VICTOR
409
VICTOR
heodotus the Leather-seller, came from Constanti- most German sources designate Swabia as his birth-
)ple to Rome and taught false doctrines concerning place. His parents were Count Hartwig and Coun-
lirist,Whomhe declared to be merelyaman endowed tess Baliza; the Emperor Henry III recognized him
• the Holy Ghost, at baptism, with supernatural as a collateral kinsman, and he was a nephew of Bishop
)wer. The pope condemned this heresy and excluded Gebhard HI of Ratisbon, who at the court Diet of
iieodotus from the Church. The latter, how- Goslar presented him (Christmas Day, 1042) to
er, would not submit, but, together with his adher- Henry HI as a candidate for the episcopal see of
ts, formed a schismatic party, which maintained Eichstatt. The emperor hesitated at first because
ielf for a time at Rome. Victor may also have come
to contact with the Montanists. TertuUian reports
Ad Praxeam", I) that a Roman bishop, whose
ime he docs not give, had declared his acceptance
the pi'ophecies of INIontanus, but had been per- aded by Praxea-s to withdraw. Duchesne ("His- ii-e ancienne de I'egUse", I, 278) and others think
rtuUian means Pope Eleutherius, but many investi-
Gebhard was only twenty-four years old, but, on the
advice of the aged Archbishop Bardo of Mainz, he
finally consented to invest him with this important
see. Gebhard proved to be a good bishop and a
prudent statesman. He was in the emperor's ret-
iime when the latter was crowned at Rome in 1046;
he took p;urt in the synod presided over by Leo IX at
Mainz in October, 1049, and in the consultations be-
tors con.sider it more probable that he meant Pope tween the pope and the emperor at Ratisbon and
ctor, because the latter had had much to do with Bamberg in 1052. By this time he had become the
e inhabitants of Asia Minor, and because, between most influential councillor of Henry III. It was upon
and 200, Praxcas had gone from Rome to Car- his advice that in 1053 a German army, which was
age, where he was
rposed by TertuUian.
le riviestion cannot be
cidcd positively.
Jerome calls Pope
ctor the first Latin
•iter in the Church
Ihronicon, ad an. Abr.
09); he mentions
lall treatises (medio-
la de religione volu-
Ina, loc. cit.; cf. "De
ris i 1 1 u s t r ib u s",
XXIV: "Victor, thir-
enth bishop of the
jman city, the wTiter
certain opuscida on
e paschal question
d others, ruled the
lurch ten years under
verus"). Besides
e letters touching
e Easter controversy none
Victor II with Bishops Gezmann and Gundekab of Eichstatt
From Gundekar's Pontifical, the Cathedral Treasury', Eichstatt
on its way to join Leo
IX in his war against
the Normans, was re-
called, an advice which
he is said to have re-
gretted when he was
pope (Leo Marsicanus
in his "Chronicon
Casinense", II, 89, in
P. L., CLXXIII, 692).
Early in the same year
he became regent of
Bavaria for the three-
year old Henry IV. In
this capacity he had oc-
casion to prove his loy-
alty towards the em-
peror by defending the
rights of the empire
against the deposed
Duke Conrad, the
counts of Scheyern,
)rks is known. Harnack tried to prove that
was the author of the treatise against the
pe-throwers ("De aleatoribus), erroneously as-
ibed to St. Cjiprian (see "Texte und LTntersuch-
igen," V, Leipzig, 1899), though the opinion is now
liver.sally rejected (cf. Harnack, "Geschichte der
tchristl. Litcratur", II, pt. II, 370). It was during
ctor's administration, perhaps, that the canon of
ripturc used at Rome, and which has been partially
e.served in the Muratorian Fragment, was drawn
of St. Victor's and his own uncle, Bishop Gebhard of Rati-sbon.
After the death of Leo IX (19 April, 1054) Cardinal-
subdeacon Hildebrand came to the emperor at the
head of a Roman legation with the urgent request to
designate Gebhard as pope. M the Diet of Mainz,
in September, 1054, the emperor granted this re-
quest, but Gebhard refused to accept the papal
dignity. At a court Diet held at Ratisbon in March,
1055, he finally accepted the papacy, but only on
condition that the emperor restored to the Apostolic
See aU the possessions that had been taken from it.
In the note concerning him in the "Liber Pon- The emperor consented to this condition and Geb-
icalis" (ed. Duchesne, I, 137) the Easter contro- hard accompanied Hildebrand to Rome, where he was
Tsy is also mentioned; in addition, the introduction formally elected and solemnly enthroned on Maundy
seguenles among the clergy is also attributed to Thursday, 13 April, 1055, taking the name of Victor
It is not certain what this means, whether it II. Even as pope he retained the Diocese of Eich-
iplics to the acolytes, or to the assistants who ap-
ared later at Rome for such clcrg>' as were much
cupied with the administration of their cures. In
ly c;i,sc the note is one of tho.se which the author
hitrarily inserted into the biographies of the various
pes, and has, accordingly, no historical value. The
statt. Victor II was a worthy succe.s.sor of Leo IX.
With imtiring zeal he combated, like his predecessor,
against simony and clerical concubinage. Being well
supported by the emperor, he often succeeded where
Leo IX had failed. On Penteco.st Sunday, 4 June,
1055, he held a large synod at Florence, in presence of
me is true of the ordinance respecting the adminis- the emperor and 120 bishops, where former decrees
at ion of baptism in cases of necessity ascribed to again.st simony and incontinence were confirmed and
several offending bishops depo.sed. To King Ferdi- nand of Spain he sent mcs.sengers with threats of excommunication if he should continue in his refusal to acknowledge Henry III as Roman Emperor. Ferdinand submitted to the papal demands. Before the emperor returned to Germany he transferred to the pope the duchies of Spoleto and Camerino. Early in 1056 Victor II .sent Hildebrand back to France to resume his labours against simony and
)pe Victor by the .same author.
EfsEniira. Hill. rrrl.. V, M-xn-iii; Liber PonlificGlin. ed.
^CHESXE. I. 137-1.38; Ada SS.. July, VI, .534-542: Lanoen,
xrhirhtc dcT Tdminchen KiTche, I (Bonn, 1881). 176 sqq., 179 sq.,
2 .sqq.; DucHE-SNE, HisUnTe ancienne de V^glise, I (Paris, 1906),
1 sq.. 277 sq.. 289 sqq.
J. P. KiRSCH.
Victor II (Gebhard, Count of Calw, Tollen- ■EIN, AND HiR.scHBERo), PoPB, b. about 1018; d.
■\rezzo, 28 July, 10.57. The papal catalogues concubinage, which he had begim under Leo IX.
ake him a native of the Bavarian Nordgau, while He appointed the archbishops Uaimbaud of Arleg
