GUIBERT (1053-1124), of Nogent, a theological and historical writer, who flourished at the close of the 11th and the beginning of the 12th century, was born of rich and noble parents at Clerrnont-en-Beauvoisis on Easter Eve 1053. Dedicated from infancy to the service of God and the Virgin, he received his early education at the Benedictine abbey of Fley (Flaviacum) or St Germer, in the diocese of Beauvais; there he gave himself with great zeal to study, but chiefly of the secular poets, until a severe illness brought about a crisis in his spiritual life, in consequence of which he began to fix his attention almost exclusively upon the Holy Scriptures and the writings of the fathers, especially of Augustine and Gregory the Great. About this period he was largely influenced by personal intercourse with Anselm, afterwards of Canterbury, who at that time was head of the priory of Bee in the neighbourhood of St Germer’s. Encouraged by his friend he now devoted his energies to Old Testament exegesis, and wrote a commentary upon the narrative of the creation; this was followed by other literary works both in verse and in prose. In 1104, when he had completed his fiftieth year, he was chosen to be head of the abbey of Notre Dame de Nogent, and there the remainder of his life was spent in a high degree of theological and ecclesiastical activity. He died in 1124....
His works, edited by D’Achery, were first published in 1651, in one volume folio, at Paris (Venerabilis Guiberti Abbatis B. Maria, de Novigento Opera Omnia) ; they include, besides minor works, a treatise on homiletics (Liber quo ordine sermo fieri debeat) ; ten books of Moralia on Genesis, begun in 1084, but not completed until 1116, composed on the model of Gregory the Great’s Moralia vn Jobum; five books of Tropologia on Hosea, Amos, and the Lamentations; a treatise on the Incarnation, against the Jews; four books De Pignoribus Sanctorum, a remarkably free criticism on the abuses of saint and relic worship; eight books of the Historia qua dicitur Gesta Dei per Francos, sive Historia Hierosolymitana, a history of the first crusade, which constitutes one of our best authorities on the events with which it deals; and three books De Vita Sua, sive Monodiarum. See Migne’s Patrologie Latine, vols. clvi. and clxxxiv.
GUIBERT, or Wibert(c. 1030-1100), of Ravenna, better known as the antipope Clement III., was born of noble parents in the 11th century at Parma, where, on attaining the canonical age, he entered the priesthood. During the minority of Henry, Guibert was appointed by the empress Agnes to the chancellorship of the kingdom of Italy; and in this capacity he steadfastly resisted, in the interests of the crown, the innovations of Hildebrand in relation to papal elections. For his services in this he was rewarded with the archbishopric of Ravenna, to which he was consecrated in 1073; his fidelity to Henry during the struggles which followed Hildebrand’s accession to the papal throne as Gregory VII. led to his being ecclesiastically suspended in 1075. By thirty bishops of the imperialist party he was elected pope at Brixen in 1080, an election which was confirmed by the synod which Henry had convened in Rome in 1084, Guibert assuming the title of Clement III. Although it was from his hands that Henry received his coronation, Clement III. met with scant recognition from the clergy and exercised few papal functions; and his name is not enrolled in any list of popes. He died in September 1100, and was buried at Ravenna; by the order of Paschalis II. his ashes were afterwards disinterred and scattered to the winds. See Giesebrecht’s Kaisergeschichte, vol. iii.
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