Victor II

pope

Also known as: Gebhard of Dollnstein-Hirschberg

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History

Victor II (born c. 1018, Swabia—died July 28, 1057, Arezzo, Tuscany [Italy]) was the pope from 1055 to 1057.

Victor was of noble birth and was appointed bishop of Eichstätt in 1042. He eventually became chief adviser to the Holy Roman emperor Henry III, who in 1054 nominated him as Pope St. Leo IX’s successor. After his consecration on April 13, 1055, Victor joined Henry at Florence. There, in June, they held a council that condemned clerical marriages and simony. In similar synods at Lyon (1055) and Toulouse (1056), he expanded his clerical reform.

In 1056 he was summoned to the imperial court in Germany to attend Henry’s death (October 5). As guardian of the emperor’s infant son, Henry IV, and as adviser to the empress regent Agnes, Victor wielded enormous power, which he employed tactfully to maintain peace throughout the empire and to strengthen the papacy against baronial aggressions.