Pope Clement II., raised to the papal chair by Henry III. (1046), died within a year and Damasus II. followed him in twenty-three days. The Roman people then prayed the Emperor to name a new papal sovereign and he chose his cousin Bruno Pope in the Diet of Worms
in 1048 and had him assume the pontifical insignia. This was a new method of election and certainly a dangerous precedent. Bruno was a German, born at Alsace in 1002, well educated and at twenty-four elected Bishop of Toul. He joined the Clugniac reform party and enforced reformation in his diocese. He served the German king on several delicate secular missions, particularly to Burgundy and France, and gained a reputation as a good, clever, honest, brave, devout man. When elected to this high office he was a matured man, handsome, tall and stately, with a strong frank face, and was a general favourite. As a pilgrim he had often gone to Rome and was familiar with the conditions there. His biographer said of the times: "The World lay in wickedness; holiness had disappeared; justice had perished; truth had been buried; Simon Magnus lorded it over the Church, whose bishops and priests were given to luxury and fornication."[435:1] In Rome the churches were neglected and in ruins, sheep and cattle went in and out of the broken doors, and the monks and clergy were steeped in immorality.[435:2]
Bruno asked Hildebrand, who appears to have been at the Diet of Worms, to go with him to Rome, but that austere monk replied, "I cannot accompany you because, without canonical institution, and by the royal and secular power alone, you are going to seize upon the Roman Church." If that statement is correct, it shows Hildebrand's ideas of the relation of Church and state twenty-five years before he became Pope. Bruno was persuaded, put off the papal robes, and declared that he would not accept the papal crown
save by the free election of the Roman clergy and people. Then the two started for Rome as barefooted pilgrims and many a legendary tale has grown up about that journey, which took two months. At length reaching Rome, these two pious churchmen were heartily welcomed by the Romans and Bruno was chosen Pope in a great gathering in 1049 and coronated as Leo IX.
With Leo IX. began that new policy of reformation and purification of which Hildebrand was the genius and Innocent III. executor. The spirit of the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals and of Clugny were to be united and to predominate. To reform the curia was the first step of the new Pope. He did this by surrounding himself with good men like Hildebrand, Peter Damiani, Cardinal Humbert, and Archbishop Halimand of Lyons. His next move was to abolish the flagrant evils in the Church such as simony, the violation of celibacy, unjust tithing of the laity, uncanonical marriages of the laity, and lay investiture. These various reforms were to be inaugurated through Church synods, such as the annual Easter synods in Rome, national synods, and local synods. Leo IX. presided over eleven of these synods in person and travelled incessantly through Italy, France, and Germany to enforce the reforms, to root out heresy, to settle disputes, to make appointments, and to manage Church affairs. To enforce his measures in southern Italy he led an army of Italians and Germans against the Normans in 1053, but was defeated and taken prisoner, whereupon he put all the Normans under the ban. They begged their sacred captive to remove the dreaded curse but he refused until they should kiss his feet and recognise the rights of the Church. When he died in 1054,
beloved by all Christendom, he had accomplished more in the way of reformation than any Pope since Nicholas I. and he left behind him a new religious enthusiasm soon to be felt all over Europe.[437:1]
Leo IX. had entrusted papal affairs to Hildebrand until a new Pope should be elected, hence all eyes were on him and his friends wanted to make him Supreme Pontiff. But he saw the time was not ripe for his work and refused. Hildebrand then headed a delegation to ask the Emperor Henry III. to confirm the nomination of Gebhard, Bishop of Eichstädt, a friend and relative. After the imperial nomination at Mainz, Gebhard went to Rome, was there elected in due canonical form as Pope Victor II. (1055), and immediately took up Hildebrand's sweeping reform policy.[437:2] Formerly he had advocated a national Church and was a master of Clugniac politics. Now, however, he accepted the papal theory in its entirety. With the Emperor he held a council at Florence which forbade the alienation of Church property, enacted rules of discipline, and determined matters of doctrine.[437:3] To cure abuses of the French clergy he sent Hildebrand to France, who succeeded in humbling the bishops guilty of simony.[437:4] Victor II. himself held a council at Tours to discuss the imperial claims of Ferdinand the Great of Spain and Henry III. of Germany, thus assuming that it was his prerogative to act in the capacity of arbiter. He went to Germany in 1056 to see Henry III. die, to hold the centrifugal forces in check in behalf of Henry IV., and to thwart the ambition of
Mamno of Cologne and Adelbert of Bremen to establish a northern patriarchate. The following year he returned to Italy and there soon died (1057), beloved throughout all Christendom.
Five days after the death of Victor II. the Romans, not waiting for the return of Hildebrand, who was still absent on papal business, chose Cardinal Frederick of Lorraine Pope and jubilantly inaugurated him (Aug. 2, 1057). The new Pontiff, who took the name of Stephen IX., was an old enemy of Henry III., had been made Cardinal and Chancellor by Leo IX., had been sent to Constantinople to heal the breach between the East and the West (1054), and had been appointed Abbot of Monte Casino (1057).[438:1] Since he was elected without the consent of the German imperial party, Hildebrand, elevated to the dignity of cardinal-archdeacon, was sent north to appease the Queen Regent. Stephen IX. manifested his sincere desire to carry forward the work of reformation. Allied with him to accomplish this work were Hildebrand, the greatest man in Rome, and Damiani, the leader of the reform party, whom he appointed Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia. This trio no doubt would have made great headway in the reform propagandism had not the Pope died so soon (Mar. 29, 1058). Before death stilled his tongue, however, he made his court promise not to elect a successor without the advice of Hildebrand, who was still absent in Germany.
The party of nobles in Rome, not heeding the wishes of Stephen IX., immediately elected as Pope Benedict X., and every friend of reform was driven from the city. Hildebrand upon returning to Rome secured