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During this period from the early eleventh century onward, Western Europeans came more and more to think of themselves as a united Christian commonwealth. "Christendom," as they saw it, was virtually identical with greater Europe. The Church was the common bond that held all Europe together, and the triumphant papacy symbolized that unity. Institutions like marriage, vassalage, and even the state, were subject to the control of the Church. Every social activity, every occupation, every type of celebration had its patron saint.
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The eleventh century demonstrated strong indications on the part of the European population in support of a more intense and personal religious experience. Laymen were motivated to make large gifts to the Church and many sought refuge from their anxieties by taking up careers in the secular church as clergy or in the monasteries. It was the support of large numbers of pious common folk that had enabled the Cluny reforms and other reforms to make headway in the face of the vested resistance of corrupt traditions.
Another indicator of increased religious activity was the increase in pilgrimages as acts of penance and sources of spiritual edification. Pilgrimages flourished perhaps more in the eleventh century than they had since the fourth century. Many journeyed to the to ends of the earth," as it were: The shrine of St. James of Compostella (Santiago de Compostella) in extreme northwestern Spain was a good example. The shrines of Palestine are another. People of all ages from Western Europe were going and coming in fairly large numbers every year to the shrines in Palestine. For example in 1064-65 the Bishop of Bangsburg, Gunthar, led some 7000 pilgrims through the Balkans, Asia Minor and Syria down to Jerusalem and back.
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Redemptions continued to be utilized in the eleventh century with the implicit message that payments of property, time or money were a kind of penance, that is, "good works." By 1048 securing a redemption through a money payment had become standard practice, where the money payment was to contract another person or persons to do the praying and ministering in behalf of the donor. The large numbers of endowed chantries where whole colleges of canons did nothing but pray for the soul of the departed investor is another evidence of this belief still quite visible centuries later. However, it is unclear to what degree Redemptions continued to be in popular demand after the appearance and acceptance of indulgences.
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While redemptions continued to be sought, a new device called the indulgence made its appearance and flourished side by side with the redemptions. Indulgences are first attested in the eleventh century when bishops in northern Spain and southern France conveyed them to people who made modest contributions to build churches, monasteries and hospitals. Such indulgences are properly called "alms indulgences". While redemptions were the substitution of one person's good works for another person's satisfaction, the indulgence began as a means of substituting the typical penance involving days or years of obligation to ritualistic exercises for actions much less time consuming. Unlike the redemptions which were always negotiated after penance had been imposed, the indulgence was understood to reduce the amount of penance necessary by in some degree reducing the necessary satisfactio operis (works of satisfaction, i.e. punishment). Compared to the theological distinctions later scholars will devise the eleventh century layman's understanding was in no way sophisticated. The alms indulgence simply certified that the possessor would get credit for an already completed amount of satisfactio operis the next time he went to confession. The so-called plenary indulgence seems also to have begun in the eleventh century in connection with the Crusading movement.
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The development of piety and spirituality among laymen in the eleventh century had some rather surprising effects on the religious institutions of the day. Many laymen came to feel that the clergy should be expected to live exemplary lives--at least better from the standpoint of morality--than laymen. The intense piety and religious devotion of many laymen greatly exceeded the dedication of the average monk or canon. The Pataria movement around Milan in northern Italy is only one of the many expressions of such idealism. They called for monks and clergy to live in simplicity and poverty rather than in pomp and riches. They charged monasteries and churches with "venality" or the amassing of great wealth. These general dissatisfactions with the existing institutions helped inspire the reforms in the late eleventh and twelfth centuries.
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The last of the Saxon Emperors was Otto III's twenty-two year old cousin, Henry II (1002-1024). Henry II slowed but did not stop the trend toward turning the invested clergy of Germany and Italy into local secular rulers. He nevertheless relied more than ever on the royal investiture as a means of staffing his administrative requirements across Germany and Italy. Henry II ended the independence of the great bishops and restored royal power over them, re-establishing advocacy. He claimed many recently established proprietary foundations but allowed the former proprietors to act as advocates in many cases. All proprietary monasteries were required by Henry to submit to the supervision of the local bishop. Generally while Henry II restored the strength of the Empire in Germany he neglected affairs in Italy, allowing local politics to override any considerations the Church might advise.
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Meanwhile, at Rome the warlord, John Cresentius III, dominated the reigns of John XVII (1003), John XVIII (1003-1009) and Sergius IV (1009-1012) who was, incidentally, the last western Pope to be recorded on the liturgical diptychs at St. Sophia in Constantinople. When Cresentius died the power passed to the descendent of Marozia, Alberic the Count of Tusculum. He forwarded his brother, Theophylact, who took the papal name, Benedict VIII. The Cresentii family put forward their nominee, Gregory VI. Both claimants appealed to Henry II who choose Benedict VIII (1012-1024) who then crowned Henry II.
It is worth noting that Benedict VIII's coronation of Henry II was done in a new way with the Pope handing the Emperor the orb symbolizing his rule of the entire civilized world. This was an affront to the Emperor of Constantinople, Basil II. For this reason Benedict VIII's name was not written on the official liturgical diptychs in Constantinople. In the view of the Byzantine Emperor and churchmen, the papacy had departed from hallowed practice of Christian Tradition and illegally usurped for the Barbarian Emperor of the West a coronation ritual that had pertained to the Roman Emperor at Constantinople since the fifth century. The absence of the papal name from the diptychs indicated a breech of fellowship between the two parts of the church. An argument could be made that the year 1012 was the inaugural year for the schism between eastern and western parts of the church. Already, the papacy was looking at this situation as a further evidence of the Byzantine Church's alleged departure from ancient traditions that needed correction.
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In 1024 the dukes of the German region assembled and elected Conrad II (1024-1039), Duke of Franconia and first of the Salian Dynasty. Conrad II introduced and encouraged vassalage customs as a way of limiting and weakening the position of the regional dukes and the great churchmen. This, in conjunction with other practices, greatly strengthened his monarchy at the expense of the German regional dukes. He continued the protection of the Churches and monasteries in Germany, but neglected the region south of the Alps. Conrad II attempted to lighten the administrative load of the great churchmen but retained them as advisors. Churchmen continued to be vital links in the administration of the kingdom. Unfortunately, Conrad II began to charge fees from each nominee who was successfully elected bishop or abbot. He liberated several wealthy monasteries from local bishoprics and made them royal monasteries. He even experimented with a Cluny-type centralized administration over several royal monasteries.
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Alberic the Count of Tusculum managed to forward still another of his brothers who served as Pope John XIX (1024-1032). In 1027 John XIX crowned Conrad II. At John XIX's death, Alberic forwarded his own eighteen-year-old son, Theophylact, as Benedict IX (1032-1044).
In 1024 Emperor Basil II's envoys from Constantinople negotiated with Pope John XIX offering to recognize the actual status quo between the two Empires by declaring them independent of each other and equal. This would have solved all the overlapping claims of authority and title. Basil's envoys were sent home empty handed.
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The Salian Emperor, Henry III (1039-1056), the Black, inherited a very powerful throne from his father Conrad. Because of the vassalage practices introduced by his father Henry was already personally installed as duke in all but two regions of Germany before he became emperor. Henry III was one of the strongest of the Germanic Emperors and exercised royal investiture to his advantage constantly. Without the royally invested bishops and abbots in their places the authority of the Emperor would have been much less directly felt across the Empire. Henry III and his French wife, Agnes, fostered reforms across Germany of the sort preached by Cluny. He discontinued charging fees for royal investiture but his agents continued to charge processing fees. He intervened whenever he understood that canon law was being broken even to the point of deposing bishops who disregarded it. He discontinued the centralized administration for royal monasteries, but maintained royal advocacy over them. Many of the new monastic foundations of this period secured charters as papal monasteries with the founding lay proprietor and his heirs acting as papal advocates.
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The Papacy had again found itself the victim of local Italian politics when Emperor Henry II, 1002-1024, absented himself from the Italian scene. It was not until Emperor Henry III, 1044-1061, once again concerned himself with Italy that things began to look up. Henry III was concerned about the lax discipline among churchmen at all levels, especially their failure to adhere to canonical procedures. He felt compelled to intervene when the church's rules were ignored. In 1044 he nominated Widger as Bishop of Ravenna. Widger assumed his duties before being formally elected and invested--very much contrary to canon law. Henry promptly deposed Widger, and there was a surprising storm of protest from other bishops, especially those in Lotharingia who were adamant that deposing bishops was never, ever among the emperor's powers. In point of fact, however, imperial authority had dismissed two popes during the last century.
Henry's newly usurped authority over bishops was exercised soon in 1046 when called together a meeting of churchmen at Sutri in Italy and deposed three bishops, each of which had a rightful claim to be the Pope at that instant. Benedict IX, member and nominee of the dominant Roman political faction headed by the family of the counts of Tusculum, had been pope from 1032 until 1044 when he was driven out of office and from Rome by Sylvester III, leader of a rival political faction. Benedict IX regained his office after about seven weeks, but he seems to have realized that even winning over Sylvester could not secure his position. Benedict IX made a deal with the ruling faction to abdicate if the faction would pension him with a very considerable sum (1000 pounds of silver). Even though he had officially abdicated Henry III officially deposed him as an afterthought at a subsequent session of the synod.
Sylvester III became pope by political force and usurpation in 1045, but he seems to have wearied of the struggle when Benedict IX abdicated. Sylvester abandoned his claims and may also have abdicated making way for still another election, but Emperor Henry nevertheless imprisoned him in a monastery in 1046.
With Sylvester III walking away and Benedict IX happily counting his pension, Gregory VI was promptly elected and served 1045-1046. Emperor Henry deposed and exiled Gregory VI from Italy on the charge of simony. Even though others had paid the money (pension) to Benedict, Henry considered it purchasing the office. Gregory VI finally came to Cologne. The deacon Hildebrand from Rome accompanied him as he fled, but had taken refuge at Cluny.
For centuries officials bearing the title patricius romanorum, protector of the Romans had protected and controlled the papacy. Emperor Otto I had claimed it, but then allowed his Italian henchmen, the counts of Tuscany, to carry it. Now Henry III reclaimed the title and took his job seriously. First he nominated Suitgar, Count of Morsleben and former Cluny monk and now Bishop of Bamberg, who was elected as Pope Clement II (1046-1047). Clement II presided over Henry III's imperial coronation. Next he nominated Count Poppo, the bishop of Bressanone, who ruled as Pope Damasus II 23 days in 1048 before his death. The erstwhile Benedict IX emerged from his pensioned retirement to once again claim the office and actively oppose him! Finally, Emperor Henry III nominated his kinsman, Bruno, Count and Bishop of Toul, who served in exemplary fashion for five years as Pope Leo IX.
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Leo IX's pontificate (1049-1054) was a major turning point in the history of the papacy. In the previous 102 years there had been 25 popes; only 12 of them were imperial appointments, the rest being candidates of the Roman political factions. Moreover, Rome had been isolated from the monastic and ecclesiastical reforms that were sweeping northern Europe in that century.
Leo IX launched a concerted effort to put the papacy on the side of church reform both in northern Europe and in Italy. He was determined to uphold ecclesiastical law in every detail and to restore the papacy to a respected leadership position in the moral reform of European life.
Leo IX called some of Europe's most capable leaders to come and serve with him in Rome. These included Hugh the White from the monastery of Remiremont near Toul. Humbert a monk from the monastery of Moyenmoutier in Lorraine became Cardinal bishop of Silva Candida, a suburb of Rome. Frederick of Lorraine, brother of Godfrey the Bearded, Duke of Lotharingia, was recruited from the cathedral chapter at Liege and became Leo IX's Archdeacon and chancellor. Last but by no means least Hildebrand the Italian attendant of deposed Pope Gregory VI, was collected from the Cluny monastery to became rector of the Black monastery of Saint Paul outside the walls and given charge over papal estates and finances.
Leo IX is sometimes incorrectly credited with originating the so-called College of Cardinals. Indeed, this collegium had existed informally already for a very long time.
To begin with it may have consisted of the entire body of priests serving the Bishop of Rome. From about the fifth century this body began to have a special status as it was distinguished from the body of ordinary priests. In that early period it consisted of only the archpriest from each of the 25 titular churches in Rome. At that time this body was responsible for all services in the five Roman cemetery churches; namely, Saint Peter's, Saint Paul's, Saint Lorenzo's, Saint Marie Maggoire, and Saint John's Lateran. The term "cardinal" which began to be used in the sixth century derives from the term for pivot or hinge, "card", meaning that a member of the clergy belonging to one church was extended as by hinges to serve in another. In the eighth century (769) the practice was altered. At that time Saint John's Lateran, the cathedral church of the papacy, secured the services in rotation of episcopi cardinales bebdomadarii, seven cardinal bishops, whose principle individual appointments were the Churches at the surrounding towns of Ostia, Porto, Albano, Silva Candida, Sabina, Tusculum, and Praeneste. Also from the eighth century the other four cemetery churches in Rome continued each to be served by a college of seven priests drawn from the clergy of the titular churches.
Leo IX was the kind of man who could and would delegate authority. He used the Cardinal clergy extensively as legates to represent him and as escorts on his numerous personal visits to many parts of Europe.
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Southern Italy in the eleventh century consisted of two Byzantine provinces, Apulia and Calabria, and three great merchant cities that were autonomous but greatly influenced by Byzantium: Gaeta, Naples and Amalfi. These autonomous cities were populated by Greek speaking people and displayed Byzantine culture just as the cities like Bari and Tarentum in Apulia. However, a large part of the peasantry in northern Byzantine Apulia were Latin speaking Lombards. At the southern frontier of the Germanic Emperor's territory there were two Lombard principalities, Salerno and Capua-Benevento, the latter including an area bordering on Byzantine Apulia that was also called Apulia.
Religious shrines of south Italy attracted pilgrims. Among the pilgrims were warriors from Normandy. In 1015 the Norman pilgrims were invited to assist the Lombard peasants living in Byzantine Apulia to revolt. As word spread back to Normandy, warriors began coming in greater numbers with visions of carving out a future for themselves in this new land. Among the immigrants were the eight sons of Tancred di Hauteville lead by Robert Guiscard. Robert Guiscard soon emerged as the dominant Norman warlord in the non-Byzantine territory of Apulia. Another Hauteville brother set himself up as warlord of Aversa near Naples. Emperor Henry II approved these arrangements, but they were not stable.
Two lethargic Lombard princes, Pandulf III and Landulf VI, were governing Capua-Benevento. The merchants and aristocrats made common cause against the princes and exiled them in 1050, calling on Pope Leo IX to take charge of establishing a new government. Emperor Henry III approved of Leo's annexation of the principality to the papal states in 1052. As governor of Capua-Benevento Leo discovered that he had a common problem with the Byzantine province of Apulia; namely, Robert Guiscard and the Normans!
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Leo IX's priorities included getting the churches and monasteries of his new province to recognize the authority of the papacy. The problem was that since the early eight century this part of Italy had been subject to the Bishop of Constantinople rather than the Bishop of Rome. Argyrus, governor of Byzantine Apulia, came to the Pope seeking an agreement to combine forces and eliminate Robert Guiscard. Leo IX agreed to assist provided the churches and monasteries in the liberated area of eastern Capua-Benevento and in Byzantine Apulia would be realigned with the Bishop of Rome. The clergy in Byzantine Apulia were adamantly and openly opposed to this, but Argyrus nevertheless agreed. The war against the Normans went badly; Leo IX's troops were defeated and the Pope taken prisoner at Civitate, 1053.
The leading clergy in Bzyantine Apulia were determined to do whatever was necessary to prevent their churches being forced to conform to western practices. These included the use of Latin instead of Greek in their worship, the use of unleavened bread in the Eucharist, and the recitation of the Nicene Creed in its corrupted Western form. There were numerous other minor matters of difference. They asked for help from the Patriarch of Constantinople, Bishop Michael Cerularius 1043-1058.
The Emperor at Constantinople, Constantine IX Monomachus, was a member of the anti-military aristocracy of Constantinople. Contemporary sources are unanimous in describing Constantine IX's incompetence. They generously ascribe to him all the blame for the rapidly tarnishing glory of Byzantium. His creativity in wasteful and ostentatious display was equaled only by his foolish and unredeemable policies. His financial solutions included selling exemptions from military service to his most capable military forces and debasing the coinage. In 1043 Constantine IX nominated Michael Cerularius to become the Patriarch of Constantinople. Cerularius would have been a excellent choice if made by one of the stronger Emperors like Basil II. However, Cerularius had become a monk for the purely mundane reason that he had been implicated in a plot to overthrow the Emperor's predecessor, Michael IV, the Paphlagonian. Michael Cerularius was an ambitious, well-educated man with penetrating insight and decisive administrative competence. He soon discovered that he was more than a match for the listless and preoccupied Constantine IX Monomachus.
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Although Michael Cerularius' motives can only be guessed at many see him taking steps to elevate the status of the Patriarch's office in Constantinople. For whatever reasons, late in 1052 he had suddenly ordered all the Latin Churches in the Patriarchate of Constantinople to conform to the practices of the Greek speaking Church. It is true that previous patriarchs had allowed the Latin churches in Constantinople and south Italy to use the Latin liturgy, but they had maintained their jurisdiction over them. Cerularius was, however, both unyielding on this point and decisive. He had only recently denied a request from the Armenian Church to utilize its own native liturgy. So when the Latin speaking churches in Constantinople refused to conform to the Greek liturgy he promptly closed them. He next instructed the Archbishop of Ochrida (in Serbia) in whose province the south Italian churches were located to write a reasoned letter to the churches in Byzantine Italy explaining why the Latin speaking churches there must conform. Archbishop Leo instructed the Italian Orthodox Churchmen to send copies of the letter to the Pope and all the French clergy. The translation of Leo's letter criticizing the Latin liturgy, especially the use of unleavened bread, azymes, in the mass, which reached Pope Leo IX at Civitate where he was in jail was more bombastic than accurate.
By this time Emperor Constantine IX realized the enormity of the diplomatic blunder that Michael Cerularius had made at a time when cooperation between the Byzantines and the papacy against the Normans was crucial. Both the Emperor and Cerularius feared the diplomatic repercussions of the grossly misleading translation. Both sent follow up messages in a very conciliatory tone, but Leo seems to have misunderstood them all. Leo IX, still in jail with declining health, deputized Cardinal Humbert of Silva Candida to respond to Constantinople and to head a delegation of Roman clergy including also Frederick of Lorraine. Humbert had solid training in logic and ecclesiastical law. He was a brilliant but arrogant and impatient scholar deeply committed to the reform ideas of his native Lorraine. His official letter in reply to letters of Michael Cerularius and the Emperor did not respond to their positive overtures, rather it furiously reacted to Leo IX and Humbert's understanding of the assertions of Leo of Ochrida. Among other things Humbert reasserted the primacy of the Papacy, alleged that Michael Cerularius' ordination was invalid, and bitterly reprimanded the patriarch for interfering in matters beyond his patriarchate and for having the audacity to challenge Roman practices as improper.
The western delegation met with the Patriarch and the Emperor and delivered the letter. Michael Cerularius took one look at Humbert, who was the spokesman, and seems to have sensed that he would be personally unable to maintain amicable discussions with him. He withdrew from subsequent discussions leaving poor Emperor Constantine IX to suffer Humbert's arrogant, impertinent and obstreperous demeanor. Humbert flatly asserted the authority of the Pope over the Patriarch and went on to itemize and demand the correction of several errors of the eastern parts of the church which, he asserted, had been too long neglected already. Cardinal Bishop Humbert engaged in some gratuitous and slanderous name-calling, tempers flared on both sides and communication broke down. In a fit of "righteous indignation" Humbert deposited a bull of excommunication on the altar in the Church of Hagia Sophia on July 16, 1054. Among the charges leveled against Michael Cerularius, Leo of Ochrida and other clergy supporting the patriarch was the erasing of the filioque clause from the Nicene Creed and the use of leavened bread.
Pope Leo IX had already died on April 19, 1054, and his death might have been understood as automatically canceling Humbert's legatine authority before he had excommunicated Cerularius. But the word of Leo's death did not reach Constantinople until some weeks later, after the seeds of bitterness and distrust had already taken root in the hearts of many.
Humbert had the audacity to appeal to Emperor and the eastern churchmen in general to proceed with correcting the cited errors. The response of the masses of Constantinople was to take steps to lynch Humbert and Frederick. They might have succeeded if Emperor Constantine IX had not taken them into protective custody while he attempted to bring reconciliation. Cerularius, however, feared that the Emperor was going too far. On his part he called a local synod and excommunicated Humbert and Frederick and the Pope who had commissioned them.
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As a result of the mutual excommunications of 1054 the Eastern and Western Churches continued to deny liturgical recognition and acceptance to each other, a policy which had in fact been initiated at Constantinople in 1012. To put this in the most objective light both sides were at fault by being unable to recognize the pretentiousness of their respective assertions. So who split off from whom?
The Greek church felt totally justified in the conclusion that the Latin church had become schismatic due to lapses in the integrity of their tradition and certain innovations contrary to orthodox catholic tradition. The Latin church's adamant refusal to accept correction based on the impressive and comparatively enormous documentation supporting the Greek church's position made the Latin church appear illogical, mean spirited and delusional. Moreover, the Byzantine doubts about the western church seemed to be clearly confirmed in their subsequent strange and provocative behavior. After the "Christian" armies from the Latin west participating in the Fourth Crusade sacked the city of Constantinople in 1204 and hauled off with bloodstained hands virtually everything of value--including priceless treasures from the churches--nothing would convince the Byzantines.
The Papacy representing the Latin church marshaled all the evidence it could turn up--not really very much given the condition of archives in the west--to demonstrate anachronistically the alleged historicity of their position. They contended that the Papal office had been originally established as the supreme earthly head over all Christians and that every part of the orthodox Catholic Church had recognized this. Based on that contention, the eastern refusal to accept now what they had allegedly accepted at the beginning made the Greek Christians the deluded and misguided schismatics who had drifted from the true church.
On December 7, 1965, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras jointly lifted the excommunications of 1054.
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Churches and the clergy in the eleventh century were under the control of the Emperor and the kings of Europe, and the Papacy itself was now subject to the Emperor. However, the revived Papacy in the later eleventh century appears to have been committed to an agenda that would eventually transform this situation in a revolutionary way.
When Emperor Henry III (the Black) died in 1056 imperial power was at its height. The leading churchmen of Germany were for all intents and purposes imperial officials, and a good part of the imperial income derived from the large landholdings of imperial monasteries. Henry III had also kept watch on the papacy. When Leo IX died Henry had nominated his chancellor, Bishop Gephard of Eichstät, who was elected as Pope Victor II, 1055-1057. The churchmen of Rome selected Victor's successor, Stephen IX (1057-1058). Stephen was Frederick of Lotharingia who had come to Rome with Leo IX and subsequently become abbot of the monastery at Monte Cassino. Stephen IX's brother, Godfrey the Bearded, one time Duke of Lotharingia, had in 1054 married Beatrice, the Marchioness of Tuscany, and became a strong advocate of the reformed papacy and a powerful force in Italian politics. Hildebrand, legate to the court of Henry III's widow, Agnes, asked and secured from her the approval of Stephen's election after the fact. Like Victor, Stephen continued the work of reform. Stephen enlisted the outstanding theologian, Peter Damiani, a hermit monk from Fonte Avellana and made him Cardinal Bishop of Ostia, lead bishop of the College of Cardinals.
Bishop Gerhardt of Florence was elected as pope Nicholas II, 1059-1061, under the imperial auspices. Nevertheless, the Roman mobs under the leadership of Benedict IX's brother, Gregory, seized control by mob violence in the meantime and elected Benedict X. Benedict X was allowed to serve for a few months in 1058-1059 before being deposed to clear the way for Nicholas II. His reign was a turning point for papal history--a kind of declaration of independence for the papacy.
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The Lateran Synod of 1059 decreed that all bishops are to be elected by canonical election procedures. This included the election of the papacy, which according to the existing canons, was to be elected by the College of Cardinals with the Cardinal bishops having the preponderant voice. There also emerged a canon formally condemning lay involvement in the investing of church officials--a practice hereafter called "lay investiture". Investiture usually involved handing the symbols of office to the recipient. The problem was many churchmen performed not only church duties but also state or secular governmental duties.
The publication in 1059 of Cardinal Humbert's treatise, Three Books Against Simoniacs, was also significant. This work carried the definition of Simony to new applications. It was clearly revolutionary. Simony is now more than just the action of profiting from the sale of spiritual power; it is any usurpation of spiritual authority by a layman. It no longer applied just to clergy, now the offending layman was also guilty of simony. It had long been understood that the bishop who buys his bishopric is not a true bishop. Now, even if no money consideration is involved, the bishop of receives his bishopric from a laymen is not a true bishop and his acts are invalid.
The Synod of Melfi (1059) condemned the marriage of the clergy. Melfi was in southern central Italy and it is likely the eastern church's practice of allowing ordinary priests to remain married if they were subsequently ordained that made this action in that location significant. Also solemnized at Melfi were the new alliances between the papacy and the Franco-Norman warlords, Richard of Aversa, Robert Guiscard, and Roger D'hauteville of South Italy. The papal blessing was conferred on their future war to conquer areas then indifferent to Roman Christianity. It was apparently the understanding that these Norman warlords would conquer the Byzantine parts of southern Italy and Muslim Sicily, and that these would become duchies ruled by the conquerors and their successors. It was also understood that all Christian institutions in these conquered areas would recognize the authority of the papacy.
Archdeacon Hildebrand secured the efforts of Humbert in a pioneering canon law collection designed to support the reform agenda and papal monarchy, 1060-1061. When Nicholas II died, the Archdeacon Hildebrand arranged for an election without benefit of imperial involvement to say nothing of approval. The Cardinal Bishops elected Bishop Anselm of Lucca as Alexander II (1061-1073), but Empress-regent Agnes and her son nominated Bishop Cadalous of Parma who took the name, Honorius II, and claimed the papal office from afar (Germany) from 1061-1071. Pope Alexander II gave his blessing in 1066 to the Norman attack on England, making it a kind of crusade. Pope Alexander attempted in about 1072 to secure Byzantine arms against the Lombard conquests of Papal territory, now out of control.
In the year 1071 the Byzantine Emperor Romanus IV Diogenes was killed in the Seljuk annihilation of the Byzantine army at Manzikert, near lake Van in eastern Turkey. The Seljuk leader, Alp Arslan, subsequently led his forces westward to a point 70 miles from Constantinople. Arslan established his government called the Sultanate of Rum (i.e., Rome) at Iconium (Konya) in c. 1073. About the same time, Seljuks and other Turkic tribes moved in to capitalize on the political vacuum in north Syria as far south as Damascus (by 1076). Also in the year 1071 the city of Bari on the east coast of Byzantine Italy fell to the Norman dukes, Robert Guiscard and Richard of Aversa. Shortly thereafter Guiscard's oldest son Bohemond was put in charge at Bari as Prince of Apulia. In 1072 Guiscard and his younger brother, Roger, began attacks on Sicily and took Palermo. The island was not entirely in his hands till 1091. Meanwhile the forces of Richard of Aversa attacked papal territory at Benevento and other former Lombard areas.
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Most recently edited 10 October 2001