Pope Callixtus II

He was often compelled to fly for safety to Benevento, and he died at last little better than a prisoner in the castle of St. Angelo.

End of Section 24 Section 25 of Hildebrand and His Times by William Richard Ward Stevens This LibriVox recording is in the public domain Recording by Pamela Nagami Chapter 17 Pontificate of Gelasius II Election of Calixtus II Conference at Strasbourg Council of Reims Conference at Mouzon Council of Vuems The Concordat and End of the Investiture Strife 1118-1123 Part 1 The hopes of peace for the Church and Empire depended mainly on the character of the man who should be elected to succeed Pascal.

Henry's position was most critical.

In Italy, indeed, where most of his time was spent in the castles which had belonged to Matilda, his authority was not openly disputed because it was not very prominently asserted.

Guido was on his way to Cluny when Gelasius died.

He was immediately chosen pope by the few cardinals who were present.

The choice was confirmed by some of the clergy and laity in Burgundy, and on February 9th, 1119, he was consecrated at Vienne under the title of Calixtus II.

The election was irregular, but it met with universal approbation, and in Rome it was ratified by the cardinals, the clergy, and the citizens.

is in Tertullian's treatise, I think it's the treatise on modesty, when Tertullian had become kind of an opponent of the papacy.

Calixtus II was the pope at the time.

And he takes a position that the pope rejects.

And he says, but I know what you're going to say, Mr. Pope.

This is called It eventually leads to the Catholic Church inducing clerical celibacy because the clergyman that Otto gives stuff to keep bequeathing it and church property to their children and their wills, thus turning their children into nobility and taking stuff away from the Pope.

So in 1123, Pope Calixtus II says, convened the first Lateran Council and made it basically illegal in canon law for priests to be married, thus making any wills in which they bequeath church property to their children to be null and void.

However, the statutes did not prohibit giving things to your nephews, which is where the term nepotism comes from.

Literally something like nephew-ism.

He received to the religious profession Hugh, Duke of Burgundy, and died on the 29th of April in 1109, aged eighty-five.

He was canonized twelve years after his death by Pope Calixtus II.

End of section 29.

Section 30 of Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, Volume 2, April to June.

Louis tries to continue the war briefly, but soon realises his position is now impossible, so his last attempt to defeat Henry is diplomacy.

So, indeed, he meets with Pope Calixtus II and claims that Henry had captured Normandy and imprisoned its rightful duke, i.e. Robert Curtaud, Henry's brother, disinheriting the rightful heir, William Clito, and thus, bad man, why don't you declare for me? And it was initially a hostile audience for Henry's cause, with the Norman bishops who were there to defend him finding themselves shouted down by some of the other cardinals.

But Henry now provides William with a masterclass in international diplomacy.

So Henry and Adeline go to meet the Pope at Gisle.

Despite this, the church was never merely an accuser.

Around 1120, Pope Calixtus II issued the bull Sicut Judeus, forbidding Christians to kill, rob, or forcibly baptize Jews, and pope after pope reissued it for centuries.

And when the Franciscans of the 15th century grew troubled by the burden of interest on the poor, they did not simply denounce lenders.

They founded charitable pawn banks, the Monte di Pieta, literally Mount of Piety or figuratively Mount of Mercy.