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Anaclitus II, Antipope

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Anacletus or Cletus

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His name was Pietro Leoni, cardinal of Santa Maria beyond the Tiber, and upon the death of Honorius II he was elected, Feb. 14, 1130. A part of the cardinals at the same time seceded and elected Innocent. Anacletus kept Innocent II besieged in the palace of the Lateran, and obtained possession of the city of Rome and the entire papal dominions. He wrote to all the princes of Europe in order to be recognised, but in this he met with no success. He was condemned by the Councils of Rheims and Pisa, rejected by the larger portion of the clergy of the Roman Catholic world, not recognised by any sovereign except Roger of Sicily, to whom he had given his sister in marriage, and the duke of Aquitania; but in Rome he maintained himself, notwithstanding the arms: of the Emperor Lothaire, who protected Innocent. This schism lasted until the death of Anacletus, Jan. 25, 1138. Voltaire calls him, ironically, the Jewish pope, because he descended from a Jewish family which had grown rich at the expense of the church. Anacletus was a disciple of Arnold of Brescia (q.v.), and found implacable enemies in St. Bernard and Arnoul, archdeacon of Seez. — Hoefer, Biog. Generale, 2, 468; Riddle, Hist. of Papacy, 2, 169.