PASCHAL II., pope from 1099 to 1118, was the successor of Urban II. Of his early history nothing is known except that his proper name was Rainieri, that he was of Tuscan origin, and that in early life he became a monk, probably of Cluny. He was raised to the cardinalate by Gregory VII. about 1076, and was elected to the papal chair on August 13, 1099. In the long struggle with the imperial power about Investiture (q.vf he zealously carried on the Hildebrandine policy, but hardly with Hildebrandine success. One of his first acts was to expel from Rome the antipope Clement III., otherwise known as Guibert of Ravenna, and to renew his predecessor’s sentence of excommunication against the emperor Henry IV., by the help of whose rebellious son it seemed at one time as if the claims of the church were to become wholly triumphant. But Prince Henry, who succeeded to the purple in 1106 (see Henry V.), proved a still more active and persistent opponent of papal pretensions than ever his father had been. Paschal was courteously invited to Germany to assist in arranging definitely the affairs of the empire (1107), but, while the pope delayed his journey, the emperor proceeded actually to exercise all the rights of investiture to the fullest extent, and, having disposed of various wars in Bohemia, Hungary, and Poland, announced in 1110 the intention of proceeding to Rome to be crowned and to re-establish order in Italy. From Arezzo he sent ambassadors to Rome, and the pope after negotiation agreed to his coronation on the footing that the church should surrender all the possessions and royalties it had received of the empire and kingdom of Italy from the days of Charlemagne, while Henry on his side gave up the form of investiture. But on Henry’s arrival in Rome (Feb. 1111), ...where feeling was strong against this pact, Paschal was slow to implement it, and the emperor ultimately found it necessary to withdraw from the city,—not, however, until he had compelled the pope and many of the cardinals to accompany him. After two months the pope yielded; the coronation took place in the church of St Peter on April 13, and forthwith the emperor withdrew beyond the Alps after exacting a promise that no revenge should be taken for what had passed. The Lateran council, however, held in March 1112, repudiated as void, under penalty of excommunication, the concessions that had been extorted by the violence of Henry; and a council held at Vienne some months afterwards actually excommunicated him, the pope himself ratifying the decree. On the death of the Countess Matilda of Tuscany, who had bequeathed her whole possessions to the church (1115), the emperor at once laid claim to them as imperial fiefs, and, descending into Italy, drove the pope first to Monte Casino and then to Benevento. Paschal returned to Rome, after the emperor’s withdrawal, in the beginning of 1118, but died within a few days (January 21, 1118). His successor was Gelasius II.
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