Death of Victor III

joyfully sped to join the brethren among whom he had now come to die. He had just strength to regain the friendly shelter of his beloved monastery when his aged frame succumbed to an attack of dysentery. Never was pilgrim more willing to arrive at the end of his journey than was Victor to quit this scene of strife in which his weary spirit could find no peace or rest. He died as he wished, among his brethren and solaced in his last hours by their prayers and loving ministrations. A calm of ineffable sweetness stole over him as the familiar voices of the monks chanting the psalms of the day were wafted through the cloisters to the cell in which he lay awaiting the angel of death. As the sounds came floating in sweet cadence to his listening ears, his lips parted in a smile and his childlike spirit passed from the reach of earthly music to the full harmony of the celestial choir.

"Distinguished for the sanctity of his life and the glory of his virtues," Victor's death ended a short but brilliant pontificate of fifteen months, of which he had worn the tiara scarcely four. "Monte Cassino," somewhat severely comments a critic, "lost in him a pious Abbot, the Church did not lose a Pope, it was the hour to find one."

Following the example of his predecessor, Victor did not, even when elevated to the Papal Chair, abandon the daily devotion of some hours to literary work. He left behind him, as proofs of his industry, several books of dialogues upon the miracles of St Benedict, and histories of other celebrated inmates of the monastery.

By no one was the late Pontiff more truly mourned than by the Countess of Tuscany. His gentleness and timidity appealed to the chivalrous spirit of this descendant of a line of warriors whose inherent piety recognised and acknowledged the saintliness for which he was celebrated. On hearing that he had passed to his eternal reward, Matilda sent courier after courier to warn the Cardinals of the danger of delay in their choice of a successor. She feared lest the

anti-pope would profit by the death of the Pontiff, and by some public act of authority give rise to serious complications in the election to the Papal Throne. She strongly advised them not to hold their Council within the city, and suggested that they should meet in the city of Terracina in the Roman province. We do not learn whether the Countess was present at the conclave, which was unanimous in its desire to fulfil the wish of Gregory by the election of his nominee.

The Papal Throne, so long occupied by Pontiffs of German or Italian nationality, was now to be filled, for the second time in the annals of the Church, by a Frenchman. This was Otto de Chatillon, the most brilliant of the eminent scholars who had received their tuition from St Bruno, the founder of the Carthusian Order.

He was first appointed Canon of the Metropolitan Cathedral of Rheims, of which city he subsequently became arch-deacon. Like his predecessors in the Chair of St Peter, he preferred monastic to public life. He early retired to the Benedictine monastery at Cluny, where for the twentyeight years preceding his election he had been Abbot. Gregory, who held him in much esteem and "reposed unlimited confidence in his wisdom," had created him Bishop of Ostia, and sent him on an embassy to the German court. Henry treated the envoy as he would have treated the Pontiff himself had he been afforded an opportunity. On presenting himself at the palace with his credentials the legate was immediately arrested and conveyed to prison where, until his liberation, every insult and indignity was heaped upon him as the representative of the Holy Father.

Otto, who is described as a man of remarkable energy and decision of character, offered in every instance a striking contrast to his predecessor. "His courtly and princely bearing" rendered him popular with all classes of society, and in spite of his protestations to the contrary he was chosen as Pope by the unanimous votes of the Cardinals.

With a more ready compliance with the desires of his

Urban II

electors than the late Pontiff had displayed, Otto took leave of the French monarch, and, followed by the cordial good wishes of his countrymen, repaired to Rome.

He was publicly crowned on 12th March 1088, taking as his namesake and model Pope Urban I., who was martyred early in the third century.

With the celerity of action peculiar to his nation, Urban, immediately on his coronation, convoked a Council. In emphatic terms he renewed the anathemas pronounced by Gregory against the anti-pope, the King and his partizans. But," remarks the historian, "if Guibert was not made for Pope, he was made for Commander." In the name of the King he called upon Lombardy and those States friendly to Germany to aid him with men and money. Sending out his mercenaries in all directions, "he succeeded in agitating Tuscany in order to profit by the diversion."

Aware of the sacrifices which Matilda had made for the Holy See, Urban sent an envoy to acquaint her with his accession and to warn her of the proposed attack upon her territories. He marked his appreciation of her brilliant example by special assurances of his esteem and friendship. In a letter written with his own hand he declared his intention of following Gregory's footsteps and of adhering to his policy of upholding the claims of the Church. "What he rejected," continued the Pontiff, "I reject; what he condemned, I condemn; what he loved, I love also."

CHAPTER XII

"For she was rich and gave up all
To break the iron bands

Of those who waited in her hall
And laboured in her lands.

It is their prayers which never cease
That clothe her with such grace;
Their blessing is the light of peace
That shines upon her face."

LONGFELLOW.

IN imitating, as he had assured Matilda, the policy of Gregory, Urban had also emulated his magnanimity. Scarcely had the new Pontiff been crowned than he sent his Apostolic forgiveness to his countryman, the aged Berengarius, who had been excommunicated for denying the Real Presence and who now lay at the point of death. After leading a “miserable and despised life," the Bishop, who was more than eighty years old, had begged for the fourth and last time permission to abjure. Urban, without hesitation, granted his request and sent him messages of pardon and reconciliation with the Church. On the feast of the Epiphany the penitent died, with his last breath deploring the errors which he had promulgated. "To-day," said he, in a contrite voice, "being the day of His manifestation, my Lord Jesus Christ will appear to me, either, as I hope, to raise me to glory for my repentance, or, as I fear, to punish me for the heresy which I have been instrumental in spreading." The seeds of disbelief which he had so freely scattered during thirty years were unfortunately beyond recall and caused Urban and his successors many an hour of sorrow and anxiety. The pernicious weeds grew and flourished and

Urban's Difficulties

sent their fibrous roots deep into the minds of so-called "rational" Christians, who, like St Thomas, require material proof ere they believe. "We have but faith," sings the sweet poet of our own days, "we cannot know, for knowledge is of things we see." There have existed in all ages men who have failed to grasp the truth that where reason ends faith begins, and it is these feeble Christians who, stumbling along the uneven road of doubt, fall an easy prey to heresies.

The courage and zeal with which Urban entered upon his reign stood him in good stead, and were from the commencement subject to a prolonged and severe test that ended only with his life. Besides the eradication of the errors of Berengarius, the Pope had other troubles to contend with, and his task of overcoming the complications in which the affairs of the pontificate were involved seemed almost hopeless. Discords within the Church and enemies without hindered his plans of reform and added to the intricacy and the vastness of the difficulties which surrounded his throne. The simoniacs, under Guibert, openly trafficked in livings and boasted of their power, and it was not mere boasting, for history assures us that in Germany there were but four Bishops, "those of Wurtzberg, Passau, Worms and Constance, who were without taint." The Nicholaites, who were supported by Henry, brought shame and disgrace upon the sacred offices they held and "schisms and heresy were rife." Urban, in spite of his natural buoyancy of temperament and his ability to maintain the authority of the Church, began to get discouraged. He grew to mistrust his own powers and longed in his soul for some able counsellor who could assist him at the helm. Such a man he found in his late preceptor, the saintly founder of the Carthusians. Bruno was unwillingly compelled, at the command of the Pope, to leave his cell in the desert of Chartreuse to enter upon Court life and to become a prey to all the mental worries of a privy councillor. The holy hermit was, on his arrival in Rome,