Paschalis II., Pope, 1099–1118

Rainer from Bleda in Tuscany, a monk of the Cluniac order, whom Gregory VII. had made Cardinal of S. Clemente, became the successor of Urban II. The election took place in the cardinal's own church, and on August 14, 1099, the new Pope was consecrated as Paschalis II. Unusual events were to signalise his tumultuous reign. The schism still endured, and Clement III., who had survived three celebrated popes, his opponents, did not hesitate to attack the fourth. He took up his abode in Albano, under the protection of the Counts of the Campagna. But with the aid of Norman troops Paschalis was soon able to drive him thence. Wibert escaped to Civita Castellana, where he died in the autumn of 1100. His distinguished qualities, as also his fortitude in adversity, compelled recognition even from his enemies; his friends bewailed in him a saint, and schismatic miracles were worked at his grave no less successfully than Catholic miracles at the grave of Gregory VII. or Leo IX.

Death of Clement III., 1100

The imperial party continued to put forward anti-popes, even in Rome itself, where they retained S. Peter's. But these idols of a day, Theodore of S. Rufina, and afterwards the Sabine bishop Albert, soon fell from the throne they had usurped.