VICTOR. The name of three popes.—VicTon 1., Saint, Pope 189-198, an African by birth. His best known activity was in connection with the time for the celebration of Easter (q.v.) ; he was only prevented from excommunicating the Quartodecimans of Asia .Minor by the represen tations of Saint tremens. Saint Jerome desig nates him the first Latin ecclesiastical author.— VICTOR II., Pope 1055-57, Gebhard by name, son of the Count of Tollenstein and Hirschberg, and a relation of Leo IX., whom he succeeded. He was nominated for the Bishopric of Eichstiitt by the Emperor Henry III., who opposed his eleva tion to the Papacy through unwillingness to lose so faithful a counselor. Ilis reign was tinguished by its purity and zeal against the prevalent vices, and by its constant alliance with the Imperial house. Henry III. died in his arms, and he secured the succession of the youthful Henry IV. under the regency of his mother, Agnes.—Vlcroa III., Pope 1086-87, Desiderius by name, of the family of the princes of Benevento. He became a Benedictine monk at an early age, in spite of the strenuous objections of his family, and ultimately became Abbot of Monte Cassino (1058). In the following year he was named
cardinal and vicar of the Holy See in Southern Italy, and conducted the negotiations between the Pope and the Normans. He was chosen to succeed Gregory VII., but his excessive modesty induced him to refuse the honor, and he was crowned almost by force. Soon afterwards the pressure of the Imperial party forced him to leave Rome, and lie laid aside the Papal insignia and retired to Monte Cassino. In the following year, however, he was enthroned in Saint Peter's, which had previously been occupied by the pope Guibert, though the latter still contested the possession of the city with him. Though he had been an intimate friend of Gregory VI t., and maintained the refusal to concede the Emperor's claims in the investiture question, his attitude toward Ilenry IV. was somewhat more con ciliatory than his predecessor's. The name of Victor IV. was assumed by two antipoiws: Cardi nal Gregorio Conti, who opposed Innocent II. in 1138, and Cardinal Oetavian, whom the Imperial partly elevated against Alexander III., in 1159-64.