For the 941st anniversary of the Glorification of Saint Hildebrand

REPRINT OF THE ORIGINAL PUBLISHED ON NOV. 12, 2025 A.D.

A Recounting of History, by Br. Alexis Bugnolo

ITALIAN — FRENCH — ESPANOL

When we speak of history, we often begin our accounts by retelling the stories of a year in which memorable, unique and world-changing events took place.

In the Catholic Church, we often do the same thing, especially since our Holy Religion is based on events of history, which can be precisely associated with specific places and times.

Such dates are March 25, 2 B. C., Nazareth, in the Holy House of Our Lady, on the final day of the Feast of Passover, when the Archangel Gabriel announced to Her God’s plan for salvation, and She said, “Let it be done unto me according to thy word!”.

Or 33 A. D.., on April 3, at 3. P. M., on Mount Golgotha, when Our Lord and Savior atoned for all sin, by offering His life to God the Father on the Wood of the Cross.

Or May 20, 325, in the Imperial Palace at Nicea, Asia Minor (now Turkey), where the Emperor Constantine convoked and convened through his representative, Bishop Hosius of Cartagena in Iberia (now Spain), the First Ecumenical Council with consent of Pope Sylvester I of Rome.

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But one date or year, which Catholics have probably never heard of, which is just as important for the existence of the Catholic Church, is the year of Our Lord 1058.

Just as important, I say, from the point of view of jurisprudence, because just as the identity of an association of persons is from the point of view of right an identity of an institution according to its juridical foundation and continuation, so the identity of the Catholic Church as the true Church of Christ Jesus is founded upon not only the Foundational events of Her History, but those moments in Her history, which were decisive for preserving Her juridical continuity in time.

And the Year of Our Lord, One Thousand and Fifty-Eight, was one such Year!

To understand this Year, I would suggest a refresher, with this new video about the Sutri of Synod in 1046, which launches the Gregorian Reform, which discusses especially the pontificate of Pope Saint Leo IX, who launched St. Hildebrand’s mission, after his faulty support of Pope Gregory VI.

The Crisis of 1058

The importance of 1058 begins with the failing health of Pope Stephen IX, who died on March 29, 1058, at Florence, in the embrace of his fellow Benedictine Monk, Saint Hugh of Cluny. — Forewarned of the disaster looming to break out at Rome, after his death, with the desires of the corrupt Roman Nobility to return to the immorality of previous decades, he imposed by oath upon the Clergy and Nobility of the Eternal City, that they would not convene an Apostolic Assembly to elect his successor, until his Archdeacon Saint Hildebrand returned from the Imperial Court at Goslar, in Thuringia, Germany, to preside over it. So relates Bonzio of Sutri in his history of the epoch.

But as soon as the Nobles of the City learned of the death of Pope Stephen IX, shortly after his arrival at Florence, to meet with Saint Hugo, they rushed on the night of April 4th, into the city with armed troops and forced the election of John Minucius, Bishop of Tusculum (now Velletri), as Pope Benedict X on April 5, 1058, just a week after, as soon as news arrived by horseback.

Stephen IX, in life, was called Frederick, and his brother was Godfrey the Bearded, the Duke of Lorraine (now Belgium-NW France) who was also Margrave of Tuscany. And so at his death, his brother immediately dispatched 500 men-at-arms to secure the City of Rome. They arrived too late to intervene.

John Minucius, was made a Cardinal by Pope Stephen IX in 1050 A. D.. And he was no outlier, since Frederick of Lorraine, the future Pope Stephen IX had nominated him as pope in the Papal Election of 1057, which instead chose the Frankish Cleric instead. It is said he was forced to accept his election as Pope.

Cardinal Peter Damian immediately denounced the illegal election and anathematized the perpetrators. For his personal safety he had to flee the city. Cardinals Humbert and Cardinal Peter of Tusculum fled to Benevento and declared the election irregular.

When Saint Hildebrand returned from Germany he found the City of Rome in the hands of the supporters of Benedict X, and declared the election invalid by reason of the violation of the precept regarding the requirement imposed by Pope Stephen, that Saint Hildebrand,the future Pope Gregory VII, was to be the sine qua non elector whose presence would make the election lawfully convened.

The Solution of 1058

So in May of 1058, Saint Hildebrand Archdeacon and Saint Peter Damian, Cardinal, along with Cardinal Umberto of Selva Candida, convened an Apostolic Assembly at Siena, Italy (about 3 hours by car north of Rome), and elected Gerard of Burgundy, the Bishop of Florence.

Gerard took the name, Nicholas II.

Gerard expected to have the support of Godfrey the Bearded, who was Margrave of Tuscany, and Wilbert of Ravenna (aka Guibert of Parma), the Imperial Chancellor of Italy. So he dispatched Saint Hildebrand as his Legate to them, and to the Imperial Court at Goslar in Germany, to secure his claim to the papacy.

Saint Hildebrand, having achieved this, returned with both Noblemen to Siena, where they proclaimed  Gerard, Pope Nicholas II on December 6, 1058, some six months later.

He then marched on Rome with the armed forces of the Margrave of Tuscany, and stopping at Sutri, convened the Second Provincial Council of Sutri and declared Benedict X deposed as an antipope and usurper.

On January 24, 1059, Nicholas II was enthroned at Rome, as Roman Pontiff, and it is from that date his Pontificate is normally reckoned.

The Legality of the Election of Nicholas II

The supporters of the antipope Benedict X would contest the legality of the election of Nicholas II for the next 130 years in the chronicles of local monasteries.

This contestation was based on the obvious facts that,

1. The election of Nicholas II was outside of the City of Rome in violation of all precedent
2. The election of Nicholas II occurred in second place to the election of Benedict X
3. The election of Nicholas II was by a minority of Cardinals
4. The election of Nicholas II was not consented to by the whole clergy and people at the time of his elections at Siena in May and December of 1058.

However, the legal claim of Pope Nicholas II to be the true Roman Pontiff was based on an even stronger argument, namely:

1. That the election of Benedict X was procured by force of arms
2. That the election of Benedict X was conducted in violation regarding the number of electors, namely, by denying Saint Hildebrand, the Archdeacon, from having the opportunity to be present.

The Legal Principles confirmed by the Infallible Papal Magisterium

For the next 4 centuries and, indeed, until the present day, the Catholic Church and all true Popes have consented to the election of Nicholas II as legitimate, by reason of two juridical principles recognized in Canon Law today:

1. Since coercion destroys liberty, a coerced vote or election is illegitimate and thus irritus, to be reckoned as never happened (cf. CIC 1983, Canon 125 §1)
2. Since violation of obligatory procedures produces an illegitimate election, all such voting under such violations lead to an election which is irritus, to be considered as never happened (cf. CIC Canons 42 and 124 §1).

We see these principles affirmed in the present Papal Law, Universi Domini Gregis (UDG), in n. 76, where it reads in the Vatican’s English translation:

76. Should the election take place in a way other than that prescribed in the present Constitution, or should the conditions laid down here not be observed, the election is for this very reason null and void, without any need for a declaration on the matter; consequently, it confers no right on the one elected.

Magisterial Teaching of Pope Nicholas II

The Magisterial Teaching of Pope Nicholas II on this topic was enshrined in his Bull, In Nomine Domini, n. 3, in April of 1059, where it reads:

§ 3. Wherefore, if the perversity of depraved and iniquitous men, so prevail, that a pure, sincere and free election cannot be held in the City, let the Cardinal Bishops with the religious Clerics, and the Catholic laity, though few, obtain the right of power (ius potestatis) to elect the Pontiff of the Apostolic See, where they might judge it to be more fitting. Plainly, after the election has been completed, if there be a bellicose conflict, and/or if the struggle of any kind of men resists by the earnestness of wickedness, such that he, who has been elected, cannot prevail to be enthroned in the Apostolic See according to the custom, nevertheless, let the elect obtain as Pope the authority to rule the Roman Church and to dispose of all Her faculties, which Blessed Gregory, We know, did, before his own consecration.

This teaching is not merely disciplinary but also doctrinal since the Church has ever considered the principal valid as applied to the election of Nicholas II in the year before he was the pope.

Moreover, when the historical circumstances of the election of Nicholas II are understood, in comparison with this his Bull, we see an amazing triple level of fail-safe detailed: that an election whose validity be corrupted by whatsoever means, grants

1. the right of the original electorate of the whole Roman Church,
2. to hold the election anywhere and
3. with any few members representing that Church.

Thus, though this Bull is from a point of view of law no longer in force, its teaching regarding this juridical safe-guard remains in force, in cases in which the current Papal Law makes no provision.

How Saint Hildebrand defended the Church from all future Antipopes

And this is how Saint Hildebrand saved the Catholic Church’s juridical identity as the Church of Christ, forever, for by his decision to oppose Benedict X’s unlawful claim to the papacy, he brought to light the principle of the Natural Law to guide all future generations, which can be summed up in several rules:

1. An election which violates precepts regarding procedure, renders the election irritus, that is of no legal value, (Cf. CIC 1983, Canon 124 §1)
2. An election in which coercion occurs, in such wise as to determine the vote to be other than it would be, is illegitimate (Cf. CIC 1983, Canons 125 §1 and 170)
3. An election without the proper number of electors is invalid (Cf. CIC 1983, Canons 119 §1, 161 §3 and 172 §1)
4. All who have the right to vote, when voting in an illegitimate election for the Pope, suffer the forfeiture of their right by the act of entering into Schism from Christ by adhering to a man as pope who is NOT the pope. (Cf. CIC 1983, Canons 1364 and 1331 §1)

And these are the very principles which are embodied in the Save Rome Project last year in the year of Our Lord, 2025, since the Cardinals selected Prevost as Leo XIV with 133 of them voting, even though the Papal Law forbids (UDG n. 33) more than 120 electors and forbids (UDG n. 4) the use of dispensations to allow more than 120.

Pope Saint Gregory VII, died in exile at Salerno, Italy, then the Norman Principality of Salerno, on May 25, 1085, saying, “I have loved justice and hated iniquity, therefore I die in exile” (from Rome).  He had been Pope for just over 12 years and single-handedly changed the course of world history, causing the German Emperor to kneel in the snow at Canosa, outside of the Castle of Countess Matilda of Tuscany, asking to be absolved from excommunication, and having first called for a Holy War to liberate Jerusalem. He imposed celibacy as a canonical requirement upon all clergy in the Latin Church and vigorously rooted out simony and lay interference in the Church.

Saint Hildebrand, pray for us!

And pray for the Holy Father, that the Lord concede to him a double portion of your spirit!