanced their feudal independence, supported the pope. | 13 |
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