PASCAL I

Pascal I. PASCAL I. (Pope) succeeded Stephen IV. in the pontifical chair in 817, and died in 824.

Pascal II. (Pope), whose real name was Ranieri, was a monk of the order of Cluni, and succeeded Urban II. in 1099. An inveterate struggle with the occupants of the imperial throne, regarding investitures, extended over the whole of his pontificate. He began the contest in 1102 by renewing the decrees of his predecessors on that subject, and by excommunicating the Emperor Henry IV. He then encouraged the son of that monarch to raise the standard of revolt, and to supplant his father in the throne. Under the new emperor, Henry V., the controversy only assumed a more serious aspect. The emperor refused to give up his right of investiture to the Pope. The Pope threatened to withhold the ceremony of coronation from the emperor. In 1110 the emperor advanced into Italy at the head of a large army, seized upon the person of the Pope, and consigned him to bondage. For more than two months the Pope continued obstinate, and was only induced by the entreaties of his friends to crown the emperor, and yield the point of dispute. Yet the controversy thus settled was soon started again by the synods and councils of the church. They recalled the concession that had been forcibly extracted by the emperor, and renewed their claim to the right of investiture. In this manner they brought the two great potentates once more into the field against each other. Henry V. led an army towards Rome in 1116, and Pascal retreated to Benevento. The former in course of time retired from the city; and the latter, returning during the absence of his adversary, was actively engaged in preparing war when he was cut off by disease in 1118.