Everything about Antipope Anacletus Ii totally explained
Anacletus II, born
Pietro Pierleoni, (d.
January 25 1138) was an
Antipope who ruled from 1131 to his death, in a
schism against the contested hasty election of
Pope Innocent II.
Pietro, of Jewish descent, was born to the powerful
Roman family of the
Pierleoni, the son of the
Consul Pier Leoni. As a second son with ambitions he was destined for an ecclesiastical career. He studied in
Paris and entered the
Benedictine Abbey of Cluny. Later he went to Rome and occupied several important positions. In 1130,
Pope Honorius II lay dying and the cardinals decided that they'd entrust the election to a commission of eight men, led by papal chancellor Haimeric, who had his candidate Cardinal Gregory Papareschi hastily elected as Pope Innocent II. He was consecrated on February 14, the day after Honorius' death. The other cardinals announced that Innocent hadn't been canonically elected and chose Cardinal Pietro Pierleoni, a Roman whose family were the enemy of Haimeric's supporters the Frangipani. Anacletus' supporters were a mixture of anyone opposed to Haimeric making him powerful enough to take control of Rome while Innocent was forced to flee North; legally speaking Anacletus was the canonically elected Pope and Innocent was the anti-Pope.
However, north of the Alps, Innocent gained the crucial support of
St. Bernard of Clairvaux,
Peter the Venerable, and other prominent reformers who personally helped him to gain recognition from European rulers such as
Lothair III, Holy Roman Emperor, leaving Anacletus with few patrons. Anacletus had been a relatively acceptable candidate for the Papacy, being well-respected, so rumors centring on his descent from a Jewish convert were spread to blacken his reputation. Among Anacletus' supporters were duke
William X of Aquitaine, who decided for Anacletus against the will of his own bishops, and the powerful
Roger II of Sicily, whose title of "King of Sicily" Anacletus had approved shortly after his accession. By 1135 Anacletus' position was weak despite their aid, but the schism only ended with his death in 1138, after which Innocent returned to Rome and ruled without opposition. Innocent II quickly convened the Second Lateran Council in 1139 and resolidified the Church's teachings against usury, clerical marriage, and other problems.
Though the Pierleoni family mostly submitted to Innocent and his successors, Anacletus' brother
Giordano, who was then leader of the
Commune of Rome, actively opposed Innocent's successors in the following decade.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Antipope Anacletus Ii'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://antipope_anacletus_ii.totallyexplained.com">Antipope Anacletus II Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
