Clement III (anti-dad)

Gibert was born in Parma around 1029 in a noble family akin to the Margraves of Canossa . He took the clergy in his youth, in 1057 he was appointed Empress- Regent Agnes de Poitiers, Imperial Chancellor of Italy . In this capacity, he supported the election in 1058 of the candidate of the “reform party” Nicholas II as opposed to the anti-pope Benedict X. When in the next 1059, Nicholas II at the Lateran Council established a new procedure for the election of popes, which excluded the participation of imperial power in this process, Gibert did not take any action to curb the papal “willfulness”. It was only after the death of Nicholas II in 1061 that Hubert supported the party of opponents of reform and won the election of the antipope Honorius II as opposed to the "reformist" pope Alexander II . The victory of the supporters of the legitimate pope Alexander II provoked an angry reaction from the imperial court, and, unable to achieve the triumph of the imperial candidate, Gibert was deprived of the post of chancellor of Italy in 1063 .

Despite the disgrace, Gibert continued contacts with the imperial court, and in 1072, Emperor Henry IV , son of Agnes, appointed Gibert as archbishop of Ravenna . Although the “reform party” objected in principle to secular appointments to the departments, in this case, Alexander II, on the advice of Hildebrand , compromised. In 1073, Gibert took the oath of allegiance to Pope Alexander II and was confirmed at the archbishopric chair of Ravenna.

On April 29, 1073, Cardinal Hildebrand , the true leader of the “reform party,” was elected successor to the deceased Alexander II and took the name of Gregory VII. At the Lenten Synod of 1074, at the insistence of Gregory VII, tough measures were taken against the simony and immorality of the clergy, and Gibert of Ravenna, among other participants in the council, signed the decisions of the council. The council demanded that the clergy strictly observe celibacy and remove bishops from their departments who continued to live with their wives or mistresses. Already in the next Lenten Synod of 1075, Gibert did not participate, thereby expressing his disagreement with the reforms of Gregory.

In January 1076, at the Worms Cathedral, the German and Lombard bishops and Henry IV declared Gregory VII deposed. Among the participants in this council was obviously Gibert, since he, among other rebellious bishops, was excommunicated by Pope Gregory VII at the return Lenten Synod in April 1076 . Then the pope anathematized and the emperor.

In response to this anathema, in April 1076 in Pavia, a council of Lombard bishops, under the chairmanship of Gibert, excommunicated Gregory VII from the Church. The decision of the cathedral and the insulting letter of Henry IV arrived at Gregory VII at the same time, and the pope in response again excommunicated the Church of Robert of Ravenna and his main ally, Theobald of Milan .

Fighting Gregory VII

Between 1076 and 1080, Gregory VII and Henry IV reconciled, and then again entered into conflict. On June 25, 1080, in Brixen, a council of German and Lombard bishops in the presence of the emperor declared Gregory VII deposed and elected Archbishop Gibert of Ravenna in his place. Gibert took the name of Clement III, and the emperor vowed to introduce a new pope to Rome . Over the next months, the outlines of a new schism took shape: Clement III was recognized only by supporters of Henry IV, and the rest of the Catholic world remained faithful to Gregory VII.

After the death of his opponent, the anti-king Rudolph of Swabia , Henry IV was able to proceed with the fulfillment of his intention to establish Clement III in Rome. In 1081, the emperor proceeded to the Eternal City, but, finding the Romans ready to fight for Gregory VII, retreated; the situation repeated in 1082 . The campaign of Henry IV provoked a feudal rebellion in Puglia , and the Capuan prince Jordan I (the princes of Capua traditionally played an important role in the political struggle around the papal throne) swore an oath to the emperor. At the call of Gregory VII to Italy, Robert Guiscard hurriedly returned from the Balkans , and, without waiting for the Norman army to come, the emperor again retreated from Rome. Clement III remained in Tivoli , continuing to threaten Rome.

The third campaign of Henry IV against Gregory VII was successful for the first. On June 2, 1083, the imperial army captured the Vatican with St. Peter's Basilica and established itself on the right bank of the Tiber , the main (left-bank) part of Rome remained faithful to Gregory VII, who had taken refuge in the well-fortified castle of Sant'Angelo . Clement III now controlled the Vatican. The attempt to assemble a cathedral for reconciliation of the opposing popes ended in vain: Gregory VII did not agree to the presence of bishops excommunicated by him, and the emperor, in turn, did not allow Grigory's obvious supporters to the cathedral.

The stalemate was resolved on March 21, 1084 , when Henry IV and Pope Clement III entered Rome, whose inhabitants decided to open the gate. On Palm Sunday , March 24, 1084, Clement III was solemnly intronized in the Lateran Cathedral , and a week later on Easter , March 31, 1084, Clement crowned Henry IV and his wife Bertus with the imperial crown. Gregory VII was still in Sant'Angelo, and his supporters held Capitol , Celius , Palatine and Tiber Island .

At the call of Gregory VII to Rome, Robert Guiscard approached. Upon learning of the approach of the latter, the emperor hastily retreated to northern Italy, and Clement III took refuge in Tivoli. On May 24, Robert Guiscard broke into Rome and freed Gregory VII. Since Rome cheated on the rightful pope, Robert gave the city to plunder his soldiers. The Romans retaliated in response, and the Normans, saving their lives, set fire to the city. After this catastrophic fire, Robert Guiscard and Gregory VII could no longer remain in Rome: after an unsuccessful attempt to take Tivoli, they retreated to the south. Gregory VII never returned to Rome and died a year later on May 25, 1085 in Salerno . Clement III after the departure of the Normans again occupied Rome. Thus, the confrontation between Clement III and Gregory VII ended in the victory of the antipope.

Confrontation with Victor III

Clement III controlled Rome for the whole of 1085 , but was then expelled by the townspeople. Supporters of the late Gregory VII , supported by Jordan I of Kapuan and Matilda of Tuscany , gathered at the cathedral for Easter in 1086 and elected the new pope Desiderius , the abbot of Monte Cassino , proclaimed Victor III. At the same time, the Duke of Apulia Roger I Borsa , whose candidate the “reform party” refused to elevate to the pulpit in Salerno , freed the imperial prefect of Rome, detained since 1084 . The prefect's return to Rome provoked unrest, the intronization of Victor III was disrupted, and the pope himself fled to Monte Cassino. Clement III returned to the empty throne.

Over the next year, the "Reform Party" managed to pull Roger Borsa to his side, appointing his candidate Archbishop of Salerno. The combined army of Puglia and Capua captured Rome, while Clement III and his supporters took refuge in the well-fortified Pantheon . On May 9, 1087, Victor III was erected on the papal throne in St. Peter's Basilica , but two weeks later he again departed for Monte Cassino. Clement III regained power in the Eternal City.

In June-July 1087, his loyal ally Matilda Tuscan tried to return the throne to Pope Victor III, but her army was blocked by Clement III on Tiber Island . In July, Victor III last fled from Rome and soon died in Monte Cassino on September 16, 1087. Thus, in the continuation of his short pontificate (1086-1087), Victor III was present in Rome for several months, and Clement III confidently controlled the city.

Subsequent years

The next pope from the “Reform Party” Urban II was elected only in March 1088 . Since Clement III still ruled Rome, the election and intronization of Urban II took place in Terracina . In November 1088, the combined army of Puglia and Capua entered Rome, but soon Urban II was blocked by supporters of Clement III on Tiber Island . In the fall of 1089, Urban II, like his two predecessors, fled from Rome, leaving Clement III as the owner of the city. In 1089, Clement III convened a council of his supporters in Rome, at which he removed all the anathemas from Emperor Henry IV .

Over the following years, Urban II, traveling across southern Italy and France, gained more and more authority, and Emperor Henry IV, the patron saint of Clement III, weakened in the fight against his opponents. On Easter 1094, Urban II managed to occupy Rome and settle in the Lateran Palace , and in the hands of Clement III and his supporters remained only the castle of Sant'Angelo . The latter was taken by supporters of Urban II only in 1098 , and from that time Clement III retired to Ravenna , without giving up his claims.

After the death of Urban II and the election of Paschal II, Clement III, hoping to regain control of the pulpit, moved to Rome. On the way, in Civita Castellana he fell ill and died on September 8, 1100 . His supporters elected the new antipope Theodorich .

During his pontificate, Clement III opposed, sometimes quite successfully, to four popes from the “reform party”: Gregory VII , Victor III , Urban II and Paschal II. In 1084-1094, with short interruptions, it was Clement III who controlled Rome, and his opponents managed to enter the city only for a short time using military force. Nevertheless, Clement III, in the eyes of the majority of the Catholic world, remained an antipope, a puppet in the hands of Emperor Henry IV . Moreover, confronting the “reform party”, Clement III was inevitably perceived as an adversary of the reforms themselves, a defender of simony and immorality among the clergy.

Antipope Clement was the addressee of the famous canonical epistle of the Kiev Metropolitan John II . During this period, Russia was in contact with Henry IV (the daughter of Vsevolod Yaroslavich Evpraksia married him).

• Norwich J. Normans in Sicily. Second Norman Conquest. 1016-1130 / Transl. from English L. A. Igorevsky. - M .: Centerpolygraph , 2005 .-- 367 p. - 5,000 copies. - ISBN 5-9524-1751-5 .
• Clement, popes and anti-pops // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.

• Clement III (Eng.) . Encyclopædia Britannica . Date of treatment February 23, 2012. Archived May 25, 2012.
• Clement III (Eng.) . Catholic Encyclopedia . Date of treatment February 23, 2012. Archived May 25, 2012.