Page:Vactican as a World Power.djvu/135

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

NORMAN ALLIANCE 121

with the rising Norman power in the South. Out o these robbers and bandits he fashioned associates for the difficult times he now fore- saw. During July 1059, he met the Norman chieftains, Richard of Aversa and Robert Guiscard, at Melfi. To one he entrusted Capua and to the other Apulia, Calabria and even Sicily, though the last still had to be freed from the Saracens. Doubtless the legal basis for this action was only the right conferred by the "Donation of Constantine." In return Hildebrand got their oath to be his vassals not a whit less valuable a property than what he had given. The Norman princes swore that they would protect, if necessary with arms, the Ro- man Church, its possessions, the Pope and the freedom of Papal elec- tions against every attack. Thus the Papacy became independent of the second strong power in Italy, the House of Godfrey of Tuscany. In order to win him over, too, although he was hostile to the Normans, Hildebrand compelled the City of Ancona (against which the Duke was then waging war) to surrender by threatening to impose the ban. The new vassals began to live up to their oaths by storming the castles of the rebellious nobles roundabout Rome. Palestrina, Tuscalon, and other towns were once more brought under the dominion of the Ro- man See.

Nicholas II died unexpectedly in 1061. Since the camps in Rome and the Empire were so divided, open schism broke out. All oppo- nents of the new order of things the Roman nobility and the ene- mies of the Pataria in the Lombard dioceses requested the German court to name a German Pope. In Basel the Lombards called a synod which elected their candidate, the rich Cadalus, Bishop of Parma. He called himself Honorius IL Meanwhile, however, the cardinals in Rome had elected their own Pope, Hildebrand's choice. This was Anselm de Baggio, formerly a brave Milan priest and founder of the Pataria and then Bishop of Lucca, who became Pope Alexander IL The Imperial party felt strong enough to bar his way to the throne. Richard the Norman had to wage a bloody street battle before the elected Pontiff could enter the Lateran by night.

Germany meanwhile did not ignore the fact that Alexander had dealt with it in a friendly manner. In view of the weakness of the regency which Agnes administered in behalf of the boy Henry IV, this was enough to prevent determined German resistance. The Im-


122