520 Nicholas II, Pope
imperial estates. Trying to promote economic growth, he
forbade his subjects to buy luxury products to limit such
wasteful losses of wealth. He even tried to make money by
selling the Seljuks food. With this newfound regional
prosperity, he rebuilt the Byzantine army and began the
reconquest of the former Byzantine territories then held
by the Latins. He drove them completely out of Anatolia
and in 1234 crossed to Europe, Thrace, taking advantage
of the defeat of a Latin-supported rival by the Bulgarians.
In the meantime the Seljuk Turks were crushed by the
Mongols in 1243 and from then on ceased to pose a threat
to his rear approaches in Anatolia. John continued his
campaigns in Europe, taking THESSALONIKIin 1246. To
weaken further the position of the Latin Empire, he
opened negotiations with the papacy with a view to unit-
ing the two churches. This amounted to nothing. In fact,
Pope GREGORY IX blocked any kind of deal and was
hostile that eventually he was excommunicated by the
patriarch at Nicaea. On John’s death, his son, Theodore II
(r. 1254–58), continued this slow rebuilding process. It
was Michael VIII Palaeologos (r. 1261–82), who finally
recovered Constantinople from the Westerners on July 25,
- He and his dynasty founded a new, but traditional,
Byzantine state and ended this imperial power provin-
cially based at Nicaea.
See alsoEPIROS AND DESPOTATE OF;PALAIOLOGOS,
IMPERIAL DYNASTY.
Further reading: Michael J. Angold, A Byzantine
Government in Exile: Government and Society under the
Laskarids of Nicaea, 1204–1261(Oxford: Oxford Univer-
sity Press, 1975); John Mauropus, Metropolitan of
Euchaita, The Letters of Ioannes Mauropous Metropolitan of
Euchata,ed. Apostolos Karpozilos (Thessalonike: Associ-
ation for Byzantine Research, 1990).
Nicholas II, Pope (Gerard of Florence)(ca. 980–
1061)reforming pope at the beginning of the Gregorian
reform movement
Little is known beyond that Gerard was born about 980
in BURGUNDY. He grew up and became a cleric in the
ecclesiastical reforming circles of Lorraine and Burgundy
and probably accompanied Pope Leo IX (r. 1049–54) to
ROME. He does not seem to have been a CLUNIACmonk
but was a canon of Liège. By 1045 he was the bishop of
the see of FLORENCE.
ELECTION AS POPEIn 1058, after the death of Stephen IX (r. 1057–58), the
Roman aristocracy engineered the election of John of Vel-
letri as pope. He took the name Benedict X (r. 1058–59).
The reform-minded clerics around Hildebrand (the later
Pope GREGORYVII) and Peter DAMIANwere not yet pre-
sent and were not involved in Benedict’s election. With
the support of the duke of Lorraine, and German court,
the reformers and most of the College of Cardinals fled
from Rome and elected the Frenchman Gerard of Flo-
rence, then in SIENA, as pope. He took the name Nicholas
II. The antipope Benedict X was banished by the synod of
Sutri in January 1059 and Nicholas was then able to bat-
tle his way into Rome to be enthroned enthusiastically as
pope at Old Saint Peter’s on January 24, 1059.REFORMING DECREES
His pontificate opened with a decree on papal elections at
the Lateran synod of April 1059. This decree gave the
preponderant role to the College of CARDINALSin the
election of the pope, as the cardinal-bishops took prece-
dent over the other cardinals, over the other clergy, and
over the people and nobility of Rome. In this new proce-
dure the cardinal-bishops were to choose a person to
elect, the cardinal-priests were to give their approval, and
then the rest of the clergy and the people of Rome were
reduced merely to acclaiming a new pope. Papal elections
did not have to take place in Rome. Nicholas also issued
other important decrees. One banned lay investiture for
clerical offices. Another stated that a pope might concede
to the emperor some rights over clerical elections, if they
were deemed acceptable at the time by the pontiff.ALLIANCE WITH THE NORMANS
The Holy See then struck an agreement with the Norman
princes in southern Italy, Robert GUISCARDand Richard,
the count of Aversa (1047–78). In August 1059, at the
council of Melfi, the NORMANS INITA LYswore an oath of
support for the Holy See in return for recognition of their
titles to the lands they had recently conquered. This
alliance was intended to give the papacy some protection
from German imperial power. There were also decrees
against SIMONYor the selling of ecclesiastical offices, and
others demanding clerical CELIBACY. A German synod of
bishops in 1061 condemned Nicholas for the alliance
with the Normans against the emperor in Italy and
annulled the new rules on papal elections. This foreshad-
owed the later conflictions of the investiture struggles.
Nicholas II died in Florence on July 27, 1061. Another
schism soon arose over succession to the Holy See.
See alsoBERENGAR OFTOURS.
Further reading:Uta-Renate Blumenthal, The Investi-
ture Controversy: Church and Monarchy from the Ninth to
the Twelfth Century(Philadelphia: University of Pennsyl-
vania Press, 1988); Gerd Tellenbach, Church, State and
Christian Society at the Time of the Investiture Contest,
trans. R. F. Bennett (New York: Harper & Row, 1959).Nicholas Breakspear SeeADRIANIV, POPE.Nicholas of Autrécourt (ca. 1300–after 1350)a prob-
lematic natural philosopher, civil lawyer, theologian
Born in Lorraine around 1300 and educated at the Univer-
sity of Paris, Nicholas was at AVIGNON, where his trial