Pope Callixtus II

Pope from 1119 to 1124

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Lived 1065–1124, aged 59

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Wikipedia
72 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1065–1124
Aged 59

Summary

Updated 2026-06-08

The pope who ended the decades-long power struggle between throne and altar. Guy of Burgundy took the name Callixtus II in 1119 and three years later signed the Concordat of Worms, settling who got to appoint bishops and finally closing the Investiture Controversy that had nearly split the Church.

Biography

About

Born around 1065 as the son of Count William I of Burgundy, Guy moved through the highest circles of European nobility before becoming archbishop of Vienne and serving as papal legate to France. He attended the Lateran Synod of 1112, then was elected pope at Cluny in February 1119. The following year, responding to attacks on Jews, he issued the bull Sicut Judaeis — forbidding Christians, on pain of excommunication, from forcing conversions, causing harm, seizing property, disrupting festivals, or interfering with cemeteries. In 1122 he brokered the Concordat of Worms, the compromise that ende…

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