Clement III. (Antipope)

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Clement III. (Center) with Henry IV, who was crowned emperor by him (left) and the imperial sword-bearer Palatine Hermann II of Lorraine (between); on the far right an armed man drives out Pope Gregory VII (not visible here). Illustration to the world chronicle of Otto von Freising in Codex Jenensis Bose q.6 (1157).

Clement III. (actually Wibert of Ravenna or Guibert of Ravenna , * between 1020 and 1030 in Parma ; † September 8, 1100 in Civita Castellana ) was an antipope from 1084 to 1100 against Gregory VII , Viktor III. , Urban II. And Paschalis II.

Life

Origin and career

Wibert came from the aristocratic family of the "WIBERTI DI MELETOLO", related to the Margraves of Canossa , and was a great-grandson of the progenitor Gerhard, son of Mr. Siegfried I. von Canossa. As a younger son, he was destined for the ministry of the clergy and began his career at the court of Bishop Cadalus of Parma (later the antipope Honorius II ).

At the instigation of Empress Agnes , he was appointed Chancellor for Italy as successor to Gunther von Bamberg . As a representative of the empire, he took part in the Synod of Sutri in January 1059, at which Pope Benedict X , who was not recognized by the Reform Party, was excommunicated and Pope Nicholas II, who had been elected by reform-minded cardinals , was confirmed. He then negotiated with Nikolaus about the papal election decree that was issued in the same year and was explosive in terms of imperial and church politics . In 1061 he was involved in the elevation of Cadalus to imperial antipope. During the three-year schism, he was removed from office in connection with the empress' withdrawal from the reign in 1063.

On their intercession, King Henry IV made him Archbishop of Ravenna in 1072 . During Lent in the spring of 1073 he was consecrated by Pope Alexander II and sworn him the oath of obedience. Wibert knew the Roman reform circle and was open to ideas of church reform despite its imperial church character. His relationship with Hildebrand, who was elevated to Pope as Gregory VII in April 1073, was initially positive, despite the ambiguities in Gregor's election. The break arose between 1074 and 1076 in the course of the escalation of the dispute over the papal ban on lay investiture , which marked the beginning of the so-called investiture dispute between Gregory VII and Henry IV.

Conflict with Gregory VII.

Deposition and banishment

Wibert took the royal side at a time that could not be precisely determined. He was present at the first Synod of Lent in Rome in 1074 and took the traditional place of honor of the Metropolitan of Ravenna on the right of the Pope. Despite reports to the contrary in later sources hostile to Wibert, it is not improbable that he also took part in the Roman Synod of Lent in 1075; In any case, Gregor invited him in a friendly manner and with no apparent sign of a quarrel. The tightening of papal policy that resulted from this synod was perhaps the cause of the alienation. In 1076 Wibert joined the protests of the Lombard bishops against the attitude of the Pope and was excommunicated with them. In 1078, at the same time as Archbishop Thedald of Milan , the most important opposing metropolitan besides Wibert, he was banned for disobedience and finally deposed after Gregor had quoted him in a sharply worded letter before the synod and Wibert had disregarded the summons. Gregor, who viewed disobedience to the successor of Peter as heresy , referred to Wibert several times in his correspondence as an “arch heretic”. However, dismissal and banishment remained without consequences, and Wibert continued to rule his archbishopric unmolested.

Pope election

The Synod in Brixen , which met in protest against the renewed banishment and removal of Henry IV by the Pope, elected Wibert von Ravenna as (counter) Pope on June 25, 1080 in the event that the dismissal proceedings initiated against Gregory were successful . Since Gregory did not bow to the demands placed on him and condemned the synod of the 30 imperial bishops, the king moved to Italy in 1081 after his victory over the anti-king Rudolf von Rheinfelden, who was supported by the pope, and finally gained admission through negotiations with the Roman nobility after several protracted sieges to the city of Rome . Twelve cardinals, including a cardinal bishop, had promised their support to the imperial candidate. An electoral assembly called by Heinrich with the participation of the city nobility and the cardinals loyal to the king decided to depose Gregory and carried out an election of the Pope, the exact modalities of which have not been passed down. However, the three most important Cardinal Bishops of Ostia , Albano and Porto remained partisans of Gregory and did not take part in the election and the subsequent installation ceremonies. Wibert was on March 24, 1084 in the Lateran Church in Rome as Clemens III. enthroned and in turn crowned Henry IV on March 31, 1084 Emperor.

In May 1084 the Norman Prince Robert Guiskard and his army came to the aid of the beleaguered Pope Gregory VII, who had holed up in the Castel Sant'Angelo . Clement III. fled to Tivoli . However, the Normans plundered and pillaged Rome, which led to the fact that Pope Gregory VII, who had been freed by them, had to leave the city together with his liberators and the Romans no longer recognized his claims. So it was Clement III. possible to return to Rome in the same year. Gregor died the following year, largely isolated in Salerno .

A lasting ecclesiastical innovation of Clement was the equality of the lower cardinal ranks ( cardinal priests and cardinal deacons ), among whom he had many supporters, with the cardinal bishops, which was maintained by the Gregorian popes after the recovery of Rome.

Conflict with Urban II.

Dominant position

In the beginning, Clemens often stayed at his previous bishopric in Ravenna. At the Synod of Mainz in April 1085, the German episcopate under Archbishop Wezilo recognized him as the rightful Pope. In the summer of 1087 he went to Rome and directed the defense during the battles against Mathildische troops, which the Gregorian Pope Viktor III. brought to the city for enthronement. However, in the first years after the death of Gregory VII, the Gregorian camp was weakened and divided and was unable to establish an equivalent pope who could endanger Clement's position. Even after the election of Urban II in Terracina in spring 1088 , Clemens initially saw his dominant position on the church-political stage hardly threatened. He succeeded in expanding his obedience beyond Henry's rule and asserting himself in large parts of Europe with the exception of France and the Iberian Peninsula. In Italy, Clemens controlled all northern Italian bishoprics with the exception of the Archdiocese of Genoa until at least 1095 and, from 1088, the Archdiocese of Milan (whose suffragans remained Wibertine). In Rome itself a guerrilla war developed at times. In 1089 Clemens stayed in the city where Urban had holed up on a Tiber island. At the end of June 1089, his followers achieved a short-term success over the Wibertiner. Urban was able to occupy the Lateran and make a triumphant entry, but was quickly driven out again. In 1091 the Romans, loyal to the emperor, succeeded in taking away the Castel Sant'Angelo from the followers of Urban, which remained in the hands of the Wibertines for the next seven years.

Synod in Rome

Pope Clemens III accompanied Henry's quite successful Italian campaign in 1091. the Kaiser in parts, was present at various military actions and, in agreement with the Kaiser, also settled various ecclesiastical disputes in Germany. Probably only around the turn of the year 1091/92 and not already in 1089, as earlier research assumed, Clemens held a large synod in Rome in St. Peter's Church , which marked the climax of his pontificate. In doing so, he revoked the excommunication of Henry IV, contradicted various positions asserted by the Gregorians, but showed himself no less strict than the reformers in calling for the elimination of simony and observance of celibacy . However, the resolutions of the Synod, the results of which are handed down in a circular from the antipope (the so-called Decretum Wiberti ), reveal the conservatives' fundamentally different understanding of ministry and church. While the reform popes in their decrees disseminate orders and definitive decisions and do not tolerate any contradiction, Clemens' stipulations have the character of advice or guidelines that give the bishops great freedom in implementation. This also applies to the admonitions to celibacy, compliance with which Clemens does not justify with the enforcement of traditional rules of church law, as the reformers demanded, but as a measure to maintain order and public peace. Clemens also ultimately demanded that the faithful recognize and accept the sacraments, even from sinful priests, in stark contrast to the Gregorians. Their self-image was shaped by rigid demands on office holders and by the massive hereticization of their opponents, which is why they often encouraged reform-minded laypeople to resist and even to violently uprising against what they believed to be “sinful” or “disobedient” clergy and bishops.

Successes of the other side

Clemens' rival Urban II tried in the following time to gain validity through competing church legislative acts. The first signs of an upswing brought Urbans successful efforts to establish a diplomatic settlement with the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos in cooperation with the Normans . Wibert's good relations with the Greek clergy in southern Italy could not counterbalance this adequately. But it wasn't until the middle of the 1090s that Urban II's position stabilized as a result of his travel activities and high-profile missions and appearances at various synods in southern France that Clement III got. stronger under pressure. In 1092 he left Rome, which he still ruled unrestrictedly at that time, and stayed at the imperial court. Urban was able to reside in Rome since November 1093 under the protection of the Frangipani family , but controlled only a small district around Santa Maria Nuova . With the help of donations from France, he succeeded shortly afterwards in buying the Lateran Palace from the Wibertine commandant. The overwhelming response to Urban’s call for a crusade , which is also called a “declaration of war” against Clemens III. can be counted, contributed to Clemens' loss of importance after the Synod of Clermont . In northern Italy in particular, he lost support.

Last years

During the crusade, the Wibertines also came under increasing pressure in Rome and were largely driven out by the Normans. Clement III. himself did not return to Rome after 1092 and resided in Civita Castellana about 55 km north of the holy city since 1096. In 1098 he used the absence of urban in Italy to try to regain his position of power. After the militarily important victory over the Count of Imola , he was able to control the land route from France to Rome at times. Here he had a synod held, which he did not attend personally. It met alternately in different houses of Wibertine supporters, which is to be interpreted as an indication of the uncertain position of the anti-pope supporters at the time. The city was probably only to a lesser extent in Wibertine hands, although Urban had also moved to southern Italy. There were also disputes within the Gregorian College of Cardinals. The change of sides of the cardinal deacon Hugo from Verdun, a supporter of Pope Urban, who was present at the synods of Piacenza and Clermont and who turned against Urban in 1098, aroused hopes in the Wibertine camp of a movement of apostasy among the Gregorians, which were not fulfilled. After all, in July 1099, when Urban II died in the house of his protector Pierleone († around 1124), Rome was again largely in the hands of the Wibertines, who ruled the Lateran, among other things, so that Urban II was buried under strong security precautions Peterskirche had to take place.

Situation in Germany

In Germany, Clement's recognition as Pope remained safe throughout the 1090s; the few attempts by the Gregorian party to gain a foothold in the imperial episcopate , for example through the consecration of Passau Bishop Udalrich in 1092, were unsuccessful. With the exception of Emehard von Würzburg and Otto von Strasbourg , who were reconciled with Urban II in 1096 after the proclamation of the crusade in France, the imperial bishops stood as imperial pope until the end of the pontificate. Synods of the Wibertine bishops in Germany during these years can be assumed, however, due to the poor tradition, there are only isolated references in the sources.

Death, adoration and ostracism

Clement III. reigned unchallenged in the areas still attached to him until his death in 1100, which was recorded as a significant event in numerous contemporary chronicles, regardless of obedience. Wibert's moral integrity was also recognized by his opponents. A cult of saints arose in Civita Castellana, testifying to Wibert's high reputation. The Italian episcopate of Wibertine obedience took serious steps in 1101/02 to achieve canonization by the Synod of Bishops. Various miracles have been handed down that are said to have occurred at Wibert's grave. The cult caused Pope Paschal II to conquer the city with considerable effort and to have Wibert's corpse removed from the grave and thrown into the Tiber in order to erase the memory of Pope Clement.

Afterlife

The successors, Theodoricus and Albertus , chosen by his followers, never achieved the influence and recognition that Wibert enjoyed during his pontificate, and they had to give up their papacy within a few years. Pope Paschalis thus succeeded in ending the schism quickly and enforcing its sole recognition.

Overall, Wibert von Ravenna is considered a successful antipope of the Middle Ages, who for his contemporaries was in no way different from a legitimate pope and embodied a conservative alternative to the ideas of the reform papacy. The express declaration of invalidity of all decrees of Clement III handed down by Ekkehard von Aura for the year 1106. by Paschal II proves that even after his death his leadership appeared to reform supporters as a threat to the legitimacy of their claim to the papacy.

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Harry Bresslau : Yearbooks of the German Empire under Konrad II. Volume I, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1879, pp. 431–436 (genealogical information after Karl-Heinz Schreiber , 2002).
  2. ↑ Georg Gresser : The synods and councils in the time of the reform papacy in Germany and Italy by Leo IX. to Calixt II. 1049-1123. Schöningh, Paderborn 2006, ISBN 978-3-506-74670-2 , p. 110.
  3. ↑ Georg Gresser: The synods and councils in the time of the reform papacy in Germany and Italy by Leo IX. to Calixt II. 1049-1123. Schöningh, Paderborn 2006, p. 122.
  4. ↑ Georg Gresser: The synods and councils in the time of the reform papacy in Germany and Italy by Leo IX. to Calixt II. 1049-1123. Schöningh, Paderborn 2006, p. 138 f.
  5. ↑ Georg Gresser: The synods and councils in the time of the reform papacy in Germany and Italy by Leo IX. to Calixt II. 1049-1123. Schöningh, Paderborn 2006, p. 167 f.
  6. ↑ Gerd Althoff : "Blessed are those who practice persecution". Popes and violence in the High Middle Ages. Darmstadt 2013, ISBN 978-3-534-24711-0 , p. 48.
  7. ↑ Georg Gresser: The synods and councils in the time of the reform papacy in Germany and Italy by Leo IX. to Calixt II. 1049-1123. Schöningh, Paderborn 2006, p. 185 f.
  8. ↑ Gerd Althoff: Heinrich IV. Darmstadt 2006, p. 194.
  9. ↑ a b Georg Gresser: The synods and councils in the time of the reform papacy in Germany and Italy by Leo IX. to Calixt II. 1049-1123. Schöningh, Paderborn 2006, pp. 276–283.
  10. ↑ Decretum Wiberti vel Clementi papae. In: Libelli de lite imperatorum et pontificum saeculis XI. et XII. conscripti . Part 1. Edited by Ernst Dümmler, Lothar von Heinemann, Friedrich Thaner a. a. Hanover 1891, pp. 621–626 ( Monumenta Germaniae Historica , digitized version )
  11. ↑ Gerd Althoff: "Blessed are those who practice persecution". Popes and violence in the High Middle Ages. Darmstadt 2013, pp. 171–173.
  12. ↑ Georg Gresser: The synods and councils in the time of the reform papacy in Germany and Italy by Leo IX. to Calixt II. 1049-1123. Schöningh, Paderborn 2006, p. 285.
  13. ↑ Christiane Laudage: The business with sin. Indulgence and indulgences in the Middle Ages. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2012, ISBN 978-3-451-31598-5 , p. 148 f.
  14. ↑ Georg Gresser: The synods and councils in the time of the reform papacy in Germany and Italy by Leo IX. to Calixt II. 1049-1123. Schöningh, Paderborn 2006, pp. 317–321.
  15. ↑ Waldemar Kampf (Ed.), Ferdinand Gregorovius : History of the city of Rome in the Middle Ages. Volume II. Beck, Munich 1978, p. 131.
  16. ↑ Reinhard Pohanka: The rulers and figures of the Middle Ages. Marix Verlag , Wiesbaden 2012, p.?
  17. ↑ Georg Gresser: The synods and councils in the time of the reform papacy in Germany and Italy by Leo IX. to Calixt II. 1049-1123. Schöningh, Paderborn 2006, p. 292.
predecessor Office successor
Heinrich Archbishop of Ravenna
1073–1100 		Otto Boccatorta
personal data
SURNAME Clement III.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wibert of Ravenna; Guibert of Ravenna
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Antipope
DATE OF BIRTH between 1020 and 1030
PLACE OF BIRTH Parma
DATE OF DEATH September 8, 1100
Place of death Civita Castellana