Alexander I

Alexander I

bishop of Rome, succeeded Evaristus about A.D. 110. He ruled for eight years and five months, and is said to have suffered martyrdom under, Hadrian in 119, though this is doubted (Euseb. H. E. 4, 4; Irenaeus 4:3). Alexander is said by some writers to have been the first who directed that water should be mixed with the wine in the Eucharist, and also to have introduced holy water; but it is the usual custom of Roman Catholic writers to attribute the events of later periods to earlier ones. The epistles attributed to him are spurious.

II. Pope (originally called Anselmo Da Baggio), a native of Milan. As priest of his native town, he began, about the middle of the 11th century, to preach against the marriage of the clergy. Archbishop Guido, of Milan, who sympathized with the married clergy, obtained for him from the Emperor Henry and the Pope Stephen II, the diocese of Lucca, in order to remove him. Anselm, however, in his new position, vigorously pursued his attacks upon the married clergy, and became intimate with the leaders of the hierarchic. 1 party, Hildebrand and Petrus Damiani. On the death of Pope Nicholas II (1061), Hildebrand, who was already all-powerful at Rome, succeeded in elevating Anselm to the papal throne under the name of Alexander II. The party of the count of Tusculum, in union with the married clergy, opposed to him Bishop Cadolous of Parma as anti-pope under the name of Honorius II, but Alexander was generally recognised in Germany by the Synod of 1062. As pope, Alexander endeavored to enforce all the exorbitant pretensions of the papacy, and in this effort was supported by Hildebrand and Damiani, who acted as his legates and councillors. He forbade King Henry II of Germany to divorce his wife Bertha, excommunicated the councillors of the king, and summoned the latter to Rome. He died before Henry had resolved to go, April 21, 1073, and was succeeded by Hildebrand under the name of Gregory VII. Forty- five of his epistles are extant (Concilia, tom. 9, p. 1115). — Neander, Ch. Hist. 3, 395-398; 4, 106; Cave, Hist. Lit. anno 1061; Wetzer and Welte, 1:154.

III. Pope (originally called Rolando Bandinelli), a Tuscan. In 1159 he was made pope, but was driven out of Rome by the anti-pope Victor III. The Emperor Frederick Barbarossa convoked the Council of Pavia in 1160, in which Victor was confirmed, and Alexander deposed and excommunicated. Alexander and his party, in their turn, excommunicated Victor and his abettors. Alexander was recognised by the kings of France, England, Spain, Sicily, Jerusalem, and Hungary; while Victor, who claimed to have been elected by the clergy, the Senate, and the barons of Rome, was only recognised by Germany and Lombardy. Alexander had to flee to France, where, at a council held at Tours (1162), he declared all the ordinations made by the anti-pope sacrilegious, and condemned the Albigenses as heretics. After the death of Victor, April 20, 1164, Frederick had a new anti-pope elected, who assumed the name of Pascal III. In 1165 Alexander returned to Rome, where he met with an enthusiastic reception. Against the advancing armies of the emperor he was supported by the king of Sicily. In 1166 the Greek emperor, Manuel, opened negotiations with Alexander for the purpose of bringing about a union of the Greek and Latin Churches, as well as of the two empires; but the negotiations led to no permanent result. In 1166 he was again ejected from Rome by the emperor, who was crowned there by Pascal, while Alexander excommunicated him, and absolved his subjects from the oath of allegiance. Alexander also allied himself with the League of the Lombardian cities which rose against Frederick, and established a new federal city, which they called, in honor of the pope, Alexandria. The anti-pope Pascal died Sept. 26, 1168, but his partisans elected in his place John, abbot of Sturm, in Hungary, who assumed the name of Calixt III. In 1171 Alexander was informed of the murder of Thomas A Becket. He put all England under the ban, and sent two cardinals to England to examine the whole matter, which terminated in the absolution of the king and the canonization of Thomas A Becket. In 1177 the emperor got reconciled with Alexander at Venice. The emperor threw himself upon his knees and kissed the foot of the pope, while the latter gave to the emperor the kiss of peace, and gave him his arm to conduct him into the church. The anti-pope Calixt abdicated in 1178, and was appointed by Alexander governor of Benevent. The opponents of Alexander elected, however, another anti-pope (Sept. 29, 1178), who assumed the name of Innocent III, but was soon after captured by order of Alexander, and imprisoned in a monastery, until his death. In 1179 Alexander held at Rome the third general council of Lateran (q.v.), which issued a number of decrees on church discipline and excommunicated the Albigenses. In 1180 Alexander prevailed upon the kings of France and England to undertake a new crusade for the purpose of aiding the king of Jerusalem against Saladin. Alexander even endeavored to convert the sultan of Iconium by addressing to him a kind of catechism under the name of Instructio Fidei. Alexander reserved the canonization of saints, which had formerly been practiced also by the metropolitans, to the popes, and introduced the Literae Monitoriales. Several Epistles of Alexander are found in the Concilia of Labbe, and his bulls have been printed in the Bullarium of Cherubini, and in the Italia Sacra of Ughelli. Alexander died at Rome, Aug. 30, 118l. — The best work on the history of Alexander is by Reuter, Geschichte Alexander III und der Kirche seiner Zeit (3 vols. Berl. 1845-64). See also Turner, Hist. Engl. vol. 4; Neander, Ch. Hist. 4, 168.

IV. Pope (originally Rinaldi, count of Segni), a man of worldly spirit, ascended the throne in 1254, at a period of great disturbance. Alexander, like his predecessor, endeavored to confiscate the entire kingdom of Sicily on the ground that the Emperor Frederick II, who was also king of Italy, had died excommunicated. When Manfred, an illegitimate son of Frederick, maintained himself against the papal troops as ruler of Sicily, Alexander excommunicated him, proclaimed against him a crusade, and put the entire kingdom under the ban. At the same time he asked considerable sums from Henry III, king of England, in order to defray the expenses of the crusade, and, as an indemnification, offered the kingdom of Sicily to Edmund, the second son of Henry. A legate gave to this young prince in advance the investiture. Manfred, however, maintained himself, and, aided by the Saracens, conquered the pope, and compelled him to take refuge at Viterbo, where he died, May 25, 1261, leaving the papal authority greatly enfeebled. At the beginning of his pontificate, Alexander, at the request of Louis XI, sent inquisitors to France. He was very partial to the Dominicans, and condemned a work by William of St. Amour against the mendicant orders ("On the Dangers of the last Times") and a work entitled "The Everlasting Gospel," and ascribed to John of Parma, the general of the Franciscans. Like his predecessors, he endeavored to bring about a union between the Greek and the Roman Churches. Several letters and bulls of this pope have been printed in Labbe's Concilia, Ughelli's Italia Sacra, d'Achery's Spicilegium, and other collections. — Hoefer, Biog. Generale, 1, 878; Neander, Ch. Hist. 4, 188, 283, 421.

V. Pope (originally Pietro Philargi), a Franciscan monk from Candia, was raised to the papal throne in 1409 by the Council of Pisa, which deposed the popes Gregory XII and Benedict XIII. His prodigality of gifts and offices during his pontificate was so unbounded that he used to say, "When I became a bishop I was rich; when a cardinal, poor; and when a pope, a beggar." He died May 3, 1410, it was supposed from poison administered by his successor, John XXII. He was regarded as one of the most learned men of his age. He translated several works from Greek into Latin, which, however, have never been printed. Mazzuchelli (in his work Scrittori d'Italia) gives a list of the writings of this pope, but he only published his letters, his bulls, and a little treatise on the conception of the Virgin Mary. — Hoefer, Biog. Generale, 1, 879.