Pope Victor II

Pope Victor II (c. 1018 – 28 July 1057), born Gebhard, Count of Calw, Tollenstein, and Hirschberg, was Pope from 13 April 1055 to his death in 1057. He was one of a series of German reform popes.

Life

He was born Gebhard of Calw, a son of the Swabian Count Hartwig of Calw and a kinsman of Emperor Henry III. At the insistence of Gebhard, Bishop of Ratisbon, the 24-year-old Gebhard was appointed Bishop of Eichstätt. In this position, he supported the Emperor's interests and eventually became one of his closest advisors.

After the death of Pope Leo IX, a Roman delegation headed by Hildebrand, later Pope Gregory VII, travelled to Mainz and asked the Emperor for the nomination of a successor. He suggested Gebhard, who was duly nominated in September 1054. Gebhard, taking the name Victor II, moved to Rome and was enthroned in St. Peter's Basilica on 13 April 1055.

Victor excommunicated both Ramon Berenguer I, count of Barcelona, and Almodis, countess of Limoges, for adultery, at the behest of Ermesinde of Carcassonne, in 1055.

Victor II (bishop of Chur)

Victor II was an 8th-century bishop of Chur of the Victorid family which had controlled the bishopric and the province of Rhaetia since the early seventh century.

He is mentioned in an inscription on the tomb of his predecessor Paschal in the monastery of Cazis. According to the Liber de feodis of 1388, he was a son of the tribune Vigilius and a woman named Episcopina. The date of his death was 21 November, but the date is unrecorded, probably in the first half of the eighth century.

Sources

Pope Victor

Pope Victor has been the papal name of three popes of the Roman Catholic Church.

There were also two antipopes called Victor IV.

See also