Baring-Gould’s sources: Roman, Gallican and Cistercian Martyrologies. Authority:■ — A life written by a contemporary, Gaufred, Abbot of Hautecombe, by order of Pope Alexander III. (d. 1181).] This Saint was born about the year 1102, near Vienne in Dauphin^, and was educated in the monastery of Bonneraux, which had just been founded under the strict rule of S. Bernard. Aiter ten years he was sent to found the monastery of Tamie, in the Tarentaise, among the mountains in a bleak and elevated spot, where a monastery might serve as a refuge to the travellers who crossed the pass into Savoy. This was in 1132. Hemet with such success, and governed his monastery so well, that he was elected to the archbishopric of the Tarentaise, in 1142. He found the diocese in sad disorder, and he rested not till he had restored discipline throughout it His charity was very great. On one winter day, as he was crossing the Alps, he came up with a poor woman thinly clad, crying with cold. He instantly plucked off his white woollen habit, gave it to her, and proceeded to the hospice of little S. Bernard with his cloak wrapped round him. But the chill caused by exposure prostrated him, and he lay long in the hospital ill with feverish cold. His goodness and his charity endeared him to the Lives of the Samts.

…poor, who crowded to the place where they heard he was, and often caused him great inconvenience. At S. Claude he went up into a tower, furnished with a pair of stairs, and those who desired to see him ascended by one flight of steps, and when they had received his benediction and advice descended by the other.

But this notoriety displeased the weary bishop, who longed for the tranquillity of the cloister, and one day he disappeared. The people were in dismay. No traces of their archbishop could be found; they knew not whether he were alive or dead. Then one of his disciples, a young man, undertook to find him, and he went about for a whole year, visiting different monasteries; and at last, one day, as he stood watching the monks go forth to their work from the gates of a monastery in Switzerland, either Lucella, near Basle, or Salmanswyler, near Ueberlingen, he recognized the archbishop. He at once ran to him and claimed him. The astonished monks fell at the feet of the prelate whom they had treated as a humble lay-brother. The young man returned to Mou tier S. Jean with his bishop, and the road was lined with rejoicing people (1157). S. Peter had come back to be cast headlong into the troubles which then distracted Europe. Some account of these must now be given, that the labours of the saint may be appreciated.

The popes had for long been troubled with dissensions in Rome itself. Two parties existed in that city, one which supported the pope in his attempt to reduce the city to complete subjection to his rule as its temporal sovereign, the other party insisting on the independence of Rome, and the retention of authority in the hands of the senate. Arnold of Brescia had headed the republican party of late, but had been crushed. The Emperor Frederick Barbarossa had combined with Pope Adrian IV. to suppress him, Mays.] Peter of Tarentaise. 119 and Adrian had executed and burnt and cast into the Tiber the favourite of the Roman mob, before they were aware that he was in danger. But though Frederick made common cause with Adrian against the republican leader, he had no sympathy with the papal pretensions. Adrian made five demands — I. Absolute dominion over the city of Rome. The emperor was to send no officer to act in his name within the city without permission of the pope; the whole magistracy of the city was to be appointed by the pope. II. The imperial armies were not to cross the papal frontier. III. The bishops of Italy were to swear allegiance, but not do homage to the emperor. IV. The ambassadors of the emperor were not to be lodged of right in the episcopal palaces. V. The domains of the Countess Matilda, the Duchy of Spoleto, and the islands of Corsica and Sardinia were to be restored to the Church of Rome. Frederick refused some of these demands till he had consulted his counsellors, but on some points he answered at once. Those bishops who did not hold fiefs should not be required to do homage, but those who did must either surrender their fiefs or submit to the customary homage. If they enjoyed the privileges of princes they must fulfil the obligations entailed by feudal tenure. He would not require that his ambassadors should be lodged in the episcopal palaces when those palaces stood on lands belonging to the bishops, but only if they stood on the lands of the empire. “For the city of Rome, by the grace of God, I am emperor of Rome; if Rome be entirely withdrawn from my authority, the empire is an idle name, the mockery of a title.”

The senate of Rome thought now to take advantage of the rupture between the pope and the emperor, to enforce their claims, and a deputation attended on Frederick, who received them with favour.

Adrian at once opened negotiations with the cities of Lombardy, which were impatient of the iron rule of the emperor, and stirred them up to revolt. The situation was strange, each antagonist was encouraging the republican party in the heart of his enemy’s position. Adrian was preparing for the last act of defiance, the excommunication of the emperor, when his death put an end to the conflict. But the death of Adrian opened the door to a schism. The conclave met to elect a successor, and the electors were broken into two factions. On one side were the zealous churchmen, who were determined to make the city of Rome the absolute principality of the pope, supported by a faction of the nobles, headed by the Frangipaui. There was much to be said for their scheme. It was impossible for the successor of S. Peter to freely execute his authority, so long as he was not master of the city, so long as that city was in constant ebullition with party strife, and the person of the pope was incessantly exposed to violence, often to imprisonment, more often to exile. On the other side were those who were attached to the emperor; the republican party, and a few, perhaps, who loved peace, and thought it the best wisdom of the Church to conciliate the emperor. The conflicting accounts of the proceedings in the conclave were made public on both sides. On the third day of the debate fourteen of the cardinals agreed in the choice of Roland the Chancellor of the Apostolic See, a man of unimpeachable morals and a firm assertor of papal supremacy and independence. The cope was brought forth in which he was to be invested. Then three cardinals of the adverse faction plucked the cope from his shoulders, and proclaimed Octavian cardinal of S. Cecilia. A Roman senator who was present (the conclave was then an open court), indignant at this violence, seized the cope, and snatched it from the hand of Octavian. But Octavian’s •S. Peter of Tarentaise.

party were prepared for such an accident. His chaplain produced another cope, in which he was invested with such indecent haste that, as it was declared, the front part appeared behind, the hinder part before. Upon this the assembly burst into derisive laughter. At that instant the gates were burst open, a hired soldiery rushed in, and surrounding Octavian, carried him forth in state. Roland (Alexander III.) and the cardinals of his faction were glad to escape with their lives, but the Frangipani rallied about them. Octavian assumed the name of Victor IV., and was acknowledged as lawful pope by a great part of the senators and people.

According to the opposite statement, the division was not of three to fourteen, but of nine to fourteen, and this majority was made by means of bribery, freely employed by William, king of Sicily. There can be, however, no question but that Alexander III. was the lawful pope. The emperor, on receiving the intimation of election from each of the rival popes, summoned a council of all Christendom to meet at Pavia, and cited both popes to submit their claims to its decision. The summons to Alexander was addressed to the Cardinal Roland. Alexander refused to receive a mandate so addressed, and protested against the right of the emperor to summon a council without the permission of the pope. When the council assembled, Alexander was not present, nor did he send attestations of his lawful election. After a grave debate, and hearing many witnesses, which were all on the side of Victor, the council with one accord (Feb. 12th, 1160) declared Victor pope, condemned and excommunicated the contumacious Cardinal Roland. To Victor the emperor paid the customary honours, held his stirrup, and kissed his feet. There was a secret cause behind, which no doubt strongly worked on the emperor, and on the council through the emperor; letters of Alexander to the insurgent Lombard cities had been seized, and were in the hands of Frederick.

The Archbishop of Cologne set out for France, the Bishop of Mantua for England, the Bishop of Prague for Hungary, to announce the decision of the council to Christendom, and to demand allegiance to Pope Victor. Alexander did not shrink from the contest. From Anagni he issued his excommunication against the Emperor Frederick, the anti-pope, and all his adherents. Throughout the German empire, Victor was regarded as the legitimate head of Christendom. The Archbishop of Taxentaise was almost the only subject of the empire who ventured to declare openly in favour of Alexander III. He took his part in several councils; he travelled from place to place, stirring up the faithful to reject Victor and acknowledge Alexander. The whole Cistercian [strict Benedictine reform begun at Cîteaux in 1098] Order followed his lead, and before long he could reckon on several bishops and seven hundred abbots devoted to the cause of Alexander, and ready with tongue and pen to proclaim him as the lawful pope, and Victor as an usurper. Peter even braved the displeasure of the emperor by addressing him personally, “Sire ! cease persecuting the Church and its head; the priests and monks, the peoples and cities, that have sided with their legitimate pastor. There is a King above kings to whom thou must give account.’7 The emperor did not resent this bold rebuke, so great was his respect for the virtues of the archbishop. Alexander III. desired to see this bold champion of his cause, and summoned him to Rome. For Alexander, knowing that Frederick would be engaged in the north of Italy with the rebellious cities, made a sudden descent upon Rome, in order to add to the dignity of his cause by his possession of the capital city. But Rome, which would S. Peter of Tarentaise.

hardly endure the power of a pope with undisputed authority, was no safe residence for one with a contested title. Leaving a representative of his authority, he took refuge in France, where he was received with demonstrations of the utmost respect The rival kings of France and England forgot their differences in paying honour to Alexander. He was met by both at Courcy, on the Loire, on Feb. 9th, 1162; the two kings walked one on each side of his horse, holding his bridle, and so conducted him into the town. During the eventful years that ensued, S. Peter remained in his diocese labouring among his Alpine shepherds; but in 1174 he was called forth from obscurity by a mandate from the pope, which sent him to attempt a reconciliation between Louis VII., of France, and Henry II., of England. Louis VII. and Henry, the son of the English king, whom he had instigated to rebellion, met the aged prelate at Chaumont in the Vexin, and Prince Henry alighted from his horse, kissed the old bishop's tattered mantle, and begged it of him. The king of England met him near Gisors, and also shewed him great honour, but his meditation proved of little effect, and he returned to the Tarentaise to die. On his way, as he was approaching the abbey of Bellevaux, his strength deserted him, and he laydown beside a stream that rushed down the mountain-side. There it became evident to his attendants that he was dying. He was carried to the, monastery and breathed his last as he entered within its walls. He was canonized in 1191 by Celestine VII. In 1827 Pope Leo XII. accorded, in two briefs, an indulgence for seven years to those who kept his festival, and Pins IX., by a new brief, made the indulgence perpetual. The relics [the bodily remains of a saint, or objects they used, kept with honor] of the saint are preserved at Cirey, and in the Trappist convent of Grace-Dieu, and at Vesoul.